Umami Mart

I’ve tried making gnocchi in the past, but the whole thing dissolved while boiling, so it was a complete failure. Since then, I haven’t even thought about making it again. A few weeks ago, I pondered what I would make for a small gathering. I really wanted to eat beef stroganoff. I looked around for […]

Mottainai is said in Japan when something perfectly usable is abandoned or sent to the trashcan. In the past ten years, Japan has seen a trend in awareness regarding waste and reusing whenever possible. It’s ironic that this has become a trend because the idea of reuse goes way back and is intrinsic to Japanese […]

Living in Tokyo meant that I had very little access to cereals, orange juice with lots of pulp, fig bars and other high fiber food stuffs that are so ubiquitous in the U.S. I always considered myself to have a very “normal” digestive system and never felt I needed extra help to move things along. […]

Matsutake are to Japan as truffles are to France. They are hard-to-find, fragrant, expensive and coveted. “Matsu” means pine and “take” means mushroom. Matsutake are harvested in the fall, the earliest occurring in September from pine forests in diverse locations around the world including Korea, China, British Columbia, Morocco, Sweden, California and Japan. The matsutake […]

A trip to Brattleboro, Vermont was just what I needed this winter… it provided a little R&R and an idea that was perfect for Japanify. Brattleboro put on quite a show for this Californian. It snowed just enough make the dwellings around town look like gingerbread dusted with powdered sugar, but not enough to soak […]

Hey everyone, Kayoko here again, sitting in for Yoko this week. I’m pretty broke these days, and haven’t been eating out much. Plus, it’s cold out– I mean, the Bay Area isn’t as cold as London/ Tokyo/ Copenhagen/ NYC, but still, it’s pretty chilly for us Californians (low hi 52ËšF/ low 42ËšF, today. Sorry Snow […]

You’ve smelled them in or around your neighborhood. They turn bright yellow in November and December and are usually clustered in groups along streets or in parks. They are ginkgo trees. Ginkgo trees put on quite a show, but they can be an assault on the olfactory receptors. It wasn’t until Thanksgiving weekend that I […]

One thing California and Japan have in common is the abundance of bright orange Fuyu persimmons when November hits. Persimmon or kaki, in Japanese, are best eaten uncooked and must be peeled. The most common way to eat them in Japan is for dessert, perhaps alongside a branch of a few very plump kyoho grapes. […]

Since my last post on an early Thanksgiving dinner, I went down to Fort Lauderdale, soaked in a lot of sun, darkened up the way a real Asian guy should look, then came back to a freezing NYC. I am depressed. I want more sun. I was going to write about my food experiences in […]

I am not talking about the big mole scene from Austin Powers. This is one of the most complicated food I have evermade. Why did I make mole?  Because my friend went to Mexico and brought back a bunch of dried chillies. When you have bag full of chili, you naturally make mole, right? I […]