December 9, 2016
– Just say no to brown rice sushi rolls. At least, if you truly want to eat sushi as it was meant to be savored, with the fish taking center stage. And this isn’t just sushi snobbery talking, this is science-backed fact! Ole Mouritsen, a biophysicist at the University of Southern Denmark and co-author of Mouthfeel explains […]
December 15, 2014
As 2014 nearly comes to a close, I wanted to recap one of our favorite events of the year, our Jicca Pop-Up! Tori-chan is a good friend of Yoko’s from Tokyo, who opened up her own restaurant called Jicca last year. We visited her at Jicca in February, and at that time we decided that […]
November 24, 2014
Another summer, come and gone. Erm, another fall, come and gone. It’s starting to get chilly here in the Bay Area so I thought I would bring back some summertime warmth and celebration and blog about our 2nd annual Umami Mart Matsuri. Or as I like to (humbly) call it, Oakland’s Party of the Year. […]
July 28, 2014
Guess what? It’s our birthday! We’re turning TWO years old (can you believe?!?!?!) and as we promised, we are making our Matsuri festival an annual tradition and throwing yet another big bash to celebrate our summertime birthday (holla to the Leos). If you came to last year’s Matsuri, you know how insane it is — […]
May 30, 2014
This event is SOLD OUT! Umami Mart + Ordinaire + Selection Massale welcomes JICCA from Tokyo! We are so happy to present a night of spectacular food, wine and FUN (!) with our friend Tori-chan of JICCA (pronounced gi-kkah), visiting Oakland from Japan. Opened in 2013 in Tokyo, JICCA is Tori-chan’s cooking playground serving exciting […]
February 10, 2014
I’ve lived in the Grand Lake district of Oakland for four years now, and we’ve never had a proper wine shop. Popular restaurants like Camino dot Grand Avenue, along with nail salons, bike shops, a wonderful book store, Oaktown Spice Shop — but if I ever wanted a bottle of wine, I would have to […]