Umami Mart

Sakqueso!, just as the name suggests, was an event we put on pairing cheese with sake. It was loads of FUN! We invited Keisuke Akabori to create a five-course menu and Tim Sullivan of Hakkaisan Brewery to come and pair the dishes with their sakes. Sake and cheese pair very well, wouldn’t you know, since […]

June sakes ship today for Sake Gumi, our monthly sake subscription club. If you like what’s on deck here, you should join! There’s a little known secret outside the sake world: Sake + Cheese = Harmony. Before formulating the theme for Sake Gumi this month, I was fortunate enough to talk to all four of the brewers […]

Get ready for SAKQUESO!, our first dinner event with Timothy Sullivan of Hakkaisan Brewery and Casa de Kei (Keisuke Akabori) of Delage. Join us for a special meal paired with Hakkaisan Sake from Niigata, Japan, at Sequoia Diner in East Oakland on Friday June 17. We will be serving a 5-course tasting menu highlighting CHEESE! Timothy will be […]

It’s so important to travel. Not to say it needs to be lavish or romantic or life-changing every time, but it’s really necessary to get out of your comfort zone and visit new places, even if it’s only an hour away. Remember that Sex and the City episode where Miranda was dating a guy who […]

I’ve made quite a few dishes using natto (fermented soy beans) in the past years — from Natto Moffin to sweet Natto Sandwich. If you like natto, it’s good with everything (almost), but if you hate natto, you wouldn’t understand any of my creations. That’s ok, I proudly HATE cilantro myself and I refuse to eat any […]

My husband, Chris, has an unusual vice: buying refrigerators. “You’re so patient with me,” he says as he slices open another big box. The zip-zip-BRAP sound of cardboard flaps separating is one I’ve come to associate with the rearrangement of our living quarters. Perhaps it would be normal to have four refrigerators in a sprawling […]

By Haan Riddell I LOVE CHEESE. This dish is the ultimate cheese dish, perfect when you need to comfort yourself on a rainy day or when you have a bad hangover. This dish is not quite for those on a diet, but what the heck, you only live once! I tried this fabulous dish for […]

There is something about Japanese confectionary and pâtisseries that pushes sweets to a level of sophistication I haven’t found anywhere else. It’s not the purely Japanese examples either. They excel in transforming desserts from all over the world into something less sweet, less heavy and more palatable. And it’s no coincidence that sweets are HUGE […]

Ah, the joy of roommates. The Ramen Shaman lives with three other dudes in a house in Los Angeles, meaning our fridge is war zone of groceries for four people each cooking for one. But to be honest there’s not a whole lot of cooking going on in this household. I actually enjoy making food, […]

I had some left over persimmon after making this salad for Thanksgiving, so I sliced them into wedges and made these little appetizer sandwiches, which people seemed to really like! You could use any kind of cheese, really… but do make sure you choose Fuyu persimmons (the squat tomato looking ones that are eaten when crunchy and […]