When we voiced our wish to visit a few factories in Japan earlier this year, we didn't realize that so many of them would be in the same town. Not just that, but only a short drive from one another. Tsubame City in Niigata is...
Heyyyy, Happy Hour is BACK! I spent all weekend trying to come up with a clever column name for this post, which would also be used for future articles about cocktails that I make at home (Bar Umami Mart? Kayoko Bar? Bar Kayo?). But...
Alchemy Bottle Shop opened this year in March on Grand Avenue in Oakland. Owners Tova and Peter's selection is second-to-none, featuring everything from single malts (including a great selection from Japan) to hard-to-find amaros. Kayoko and I get lost in la-la land whenever we enter Alchemy....
Pro tips from a chef on how to take care of – and clean –your cast iron pan.
Atelier Dion has been an important part of the Umami Mart family since we first opened our doors in Oakland in 2012. This husband and wife team, Rie and Jay Dion, are talented ceramicists who run a dynamic studio in West Oakland....
Menya Musashi's namesake is one Miyamoto Musashi, regarded as one of Japan's greatest swordsmen and creator of the two-handed swordfighting technique niten-ryu, which translates to "Tarantino Wet Dream." According to legend he never lost a duel in over 50 years as a wandering warrior --...
I have allowed an unsuitable amount of time to pass before writing about our Fragrance of Whisky evening at Wingtip nearly three months ago. So I’ve dumped all of the evening’s artifacts around me. It’s a mound, quite literally. One Women & Whiskies...
Somewhere over the Atlantic, I wondered -- do the Turks just call it coffee and delight? Chris and I were winging our way to Turkey for our long-awaited honeymoon, a trip we planned while nibbling on dolmas rolled by our dear friend...
Meet Ryu Sasakura, a dashingly handsome, deeply empathetic, incredibly talented bartender, back in Tokyo after a short stint in Paris. So starts off the captivating J-drama, BARTENDER, which aired in Japan in 2011 for a short eight episodes. I watched them all...
We're excited to announce upcoming events with collaborators in San Francisco that we greatly admire. 18 Reasons and MUJI! The first event is coming up this next Monday 8/18 at 18 Reasons in San Francisco. Yoko and I will be exploring the concept of...
Ah, Kauai. We went over New Year's, to unwind after an exhaustive holiday season. Yoko and I felt we deserved a nice vacation, and we brought along our sig others, my brother Keisuke, and Jay and Rie of Atelier Dion. There's obviously a ton to...
We just completed our fourth shochu talk and tasting, this time at Alchemy Bottle Shop in Oakland. What a great audience! We had a fantastic time talking to people about shochu, and thought that Washi Washino's first blog post about shochu would be...
Guess what? It's our birthday! We're turning TWO years old (can you believe?!?!?!) and as we promised, we are making our Matsuri festival an annual tradition and throwing yet another big bash to celebrate our summertime birthday (holla to the Leos)....
Yoko and I first met bartender Tomokazu Kai in 2010, when we helped present an event with Suntory Whisky called the Tokyo-SF Bartender Salon. The event was held at Prizefighter bar in Emeryville and was meant to bring bartenders from Japan and the Bay...
We've been event-crazy here at Umami Mart. We've put on one event every week in June and we are not slowing down! We've hosted sake events several times at Umami Mart HQ (in Oakland), but on June 10th we took the show on the road...
Yoko and I were lucky enough to be invited to Gifu prefecture in central Japan to visit specific cities that are known for producing knives, ceramics and wood products, and tour their factories. We had a wonderful three days in different parts of Gifu, looking...
For all of ya'll who have been suggested we hold more, ehem, "alcohol education courses," this ones for you. And MEN are also welcome to this one! We're proud to host a whiskey tasting and talk with our friend Daniel Yaffe, author...
Instead of reaching there via a Wardrobe route, Nagoya is about a two-hour bullet train ride from Tokyo. It is the third most populous city in Japan, with 2.3 million people living within 11 square miles. Car geeks may know Nagoya as...
A step-by-step recipe on how to make Japanese curry WITHOUT using pre-made, boxed roux.
My trip to Kyoto was awesome for many reasons. Temples, new friends, raw nature, or scenes like this one, just three boys feeding hawks like a flock of seagulls. Despite its rural look this is in the heart of Kyoto....
