May 8, 2012
Gochi opened quietly in 2005, in a little non-descript strip mall on the back roads of Cupertino. It was actually a bit traumatizing for me — they bought out a nasty dive bar called the Peacock Lounge where my friends and I used to go when visiting our hometown for the holidays. The “Cock”, as […]
May 3, 2012
*Nahoko Morimoto is a Tokyo-based photographer. Her work has been featured in Brutus and Vogue Japan.
May 1, 2012
I know it’s been almost two months since I visited Bangkok, but I didn’t want to deprive y’all of the wonder that is Thai sweets and desserts. So here’s a quick run down of the sugary delights we sampled in Bangkok. Us folk who don’t live in Thailand are truly hard done by as it’s […]
April 10, 2012
It’s been a while since Umamimart has put on a big event. Honestly, our Gift of Food benefit last April for Japan set the bar so high that I haven’t had the chutzpah to do anything since. So Umamimart took a long hiatus from events. Too long. But that all changed a week ago, when […]
April 4, 2012
*Nahoko Morimoto is a Tokyo-based photographer. Her work has been featured in Brutus and Vogue Japan.
March 29, 2012
After reading Moto’s post about making anko (sweet bean paste), I began to reminisce about my visit to a wagashi (traditional Japanese confectionary) shop in Koishikawa, Tokyo called Ikko-an. All of the wagashi are made by hand by the owner Chikara Mizukami, while his wife works in the storefront. He has made it a point […]
March 27, 2012
I should confess that I have never really been a fan of tsukemen (ramen with dipping sauce). Shouldn’t ramen be in a piping hot broth, brimming with scallions and chashu (pork) and menma (bamboo shoots)? Tsukemen just always seemed so WRONG to me, despite the fact that I love zaru soba (cold soba with dipping […]
March 21, 2012
On Sunday 3/11, the one-year anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami in Northern Japan, Yoko and I helped organize a cross-cultural exchange between bartenders from Japan and San Francisco. Held at Prizefighter Bar in Emeryville, it was an intimate gathering of old friends, and new. Tomokazu Kai (Heuga Bar) and Masako Ikegami (Bar Shake) had won […]
March 20, 2012
One of my favourite Thai dishes is som tum, the spicy green papaya salad so prevalent in Northern Thai or Isaan cuisine. I used to love it as a kid, and I love it even more as an adult although sometimes my tongue and stomach rebel against the fiery heat of the chillis that are […]
March 13, 2012
São Paulo has the second largest Japanese population outside of Japan (about 650,000+), but since my arrival here I’ve been pretty bummed by the lack of good Japanese restaurants. Thank God for the Koreans! Koreans immigrated to SP with promises that Brazil was the country of the future — and Brazil still strives towards this dream. […]