Umami Mart

A bartender at Royal Street Inn & Bar in NOLA was wearing this shirt: a cute cartoon caricature of a fat man carrying a pie, with the word “Hubig’s” written across in cursive. It piqued my interest– what was this all about, I wondered. I asked Pat and Marshall, who I was staying with, what […]

PREQUEL The Good: Ode to Jean-George’s Chocolate Molten Cake The Bad: Domino’s Lava Crunch Crapcakes Despite the occasional subpar specimen (Domino, I’m looking at you), my love of warm chocolate cake continues to run deep. So deep, in fact, that up until yesterday, I’d made a promise to myself that consumption of these cakes would remain […]

I like to think that I have sharp instincts and a knack for good flavors in the kitchen– my parents are both professional chefs, as is my brother. So in theory, I should be a supernatural. But something in the kitchen always goes horribly wrong when I am asked to follow a recipe to make […]

Happy New Year everyone! This year’s resolution for me is to try to post more since I’ve been pretty lazy for some time now. I went home last month, and found a couple of interesting items that hasn’t been posted by Yoko in Tokyo JUNKtion. 1.) Fanta World, BIG APPLE, Limited Edition. Fanta is widely […]

Trader Joe’s. Cupertino, CA. Do you see all the little silhouettes of monkeys everywhere? The whole thing is so cheesy, I couldn’t resist buying a box (only $1.99 for four bananas!). Just in case you were interested: Everything about this excites me.

Remember my post about making a Japanese cheesecake? It’s a simple recipe, but very difficult to retain the fluffiness because of all the egg whites. Although it rises high during baking, but it shrinks down like an old person once you take it out of the oven. It’s like taking Viagra before baking: it performs […]

Sometimes store-bought trumps homemade. Mozzarella is definitely one. Peking duck is another. XLB, totally. You can make it all at home from scratch, which I’ve done, but it’s all readily available (especially in NYC), so why do I bother spending an entire day creating it? XLB at decent Chinese restaurants are not that expensive. The […]

After trying two Kit Kat flavors available in Japan with gag-inducing colors: light aqua for the Ramune Kit Kat and salmony orange for the Mango Pudding Kit Kat, I was seriously relieved to see that the Caramel Pudding Kit Kat was poo-colored just like the OG chocolate Kit Kat. As I busted open the package, […]

PREQUELThe Good: Ode to JG’s Molten Chocolate Cake, Pt. I I should’ve known that the whole thing was a bad idea, but curiosity got the better of me yet again. I had been mesmerized by the omnipresent Domino’s commercial touting its Chocolate Lava Crunch Cakes. Try as I might, I was losing the ability to […]

It’s so hard not being tempted by the Japanese advertising machine. When this monster from a distant shore shifts up its gears, there is no mercy for your soul – or belly. Paired up with a genuine American product like the donut, a huge chunk of Japanese consumers seem to have caved in and lined […]