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This is an adaptation of our friend Russell Moore's King Trumpet Mushroom Parcel recipe in his book This is Camino. I remember the thrill of having these parcels served at the restaurant. They arrive at your table in a little parchment pouch, which you untie...

On my trip to Kyushu last month, Tekkan-san of Yamatozakura was gracious enough to drive around me and my partner around to all of the shochu distilleries we could squeeze in on a Sunday, as many were closed. We were lucky enough to have the first of these be...

Shochu fans and our customers alike (the intersection is a big one) will have no difficulty recognizing the products of Miyazaki's Kuroki Honten. For us at the shop and bar, Naka Naka is an almost perfect introduction to the style - its richness and buttery body paired with...

Last month, I visited Japan for the first time in three years. I did not realize how much I missed it until I touched down. I am not one to be very emotional, but I felt overjoyed, relieved, and at peace when I was finally riding...

Me and Mr. Inaba outside of Inaba Shuzo that he runs with Toji Nobuko Inaba (his wife). After visiting Toshimaya Shuzo, the second brewery I went to during my trip to Japan was Inaba Shuzo. It is accessible by the...

Aging alcohol in wood is an ancient technique, and in Japan, sugi or Japanese cedar was used to ferment and age sake during the Edo period (1603-1867), as well as to transport it to Tokyo. These vessels made of sugi are called taru. In fact, until the creation of stainless...

You all know Yoko Kumano, co-founder and Sake Director of Umami Mart. She's a creative jack-of-all-trades and as our Visual Director, she is in charge of all our merchandising, photography, and making our shop look the way it does – shiny, fresh, and invigorating.  Yoko is also the chief designer...

In the fall of 2018, I visited Hawaiian Shochu Company (HSC) in the little town of Haleiwa on the North Shore of Oahu. This was one of the many trips I took while I was pregnant, and I checked things off the bucket list here like...

Shochu Gumi is our quarterly sake subscription service with 70 members throughout the country. Join today! Filtration, or roka in Japanese, is a vital part of any brewing and distillation process. However, it is little talked about, or even mentioned, because it is a snoozeville...

Daiji Shimizu Spring in Iwate (photo courtesy of Asabiraki) Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 250 members throughout the country. Join today! Iwate Prefecture is one of the northernmost prefectures on Honshu, just south of Aomori and east of Akita. It is the...

10 Year Matsuri on August 6, 2022 at Umami Mart On a cloudy Saturday morning in August, all of our favorite collaborators converged to set up for our 10 Year Matsuri. This is a tradition, one decade strong, where Kayoko and I populate the back parking...

Here we are, 10 years after opening our doors at 815 Broadway, August 3, 2022. How sweet are we???  It all feels like a million years ago but know that our adventures are only beginning. Ten years is certainly...

Hi everybody!  Ian here, hoping all of you good people are enjoying the dog days of summer wherever you are. I just learned (in the process of writing this) that the "Dog Days" officially occur between July 3rd and August 11th. For many of you, this should sound obvious as...

What I love most about our community is all the creativity that grows here. I love talking to our friends, colleagues, and customers, who are always working on different projects across various industries, and I look to them for creative inspiration. The Bay is such a vibrant...

To celebrate 10 Years of Umami Mart, Kayoko and I have been collaborating with our favorite makers. So far, this year we've launched the Kabamaru x Umami Mart Furoshiki, and the Umami Mart Bitters by Miracle Mile to commemorate this milestone. If you've been reading...

Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 250 members throughout the country. Join today! On August 3, 2012, Kayoko and I opened the...

It's been two years since we did Sakqueso! in person, and it's GREAT to be back! This year, Kevin Corcoran joined me behind the bar, so we could all eat cheese and drink sake together. The knowledge he offered during the class was both entertaining and...

Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 250 members throughout the country. Join today! Ever since March 2020, getting...

Behold: the laziest of all Lazyass Cookin' recipes I've ever written in the 15 years of this column. This salad is going to make the most uninspired cook weep with joy. I sure did. And with the summer heat coming up, when the last thing you want to do is cook...

I read Hannah Kirshner's book Water, Wood, & Wild Things on the Greek Island of Ikaria. The gentle breeze, the occasional rooster cawing in the distance, and the sounds of the Aegean Sea was a perfect soundtrack to this book that follows master makers all around Yamanaka,...