Last week, Sakura wrote about chirashi sushi in London, a dish you can find at many Japanese restaurants throughout the world. I grew up in Kansai so when I was young, our chirashi (called bara-chirashi or gomoku chirashi) consisted of cooked root vegetables like bamboo shoots, carrots and yams — all mixed with sushi rice, and topped with thinly sliced egg omelet.

Read More →

I always thought chirashizushi was the large, family-friendly tub of vinegared sushi rice studded with a variety of colourful ingredients such as shiitake, cooked seafood, and what ever else you like — all sprinkled with thinly sliced Japanese omelette and cucumber. My mother would often make it at home and it was an easy way for us kids to eat sushi.

Read More →

I am posting a recipe for negitoro donburi for the pure fact that this is the most delicious thing to make in under 5 minutes if you have cooked rice on hand. If your fish monger sells toro pieces for cheaper, grab the opportunity to make this dish. If pieces of toro are not available, you can always settle for tuna pieces.

Read More →

In the spring of 2012 I suddenly felt the urge to not spend a depressing summer in Copenhagen.

Previous years had been a mixed pleasure of monsoon rain, heavy floods, grey skies and Antarctica beach temperatures. I seriously needed a shot of California.

Coincidentally the ever food-obsessed Umami Mart team decided to open a shop and hired me to design it.

Read More →

Do you guys all know my pops? His name is Kunio, and he is a sushi chef. Classically trained as a tempura chef, he was offered to transfer to Los Angeles where Inagiku, the Tokyo restaurant he worked at, was opening a location in the iconic Bonaventure Hotel. So, the Akaboris all ended up in sunny LA in 1980.

Kuni has a sparkling sense of humor, but you wouldn’t really think so if you saw him working at Sushi Kuni, his restaurant in Cupertino, CA.

Read More →

My partner Washi recently got a job as a salaryman. This may not seem that odd until you consider the fact that he is living in Berkeley, California and to qualify as a salaryman, you are usually employed by a Japanese corporation. I will miss his face behind the bar at Ippuku. And I will always look back on his bike-to-work days with fond memories.

Read More →

Happy New Year!  I can’t believe the holiday season passed so quickly, and now we are in 2012.  Soon we will be bitching about the hot summer.

I was in Japan for the holidays, and had quite a few good food moments. I am really thankful to iPhone since I can now take pictures anywhere (and pretty decent quality ones).

Wine in a can.

Read More →

Five minutes.

That’s litterally how much time I had to decide whether I was going to accept the out of the blue New Year’s Eve dinner party invitation from my friends in Stockholm at 12:30 in the afternoon on Dec 31, 2011. That’s all the time I had including packing my socks/curlers/laptop/night cream, locking up my apartment and get on the bike down to the Central Station in order to catch the train which would arrive at dinner time in Stockholm, five hours up into the cold, freezing wood lands of Northern Sweden.

Read More →

Danran, a little sushi spot in the Sakurajosui station in Tokyo, is no stranger to Umamimart. Yoko introduced us to the place in 2008, and Tmonkey reported on it again later that year. Yoko took me to Danran for the first time several years ago, and I very much looked forward to visiting again on my last trip in October.

Read More →

I was in Miami for Thanksgiving, listening to salsa music while eating turkey, which was great. Last Thanksgiving, I had a steak in Fort Lauderdale, but this year we had a very traditional Thanksgiving meal, with nontraditional music accompaniment. Since Thanksgiving Day’s meal looks the same no matter how fancy, or tasty it may be, I will skip it.

I’ve been wanting to go to NAOE restaurant for a while after I read about it on a blog a year ago or so.

Read More →