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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It’s been over six months now since Yoko and I started our shop in Oakland, and we’d love a motivated team member to join us! We’re ready for a star intern to help us grow and be a part of the inner-workings of Umami Mart. FUN! Here’s the description below — please forward to anyone who may be interested!

MARKETING / PHOTOGRAPHY / E-COMMERCE INTERN

Umami Mart, an international food and drink blog, shop and Japanese barware importer, seeks a marketing intern to assist in overseeing the online shop.

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With winter roots and wild mushrooms in abundance, January was a perfect time to invite Kelly Geary to Umami Mart for a Quick-Pickling and Canning event. Author of a the book Tart and Sweet: 101 Canning and Pickling Recipes for the Modern Kitchen, Kelly was visiting California from Brooklyn to showcase her Sweet Deliverance jams, winner of the Good Food award.

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The holidays are just around the corner, can you believe it??? I absolutely can not. It’s been a crazy year for us at Umami Mart, and it’s only about to get busier. I can’t even believe it’s Thanksgiving tomorrow, I have no idea what I’m cooking yet!

Anyhow, we’ve put together some killer gift sets for you and your loved ones — get ‘em while they’re HOT.

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We are more than a little excited to announce our first art show with long-time Umami Mart contributor Erin Gleeson. A year ago, Erin started her photo and illustration blog The Forest Feast, after moving to the California woods from NYC, where she spent many years as a food photographer. Since, the website has rapidly grown in popularity, garnering thousands of readers every day from all over the world.

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Our great friends and talented ceramicists Rie and Jay of Atelier Dion have designed cups for Umami Mart! Please join us this Thursday to celebrate the launch of our teacups, in three different designs. Of course, Rie and Jay will be here! And Bicycle Coffee will be here to serve coffee too!

WHAT:
Atelier Dion for Umami Mart teacup launch party.

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Happy October! The air is a bit crisper, the leaves, brighter. What better way to get ready for the colder months than to cozy up with coffee and tea? We’ll be celebrating the mighty bean and tea leaf all month, with warming posts on the subject, and a sale over at the Umami Mart Shop, where you’ll get 10% off of all of our coffee + teaware items.

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That’s right, we be grillin’ balls this Friday!

Our good friends Koichi, Ryoji and Steven of YATAIYA will be making yaki-onigiri (grilled rice balls), and serving them alongside some house-made tsukemono (pickles). They are irresistible, smoky flavor-bombs! If we’re lucky, they’ll have other fun munchies on the grill as well.

Come welcome Autumn with us! The grillin’ starts at 6pm and it’ll keep going till the balls run out.

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Photos by Erin Gleeson

We did it! With the loving support from our friends, family, and community, Yoko and I have opened Umami Mart, a retail shop in Oakland, CA, specializing in kitchen + barware from Japan.

The idea for starting a brick-and-mortar shop really derived from necessity. We had been running our online shop for nearly two years, and the inventory was eating up Yoko’s apartment, ie her life.

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Photos by Erin Gleeson

After weeks of painting, building, going to Home Depot five times a day (ugh), sleepless nights, banh mis for breakfast/lunch/dinner, pestering our friends and families (are you done with that project yet? Can you cut wood for us? Can you polyurethane the floors?) — UMAMI MART HAS LANDED!

To celebrate, we did what we do best: throw a badass motherfuckin’ party.

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