Umami Mart

Went to a restaurant in Atami, a sea-side onsen town about an hour out of Tokyo. The himono (air-dried fish) here is really well known in this town, perfectly salted and grilled. Here it is, with requisite grated radish and lemon. Drizzle over some soy sauce to your liking, and you’ve got a very typical […]

Drying mackerel and squid for himono (semi-dried fish that is then grilled), which brings better preserves them and brings out more profound flavors. UMAMI! Atami, Japan.

Caroline and I made a version (via Ming Tsai’s recipe) of Ikan Bakar, a Malaysian/Indonesian dish, for dinner last week. It was our first time cooking skate, although I’ve enjoyed it in Chinese and French preparations. It’s a really cheap fish ($5/lb at the Blue Moon stall in the Greenmarket on Wednesdays!), but offers good […]

It’s that time of year: sanma time. Sanma aka Pike Mackerel aka Pacific saury, is a wonderful seasonal fish to celebrate autumn in Japan. My favorite time of the year! We just got back from Aburiya Kinnosuke, where they have been serving a sanma lunch special since last week for $13. Check out this spread! […]

Here is my new favorite place that Christi and Mike brought me to in Man Jose called Dia de Pesca. It’s a seafood taco shack out of a “roach coach” that ROCKS. Literally, it’s just an old school mobile home that houses the kitchen, parked in the middle of a parking lot, with tables and […]

Tagged along with the Education program at Japan Society last month for a trip out to Secaucus, NJ to visit Uoriki Fresh, a company that imports fresh tuna and other fish, and distributes it all over the east and west coast (their big client is Whole Foods). This excursion was a part of an intense […]

Little did we know when we walked into the Oyster Bar last night that it would be in the midst of a 3 week-long festival for fresh herring! I am reading now that the GCOB does this every year, to celebrate the first “nieuwe maatjes” herring of the season from the Netherlands. The herring came […]

Friday was Astoria exploration day. After hitting P.S. 1 for a rooftop performance by Min Tanaka (which was more about the 4 or 5 photographers who were making so much noise throughout) Ryo guided us into her ‘hood. It was already nighttime dark at 6pm, and very chilly, so I was hugely relieved when we […]

Just got back from a 6 day jaunt around the pristine and spectacular Pacific Northwest, stopping in Portland, Seattle and Vancouver. The trip was cloudless, seamless, no accidents, no trip-ups– just good times drinking, eating, discovering, and mellowing with my friend Kristi, who gets a cookie for putting up with me through 2 states, 2 […]

WARNING: This post is not for the squeamish, overly sensitive, or the faint of heart. Skip this post if discussion of bodily functions offends you deeply. I’m serious!!! I’ve mulled over in my mind, for almost a month, whether to blog about this or not. I wasn’t sure this was for Umamimart readers. Then TM […]