Umami Mart

My daily dilemma as soon as I step through my office door is this: what to have for lunch? I work in the slap bang centre of London surrounded by loads of restaurants, cafés, pubs and delis. Chinatown is just down the road. But everyday my mind goes blank and I end up shoveling down […]

The Hocca Bar first opened its doors in 1952, and serves up thousands of sandwiches, beers, and pastéis de bacalhau (pastries packed with cod) everyday. The mixed crowd of kids, families, polo wearers, old gentlemen, and nuns stand or sit on stools, consuming their sandwiches. Everyone loud, talking, numbers are shouted, people laugh; talk one-handed. […]

Made it to the Hapa Ramen pop-up yesterday for lunch at the Ferry Building. Let’s forget about the ramen for a hot second, and talk about their “random celebrity specials.” HELL YAH! How could you resist? The special of the day was… FREE LINDSAY aka The Lindsay Lohan Sandwich! RAD! Says it’s so trashy, we’ll […]

I know a lot of folks who love to hate on Guy Fieri for reasons that include his overt enthusiasm and hair do, but I’ll be the first to admit, I think the dude is completely lovable and has the best damn job in the world. I mean, really… he won a reality TV show […]

Seems as though I’m only interested in sandwiches, but it’s not true. But I am rather fussy when it comes to my sarnies. No soggy sandwich for me. Ideally, I would have either fresh bread, just toasted, with some ham, tomatoes and cucumbers with chilli mayonnaise, or grilled bacon and chilli mayo (has to be […]

There are quite a few breakfast sandwich recipes in Japan that uses natto. The natto & cheese on toast sounded pretty good. Put natto and cheese on bread or an English muffin and toast it, I guess. But it is too straightforward and not my style. I wanted to push natto’s culinary limit. When I […]

Yes please! I never realised that you could get chorizo that wasn’t sliced like salami … yes, very uncultured here. That is, until I popped down to the London gourmands’ perennial favourite, Borough Market, just south of the Thames and very close to gothic Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge and one of London’s oldest pubs, and […]

You know it’s true: it’s damn near impossible these days to find a good sandwich. What’s up with that? I mean seriously, it should NOT be that hard to make a decent-tasting sandwich. I blame Subway’s $5 Footlong entirely– they’ve made it impossible for the public to have any standards when it comes to the […]

Last week Yoko was in town and she took me to Gregoire, a little French take-out spot in Berkeley (now also one in Oakland). They serve an array of lovely sandwiches during lunch ($8 max), and expand their menu to meat and seafood entrees for dinner (a bit pricey for take-out at $16.75 max, but […]

Tucked in the back of Jack’s Bar in Potrero Hill, Yats takes over the kitchen during the daytime hours, and serves up all the NoLa classics. Started by a New Orleans native (via 7×7), it is truly a Louisiana food-lover’s dream- casual, cheap, and calls on all the flavors of the bayou. When three good […]