September 10, 2015
Every Friday, half a block away from Umami Mart along 9th Street at Broadway, the Old Oakland Farmers Market attracts all the locals. With Chinatown across the street, we are lucky to have a farmers market with a lot of Asian produce. From Thai basil to winter melon, the Old Oakland farmers market meshes together […]
October 9, 2013
Koji is a rice mold that has been used in Japan to ferment sake and shoyu for hundreds of years. Recently, shio-koji (salt koji) has been discovered as a miracle cooking ingredient that pumps up the umami factor to any ol’ dish. We’ve talked a lot about shio-koji on Umami Mart in the last year – it’s all […]
June 28, 2013
Yup, that’s right, we’ll be closed for most of July 4 week. We’re heading down to LA to give a sake tasting at Bar + Garden in Culver City! The Oakland shop will be closed from Monday 7/1 Â through Thursday 7/4 and will reopen Friday 7/5. Our online shop is open though! We will ship […]
June 3, 2013
I have to admit, I had been dreading redoing the floors for the shop. We all knew it had to be done — the reality was that once we signed the lease, we were no longer a pop-up. The shop had to “grow up.” Without going into the technical details, we had received a few […]
April 29, 2013
Come out for the 2nd edition of the Ippo Ramen pop-up here at Umami Mart. Last month, the ramen sold out in record time — 56 bowls in 56 minutes. You know what that means… get here EARLY if you want a bowl. Seriously. Steve will be serving his signature ramen with shoyu, miso and […]
June 25, 2012
I am ecstatic to announce that Yoko and I will be opening a real-deal brick and mortar store in Oakland, California!!! This all happened very quickly for us and these last few weeks have been filled with meetings, many trips to the hardware store, more meetings, and lots of painting. The construction will come soon […]