Umami Mart

There was an egg festival in my bowl of rice the other day. I placed a raw egg yolk on a mound of ikura (salmon roe) on top of my steaming hot bowl of rice. The orange hues are sexy and appetizing, glimmering in my bowl. No matter how many times I have ikuradon (ikura […]

Karasumi (or bottarga) is salted and dried mullet roe. It comes in two sacks and are hard, like a candy bar. Its deep, oceany, salty flavor is reminiscent of caviar. But the texture is not like caviar, because it’s a dense mass of eggs dried in the sun, it is chewy and sticks to the molars […]

I have missed writing this column, so I’m bringing it back! I can not pretend that I have abandoned my lazy ways, or that I’ve stopped cutting corners when cooking. My kitchen may be much bigger than what I had in Brooklyn, but this only means that I can spread out my laziness over more […]

*This is a part of an ongoing exclusive series on Umamimart, Radiation + Japan. Please check out these other posts and videos for more: Testing of Food in Japan, By Yoko Kumano Interview with Washio, Bar Owner (Tokyo), By Yoko Kumano Testing Report and Thoughts, By Howie Correa Interview with Satoshi Imai, Rice Farmer (Niigata), […]

The other morning I woke up with the worst hangover I’ve had in two years. I remember drinking shochu the night before like I was drinking water. I clearly ended up mixing up the two halfway through the night because they both looked the same, yet the shochu tasted better. The upside is that I […]

Go to any sushi restaurant in Japan and notice that “ikura” or salmon roe, is either written in katakana or hiragana. I was curious as to why it was often written in katakana–the alphabet designated to loanwords. I asked the master at Sushi Danran about this curiosity. He told me that “ikura” イクラ comes from […]

Discarded eggs from the chicken coop at an organic farm on Long Island, NY. They were too damaged to sell, so they were either thrown away or given to employees.

At some point very soon you’ll feel like you’ve filled your noggin with too much nog from all the holiday parties throughout the month. Before you reach the point where the three letter word ‘egg’ begins to conjure four letter word thoughts, I’d like to share with you a few recipes for delicious egg-based relatives […]

Previous:Gin & June Part 1, London Dry & Plymouth GinsGin & June Part 2, GeneverGin & June Part 3, Old Tom Gin For the fourth and final installment of Gin & June, I’ve decided that sloe is the way to goe. I am, of course, referring to sloe gin. Of all the gins discussed this […]

During a picnic this past Sunday, a friend of mine asked me to recommend “the best cocktail I probably haven’t heard of.” Not being able to give it too much thought (as I was operating under the duress of trying to resuscitate the charcoals on the grill), I hastily recommended a Corpse Reviver or Corpse […]