Umami Map

January 25, 2017

Umami Map: Japanese Markets in the Bay Area

by Sarah Han

At our shop at 815 Broadway in Oakland, Umami Mart has a conbini (convenience store) section, stocked with Japanese snacks, condiments, spices, and sweets. Our selection of food items is small and curated, and we don’t carry refrigerated or perishable foods. We often get calls asking if we carry miso, onigiri, umeboshi, and other Japanese ingredients, and in those […]

February 1, 2016

Umami Map: Top 3 Ramen Spots in the Bay Area

by Kayoko Akabori

Ramen is a touchy subject in the Bay Area. Scratch that, it is a touchy subject ANYWHERE. In New York, LA, Tokyo… it doesn’t matter what town you may be in — everyone has a god damn opinion about ramen. So I haven’t really wanted to tread the waters of “The Best Ramen” in the […]

October 26, 2015

Umami Map: Izakaya Gaku in Honolulu and Other Island Gems

by Kayoko Akabori

Yoko, our friend Seri and I visited Honolulu last month and we had such a memorable trip! Our friend Mei was getting married in Kailua, so we decided to make a little getaway out of it. A bachelorette weekend for us, if you will. We had visited Oahu earlier in the year, but it was […]

September 28, 2015

Umami Map: Where to Get a Cocktail in Seattle

by Kayoko Akabori

Seattle is for grown-ups. I really enjoyed the city when we were there over the summer — it has a sense of sophistication and plentifulness that I can enjoy in my thirties. I must have just glazed over it all when I visited over a decade ago — perhaps I have less angst now and I […]

May 28, 2015

Umami Map: 24 Hours in Osaka

by Kayoko Akabori

Growing up, I would visit Japan about once every two years or so. It would always be to see our extended family, who all lived in the Tokyo area. The trips would be jam-packed time for family in Saitama, Yokohama and Chiba, and we never made it out much to other areas of Japan. My […]

January 12, 2015

Umami Map: Skanky Travels to Copenhagen

by Kayoko Akabori

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all are well-rested and ready to start another RAD year with Umami Mart. We won’t take you for granted! There are lots of projects in the pipeline, and we hope you will all enjoy everything we throw at you. Yes, we have closed our San Francisco shop, which […]

August 4, 2014

Umami Mart Map: Kauai aka Paradise

by Kayoko Akabori

Ah, Kauai. We went over New Year’s, to unwind after an exhaustive holiday season. Yoko and I felt we deserved a nice vacation, and we brought along our sig others, my brother Keisuke, and Jay and Rie of Atelier Dion. There’s obviously a ton to explore on the island, and we culled a lot of […]

June 23, 2014

Umami Mart Map: The Chronicles of Nagoya

by Yoko Kumano

Instead of reaching there via a Wardrobe route, Nagoya is about a two-hour bullet train ride from Tokyo. It is the third most populous city in Japan, with 2.3 million people living within 11 square miles. Car geeks may know Nagoya as Toyota HQ. Gamblers may take note that it is where pachinko was born. […]

May 9, 2014

Umami Map: Ode to Sacramento (And Mom)

by MC Abbott

On a game trip to Sacramento in 2001, Lakers coach Phil Jackson called Sacramento a cow town. He also said Kings fans were “semi-civilized” and “redneck in some form or fashion.” Later that season, when Sacramento was matched against the Lakers in playoffs, Kobe was stricken with food poisoning that left a lot of LA […]

March 24, 2014

Umami Map: Oakland Chinatown

by Kayoko Akabori

One of the joys of working in Old Oakland is Chinatown. We’re only steps away to a wonderland of dirt-cheap eats and one-stop grocery shopping. It has taken us over a year to mine through its dense 4×3 block radius, consisting of restaurants, noodle shops, meat shops, pastry shops, trinket shops, electronic shops, meat shops, […]

« Older posts