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May 3, 2013
U + MAMI: Gift Sets for Mother’s Day
Yo Martians! Mother’s Day is NEXT SUNDAY MAY 12!!! Have you thought about what you’re gonna do yet? Maybe take Mom out for a nice brunch? You can also get her something fun and original for her kitchen and home from Umami Mart! We’ve put together four special gift sets to say, “Thanks, Mom!”
I love Harumi Kurihara — she’s the Martha Stewart of Japan.
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April 26, 2013
Postcard from Luang Prabang: Breakfast Essentials
By Johnny Lopes
On an early morning off the main drag in Luang Prabang, Laos, Pasaneyom Coffee Shop is bustling with regulars. Pasaneyom offers the breakfast essentials: porridge, coffee and donuts. They keep a big vat of water going over the fire, and the coffee pots over that to keep things HOT and economical. I went to this coffee shop every morning for breakfast.
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April 23, 2013
Lazyass Cookin: Tuna-can Pasta
I love canned fish. When I was little, I would eat canned sardines in miso sauce by the spoonful. Like ice cream! Haha. During my year living in Italy, I learned how to make this dish: pasta with canned tuna, onions and tomatos. So easy! In Italy I also discovered the increased quality and flavor of Mediterranean tuna, since it is prominently canned in olive oil.
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April 19, 2013
Postcard from Hoi An: Cao Lầu on a Lonely Night
Cao lầu is a noodle dish comprised of pork, mint and noodles and is native to the town Hoi An in Vietnam.
*Johnny Lopes is based in San Francisco and traveled through Southeast Asia for two months. See what he ate during his three-country tour on his Flickr feed.
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April 18, 2013
Postcard from Cái Bè: Meat Market Stall
I just returned from a week in Vietnam with Johnny. We had an incredible time! I will be posting more in the coming weeks, as my jetlag fades, but here’s a snapshot from a market in Cái Bè, a small town on the Mekong Delta.
I love this photo. Amidst the chaos of the early-morning market, this lady sits among her colorful meat parts, calmly concentrating on her animal flesh.
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April 17, 2013
Flashback Fave: Kayoko aka Your Humble Editor
It’s really hard to choose my most memorable post on Umami Mart. They’re like my children, I must love them all the same! Well that might not entirely be true, and although I haven’t blogged much over the last year, Umami Mart is a part of everything I do. The blog started so casually, but soon began to steep into every aspect of my life.
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April 16, 2013
Flashback Fave: Sakura aka Slightly Peckish
*Sakura’s involvement with Umami Mart is testament to the power of bringing people together over the internet. I asked her to write for Umami Mart after she commented on our site. Somehow I knew that she would be a right fit — with her love of literature, food and culture. To this day we have never met IRL, but I always look forward to Slightly Peckish Tuesdays.
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April 12, 2013
Flashback Fave: Payman aka The PDT Project + Happy Hour
*I met Payman at a dinner party at Erin’s in Brooklyn. He was making caprese cocktails, his own invention. A tomato and cheese cocktail, how wondrous! This was right at the beginning of the cocktail boom, and I was intrigued. He agreed to write for Umami Mart, and has helped to foster a community of imbibers amongst Umami Mart readers.
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April 11, 2013
Flashback Fave: Yoko aka Japanify + Tokyo JUNKtion
*I still vividly remember the conversation about starting a food blog with Yoko. She was living in Tokyo and I was in Brooklyn and we were both visiting Cupertino, and we were at her mom’s house for dinner. We envisioned a casual blog where we would both contribute from oceans over. Maybe we would invite a few friends? Six years later, we’ve opened a shop together, but at its heart, Umami Mart will always be a food blog.
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April 9, 2013
Flashback Fave: Ryohei aka MOTOism + Yamahomo
When I asked MOTO what his most memorable post would be, he immediately replied back with:
“It’s always wedding cake post for me. The amount of practice and trial and error it all took… yet the worst case scenario at the end was so priceless. I still vividly remember my conversation with Kayoko when we first saw the disaster.”
In March 2009, MOTO had spent weeks practicing to make a wedding cake for our friends Aya and Irwin.
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