One of the best parts of being in Sake Gumi is attending our Sake Gumi Social events. We host tastings, dinners, and tours centering around sake education and drinking. To tie in with the past couple months of Sake Gumi (last month, the theme...
In honor of Hiroshima month here at Umami Mart, I visited Chinchikurin in LA a few weeks ago, where they specialize in its regional cuisine. Namely they serve Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. A popular chain in Hiroshima proper, this is Chinchikurin's first American outpost, that just opened in the...
On a dull, drizzling day in Tokyo I set out for my second-ever bowl of tsukemen (ramen dipping noodles). After its introduction in the early 2000's, tsukemen has boomed in popularity, rising to a crescendo a few years ago and still going strong. Many, many shops...
We finally made it into Tsujita for lunch during our trip down to LA over the summer. You know, when they actually serve ramen... Yoko and I had ignorantly gone there for dinner once, all excited to try their tsukemen (dipping ramen). But...
Matsunami Ramen was my first stop in Tokyo after a 9-day long trip of a lifetime to Darjeeling, India (more on that later). I was in Darjeeling and Tokyo on business but I was able to squeeze in a lot of culinary...
I should confess that I have never really been a fan of tsukemen (ramen with dipping sauce). Shouldn't ramen be in a piping hot broth, brimming with scallions and chashu (pork) and menma (bamboo shoots)? Tsukemen just always seemed so WRONG to me, despite the fact that...
