Umami Mart

So I’m back in the metropolitan New York area from my travels in the Midwest, where I had a little too much time to nosh. Along the street I lived on were several Chinese food joints which tempted me in the times I’m not already eating banh mi. I decided to visit, er, frequent some […]

I have been going through my hard drive and am finding a shitton of Japan Food pics from my visit last year that I never shared with you. My one-year anniversary of leaving NYC is fast approaching- I left on November 3 and went straight to Japan for nearly the entire month, remember? It’s all […]

After all my bitching, I finally got my fancypants on at Zuni Cafe last month. I must say that the place far exceeded my expectations. It was all in the butter. I have a slight obsession with butter, as you all know. It is a major detail that so many fancy restaurants overlook, it drives […]

Trailing on the coattails of Yoko’s earlier Umamiventure post to the SAME EXACT RESTAURANT in Tokyo, I am finally ready to unveil the greatness that was Din Tai Fung (DTF) in LA. The only outpost in the U.S. of this legendary Taiwanese restaurant!! As you’ll see, the dumplings look suspiciously similar to the ones they […]

I did the Lost in Translation thing for the first time and went to the Park Hyatt’s New York Grill. I suppose that after living in Tokyo for four years, it was about time. And given the fact that I will be leaving Tokyo in three months back to my home state of California, it […]

Din Tai Fung was the site of the first Umamiventure outside the United States. On September 27, for Sunday lunch, six hungry Tokyoites and a visitor piled into the busy Din Tai Fung branch on the 12th floor of Shinjuku’s Takashimaya Square. I arrived there first with Anders and was greeted with a line of […]

It’s so hard not being tempted by the Japanese advertising machine. When this monster from a distant shore shifts up its gears, there is no mercy for your soul – or belly. Paired up with a genuine American product like the donut, a huge chunk of Japanese consumers seem to have caved in and lined […]

Just got back from LaLaLand for the last in a never ending series of weddings this year (uhhh, SEVEN). Jon Sublet got hitched!!! It was quite the wedding for the ages- the dessert table consisted of Persian sweets, fresh figs and these beautiful petite WHOLE CUCUMBERS. Of course I shamelessly had like five of them, […]

Babbo lives on Waverly Place, nestled unassuminly in the West Village, tasteful in terms of blending in with the rest of the street. It’s funny how I work in the area, yet had no idea the famed place was within such close proximity. A colleague of mine visited New York City with a “bucket list” […]

Anders (fellow UMAMIMART writer), Rene and I went to Pinafore, a maid cafe in Tokyo, last Sunday. Here’s the report. ANDERS:It’s funny how you as a foreign tourist constantly walk around in Tokyo expecting to be shocked, appalled and freaked out by the weirdness of the Japanese. Maybe it’s the over-hyping guide books, maybe it’s […]