Umami Mart

By Haan Ridell Hi I’m Haan. I’m Swedish but live in Copenhagen, and I fly around the world for a living. Very lucky me, since I get to learn about new cultures — and what better way to learn, then to eat? I dash off to all the supermarkets, spice-markets, wine-markets and all the you-name-it […]

By Johnny Lopes Khaosan Road, Bangkok; Backpacker Mecca. The street gets stupid busy at night between fellow travelers and merchant hustlers. You can buy everything from new suits to a ride to a local ping-pong show. As an amateur photo-journalist project, I went out in the early morning to seek out the silent streets — I […]

I know it’s been almost two months since I visited Bangkok, but I didn’t want to deprive y’all of the wonder that is Thai sweets and desserts. So here’s a quick run down of the sugary delights we sampled in Bangkok. Us folk who don’t live in Thailand are truly hard done by as it’s […]

One of the main things I look forward to whenever I visit Thailand is to be able to eat Thai steamboat or Thai suki (hot pot) at Coca, a restaurant which has been going strong for the last 50 years and is now a culinary empire extending to Singapore and even Japan. My mother remembers going […]

Sakura’s noodle report from Bangkok earlier this week had me craving for a bowl of bah mee nam here in the Bay Area. I scoured the city’s Thai restaurant menus but did not find anything comparable to Sakura’s favorite noodle dish. But, fear not, as an awesome Thai spot recently opened up in the Richmond called Amphawa Thai […]

Umamimart is celebrating 5 years this month with a celebration of noodles and how delightful that I get to talk to you all about one of my favourites: bah mee nahm (Thai noodle soup). When I lived in Bangkok, Thailand, from the ages of four to eleven, apparently the only things I liked to eat […]

Drunken noodles at SriPraPhai in Woodside, Queens. From Umamiventure #4 in 2007. The savory hot sweetness of the dish still hovers in my memory. Photo by Irwin Chen.

One of the surprising things about London is that you can get very good, cheap Thai food in pubs. My friends and I call them Thai pubs, but they’re just normal pubs serving Thai food cooked by Thai chefs instead of the usual pub fare such as roasts and chips. One of the best kept […]

I was able to meet up with Kirk aka mmm-yoso during my trip to San Diego. What a true delight! It’s always a little awkward to meet fellow food bloggers in REAL LIFE– does he talk the way he write? what will he order? should I tell him I loved his post on that dim […]

So I’m in the valley, Burbank actually, or is it North Hollywood? Depends on who you are talking to. LA native? Valley native? You’re from Hollywood? Oh, not from Hollywood? So you’re technically from the Valley, but you live in Hollywood, got it. Do the Hills start at Cahuenga? No? They start at Mulholland? You […]