March 26, 2013
You know what’s inside your Brita filter, right? Charcoal. You know the best way to keep the fridge from smelling bad? Put a piece of charcoal in it. Due to its purifying effects, people in Japan take powdered charcoal as a daily supplement, and some people even say it saves you from radiation. There’s no […]
August 14, 2012
Guess what? MOTO is coming to Umami Mart! How lucky we are! Our resident macaron maestro will be here with us this Thursday night, armed with his little pillows of sweet macarons that he has finally mastered over the last few years. Remember Yamahomo vs. Ladurée? He has come a long way, and today, MOTO […]
March 5, 2012
Not that I’ve ever beaten anyone up, but I think macaron-making is somewhat similar to the mentality of a wifebeater’s wife. You get so fed up with the multiple failures, from all the physical and mental abuse, and you want to leave him, but when you are about to say goodbye for good, he becomes […]
May 9, 2011
Dear Microsoft Office (and all you other people who can’t differentiate between a macaron from a macaroon), Macaron is not a macaroon. Every time I write “macaron”, you always highlight it, suggesting I misspelled the word and replace it with “macaroon” instead. How atrocious. I am not sure how Seattle’s gourmet food scene is, but […]
March 21, 2011
PREFACE Martha, You Want Me Last week was intense. News reports on the Sendai Quake was getting worse by the hour and the number of victims had already exceeded that of the Kobe quake in 1995. It is still increasing. Radiation has been detected in spinach and milk. The Japanese government is slow in communicating […]
February 28, 2011
My MO-obsession (baking with rice flour) has returned, and this time, it’s the MOcaron. Now that I know exactly what to do when it comes to macaron-making, substituting almond flour with other ingredients is not that hard. Having said that, I had no idea whether rice flour would work. Since the first recipe I used […]
January 26, 2011
My neighbourhood is changing rapidly these days– for the better. The whole block used to be really sad, shopping-wise. A nasty old bakery with day-old bread, Christian-sects’ offices, and three different Thai “massage” parlours (last year a war broke out between them, and the hookers smashed each other’s glass windows with bricks every night, what […]
November 22, 2010
Thanksgiving dinner has become such a tradition in my household, and we hosted an early Thanksgiving dinner over the weekend. I am off to Florida now to enjoy the sun, beach, and a hassle-free Thanksgiving (if the TSA would just hire HOT men/women at the airport body check points, people wouldn’t complain so much, right?). […]
November 15, 2010
PREFACE Yamahomo vs. Ladurée (Part 1 & 2) Yamahomo vs. Ladurée (The Battle Continues) Yamahomo vs. Ladurée (Trial 4, 5 & 6) Yamahomo vs. Ladurée (Matcha Macarons) I know, I know, I have to revisit the Flødeboller Battle, but it takes too much effort so I diverted to macarons this week. You may be sick […]
November 1, 2010
PREFACE Yamahomo vs. Ladurée (Part 1 & 2) Yamahomo vs. Ladurée (The Battle Continues) Yamahomo vs. Ladurée (Trial 4, 5 & 6) Since winning my Ladurée Battle at Trial #6 two years ago, I haven’t made macaron for a while. But when looking through the Best of UM posts, I was tempted to make another […]