Umami Mart

My partner Washi recently got a job as a salaryman. This may not seem that odd until you consider the fact that he is living in Berkeley, California and to qualify as a salaryman, you are usually employed by a Japanese corporation. I will miss his face behind the bar at Ippuku. And I will […]

In Japan, everything is made easy for busy housewives who have to raise kids, clean the house, yet also have to cook and make dessert. You throw things in a microwave and five minutes later, you can a serve main course to your hungry kids and demanding, asshole husbands. I was recently given a simple-to-make sakuramochi […]

After reading Moto’s post about making anko (sweet bean paste), I began to reminisce about my visit to a wagashi (traditional Japanese confectionary) shop in Koishikawa, Tokyo called Ikko-an. All of the wagashi are made by hand by the owner Chikara Mizukami, while his wife works in the storefront. He has made it a point […]

Protein is a great thing to carry around. It stays together and packs an energy-filled punch, in comparison to a salad or veggie stir-fry –which can either take up lots of space or taste very bad because of a temperature change. Hunks of hamburg or chicken tenders, on the other hand, can be easily saran […]

My most recent obsession is making anko (sweet bean paste) from scratch. As I wrote in my strawberry daifuku post a couple of weeks ago, using bean paste as dessert doesn’t really exist in the west. But I am trying to find ways to mix this into my future baking. After all, it’s gluten-free, and […]

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 […]

On paper, nagaimo sounds like a miracle food. Nagaimo is a type of yam with hardly any calories, while simultaneously lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. It’s also full of potassium and fiber and ideal for the diet of a diabetic. And that list doesn’t even include its most popular benefit. It’s been said that during the […]

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 […]

Japan is filled with weird desserts. A lot of influence comes from the west, but we somehow incorporate Japan-ness into western desserts. For example, castella came from Portugal and somehow the recipe changed a bit and one of the ingredients now is mirin (sweet sake). Or choux filled with red bean/whipped cream mix. Ichigo daifuku […]

As we continue to celebrate the almighty noodle here, I give you one of my most delicious, yet absurdly lazyass recipes in my repertoire: curry udon. I love making Japanese-style curry in the winter, it is so soul-warming, with all the carrots, onions, meat and potatoes. But living alone means getting bored of having the same […]