Umami Mart

Jonathan’s brother and his wife Arielle came to visit last weekend from New York. The weather was gorgeous so we did a little late afternoon baking on the deck with a glass of wine! Arielle is a fabulous baker and this is her recipe for hamentashen. These cookies are traditionally made for Purim, a Jewish […]

I don’t know about what’s going on in your city, but these days, NYC is filled with macaron shops. Sure some tastes better than others, but if you throw a stone, and it will hit a macaron shop or two. For the amount of effort you put in to make perfect macarons, I am slowly […]

After getting canned without reason, the day after her maternity leave was up, Paula Cinini was not sure what to do; she had always worked as a journalist. To find some solace in this devastating situation, and cope with her mother’s passing, Paula dug up her mother’s old, partly-burned, worn recipe book and began baking. […]

Lyons used to operate teahouses all over England in the early 20th century, only to begin shutting them down in the 1980s. To my eternal regret, I arrived in England too late to visit them. These teahouses turn up in all sorts of novels, especially before, during and after the war. In a bleak social […]

I was a cake decorator last week, and I went out in drag this weekend. I needed to relax and do what I do the best, cooking and baking to calm my tired self. I found a recipe for lemon cookies, and went to a store to buy lemons, where I saw pretty orange colored […]

As my introductory post, I would like to tread upon virgin Umami Mart territory… DUN DUN DUN… *HOSPITAL FOOD*! Perhaps it doesn’t have the allure of airplane foodstuffs, but hospital food is interesting in a way that one day you might have to visit your grammy there or maybe you end up there after partying […]

Every year around this time, I am in Japan for half business and half vacation. But this year’s financial crisis has hit my work pretty badly, and my travel budget got cut. Hence, I will stay in New York this year. After Thanksgiving, I’ve been thinking about how I am going to spend the holiday […]

What do you think? I made raisin-wiches last night. These are quite famous in Japan. The cookie is almost similar to short bread, and cream consists of Italian meringue, butter, and plump raisins. Sandwich in the decadent cream, wait for a night, and it’s a damn good raisinwich. Because of its rectangular shape, I thought […]