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August 30, 2011
What the Highball?
By Neyah White Photos by Travis LoDolce Well, there is no drink more quintessentially ‘Japanese’ right now than the highball. From crowded, stand-up after-work bars in Tokyo to elegant and sedate members-bars in Kyoto, the simple (but exact!) mix of whisky and water, has become the national drink of choice. There are a few factors […]
August 26, 2011
Edible Schoolyard Lunch
Maiden Lane in San Francisco on Wednesday at 12:30 was swarming with people chowing down on really affordable organic lunch boxes. The event was sponsored by the Edible Schoolyard and Levi’s and went something like this: get in line, grab a lunch for a suggested donation of $5, eat at long farm tables, maybe buy […]
August 16, 2011
SF Chefs 2011
SF Chefs spanned three days, August 5-7, and looked like it landed from somewhere in outer space, onto Union Square (notice how the tent is “punctured” by the Dewey Monument pole in the photo below). I went on Sunday around 1pm and the sides of the ginormous tent were lined with 25 chefs’ booths. We […]
August 12, 2011
Orenchi Ramen (Santa Clara)
The Bay Area is a big sprawling wasteland of awesome food, that rivals Los Angeles in its expansiveness. Sadly however, up in the hyped-up food scene of San Francisco (“the city”), no one really talks about the South Bay. San Jose is a bad bad word. It’s a shame, cause just a 45 minute drive […]
August 2, 2011
The Ume Project: Umeshu (Plum Liqueur)
You may recall that both Yoko and Yamahomo have shown us how to make umeshu (plum liqueur) on Umamimart (here and here). The season for ume is super short, and people in Japan scramble for them at the supermarkets to make their yearly batch of umeshu. After picking our own ume from a magical backyard […]
July 19, 2011
The Ume Project: Pickling for Umeboshi
After our Berkeley backyard ume foraging adventure, Yoko, Sylvan (of Peko Peko) and I met up six days later to start pickling our umeboshi (pickled plum). Hooray! Umeboshi is the rice accompaniment of choice in Japan–the image of the sour little scarlet ball, sitting on a bed of steaming rice for breakfast, is as ubiquitous […]
July 6, 2011
SF Cocktail Crawl with Paystyle
The one and only Paystyle rolled into town a couple of weeks ago. Although he would be fully booked with personal engagements, I knew exactly how to get him to pencil me in. A few days before he was scheduled to land at SFO, I texted him, “Should we go on a SF cocktail crawl […]
The Ume Project: Foraging
Yoko and I tagged along with Sylvan of Peko Peko last week to forage for ume (Japanese plums aka Prunus mume). We had been planning this for weeks, going back and forth and patiently waiting for the perfect moment to pick the ume, from a tree in the backyard of Sylvan’s friend’s home. Yes, we […]
June 28, 2011
Kitchen Revival: A Film-Inspired Cooking Show
A few months ago Umamimart readers and fans helped us accomplish our fundraising goal and we set forth to make a pilot for our movie-inspired cooking show. Kitchen Revival, hosted by chef Haley Simonds, is a 30-minute cooking show where every aspect of the show is inspired by a different movie each week. This means […]