January 24, 2014
We are ECSTATIC to announce our first partnership with The Trappist, our wonderful neighbor, and one of the Bay Area’s most revered beer bars. The Trappist specializes in Belgian, European and American microbrews, and its menu contains pages of specialty beers on tap and bottles. We had one of our first Bay Area Umamiventures here, […]
November 13, 2013
U M A M I: What is it? What does it taste like? Is it Japanese cartoon character? We get a lot of inquiries about the definition and concepts of umami at our Oakland shop, so we decided to team up with John over at Oaktown Spice Shop to host an event called “Umami in Spice”, […]
October 9, 2013
Koji is a rice mold that has been used in Japan to ferment sake and shoyu for hundreds of years. Recently, shio-koji (salt koji) has been discovered as a miracle cooking ingredient that pumps up the umami factor to any ol’ dish. We’ve talked a lot about shio-koji on Umami Mart in the last year – it’s all […]
September 10, 2013
UPDATE: A SECOND CLASS HAS BEEN ADDED! Wednesday 9/25 at 7:30pm. This will be the same class as the one on Monday. Get your tix here! We are extremely excited to co-host an event with Oaktown Spice Shop. All about U M A M I ! Ever wonder what exactly umami is, or what it […]
July 25, 2013
From the refreshing mugi (barley) varieties to musty imo (sweet potato) that demand your full attention, shochus are always the choice of drink for me. I fell in love with shochu while I lived in Tokyo. From oolong-hai‘s to oyuwari imo (sweet potato shochu with hot water), there are many ways to enjoy shochu. Kayoko and I […]
July 9, 2013
Shochu tends to be the drink of choice around here on Umami Mart, but we know that it’s still pretty unfamiliar terrain. Yoko and I firmly believe that there is a place for shochu in the States, but it may take a while to get there. But we’re here to help educate and slowly open […]
June 13, 2013
We learned, we drank and we ate all things ume during our Umeshu Class last Sunday. During the two-hour session, we learned about the history of ume and umeshu, how to make it and ate an array of dishes that highlighted ume. Along side sips of umeshu, of course. Ume, or Japanese plum, originated from China and […]
May 24, 2013
On a lovely spring day, we hosted an event focused on seed season and gardening. One of our most popular items at Umami Mart are the Asian vegetable and fruit seeds by the Kitazawa Seed Company — so we knew that many people in our community would be interested in a gardening event. The talk […]
April 29, 2013
Come out for the 2nd edition of the Ippo Ramen pop-up here at Umami Mart. Last month, the ramen sold out in record time — 56 bowls in 56 minutes. You know what that means… get here EARLY if you want a bowl. Seriously. Steve will be serving his signature ramen with shoyu, miso and […]
April 5, 2013
How often do you see babies on the front page of Umami Mart??? Well, it was bound to happen at some point. Look at her, she’s adorbz! It is quite rare for either Yoko or myself to show our true girly colors, but we could not resist the urge to celebrate WOMEN at our first ever […]