{"id":342945,"date":"2026-06-02T13:43:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T13:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/342945\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T13:43:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T13:43:13","slug":"what-to-eat-at-japanese-supermarket-tokyo-central-in-the-bay-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/342945\/","title":{"rendered":"What to eat at Japanese supermarket Tokyo Central in the Bay Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among the biggest to arrive in the past year is the second location of Japanese supermarket Tokyo Central, which opened at the Emeryville Bay Street mall in January. Inside, shoppers make their way past the produce area, the snack shelves and numerous sauce racks to the supermarket\u2019s main attraction: the prepared food section.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In its early months, shoppers waited hours just to get inside, only to be met with depleted inventories. Today, the scene is calmer, the cold cases reliably stocked with sashimi sets, octopus salad, chicken skewers covered in sticky sauce and rice bowls galore \u2014 some pair curry with pork katsu cutlets, while the classic oyakodon features chicken and poached egg. Dudes in athletic wear stock up on hand rolls as if for meal prep. Kids push miniature red carts filled with fried chicken boxes and mochi packages. Couples make edible propositions to each other: \u201cShould we share a fruit sando?\u201d<\/p>\n

But with so many options, it\u2019s easy to make the wrong choice. Skip, for instance, the small luxuries promised by trays of uni or containers of ikura, both of which were bitter on a recent trip. These are my three favorite prepared foods at Tokyo Central. (Pro tip: After 7 p.m., some cold case items are marked 20% off.)<\/p>\n

Egg salad sandwich ($7.50)<\/p>\n

The egg salad sando \u2014 that pillow-y symbol of Japanese convenience stores \u2014 is far better than what you find at American 7-Elevens<\/a>. The sandwich is as simple as can be, featuring an egg mixture with a cheddar cheese-like sharpness between two slices of feathery milk bread. It’s so soft that chewing almost feels optional. Perhaps it isn\u2019t as great as the ones from my memories of Tokyo, but it scratches the itch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Spam and egg roll ($8.99)<\/p>\n

While not as eye-catching as the neighboring saucy scallop rolls, the humble spam and egg roll makes for an fulfilling lunch or an excellent movie theater snack. The hearty roll is like a breakfast version of Spam musubi, with steamed egg, slabs of spam and diced green onions. Flavorings like vinegar, miola (rice improver powder) and a bit of unagi sauce \u2014 the glossy salty-sweet sauce that accompanies grilled eel \u2014 help the rice stand out.<\/p>\n

The single best item I had at Tokyo Central was the ume onigiri, a rice ball made from freshly milled grains stuffed with pickled plums. Each rice grain is fluffy, slightly sticky to the touch and wonderfully chewy. In the center is a pickled plum filling with a jammy consistency that\u2019s stingingly sour and salty \u2014 an exceptional pairing to the toothsome rice. The seaweed is packaged separately, ensuring that each sheet retains its snap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Among the biggest to arrive in the past year is the second location of Japanese supermarket Tokyo Central,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[413,143,145,144,412],"class_list":["post-342945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-food","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}