Umami Mart

I wanted to make something simple and mouthwatering for the Canned Crab Challenge. Sarah’s Snow Crab Jeon is a tough act to follow, so I also wanted to make something that could potentially complement her recipe. So to pair with her protein-heavy dish, I decided to come up with a carb dish. I had tried […]

Jeon is a savory Korean pancake. More like a flat, eggy omelet than a fluffy pancake you’d eat for breakfast, jeon can be eaten any time of day. As a Korean American, I grew up eating lots of jeon filled with all sorts of ingredients, from green onions to fish and oysters, and sometimes, ground-beef stuffed chili peppers. One of the most popular […]

Kyle Itani used to have midnight ramen pop-ups at his Oakland restaurant, Hopscotch, a few years ago and Yoko and I would sneak in and snag a table. It was way past our bedtime but it was such a rare occasion for a restaurant in Oakland to be open past midnight, and, serve ramen! Now, […]

Ah, Mexico. We went to Cabo San Lucas over New Year’s and had a magical time. We were captivated by the sea breeze… … the abundantly fresh seafood… … tremendous tacos… … pristine blue skies… … the spirit of adventure… And… … the Michelada! Yes, I had a love affair with the Michelada for the first time on […]

The first time I learned how to make matcha was from my grandmother, Baba-chan, in Tokyo. I was in second grade when she first showed me how to make matcha. I quickly forgot about it when I moved back to California in fourth grade. Oddly enough, while I was listening to industrial music in my […]

Mayonnaise. It’s such a divisive condiment. People loooove it or haaaate it passionately. Working at Umami Mart, I overhear a lot of conversations between people when they see we carry Japanese Kewpie Mayonnaise in our conbini (Japanese for convenience store) food section. I’ve heard customers proclaim, “THIS is the BEST mayo in the world!” and others groan or say, “Ugh! Gross!” about […]

Hi I am back, sorta. I’ve been making a lot of stuff from scratch. I spend half the week in the countryside, with a big-ass kitchen — it’s an ideal setting to be creative/adventurous with my cooking. The other day, I was at H Mart (the very best Korean supermarket with a ton of Japanese items, […]

Here’s a simple twist on the very popular dish, Avocado Toast. It’s all the rage. Since I knew that yuzu kosho and avocado go so well together, I decided to incorporate yuzu kosho into my new breakfast routine. This is what I came up with: yuzu kosho avocado toast! This only takes five minutes to make […]

Photos by Mariko Yamasaki Happy holidays everyone! What a year! I hope you are all able to relax during these last days of 2015 and reflect on joyful memories. It’s been a hectic holiday season here at Umami Mart, and I’m thankful for everything we’ve done in the past year. Namely, we opened our Bottle System, […]

Photos by Yoko Kumano Together with Plumpjack Wine & Spirits, we hosted a cocktail crafting event at Forgery a couple months ago. I remember it as though it was yesterday — it was a warm, late summer day (ehem, late September) in San Francisco, and our guests saddled up to Forgery’s gorgeous bar to take in the […]