Umami Mart

By Haan Riddell I LOVE CHEESE. This dish is the ultimate cheese dish, perfect when you need to comfort yourself on a rainy day or when you have a bad hangover. This dish is not quite for those on a diet, but what the heck, you only live once! I tried this fabulous dish for […]

I don’t know what’s going on in your neck of the woods, but what is going on with the weather in the Bay Area?!?!? We are experiencing really schizophrenic weather patterns — it will go from warm to cold in an instant. Take today, Tuesday 10/15. It was quite chilly in the morning, then we […]

Affinity: a liking for or an attraction to something. I discovered this long-lost cocktail one cold October day, thanks to my friend and barman Maxwell Britten during his tenure manning Freeman’s backroom bar in New York City. The leaves were swirling on this windy, chilly afternoon, and I was downtown. I sauntered down the namesake […]

Yuzu citrus is one of the most important ingredients in Japanese cooking. The juice of the yuzu is prized both for its citrusy flavor and elegant. The skin is often used as a garnish for chawanmushi (steamed egg custard) or osuimono (clear dashi soup). Lately, upscale restaurants in the States love to finish off their dishes […]

The early 90s… I was distancing myself from my Sandylion stickers while making multiple trips to the Wherehouse to make sure that I got tickets to see Radiohead at the Edge in Palo Alto. It was a confusing time, but it shaped me. Foodwise, I was tiring of the hambagu, Japanese curry and and gratin […]

INGREDIENTS 1 pound Manila clams (I used fresh ones from the Farmer’s Market) 1/4 yellow onion, diced small 2 Santa Fe peppers or jalepenos, de-seeded, diced small 2 stalks of lemongrass, cut bottom part off, diced small 1 cup white wine 1/2 stick unsalted butter 5 cloves of garlic, chopped 4 tblsps live oil 8 […]

Last month, MOTO made a surprise appearance for our one-year anniversary party. With not one hair out of place, he casually sauntered into our shop and helped us dress into our summer kimnonos. On his last day in California, we had dinner at my house. While preparing for our temaki dinner, Moto showed me how […]

Japan has a wonderful fall tradition known as otsukimi (お月見) or Moon Festival, which celebrates both the moon and promise of a good harvest for the year. Besides otsukimi, it’s also called chushu no meigetu or jyugoya. The custom is believed to have originated in China. In the year 909, the Emperor hosted the first recorded celebration […]

When it comes to waiting for food, New York is turning into Japan. The Cronut for example, a pastry mashup of croissant + donut created at the Dominique Ansel Bakery, is apparently so good that people line up at 6am to score the precious two pieces per person. There is even a Craigslist black market […]

Mytilus edulis, also known as the common mussel, is a medium-sized edible “marine bivalve mollusc” in the family Mytilidae, or simply, mussels. I sure most of you have had Moules-frites when in France, but the dish is actually from Belgium, and dates back as far as the 1700’s. Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, […]