Umami Mart

Yay, there’s finally a real farmer’s market in Copenhagen! After decades of supermarket deathbore, a new race of DIY vendors, small farmers, honey harvesters and local produce hippies will show up in their home-built vans with truckloads of cheap, fresh, delicious and organic fruits of the earth, and deliver the goods our generation has been […]

Photo by Erin Gleeson.

My parents do their daily and weekly shopping at the vegetable shop just down the road from their house. The thing about South Asian countries is that even though their produce is fresher than fresh, but because of the heat, things go bad very quickly (who wants a bunch of wilted greens?). The main market […]

These photos my friends in Tokyo sent me gave me a glimpse of what is going on there. The images have also reshaped my idea of what to include in my pathetic earthquake kit consisting of some nonperishable food and 4 gallons of water. (Note to self: buy sweet things and dried foods). Most of […]

I woke up thinking about breakfast. During my time in Italy ten years ago, I picked up the habit of not eating in the mornings at all–Italians tend to just have a cappuccino and cornetto (a little croissant-like pastry) for breakfast, opting to save space for a humongous lunch instead. But I’m trying to fine-tune […]

*Mercadão = Big market The Mercado Municipal took four years to build and, once completed in 1932, was used by rebels in the “civil constitutionalist revolution” to hold and store weapons. It finally had its grand opening in 1933 as a market. It was built by the river (which is paved nowadays) to allow the […]

A shouk is a big outdoor market that sells not only produce but meat, cheese, bread, spices, housewares, clothes, shoes and pretty much anything you can think of. The shouk in Tel Aviv is amazing and much cheaper than a grocery store. Israel is a tiny country– only 260 miles at its longest, 60 miles […]

Just got these pics by She-Rene, who I ran into outside at the SF Underground Market a couple weeks ago. I confess I never made it inside where the market was being held. I showed up to this discreet warehouse, on a side street in the SOMA district, and the line literally snaked down the […]

This butter is fresh off the farm and totally off the hook. I bought it from Lancaster, PA (Mennonite?) farmers of Millport Dairy, at the Union Square Greenmarket. It’s big– about 5 inches in diameter– and only $5.

I took my mom to Bali in December. I loved it. Being a visitor is good, since I didn’t have to deal with too much local crap. Bali, although thought to be one of the best resort islands, is yet a developing country. My friend Tonny and Corey moved there, and they have a fabulous […]