Umami Mart

– Move over coffee, green tea is the caffeinated beverage of 2017. It’s not too surprising that Tokyo is at the helm of the so-called 3rd wave green tea movement and home of the world’s first pour-over green tea cafe. Tokyo Saryo, located in the Sangenjaya neighborhood, opened on January 5 this year. It specializes in single origin sencha, and encourages […]

I’ve combined all of my loves into one recipe. It’s the Shochu Root Beer Float! I know that whisky is often used to spike root bear floats so I chose a shochu that has qualities of whisky. Kannoko Mugi Shochu is a barley shochu that is aged in oak barrels for three years making it a […]

Matcha ice cream brings back memories of eating sushi with my family. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley (Northridge, represent!), but my dad drove us all around Los Angeles in search of the best restaurants he could find before the internet existed. Japanese food, especially sushi, was one of his – and my […]

Since this month commemorates Umami Mart’s Japanese beer and sake shop debut, here is another post on sake-related cooking. Sakekasu (sake lees) is a quintessential Japanese ingredient because of the concept of mottainai (no waste!). Japanese people try not to waste anything. For example, after squeezing soy beans when making tofu, the leftover scraps (called okara) can be […]

I spent my summer of 2012 in California, my favourite place in the world — after my couch (ok, maybe Japan comes in as a close second). It was a pure blast, from the moment I landed, designed and help build out the Umami Mart shop, just to get on the plane again a month […]

As I’ve written about in the past, I have developed an annoying food allergy. I’ve discovered that stone fruite are definitely not for me.  Not that I need to carry an epi-pen, or that my face breaks out, or my body is covered with hives — but it’s just uncomfortable, since my throat scratches so […]

I have so many lemons right now I don’t know what to do with them all! So I tried candying them and they are quite nice atop ice cream with a bit of lemon zest. Vanilla Ice Cream + Candied Lemon + Slice 1 lemons into circles. Boil five minutes. Drain. + Simmer 1 cup […]

Dish by Elements. Photo by Erin Gleeson.

Corn season has arrived. Every Greenmarket vendor is selling them for 50 cents an ear. [Speaking of, why do we count corn in such a way? Don’t you think it’s a bit odd to think of ears growing on trees? Imagine that.] Anyhow, I like corn, but it’s always annoying when they get stuck in […]

Italian ice cream, especially from Sicily, has this smooth, creamy texture which you can eat with a spatula. It’s gorgeous, sexy and slimy. In the best way. Ice cream in Danish is called “is” as in ice–meaning we call that slippery cold frozen water stuff for is as well. Meaning denotes from the colloquial, like […]