Umami Mart

– If Ichiban and Cup Noodles are regulars in your culinary repertoire and you’re looking for new ways to jazz up your instant ramen fix, here’s a suggestion for you: Just add sake. According to JapanToday, the latest trend in Japan is to add about a tablespoon of sake to instant ramen. And the results […]

Hallmark holidays don’t really matter to me, but ever since my father passed away, I think about how to spend Father’s Day every year when June rolls around. And I think I found the best activity to spend this special day. I’ve been keeping bees for about a year now and yesterday was my first harvest. […]

Did you know that a bee’s lifespan is based on the distance it has flown? One bee lives to fly about a total of 500 miles. This is just one of the many things we learned from Betsy and Miguel of East Bay Urban Bees during our hive tour. The tour could not have happened […]

Umamiventures are BACK! The last field trip was at the TCHO factory back in March 2011, remember? Wow, it has been WAY TOO LONG. For years I have been trying to organize an event with a honey producer, and the time has finally come! We’re proud to announce a special tour with East Bay Urban Bees […]

Infusions are pretty common at PDT, since they’re a great way to add a particular flavor to a cocktail without having to add more volume to a drink, which is what would happen if you added the flavor by way of say, a flavored syrup. This is because the particular flavor that you’re trying to […]

About a century ago, to call something “the bee’s knees” meant you considered it to be of top notch quality. It’s an apt name for this week’s cocktail, a simple combination of gin, honey, and lemon juice that proves sophistication doesn’t demand complexity. The historic origins of the Bee’s Knees are murky, although the consensus […]

Once you understand basic cocktail recipe structure (without going off on too deep a tangent, it boils down to two general categories: sours and aromatics, first outlined in detail in The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks by David Embury), you can take any classic cocktail and in the words of Mr. Embury, “roll your own.” […]

  “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao-tzu And thus begins the first step. The PDT Project officially kicks off with the #8 cocktail, a boozy tequila-based delight. Created in the fall of 2008 by former PDT bartender Daniel Eun (who’s now busy studying law in California), the #8 […]

It’s that time of the year, when my well-windowed apartment gets really cold and I have to bring out multiple space heaters to supplement the un-strategically placed central heater that seems to whisper lukewarm puffs of air. Luckily, my Zojirushi water boiler and warmer just arrived in the mail and I will have a steady […]

Being out of the country for nearly a month has a tendency to adjust a person’s perspective of “home.” Home has had various meanings and geographical locations in various moments in my life. Conceptually, it means numerous–and sometimes conflicting–things at one time, and all this really came to light on my recent trip to Iran. […]