Article
December 23, 2008
The Umami Reader, vol. 036
The Umami Reader brings you international headline food news every Tuesday, however outdated it may be. San Francisco restaurants struggling in this failing economy (SF Gate) HYPERBODEGA: you can now order toilet paper and a ham on rye at 2am in Brooklyn! (Hyperbodega; via Tmonkey) Obama Eats One of the Obama’s favorite Chicago joints, Rick […]
December 15, 2008
The UM Reader, vol.035
The reader has slacked off a bit, but I will bring you links each week, if I’ve got links to share with you. Usually this comes out on Saturdays, but I’m trying out Tuesdays for now. Let’s see if this sticks. Sake brewing internship at Daimon Brewery in Japan: a one-week experience for 5 lucky […]
Holiday Cookie Decorating Party
Every year around this time, I am in Japan for half business and half vacation. But this year’s financial crisis has hit my work pretty badly, and my travel budget got cut. Hence, I will stay in New York this year. After Thanksgiving, I’ve been thinking about how I am going to spend the holiday […]
December 11, 2008
Fried Meat on a Stick!
Besides okonimiyaki, Osaka is known for another genius culinary invention: kushikatsu (aka kushiage). It’s so dreamy. Various meat and seafood parts, sometimes utterly inappropriate but so delicious. All kinds of vegetables. All breaded, then fried. On a stick! Yippee!!! We went over to the Jan-Jan strip of the city (above neon sign), where the taxi […]
Donuts in Tokyo
Donuts are quintessentially American. They are fried gobs of dough drenched in icing and sprinkles. Therefore, it is a mystery why Tokyo-ites, who are otherwise so conscious of calorical intake, line-up for donuts with wait times that put lines at the Apple store the morning of the iPhone release to shame. Although Mister Donut has […]
December 10, 2008
Hoppy: A Beer Alternative for Shochu Lovers
Hoppy is a non-alcoholic beverage in Japan that tastes like beer. It’s been around since 1948, and was popularized as a cheap way to get drunk. How does one get drunk off of non-alcoholic beer, you ask? Add it to shochu, of course!!! (Shochu is the closest thing to vodka they make in Japan). Trust […]
December 1, 2008
Sunset Turkey
Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! I went to Santa Barbara and spent a long weekend with my family at my aunt & uncle’s beach house. Dad BBQed our turkey, and right before we put it on the table, I snuck it out to the cliff for a quick portrait. Here she is: Kayo, […]
Saved by Alton Brown
Thanksgiving came and went. Usual things were made. Soup, salad, bird, all the side dishes, nice dessert, including pumpkin creme brulee. You can look at my previous year’s spread since many of the items were pretty similar. One freaky thing happened. This year’s bird was 20 lb, and general rule of thumb is 15 minutes […]
November 15, 2008
Matthew Weingarten at the James Beard House
I’m lucky to have eaten many dinners at the JB House, but few are as special as a recent meal prepared by Matthew Weingarten. Everything was beautifully crafted and well thought out, down to the autumn inspired cocktails made from herb-infused local liqueurs. The locally produced meats were even cured by the restaurant! Weingarten brought […]
November 4, 2008
Popping Cava for a Special Occasion
Sepi (aka Jon Sublet) and Amira got engaged!!! To celebrate this momentous occasion, we popped open a special bottle of Juve y Camps cava that Marc brought back for me from Barcelona. So awesome of him! I had been saving it for a special moment, and this was IT. The wine was crisp and dry- […]