Umami Mart

This one was a long time coming. Since I first started reading about ramen over at Ramenate I’ve been fascinated by Jiro-kei (Jiro-style) ramen. What is Jiro you ask? Jiro is an institution. It has spawned several official offshoots and many more imitators. Jiro is to ramen as suicide sauce is to wings. It’s the […]

Hello all, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? It’s been a hectic year and my food mojo has done a runner. However, I’ve come to realise that it’s the little things, the comforting things, that make you appreciate what you have. And seeing what Kayoko and Yoko, together with their friends, have done with Umami […]

In the spirit of getting back into writing and sharing my thoughts more often on Umami Mart, I want to tell you the story of how Johnny and I met. It was the summer of 2011. I had been going on dates throughout the year, and “putting myself out there” on internet dating sites and […]

It’s been just over a year since I started my ramen blog. At least six new ramen shops have opened in LA since then (a far cry from the one-a-day that are said to open in Tokyo, but still). I’ve learned more about soup than I could have ever imagined, I started learning Japanese, and […]

I had a lot of fun shooting recently with Chef Brad Farmerie (of Public in NYC) for his new restaurant in Napa called The Thomas. There has been a lot of buzz over the building itself, which has a prime location on Main Street in downtown Napa. It was the site of a crime scene in […]

I used to live in Azabujuban for four years during my 20s. Sadly I don’t get to go there that often anymore as I live farther away. I love Azabujuban so much because there are so many great restaurants and cool shops there – both old and new. I like to check out new places […]

A new cocktail bar opened in Copenhagen in the spring of 2012. The creation of the bar had been in the making for years. The owner is a friend of mine, who is an impressively ambitious and creative entrepeneur building bars around town with finesse and style. As soon as he mentioned the theme of […]

I first learned about ramen – real deal Japanese ramen that is – two years ago. Like many niche interests I stumbled upon it via the internet. There was just something about the heartiness of a bowl of ramen… and the fact that people obsessed over it piqued my interest. It felt like I discovered […]

In the spring of 2012 I suddenly felt the urge to not spend a depressing summer in Copenhagen. Previous years had been a mixed pleasure of monsoon rain, heavy floods, grey skies and Antarctica beach temperatures. I seriously needed a shot of California. Coincidentally the ever food-obsessed Umami Mart team decided to open a shop […]

Though I created such a scene when I wrote about a certain four-star restaurant some time ago, I must write about my experience at Eleven Madison Park. Why?  Because it was above and beyond my expectations, and made me fully understand Daniel Humm‘s genius-ness. Plus it was lunch, over a glass of wine, hence I […]