Umami Mart

Happy new year! How did you spend your new year’s day? The start of my new year was the worst. On new year’s eve, I was at my a party in SF and drank many whisky cocktails that my friend made. I enjoyed the cocktail and the party, and then went to the BART (the […]

I’ve been obsessed with making this dish for a few months now — it is really satisfying when you are craving noodles, and so ridiculously easy to make. You can usually find nabeyaki udon on the menus at Japanese restaurants, for $12+. This is so easy to make at home, and cheap! INGREDIENTS 1 pack […]

I am really excited to have been chosen to be part of a food photography exhibition called “Feast Your Eyes” that just opened in Brooklyn on Friday and is presented by the NY Photo Festival. I have three pieces in it, including these deviled eggs, from my new recipe project, Forest Feast. If you are in […]

I was fortunate enough to peek into the Peko Peko kitchen this last weekend, while they were preparing all 40 boxes of their highly coveted annual osechi bentos. What a crew! Sylvan had about five people working the kitchen — peeling, dicing, de-shelling 40 Dungeness crabs… wow. Sylvan and his right-hand chef Yuko took me […]

If you can get your hands on sake kasu (sake lees, a yeast by-product of sake making) a subculture of cooking opens up to you. Most commonly used for marinating fish and pickling, sake kasu looks like pizza dough with the consistency of wet clay and aroma of nama (unpasteurized) sake. It’s usually available for […]

To celebrate the new year, I hosted a last-minute dinner last night with a few close friends. What was on the menu? Okonomiyaki! It was a mellow evening of cocktails and sour beers to accompany the famous Japanese savory pancake. It was the first time I would be making okonomiyaki, but I figured it would […]

As 2011 draws to a close, I am not thinking about the Mayans. Rather, I am trying to decide what I will be eating over the weekend. PRIORITIES, people! I’ll be working on Saturday evening (apocalypse be damned!), but I’ll have all the accouterments ready to ring in the new year with Johnny and a bowl of toshikoshi […]

Chestnuts signify the presence of winter in many cultures. Although I’ve never actually tried chestnuts roasted by an open fire, I have tried the Japanese version of chestnuts simmered in simple syrup, or kuri no kanroni. However, I had never taken the initiative to prepare a chestnut dish because the task of peeling always seemed […]

In honor of this last day of Hanukkah, I made sufganiyot (jelly donuts). Believe it or not, this is a Hanukkah tradition, right along with latkes (potato pancakes). This was the first time I’d made them so I used Martha Stewart’s recipe. They came out great! *This post first appeared on Erin Gleeson’s website Forest Feast […]

By Kenji Miura I celebrated Christmas in Japan by making wagashi, or traditional Japanese sweets. Santa is shaped out of shiro-an (white bean paste). The holly is made out of ogura tsubu-an (red beans boiled with sugar, skin-on). The tree is comprised of shiro-an and kanten (agar agar). The kinton (mashed substance, in this case the […]