Umami Mart

Mayonnaise. It’s such a divisive condiment. People loooove it or haaaate it passionately. Working at Umami Mart, I overhear a lot of conversations between people when they see we carry Japanese Kewpie Mayonnaise in our conbini (Japanese for convenience store) food section. I’ve heard customers proclaim, “THIS is the BEST mayo in the world!” and others groan or say, “Ugh! Gross!” about […]

A popular snack in Taiwan, these sandwiches contain a fried egg, rousong (pork floss), and cucumbers.

4 mini pork sausage links (Satokun sausage from Mitsuwa or Nijiya) 1/2 avocado (sliced thin) 3 shiso leaves 1 heirloom tomato (small and thick slices) 1/2 pack bunshimeji mushroom (sautéed and seasoned with salt) 3 tbsp chili aioli (mayo, siriacha and sesame oil) 1 brioche bun (sliced in 1/2 and toasted) Stack layers: bottom bun, chili […]

I had some left over persimmon after making this salad for Thanksgiving, so I sliced them into wedges and made these little appetizer sandwiches, which people seemed to really like! You could use any kind of cheese, really… but do make sure you choose Fuyu persimmons (the squat tomato looking ones that are eaten when crunchy and […]

Hello all, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? It’s been a hectic year and my food mojo has done a runner. However, I’ve come to realise that it’s the little things, the comforting things, that make you appreciate what you have. And seeing what Kayoko and Yoko, together with their friends, have done with Umami […]

By Johnny Lopes Being in Paris for the first time, I wanted to see the city life — the real hustle and bustle. So what better place to witness this chaos than Les Halles? It was jammed with bars for your aperitifs and tabacs for your nicotine fix. But aside from this typical parisian fare, I noticed a […]

After a painfully long day of marching shop to shop near Opera, we needed to eat something. Anything. Shopping with CH and Angela was exhausting normally, but this was sale week in the fashion capital of the world, and it was intense. The hustle of sale week mixed with the extremely friendly Parisians bumping elbows […]

You either hate them or you love them–the open-faced sandwich. Most Danes love them, it’s what they’ve eaten since they stopped being breastfed. But of all the foreign friends I have enjoyed a traditional Danish lunch with, around  50% have left most of the food on the table. Perhaps it was too different in taste […]

Paris is packed with things like bad service, people who don’t wear color, restaurants with funky bathrooms, people who embody blasé, park benches older than both of my countries, and street food that will screw your brains out, call you lover, and often never call you back. For these reasons, I decided to go there […]

Last night there was a big snow storm here in Copenhagen. At some point I looked out the window and saw huge lightning flashes across the horizon. Never experienced this combination before, it was beautiful and intense. And so due to all the sudden snow everything is moving in a snow-slow pace. Most planes out […]