Blog

We have been selling the Bee House Salt Boxes and Butter Dishes for years and were thrilled to learn that they were designed in the late 90s by Bay Area resident Yoko Lewis. We're celebrating this visionary...

For us, a trip to Japan always means stopping off at an onsen (hot springs). Thanks to our new Onsen Collection, made with hinoki from Kochi prefecture (known for their Japanese Cypress), we can enjoy a bit of Japan's hot springs right at home....

When Yoko Lewis walked into Umami Mart and introduced herself as the designer of Bee House products, I was floored. The Bee House Salt Boxes and Butter Dishes have been in our collection for years at Umami Mart and remains as some...

These Training Chopsticks for Kids teaches children the proper way to hold and use chopsticks. With a comfortable green thumb-rest, silicone grip that sits between the middle and ring finger and flat-tipped ends for easy grabbing of food, the little one...

We're hosting our first-ever sample sale! Choose from deeply-discounted one-offs of select glassware, ceramics, and bar tools made in Japan. There may be some Danish designs too! This is an in-store only event from Thursday October 26th to Wednesday November 1st; first come first...

We go way back with Sylvan Mishima-Brackett, chef-owner of Rintaro. To this day, we still get phone calls and customers asking, "Do you still have those Peko Peko bentos?" Peko Peko was the name of Sylvan's catering company - providing special events with Japanese bites and drinks - and Yoko...

Our good friend and collaborator Anders Arhoj of Studio Arhoj makes his U.S. debut as an author with this playful book Find Me. Reminiscent of Where's Waldo?, follow Mr. Red from the front to the back of the book, and...

The days of cleaning every corner of your kitchen for fish scales are over. This light, compact, and durable fish scaler, also by Benriner, is a tool that every cook or seafood lover should have at their disposal. This scaler...

The Benriner company hails from Yamaguchi prefecture in Japan and specializes in making some of the best kitchen tools around. Their mandoline is beloved by chefs worldwide, and Bon Appetit recently declared it as the as, "[The] Kitchen Tool [that] Makes Healthy Cooking...

We were so honored to host our friend Shanna Farrell last weekend for a talk and signing, celebrating the release of her new book, Bay Area Cocktails: A History of Culture, Community and Craft. Writer and oral historian at U.C. Berkeley, Shanna moved to California from NYC a few years...

I've introduced the idea of warm sake several times in Sake Gumi. People still ask me, "Is warm sake bad? Do people warm sake to mask poor quality?" The short answer is a big fat, "No." Traditionally, sake is enjoyed warm, and that's how it...

We loved our EAT Tote so much that we asked Bay Area artist Kaoru Kumano (aka Wormfun, Yoko's sister!) to create a new resuable bag for us spelling out the word UMAMI in letters and images: Urchin; Matsutake; Anchovy; Mandrake; Ice cream. Made of sturdy cotton canvas, this tote...

Customers come into the store and ask us how to use the Copper Tamago Pan all the time. It's very hard to explain how to make it without actually cooking it in front of someone. So we decided to capture it...

The way 'omelette’ is rendered in Japanese is omeretsu, which to my mind sounds like an underage girl should pop out of nowhere squeaking, OMURETSU-GO! But mentaiko omelette in general is worth high-octane levels of enthusiasm. When done right they are beautiful - and if...

We're excited to get some new knives into our collection by a reputable blade maker in Japan. Shimomura Kogyou in Niigata prefecture has been making knives since 1957. They are known to produce knives that are durable, precise, and economical. They also make...

I am a junkie - a noodle junkie. It is my favorite food and carb of choice. I could probably give up bread, and maybe even rice, but never noodles. This month, I took over for Yoko for our monthly club Sake Gumi, and decided on the theme of Sake...

We've put together our best selling bar tools in one convenient set and call it the Bartender's Toolkit. Make your boozy cocktail of choice with these four high quality tools that will last you a lifetime. #1: Build your...

Our Sake Gumi program is awesome - a subscription service that delivers two bottles of sake to members every month with pairing and serving suggestions. Sometimes the Sake Gumi selections are so good that our members demand that they go onto...

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 Japan, they call any big, nationwide trend a boom (ブーム). For example, right now cilantro is all the rage in Japan. I'm serious - cilantro on EVERYTHING. So you could say there's a cilantro boom in full force in Japan. It's taken a long while for the ramen boom...