Umami Mart

Anders (fellow UMAMIMART writer), Rene and I went to Pinafore, a maid cafe in Tokyo, last Sunday. Here’s the report. ANDERS:It’s funny how you as a foreign tourist constantly walk around in Tokyo expecting to be shocked, appalled and freaked out by the weirdness of the Japanese. Maybe it’s the over-hyping guide books, maybe it’s […]

Simultaneous LA and TOKYO Din Tai Fung Umamiventures! The Umamiventure coming up to Din Tai Fung in LA, was the catalyst for this Umamiventure in Tokyo which will be held on Sunday, September 27 at noon. Founded in 1969, Din Tai Fung is known world-wide for its xiao long bao (soup dumplings). The Japanese go […]

I posted about Mangetsu’s Mugi-toro Don the other day, Tokyo JUNKtion: Mugi-toro Don at MANGETSU, and promised to get back to UMAMIMART with more coverage on Mangetsu since one post was just not enough. You will probably see me at Mangetsu one to three times a week during these past two months (I was introduced […]

One of my most recent discoveries in Tokyo is Mangetsu, a tiny place that has a maximum occupancy of eight, one-minute from Hatagaya station that specializes in gyu-tan, or beef tongue. I will post on their many beef tongue dishes in the near future, but this post concerns Mugi-toro meshi – a barley rice bowl […]

The Canned Crab Bar is guilty of false advertising. I almost forgave them for not serving any canned crab while dining on fresh, juicy crab legs and seafood-cream pasta… until I saw the bill. We walked into the Canned Crab Bar located in a tiny alley in Yoyogi-uehara expecting canned crab. But instead the only […]

Since moving away from my beloved town of Shimokitazawa, I make every excuse to cruise by the neighborhood just to check out the latest shop openings. As it is only a 10-min bike ride away from my current residence, I go there to run my Muji errands and to meet up for coffee with colleagues. […]

My father has one sister and four brothers- all of who are in the restaurant business. The Akaboris are destined to work with food, what can I say?? My brother just spent some time in a hoity-toity restaurant in Barcelona, and I just started a job at a Spanish restaurant in Menlo Park. As LOST’s […]

After making my umeshu and bottling it up for indulgence in October, I became restless. I wanted to make more while I waited for three months. But this time I wanted to try another fruit. After discussing it over with a veteran Japanese fruit liqueur-maker (my ex-coworker), she suggested I try biwashu (“biwa” is a […]

I’m finding all these pictures from my Japan trip that I never blogged, so please excuse this outdated trip down memory lane. I went to a kabuki show in Asakusa (in Tokyo) and afterwards, my family took me to feast on dojo, a small eel-like fish prepared in various ways. The whole experience was right […]

As I said goodbye to my drunk friend last Friday, he mentioned something about how good mozuku (Cladosiphon okamuranus – a type of edible seawead) and somen are together. The next morning, slightly hungover, “mozuku and somen” was still ringing in my ears. I did a google search for a recipe and went to the […]