It's been forever since we've organized an Umamiventure in its purely old-school, meet-up spirit. Remember, when I would randomly announce an event, a little bit out of the neighborhood, and we would meet up at said location no matter how long it...
I realized yesterday that Umami Mart will turn seven years old this month. WOOOOO! That's seven years of banter, restaurant reviews, recipes and... more banter! The fun never stops on Umami Mart, and although we're all seven years older (and a bit...
We learned, we drank and we ate all things ume during our Umeshu Class last Sunday. During the two-hour session, we learned about the history of ume and umeshu, how to make it and ate an array of dishes that highlighted ume. Along side sips of...
Did you know that a bee's lifespan is based on the distance it has flown? One bee lives to fly about a total of 500 miles. This is just one of the many things we learned from Betsy and Miguel of
Umamiventures are BACK! The last field trip was at the TCHO factory back in March 2011, remember? Wow, it has been WAY TOO LONG. For years I have been trying to organize an event with a honey producer, and the...
Photos by Travis LoDolce. The history of chocolate-making in the Bay Area runs deep. Ghiradelli, Scharffen Berger, and Guittard are some of the big names in chocolate that started here, and the community of smaller, more artisinal chocolatiers continues to grow. Clearly, San Francisco...
My first introduction to TCHO chocolates was in 2007, working in New York City. My friend Fumiko, who worked closely with Silicon Valley techie innovators, handed me a bar and told me that it was the next big thing in chocolate....
All photos by Yoko Kumano unless otherwise specified. On a warm, sunny day in San Francisco, 23 guests and I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Sutton Cellars Winery for an afternoon Vermouth Class, where we learned about its history, evolution, production methods, and...
Updated 1/28, 9am PST: THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT! Stay tuned for February's Umamiventure! Updated 1/28, 9am PST: THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT! Stay tuned for February's Umamiventure! When I first read about Carl Sutton's vermouth in the...
Umamiventure #30 was indeed a memorable affair, and much more than what any of us expected. It was a night of Serious Coffee Schooling-- from the bean picking process, to roasting,...
Update (Thurs. 11/11, 12pm PST): EVENT SOLD OUT!!! +++ Wow THIRTY Umamiventures, can you believe? Pretty damn awesome, considering the very first one was in 2007, on a trek out to Flushing, Queens for quite possibly the best...
Photos by Erin Gleeson. On a balmy, quiet Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn, we had the distinct pleasure of sitting down with Louis Smeby, founder of A.B. Smeby Bittering Co., for a tasting of his extensive line of bitters. When we all settled down in...
Bitters, bitters, bitters. I remember my first encounter with a bottle of Angostura was at The Royal Oak in Williamsburg about four years ago. I asked the bartender, "What the hell is that?" as he added a few drops...
Sometimes, I pick a place for an Umamiventure just to regroup with friends, their friends, and loyal Umamimart readers. That's what these trips are for, afterall: to meet + eat....
Confession: This Umamiventure has been created solely for the purpose of sating my own obsession for San Tung's chicken wings. San Tung is no secret in the SF dining community-- it's got like 1700 Yelp reviews and is a mob...
Met up with fellow Umamimartians last week at The Trappist, a Belgian beer bar in "Old" Oakland, downtown. I made SF folks come out to the East Bay-- and they actually did!...
Omg, I totally forgot to write about Candytown, right next door to the San Pedro Fish Market! Silly me! After gorging ourselves with...
Can we just be lazy this month and have a low-key Umamiventure? YES! Let's meet at The Trappist Belgian beer bar in downtown Oakland for their Taco Tuesday, next 7/13 at 7pm....
Photos by Alda Ly, Moet Hashimoto, and myself. Sara wrote a post two years ago about the San Pedro Fish Market, and I've fantasized about visiting...
The 25th Umamiventure took place at Hida Tool and Hardware in Berkeley. After writing about sharpening Carbon and...
