Umami Mart

People have mentioned to me that they want more of an “editorial voice” from this blog. I’m a serious Twitteraholic, so ya’ll can find me there anytime for some rude and crude remarks in 140 characters or less. But I’ll do a “Letter from the Editor” once in a while, like Martha Stewart or Dana […]

PREQUEL The Good: Ode to Jean-George’s Chocolate Molten Cake The Bad: Domino’s Lava Crunch Crapcakes Despite the occasional subpar specimen (Domino, I’m looking at you), my love of warm chocolate cake continues to run deep. So deep, in fact, that up until yesterday, I’d made a promise to myself that consumption of these cakes would remain […]

PREQUELThe Good: Ode to JG’s Molten Chocolate Cake, Pt. I I should’ve known that the whole thing was a bad idea, but curiosity got the better of me yet again. I had been mesmerized by the omnipresent Domino’s commercial touting its Chocolate Lava Crunch Cakes. Try as I might, I was losing the ability to […]

Part I: THE GOOD @Nougatine, NYC There are only a couple of desserts in the world that I could devote a series of posts to- molten chocolate cake (aka Lava, Warm, Flourless) is one of the chosen few. When it comes to dinner, I could easily spend a half an hour deliberating my entree choices; […]

Iceland is famous for lots of things: regularly erupting volcanos, Bjork the magic Elf and hot geysers sending steaming towers of water towards the sky. And the kitchen is not falling behind these marvels. Typical for a secluded island far away from everything, they have developed their very own food style out of necessity of […]

I am hopping on the plane to San Francisco from Tokyo in a few hours, so I won’t be able to see the results for the Umami vote live – but it looks like boobies will beat out all categories. In honor of boobies, I am posting this photo of Oppai (Boobie) Choco I took […]

I am shocked that I haven’t posted anything on cereal on Umamimart yet. Ever since living in Tokyo, I have not been able to live out the fantasies that I have as a self-proclaimed cereal addict. As a kid, I would always request 4-packs of Honey Bunches of Oats when my mother made a Costco […]

This week we’re going to have a little fun during Happy Hour as we set aside the history lessons and cocktail lore, along with all notions of cocktail purism and snobbery, to indulge in a little cocktail hedonism. For those who gave up chocolate for Lent, you can take pride in your perseverance, for this […]

When I heard about the Vosges Mo’s Bacon Bar a year back I thought it was the awesomest creation in the world. Little speckles of bacon in a bar of chocolate? Count me in. So when I saw a sign exclaiming, “Pig Candy Is Here!” at Roni-Sue’s Chocolates in the Essex Street Market, I stopped […]

This is my third White Day. One of my first blog posts on UM was about my first White Day. Then there was last year’s White Day. Three times a charm and I finally realized that White Day is the one time to really milk it in the Japanese workplace. So this year, I made […]