Umami Mart

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 […]

I wanted to make something simple and mouthwatering for the Canned Crab Challenge. Sarah’s Snow Crab Jeon is a tough act to follow, so I also wanted to make something that could potentially complement her recipe. So to pair with her protein-heavy dish, I decided to come up with a carb dish. I had tried […]

Jeon is a savory Korean pancake. More like a flat, eggy omelet than a fluffy pancake you’d eat for breakfast, jeon can be eaten any time of day. As a Korean American, I grew up eating lots of jeon filled with all sorts of ingredients, from green onions to fish and oysters, and sometimes, ground-beef stuffed chili peppers. One of the most popular […]

PREFACE Battle ReCPY: NYC Umeboshi Project, Pt. 1 After a couple of weeks of pickling plum in salt, it extracts all the water out of the plums, which makes umezu (plum vinegar). Once the liquid rises above the plum, it’s time to add red shiso (perilla). You can either do it or not do it […]

After seeing the Ume Project on the west coast, I was intrigued. I like umeboshi (pickled plums) and every time I go home to Japan, I bring back my mother’s homemade ones. After all, I am from Wakayama, where Japan’s best umeboshi is made. I should have the umeboshi making gene in me. I’ve seen […]

PREFACE: Battle ReCPY: Madeleines (Mary Ann + Marcus) Valentine’s Day is so overrated. Why do people pay extra for red roses? Why do you have to buy new lingerie? WTF is up with all the chocolate? I don’t understand what’s so romantic about today–it’s just a regular Monday to me. Us consumers are so manipulated […]

Since I got a nice Williams-Sonoma gift card for the holidays, I went there to hunt for things I wanted, but didn’t necessarily need. Aside from multi-color paper muffin cups for my MOffins and new sheet pans for my macarons, I also picked up a madeleine pan. I don’t know why but the shiny pan, […]

Welcome back to another Yamahomo baking battle. Now that I have completed my macaron battle (yeah, I can still come up with different colors amd flavors, but this basics are covered and completed), I needed something else to tackle. When I saw Anders’ post on a flødeboller from Summerbird in Copenhagen (basically a chocolate covered […]

PREFACE Yamahomo vs. Ladurée (Part 1 & 2) Yamahomo vs. Ladurée (The Battle Continues) Yamahomo vs. Ladurée (Trial 4, 5 & 6) Since winning my Ladurée Battle at Trial #6 two years ago, I haven’t made macaron for a while. But when looking through the Best of UM posts, I was tempted to make another […]