Japanese grocery stores and ingredient suppliers in Belgium

This page is for food lovers and professional chefs in Belgium that are looking for Japanese cooking supplies.

Japanese Cooking Supplies

Rice

Japanese rice grown in Spain and Italy is available at supermarkets.

Soy sauce

Kikkoman soy sauce is available at most supermarkets.

Miso

Red miso, white miso, and Hatcho miso can usually be found in Asian grocery stores or high-end supermarkets.

Seafood

Belgium faces the North Sea and is richly blessed with seafood; therefore, they have a strong culture for eating fish. You can find mussels, scallops, salmon, cod, trout, herring, sea bass, and tuna in large supermarkets.

Salmon, tuna, and salmon roe are popular as sushi ingredients, and sea bream and sea bass are popular as grilled fish.

Ikejime, trendy now in France, is also becoming popular in high-end Belgian restaurants, with more and more chefs are looking to buy such fresh fish. However, not all businesses offering Ikejime have really mastered the technique, sometimes they use lean fish instead of fatty fish and the result is a dried out, tough fish, and not very delicious, so please use caution.

Alcohol

In Belgium a wide variety of Japanese alcohol is available, such as sake, shochu, plum wine, and Japanese beer.

“Fruity” types of sake seem to be popular in high-end restaurants targeting wealthy customers.

List of Japanese grocery stores and ingredient suppliers

Below is a list of Japanese food importers who wholesale to supermarkets and restaurants, as well as supermarkets that sell Japanese food to the general public.

This list consists of vendors frequently used by Japanese in your country. (Some shops carry not only Japanese cooking supplies but also kitchen ware)

Number of Local Japanese People

5,896 Japanese people live in Belgium, as of 2018.

Number of Local Japanese Restaurants

According to the information on TripAdvisor, as of January 2021, there are about 100 Japanese restaurants in Belgium.

For Belgian People Wanting to Study Japanese Cuisine in Japan

Do you want to study Japanese cuisine in Japan one day? Chefs Wonderland, an agency for helping foreign visitors study cooking in Japan, can make all your cooking school dreams come true.

There are two main ways to study Japanese cuisine in Japan.

One way is to enroll in a culinary school.

The other is to find work at a Japanese restaurant in Japan, although this is not very easy to do.

How Many Belgian People are Living in Japan?

As of 2018, there are 980 Belgian people living in Japan.

In addition, 34,387 Belgian people visited to Japan in 2018.

Study Japanese Cuisine at a Culinary School

If you want to attend a Culinary Technical College for Japanese people, you need to be able to speak fluent Japanese, but even if you can’t speak Japanese, you can study Japanese cuisine at one of the following schools that offer English courses lasting anywhere from one day to three months.

There are classes for beginners, short-term intensive courses to get a certificate, and private classes for professional chefs.

Culinary Schools in Japan

Study Japanese Cuisine While Working

Under the current immigration laws, foreigners have very limited opportunities to work in restaurants in Japan, you would need a working holiday visa, a spouse visas, or a type of special activity visa issued only to a few people. If you want more information on studying Japanese cuisine while working in Japan,

please see the following article.

Would you like to know more?