Umami Mart

I love sardines – canned or fresh. My addiction started as a child when my mother would serve sardines from a can with a dab of kewpie mayonnaise. Packed with protein and fun to eat, they are also better for big blue because they are low on the food chain. When you can get your […]

Summer is here. A very fucking uncomfortably hot summer is here. I am not young enough to go out to the beach and lay out all day any more, which pisses me off. However, staying young-looking requires me to wear a lot of sun screen. What is it to get old? It’s not fun at […]

I discovered okara during my first year in Tokyo, thanks to my neighborhood tofu shop who sold me 400 grams (0.88 lbs) of okara every week for Â¥150 (about $1.70). Okara is translated as “tofu lees” or “soy pulp” and is a byproduct of the tofu-making process. Maybe it’s just me, but “soy pulp” sounds […]

Cold noodles are one of the best things about the summer. My favorite cold noodles are soba noodles. When it’s hot outside and steaming rice sounds like the last thing I want to do, I can always rely on soba noodles. But there have been more than a few times that I find that my […]

While rummaging through my fridge the other day (fine, fine, my parent’s fridge) I was delighted to find a hefty package of myoga. SCORE! It’s so difficult to describe, this myoga. Vegetable? Herb? Spice?? They grow in the ground, so maybe it’s just simply a bulb?? Colors: A gorgeous spectrum that moves from bone-white to […]

Kanpyo is a curious food – shaved calabash gourd. You can buy kanpyo dehydrated in white strips. You must prepare the dehydrated strips and marinate them to get them ready for the most common kanpyo dishes like futomaki rolls and side dishes. I wanted to make unohana – a mixture of tofu pulp and vegetables, […]

Preface: Fridgin’ Out: Ambitious Deliciousness, Pt. 1Last week, Ambitious Deliciousness let us peek inside her freezer, where she stores her seaweed to keep it crispy- GENIUS!!! Would like to thank her for sharing her deepest darkest fridge secrets with us here on Umami Mart. Now, let’s move to the inside of the fridge… I’ll start […]

In the world of food blogs, it’s a rare occasion to see a recipe gone bad. Gorgeous, mouthwatering foodporn shots of well-prepared, perfectly crisped, braised and roasted dishes abound in the blogosphere. But what about all the times when your master creations have totally FAILED??? So today, I’m going to talk about how I totally […]

My allergies are in full force. It was so nice outside yesterday, but I couldn’t even be outside for more than 20 minutes. It was bad. And it is bad today too. I am wearing a mask, which makes me look like either a shady criminal or I that I have SARS. I want to […]

Monday is not a good day as you know. After a weekend full of fun and relaxation, you have to bring your mind to work-mode, which sucks. Annoying boss, stupid colleagues, toilet-paper-missing-toilets, too much construction noise, pressing reply-to-alls when you are bitching about the sender. Nothing works on Mondays. Because of that, it is more […]