Hey hey, Kayoko here, filling in for Yoko this week. Seems that summer has arrived in the Bay Area (a balmy 77ËšF in Oakland, holla!), which means I will only cook meals that take me a few minutes to prepare. Hooray for HOT + LAZY! A favorite summertime dish on a day like today is […]
Author Archives: Kayoko Akabori
May 3, 2011
The Gift of Food for Japan Benefit (LA)
All Photos by Yoko Kumano. About a week after our initial GIFT OF FOOD fundraiser in San Francisco, Yoko and I were approached to help organize a similar event down in LA, to benefit the victims of the 2011 Sendai Earthquake and Tsunami. Could we pull it together in less than a week? HECK YAH! […]
April 26, 2011
THE GIFT OF FOOD (Video)
Our good friend and talented videographer Joe Stillwater (of Bright Spectrum) joined us on April 5th for our GIFT OF FOOD benefit in San Francisco. We raised over $10,000 that night for Second Harvest Japan, a food bank that has been providing direct support to the victims of the 2011 Sendai Earthquake and Tsunami. This […]
April 22, 2011
India, My Ex-Lover
I woke up the other morning with an intense desire to travel. I had sworn off traveling for 2011, as it is the Year of Important Weddings (my two best friends, both in the same year!) and I want to devote myself (and my bank account) to them. Plus, I thought I wanted to take […]
April 20, 2011
Save the Date: THE GIFT OF FOOD FOR JAPAN – 4/26 (LA)
Are you ready for THE GIFT OF FOOD, Part Deux??? After the initial benefit we hosted in San Francisco just two weeks ago (raising over $10,000!), Yoko and I have been working with some kickass folks down in LA to organize a similar event to raise money for Second Harvest Japan. We’ve gotta keep this […]
April 15, 2011
Packaging Whore: Gyokuro Tea for Intelligentsia
When visiting Chicago for the first time last year, I of course had Intelligenstia Coffee as a must-go destination. Sure, they’ve got a super spiffy space in Venice (LA) now, but Intelligentsia originally hails from Chi-town, so I wanted to make sure to stop by. This is when I discovered artist Timothy Breen. I saw […]
April 14, 2011
Ode to Japanify: Natto-A-Day
I’m going through Yoko withdrawl. We were literally joined at the hip for the last month, gearing up for our GIFT OF FOOD benefit: chatting, Skyping, meeting with each other, organizing, coordinating, planning with our other awesome collaborators. It was definitely a huge team effort to put on THE GIFT OF FOOD, and without Yoko, […]
April 12, 2011
The Gift of Food Benefit (SF): THANK YOU!
Photos by Travis LoDolce and Wataru Umeda. For an entire week after the Sendai earthquake and tsunami first hit, I was wrapped in an incurable, numbing daze. I would wake up with a pang in the pit of my stomach from the night before–I felt nauseous. Helpless. Hopeless. Thousands of people pronounced dead; even more […]
March 31, 2011
Last Night to Drink for Japan at Camino (OAK)
Are ya’ll sick of hearing about fundraisers for Japan yet? Well, get over it–Japan needs us right now and we absolutely must do what we can to support it. You don’t hear me get all up on my soapbox very often, but for this, Umamimart must. And it doesn’t get easier than SIPPIN’ ON A […]
March 25, 2011
THE GIFT OF FOOD: An Umamimart Fundraiser for Japan (SF)
MUSICAL LINE-UP (Update Tues. 3/29, 11:50am PST) Tommy Guerrero Gadget (Function 8 ) TophOne (RedWine DJs) DJ Orb Gabuã¡ã‚ƒã‚“ (Amoeba Records) +++ The night of March 10, here in Oakland California, was like any other night. I finished my shift early, was home by 10pm, slipped into my pjs and grabbed a beer from the […]