Made in China with wheat flour and egg, these ramen noodles from Wa Imports are delicate and soft, with a perfect tender chew. Requiring only a few minutes in boiling, these noodles absorb the flavor of whatever they are added to beautifully, adding a springy texture to any dish. Plus, their flat shape offers more surface area for ingredients to cling to and makes them easy to pick up.

Made from only two ingredients—organic rice and water from the mountains of Northern Hiroshima—this organic rice vinegar is a cut above standard supermarket varieties. Slightly sweeter, with a rounder flavor and more umami notes than most rice vinegars, its subtle acidity offers a much more balanced outcome, so no bitterness or harshness comes through. Sennari, a brewery established in Japan in 1927, uses a traditional static fermentation process to produce their vinegars. Koji, a natural fermentation culture, is combined with steamed organic rice and nearby mountain water featuring a soft PH of 7. The combination ferments and develops naturally over the course of six months, resulting in a rice vinegar with a more mild acidity and elevated taste. Conventional mass produced vinegar is usually made in just one week using an automatic fermentation method, the result of which we found lacking in taste.

Mirin, an essential element of Japanese cuisine, is a sweet rice wine with less alcohol and a more pronounced natural sweetness than sake. While many grocery-store brands are actually mostly corn syrup, we love Ohsawa Organic Genuine Mirin because it is the real stuff, made using traditional methods by the Kankyo Brewery since 1862. Subtly sweet, mellow and full of umami, this authentic mirin is made by fermenting sweet rice and sake with a special Japanese rice mold for 60 to 90 days then aging the raw product for a full nine months. This condiment both seasons and sweetens, balancing out the salinity of soy-based dishes and adding a lustrous sheen to all of our favorite Asian dishes. And unlike perishable wine or vermouth, mirin can be stored at room temperature in your pantry. Ohsawa Organic Genuine Mirin will add silky sweetness and umami to all sorts of Asian dishes. Try it in our Chicken Teriyaki Donburi or Soy-Steamed Japanese-Style Rice with Mushrooms and Tofu, both of which use mirin in classic Japanese style as a mellow counterpoint to soy sauce. You can also bring out the sweet notes of the Korean chili paste gochujang in our Gochujang-Glazed Potatoes (Gamja Jorim) or Korean Chicken-Vegetable Soup with Noodles. Mirin adds crucial body to the dressing of our Eventide Green Salad with Nori Vinaigrette; the dressing is also great tossed with cold soba noodles for a quick noodle salad or drizzled over poached salmon or shrimp. You can also use mirin as a base for pan sauces: After browning steaks, chops or chicken broths, deglaze the pan with 2 to 3 tablespoons mirin, simmer down by half, and whisk in butter and herbs to taste. For an all-purpose dipping sauce for noodles or dumplings, make mentsuyu: Simply combine ½ cup each mirin and sake and ¼ cup soy sauce (and if you have either, ½ cup of bonito flakes and 3-inch piece of kombu seaweed). Bring to a simmer, then cool (and strain if adding bonito or knob); it’ll store indefinitely in the refrigerator. This sauce can also be blended with miso and diluted to serve as a soup base or boiled to concentrate into a teriyaki glaze.

Most low-sodium soy sauces lack flavor or complexity, but this premium product from Marukin packs a ton of rich umami flavor with half the salt. Established in 1907, Marukin is one of only 1% of Japanese soy sauce producers that maintain traditional production methods from the past century. Their low-sodium sauce is made from the same ingredients as regular soy sauce and is fermented in cedar barrels over a hundred years old; the natural bacteria and yeast that live on the barrels and in the air slowly ferment the soybeans into this naturally sweet, malty and complex sauce. It's the perfect substitute for regular soy sauce for anyone who is looking to reduce their sodium intake without sacrificing flavor. Add this reduced sodium soy sauce to any number of dishes, marinades and sauces.

Since 1879, Suehiro has used the same traditional methods to make their small-batch soy sauces in Japan’s Tatsuno City, Hyogo Prefecture. We were especially wowed by their Double-Brewed Soy Sauce, or Saishikomi, which is deeply layered in comparison to any run-of-the-mill grocery version. Unlike most on the market, this soy is brewed not once but twice, first delicately with soybeans, wheat, salt, water and koji. Then, the mixture is brewed again, this time without salt or water, yielding an earthy, rich and viscous soy sauce that stands apart. It’s salty, but less so than other brands, with funky, coffee-like notes that round out into a dark, almost burnt caramelly sweetness. Use it anywhere you would soy sauce, but we love it most served simply with dishes that have few ingredients, like hand rolls and sashimi.

Mild, delicate and nutty, these handmade somen noodles from Shimanohikari cook up tender and smooth to pair perfectly with bold flavorful broths, sauces and more. Thin and long, they come in individual bundles for easy portioning, require little time to boil and take on a pleasant chew when cooked. Over a two day process, the noodles are handmade from high quality wheat flour, local sea salt and sesame oil, unlike other brands that simply use flour, water and oil. They are then sun-dried for a light and flavorful result. Use in stir-fries, soups, stews, chilled noodle dishes and more.