November 15, 2013
Last Friday, Kayoko hosted a girl’s night at her house. While our other halves sulked around the house or went away for the weekend into the mountains, us girls gorged ourselves on beef, pork and chicken balls. It was also my birthday, so my sister surprised me with my first Baked Alaska. Cocktails, beef, ice […]
June 10, 2013
In seven years of Umami Mart, there has not been a single post about dashinomoto! As the editor and founder of this international food blog, I am… ashamed. Dashinomoto (aka fake dashi aka MSG) is the backbone of LAZY Japanese home cooking. Yoko and Harumi Kurihara would not approve. But COME ON, sometimes, I don’t […]
May 6, 2010
One of the most basic things about Japanese cooking that baffled me before living in Japan was how to make dashi. I knew it was easy and that the ingredients were readily available, but I wanted to make it right. All from scratch. Here is the definitive guide to making dashi. The easiest way to […]
June 3, 2009
My new thing is to mix two kinds of rice, hakumai (short-grain white rice) and genmai (brown rice). I used to alternate between brown and white depending on the day, but found brown rice alone to be too heavy sometimes. For example, eating a delicate condiment such as tai-chazuke (white fish condiment with tea poured […]