Umami Mart

Recently, Yoko’s sister Cindy gave everyone at Umami Mart a yuzu from her tree. I was excited because I had never used a fresh yuzu before. The yuzu fruit looks like a puckered, squat lemon, but is less brightly acidic than a lemon and tastes more like a tart mandarin orange. But not even exactly that; it […]

Feeling stuffed post-Thanksgiving? After a few days of leftovers drenched in butter, I found myself reaching for fruits of all kinds at my grocery store. It is the height of persimmon season and I’ve been eating at least one a day this month. To demarcate the period between one gluttonous holiday (Thanksgiving) and another (Christmas), I […]

When I tried to come up with a recipe for the Umami Chef Matcha Challenge*, all the usual recipes were too ordinary (lots of sweets) and I wanted to make something a bit different and creative. I ended up discovering a recipe that can be used for both savory and sweet. Brilliant. When you think […]

Matcha ice cream brings back memories of eating sushi with my family. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley (Northridge, represent!), but my dad drove us all around Los Angeles in search of the best restaurants he could find before the internet existed. Japanese food, especially sushi, was one of his – and my […]

It’s yuzu season! When my sister starts giving me yuzu, I know it’s official: the holidays are here and yuzu is in abundance to help me cope. Berkeley is the queen of Meyer lemons, but I’m beginning to think it’s also one of the best places for someone to grow yuzu as friends and family are […]

Since this month commemorates Umami Mart’s Japanese beer and sake shop debut, here is another post on sake-related cooking. Sakekasu (sake lees) is a quintessential Japanese ingredient because of the concept of mottainai (no waste!). Japanese people try not to waste anything. For example, after squeezing soy beans when making tofu, the leftover scraps (called okara) can be […]

Hi, I am back. It’s been quite a while since I last posted. Umami Mart has been crazy for Kayoko and Yoko, and I’ve been creating recipes non-stop and teaching cooking classes which has been occupying most of my time. However, having heard the great news that Umami Mart is selling sake and beer, I couldn’t help […]

It seems like there are two types of people in this world: people with too many yuzu in their lives and people who are always in search of yuzu. Unlucky for me, I am in the latter category. But hold your tears! I met someone who has too much yuzu in her life and she […]

It took us five days to finally get to our first shaved ice experience. Not because we didn’t try! Everyday would begin with wishful exclamations like, “Let’s get shaved ice today!” But the stars never aligned — the lady in town closed after two hours of service because she was “out of ice.” She cursed […]

Hola from España! To celebrate finishing the cookbook (yay!), we headed to Andalusia. We rented a little apartment in Sevilla which is such an idyllic town. Citrus trees literally line all the streets — it’s amazing! Around every corner you’ll find another tapas restaurant, with tables scattered over cobblestones, beneath citrus trees. Even the cathedrals have citrus […]