March 23, 2010
Just in at Sushi Kuni (my pop’s restaurant): RAW OCTOPUS (nama dako)! Kuni ordered this long, spindly tentacled arm last week straight from Tsukiji market. It was over three feet long, with a gorgeous purple-pink tone. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but there’s something oddly sexy about it. Kuni lightly blanches it, […]
February 23, 2010
Last week I was invited to dinner at the Farm on Adderley in Brooklyn and by chance there was a special dinner going on, so we signed up for it! The butchers from Fleisher’s in Kingston, NY were hosting the prix-fixe meal at a handful of communal tables in the back room. Their shop supplied […]
February 12, 2010
I love chicken livers, but battered in panko and fried???? HOLY HOTCAKES! I could not stop– I think I ate this entire plate all by my lonesome. No sharing, sorry! The nuttiness of the livers were totally enhanced by the hot crunch of the outer layer– that unmistakable flavor of fried food. Look at how […]
PREQUEL Umamiventure #22: St. George Spirits & Hangar One Vodka (SF Bay Area) What’s the best accompaniment to whiskey? BBQ all the way! As I’ve already told you, the very first time I tasted St. George whiskey was at Fette Sau, a barbecue joint in Brooklyn. So it was only appropriate that we complet the […]
February 8, 2010
Ibu Oka is one of the most famous food joints on the entire island of Bali– located in a touristy area of Ubud, Ibu Oka serves some of the best suckling pig. Anthony Bourdain has been here, as have many other food celebrities. Since we stayed around Kuta, the drive was about an hour. I […]
December 21, 2009
Got these clams from a roadside seafood guy that Naoko always goes to in Katsuura, Chiba. I remember he worked out of a ramshakle space, dotted with random trinkets for tourists and framed dust-covered posters from the 70’s. You would never think this were a place to get the freshest, top-of-the-line seafood. He must sell […]
November 10, 2009
I bought a sac of shirako at my local supermarket for 90 yen (85 cents). I never knew that shirako was so cheap since I had never had the balls to prepare it until now. Shirako is the seminal fluid of fish who shoot their sperm onto roe. It is served in many different ways […]
September 21, 2009
Since moving back to California, I’m trying to branch out more and find new places to eat all over the Bay Area. A few weekends ago my parents and I took a nice drive out to Pescadero, a quaint little town out on the coast, just south of San Francisco. We had an awesome Umamiventure […]
September 8, 2009
Hakodate is a pretty lonely town. When you walk through the morning market or ichiba (Hakodate’s version of Tsukiji), shopsellers show their desperation as they shove sample pieces of melon and corn in your face. It’s hard to say “no” to their persistence, but just saying no was the only option, if we wanted to […]
July 14, 2009
The Canned Crab Bar is guilty of false advertising. I almost forgave them for not serving any canned crab while dining on fresh, juicy crab legs and seafood-cream pasta… until I saw the bill. We walked into the Canned Crab Bar located in a tiny alley in Yoyogi-uehara expecting canned crab. But instead the only […]