But what about sandwiches which contain no bread-like thing at all? I stumbled on one the other day that tests our idea of what constitutes a sandwich. 969 NYC Coffee is a pleasant little Japanese café that specializes in coffee, matcha whipped as you watch, and onigiri (rice balls). Located on a side street, it has a yellow awning, a pleasant outdoor seating area with tables, and tight interior that looks like any other coffee bar, only instead of doughnuts and bagels, it serves rice balls. One particular form of rice balls caught my eye. In the glass case were 3 different ones labeled “sandwich”: pork, beef, and fish. The fish version ($6) had a standard slice of fried fish as its focus, with additional layers of scrambled egg, shredded and pickled carrots, creamy avocado, and mayonnaise. Above and below was a layer of sushi rice, and the whole thing was wrapped in laver, the dried seaweed known in Japanese as nori. The thing tasted agreeably mellow and squishy, and one thing about using rice instead of bread in a prepackaged sandwich: no stale bread!

When talking about “Big 3” regional styles of ramen, most people outside of Japan have heard of Hakata and Sapporo styles, both having evolved from large metropolitan areas with many vendors and varieties. But a third lesser known style was developed in northern Honshu in the small village of Kitakata which gives it its name. Known for its storehouses full of soy sauce, Kitakata-style ramen uses this as its base, a type of shoyu. The bowl itself appears simple, a broth full of noodles and topped with chashu and some thinly sliced spring onion, but do not let this fool you. This broth has been extracting pure umami from pork bones for “long hours” which gives it an almost smoky and toasted taste, full of earth and charcoal. Ban Nai is the most famous source of this style of ramen, with 62 locations around Japan. Here in the United States there are now 2 in Orange County, California, 1 outside of Chicago, and now 1 tucked into a grocery store in Jersey City.

Called Niche, the restaurant will be next door to Nakamura’s popular eponymous restaurant and is expected to open with a limited menu. For the new, 14-seat restaurant, Nakamura is serving dishes that combine elements of traditional Japanese cooking with inspiration from New York food culture, such as the legacy of Jewish-American food on the Lower East Side. One is an homage to Russ & Daughters’ famous smoked fish store, topped with copious amounts of fish roe and salmon smoked in-house. There will also be a Japanese take on carbonara, with uni and bacon replacing the guanciale.

The 2k m2 market at 934 3rd Ave. delves into Japan’s food culture with several stalls that sell everything from soba and udon noodles made daily to Japanese street food like takoyaki. A liquor store has Japanese sake and whiskey on its shelves, and the izakaya restaurant and bar dishes out options like grilled chicken skewers and sashimi. And at Sunrise Mart — the same grocery store run by Japan Village owners Tony Yoshida and Takuya Yoshida — shoppers will have a varied selection of Japanese products, plus it comes with its own butcher shop and tofu market.