Umami Tool Watch
November 17, 2016
You’ll Be Thankful to Have These Kitchen Tools on Thanksgiving
Can you believe that next Thursday is Thanksgiving?! If you’re feeling like us, Thanksgiving snuck up on us yet again. But this year, we have some kitchen accessories and tools that will make T-Day prep easy as (pumpkin) pie. Breaking the cork in a bottle of wine is such a bummer! But you’ll never have to worry about pieces […]
May 30, 2016
Hario V60 Iced Coffee Maker: Cold Brew, Shorts, and Summer
Kayoko and I test every product we place in the store. We have to love it, use it, and find a place for it in our kitchens. This means that while it needs to look good, it also has to be easy enough for me to understand within the first five minutes of opening the […]
February 4, 2016
Why Does Jim Meehan of NYC’s PDT Love the Birdy Shaker?
We just got a new cobbler shaker in the shop – the Birdy CS500! It’s got a cool sounding name and a sleek, sexy design that helps chill drinks and prevents watery cocktails. But we were completely sold on the Birdy after our friend Jim Meehan of beloved NYC speakeasy, Please Don’t Tell (PDT), gave it his stamp […]
December 10, 2015
Umami Tool Watch: The Mighty MAC Yanagi Knife
If you’ve ever tried to prepare sashimi or sushi, you’ve probably learned pretty quickly that having the right knife makes a huge difference. Even the freshest fish doesn’t make great sashimi if it’s sliced poorly – you can easily ruin the texture, the look, and the taste of your most important ingredient with the wrong […]
September 17, 2015
Umami Tool Watch: Spice Toaster
The product that gets the most questions in our shop is the Spice Toaster. We have customers come up with one in hand asking, “What is this?” on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis. While we’d really love to tell them it’s a miniature Jiffy Pop maker, we usually explain that these mesh-covered pans are a […]
June 4, 2015
Umami Tool Watch: Microdent Knives
We are total gadget heads here at Umami Mart. Johnny always scoffs when I bring home a new kitchen toy, or cocktail tool — we even tried to implement a rule of getting rid of something in order to bring in a new product. But that didn’t last long. When I brought home these two […]
March 12, 2015
Umami Tool Watch: How to Use a Misokoshi
The misokoshi is a tool that we have sold since we first opened our shop. It looks like a mini ramen strainer, but alas, it is for straining miso in liquid. Namely, it works perfectly for miso soup. Here’s a video made by Yoko, starring yours truly, of how to make miso soup using a […]