Umami Mart

This is dedicated to You Cannot Be Serious, aka Jenny C. Finally, ehem, FINALLY, made it out to the famed Turtle Tower last week for a quick city pho stop. I had an interview to get to down in San Jose, so I was in a hurry, and there’s nothing quicker and deliciouser than a […]

Since moving back to California, I’m trying to branch out more and find new places to eat all over the Bay Area. A few weekends ago my parents and I took a nice drive out to Pescadero, a quaint little town out on the coast, just south of San Francisco. We had an awesome Umamiventure […]

Barcelona was interesting. The Gaudi architecture was totally worthwhile, and we walked around everywhere. La Boqueria smelled like ham, and was a complete tourist trap. Saffron at the market was uber-pricey. Although I would have loved to get a leg of Jamon iberico, those were not cheap either (I bought a 100 gram pack at […]

Part I: THE GOOD @Nougatine, NYC There are only a couple of desserts in the world that I could devote a series of posts to- molten chocolate cake (aka Lava, Warm, Flourless) is one of the chosen few. When it comes to dinner, I could easily spend a half an hour deliberating my entree choices; […]

Hakodate is a pretty lonely town. When you walk through the morning market or ichiba (Hakodate’s version of Tsukiji), shopsellers show their desperation as they shove sample pieces of melon and corn in your face. It’s hard to say “no” to their persistence, but just saying no was the only option, if we wanted to […]

My buddy Tom and I had been talking about going to the infamous Leg of a Beast at Incanto for a very long time. One lazy afternoon while bbqing outside we decided to call and make the reservation. Incanto’s Leg of Beast includes the preparation of an entire beef shank with all the delicious tendon […]

My quest for an open restaurant in SF for Labor Day continues. Ritz-Carlton: closed. Chaya: closed. Acme Chophouse: closed. I’m about to tear my hair out- when I get an idea in my mind, I obsess over it. I want to dirty overly-pretentious-bleach-white linens. NOW. Since I’m relatively new to the left coast, I still […]

Been craving a fancy meal so I called around to try making reservations- but all the restos I want to go to in Bay Area is CLOSED for Labor Day. UGH! How does anyone expect me to stimulate this wilting economy if you close your establishment on my day off??? Gary Denko: closed!Chez Panisse: closed!Zuni […]

One of the best things about Hakodate, Hokkaido was that there were no McDonalds. This seems very odd, considering Hakodate isn’t such a tiny city. But not so odd, when you know that it has its own home-grown fast food chain Lucky Pierrot that could take over the world, just like McDonald’s, if it wanted […]

I posted about Mangetsu’s Mugi-toro Don the other day, Tokyo JUNKtion: Mugi-toro Don at MANGETSU, and promised to get back to UMAMIMART with more coverage on Mangetsu since one post was just not enough. You will probably see me at Mangetsu one to three times a week during these past two months (I was introduced […]