Umami Mart

I recently had a fun evening shooting in the kitchen at elements with chef/owner Scott Anderson and guest chef Kevin Sbraga (above), who won Top Chef last season. The dinner was a special prix-fixe event (scroll down for the menu). I got to try a few of the courses–absolutely delicious! COURSES 1st: Jersey Blue Crab […]

Recently a surge of concept stores and boutiques have marked our larger cities, the world over, from Paris to São Paulo, all bringing a bit of something new and curated. Concept shops like Paris’ overtly “cool” Colette throbs with waves of tourists, often fall short as many want to escape the untz-untz pouring from the […]

You either hate them or you love them–the open-faced sandwich. Most Danes love them, it’s what they’ve eaten since they stopped being breastfed. But of all the foreign friends I have enjoyed a traditional Danish lunch with, around  50% have left most of the food on the table. Perhaps it was too different in taste […]

Paris is packed with things like bad service, people who don’t wear color, restaurants with funky bathrooms, people who embody blasé, park benches older than both of my countries, and street food that will screw your brains out, call you lover, and often never call you back. For these reasons, I decided to go there […]

The Bay Area is a big sprawling wasteland of awesome food, that rivals Los Angeles in its expansiveness. Sadly however, up in the hyped-up food scene of San Francisco (“the city”), no one really talks about the South Bay. San Jose is a bad bad word. It’s a shame, cause just a 45 minute drive […]

Since I have moved to the U.S. from Japan, I have felt sad about how Americans drink, because American people don’t drink so much. “飲みが足んねえ” (nomi ga tan ne e, or “They don’t drink enough”). They are too discreet. Maybe people can’t be a dead drunk in U.S., because of safety issues. Maybe they have […]

One of the surprising things about London is that you can get very good, cheap Thai food in pubs. My friends and I call them Thai pubs, but they’re just normal pubs serving Thai food cooked by Thai chefs instead of the usual pub fare such as roasts and chips. One of the best kept […]

The afternoon I took this picture in Hell’s Kitchen was one of the steamiest days this summer, but that didn’t stop New Yorkers from loving HOT 99¢ slices. I have a feeling I might look back at this picture in 20 years and be shocked at how cheap a slice was (I’m even a little […]

Photos by Thomas L. Young One dollar street tacos at a busy intersection in downtown Los Angeles is about as old school as you can get. On the corner of Mateo and 7th street, in front of the Mexican restaurant La Reyna (Est. 1974), is a taco stand run by one guy on the grill […]

My trip to France was my first international experience ever. As much as I tried to prepare, there really is just no preparing for the unknown. From walking a mile underground in between each subway line to the reality of the hotel rooms, everything seemed to be more difficult than I had anticipated. What do […]