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The PDT Project

The PDT Project: #3 Cup

The #2 drink in the PDT Cocktail Book is the #3 Cup. If you like the Pimm’s Cup, then you cannot pass up this one, which appeared on the PDT menu in the spring of 2009. Created by former PDT bartender Gerry Corcoran, the drink's...

The PDT Project

The PDT Project: #8

  "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." - Lao-tzu And thus begins the first step. The PDT Project officially kicks off with the #8 cocktail, a boozy tequila-based delight. Created in the fall of 2008 by former PDT bartender Daniel...

Tokyo-SF Bartender Salon

On Sunday 3/11, the one-year anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami in Northern Japan, Yoko and I helped organize a cross-cultural exchange between bartenders from Japan and San Francisco. Held at Prizefighter Bar in Emeryville, it was an intimate gathering of old friends, and new. Tomokazu...

Happy Hour

Happy Hour: The Boulevardier

“Made of Win” Bourbon is one of my favorite spirits to make and drink cocktails. Sadly, it is not used in many pre-Prohibition recipes due to rye whisky’s popularity during the golden age of cocktails. After Repeal, bourbon gained popularity as it became more available...

Sobayuwari (Shochu + Hot Soba Water)

By Shizuka Wakashita What do you drink when you go to a soba place? Beer? Sake? Shochu? I thought sake but I was wrong. I was converted into a sake lover about three years ago. Ever since then I almost always order sake when I go...

Homemade Pedialyte

My latest hangout spot is in the infants aisle of Target but I have no babies with me. Stocking up on Pedialyte, bananas and apple sauce have been a full-time job since getting the worst incident of food poisoning of my life in Mexico last...

Fuguhire Zake (Hot Sake with Blowfish Tail)

Back in Cupertino, Kuni (my pops) had a huge bag of fuguhire (dried blowfish tails) from Tsukiji market, which he is grills to make fuguhire zake. These tails are from the blowfish variety tora-fugu or "tiger fugu". Fuguhire zake is a common way to drink hot sake in Japan...

Shochu Stop

Shochu Stop: Oyuwari

Happy new year! How did you spend your new year's day? The start of my new year was the worst. On new year's eve, I was at my a party in SF and drank many whisky cocktails that my friend made. I enjoyed the cocktail and...

Japanify

Japanify: Yuzu Ginger Tea

It's that time of the year, when my well-windowed apartment gets really cold and I have to bring out multiple space heaters to supplement the un-strategically placed central heater that seems to whisper lukewarm puffs of air. Luckily, my Zojirushi water boiler and warmer just arrived in...

To Live and Eat in LA

"To live and eat in LA, it's the place to be; You've got to be there to know it, what everybody wanna eat" - Tupac Alright, alright, Tupac didn't say "eat". But instead of talking about hoes and tricks, he should have rapped more...

What the Highball?

By Neyah White Photos by Travis LoDolce Well, there is no drink more quintessentially ‘Japanese’ right now than the highball. From crowded, stand-up after-work bars in Tokyo to elegant and sedate members-bars in Kyoto, the simple (but exact!) mix of whisky and...

Shochu Stop

Shochu Stop: How to Enjoy Shochu

Since I have moved to the U.S. from Japan, I have felt sad about how Americans drink, because American people don't drink so much. "飲みが足んねえ" (nomi ga tan ne e, or "They don't drink enough"). They are too discreet. Maybe people can't be a dead...

The Ume Project: Umeshu (Plum Liqueur)

You may recall that both Yoko and Yamahomo have shown us how to make umeshu (plum liqueur) on Umamimart (here and here). The season for ume is super short, and people in Japan scramble for them at the supermarkets to make their yearly...

Shochu Stop

Shochu Stop: Mugi Shochu (Barley)

This time I would like to talk about mugi (barley) shochu in more general terms. Mugi shochu might be easier to understand than any other shochu, because mugi shochu is distilled from barley--like whisky, vodka, and gin. There are two types of...