Umami Mart

Met up with V’s good friend Esther for lunch at Tu Lan, a kick ass, grubby hole in the wall Vietnamese joint in the Tenderloin (TL) area of San Francisco. This place is RAD, it must be an SF institution- there was a line out the door by 12:05. Sweet. And look at that sign! […]

Preface:Umamiventure #11: Banh Mi Crawl, Pt. 1 (Ba Xuyen)Umamiventure #11: Banh Mi Crawl, Pt. 2 (Thanh Da)Umamiventure #11: Banh Mi Crawl, Pt. 3 (Tan Thanh)Umamiventure #11: Banh Mi Crawl, Pt. 4 (Rico’s Tacos-WTF?) View Larger MapPaystyle: Overall I thought Ba Xuyen was in a class of its own–no comparison. It’s one of those places where […]

Preface:Umamiventure #11: Banh Mi Crawl, Pt. 1 (Ba Xuyen)Umamiventure #11: Banh Mi Crawl, Pt. 2 (Thanh Da) Judson: Tan Thanh was unsatisfying for multiple reasons: the bread was old and crumbly, and the “lunchmeat” ingredients were second rate Oscar Meyer. Payman: Strange but everything they served seemed to be the #1 combo, even if you […]

Preface: Umamiventure #11: Banh Mi Crawl, Pt. 1 (Ba Xuyen) Kayoko: They added ground bbq pork here in their combo #1, which added a nice sweetness cut by the ass-kicking jalapeño. A very well-formulated, balanced sandwich. Michelle: Thanh Da was pretty good, but felt a little less fresh as far as the ingredients. I thought […]

Last weekend, we had THE Umamiventure of Umamiventures. It was a gorgeous, cloudless August day- over the course of 4+ hours, 15 of us hit up 4 sandwich spots in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn. Yes, somehow there were 15 people on Planet Earth insane enough to go on this trip- some who had […]

My brother and I ran into Nicky’s Vietnamese Sandwiches by accident on Mother’s Day. We almost went to Bratwa but it was too fucking crowded (too full–my complaints against Bratwa are now that it is too expensive and the service is bad. The curried goat is still off the hook, just watch for bones), and […]

It’s all in the air/ You hear it everywhere No matter what you do/ It’s gonna grab a hold on you California soul… California soul…— Ashford & Simpson It’s in my bones, I can’t shake it off- California is IN me. Took a week off to attend a wedding in San Francisco, and detoured through […]

Last week, when Matt sent me this Gridskipper link— a guide to banh mi in the city– it was 11am. By 11:05, my stomach was grumbling; 11:10, I was drooling; 11:30, fantasies of pork, cilantro and pate filled baguettes kept me from getting any work done. So what did I do? I knocked on my […]

With such a ramen frenzy going on in New York right now (a cute little “guide to ramen” column in Time Out this week; buzz on Eater about yet another Hakata-style rameneria opening in Greenpoint in the fall; the ramen war that Setagaya ignited with Momofuku before they opened a couple months back, etc), I […]

as Matt and I walked down Atlantic Avenue last weekend to browse their row of mid-century modern furniture shops, a Vietnamese sandwich, or bánh mì, at Nicky’s was definitely on his agenda. it was a beautiful day, people were out, indulging in as much of the springtime tease as possible (Saturday- warm, sunny; today- snow!)– […]