San Francisco Beer Week 2014 took place February 6th-16th, celebrating the Bay Area craft-beer scene with events, dinners, talks, and good times. We hosted Japan Beer Fest with The Trappist, a stellar beer bar located around the...
Whenever I visit Tokyo, I look forward to meeting newborns... especially when I've followed the progression of their parents. No, I'm not talking about newborn babies. I'm talking about new places to eat. On our first full night in Tokyo, Kayoko and I visited Jicca,...
Our San Francisco location inside The Perish Trust will be closed through March for renovations. Please visit us in Oakland or online! Green tea Kit Kats shall arrive at any moment now, for your munching pleasures.
We went to Hoteresu the other day, Japan's premiere restaurant show. Like any convention at Javits or Moscone Center, the massive spaceship of a building had been filled with food and drink companies, appliance mega-conglomerates and tableware producers, displaying their newest products and inventions for...
We're in Japan at the moment and there are luxurious, sparkling boxes of chocolates everywhere being sold for "White Day". Huh? Oh yah, that's right, it's the day, one month after Valentine's Day, when men give women chocolates. HUH??!?!? It's true. In Japan, it is...
We made it! After a restless 16 hours of travel -- I read this month's New Yorker (excellent expose on Amazon and its monopoly on the publishing industry) and Vanity Fair (The Hollywood Issue! Rupert Murdoch's marital betrayal!) cover to cover, whilst...
I am incredibly lucky to be able to eat whatever I want when I want -- I don’t have any known food allergies, I can find pretty much any ingredient within biking radius of my home and I live in the Bay...
I just got back from a four night/ five day trip to Joshua Tree and Los Angeles, for some much-needed R+R (or lack thereof). In Joshua Tree, Johnny and I enjoyed the stark landscape of rock, dust and sky -- surrounded by...
My new neighborhood in Tokyo is called Yayoicho, just a mile west of Shinjuku, one of the biggest entertainment and nightlife spots on planet earth. It's like Times Square, only if New Yorkers hung out there all the time instead of clueless tourists and touts....
I've lived in the Grand Lake district of Oakland for four years now, and we've never had a proper wine shop. Popular restaurants like Camino dot Grand Avenue, along with nail salons, bike shops, a wonderful book store, Oaktown Spice Shop -- but if...
Make an easy and satisfyingly delicious rice bowl featuring fresh salmon sashimi and avocado.
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...
Hello from a tofu cafe in Taipei. The tofu was served warm, a common dish in Taiwan.
It's been twenty years since I last set foot in Hong Kong and I was excited to hear about some of the city's huge changes, including its new airport. The last time I flew...
Konnyaku has been used in Japan as a medicinal food for 1500 years and was very popular during the Edo period. It is likewise a staple in Chinese medicine, said to aid in detoxification as well as a host of other benefits. Konnyaku...
I'm on my longest trip to Tokyo yet. I moved here! They granted me a one year visa, and I've been here for twelve days now. I still can't believe it. My dream for many years has finally come true. I left...
All day to do as I pleased, all night to gorge on cheese: this was my MLK weekend mantra. It was the start of the Winter Fancy Food Show at the Moscone Center, so Chris was away meeting luminaries of the gourmet world while...
We are ECSTATIC to announce our first partnership with The Trappist, our wonderful neighbor, and one of the Bay Area's most revered beer bars. The Trappist specializes in Belgian, European and American microbrews, and its menu contains pages of specialty beers...
In the first post of this series Chinatown, Bangkok, I covered a little family run cockle and mussel stand. I mentioned, “Two stalls hawking some of the finest seafood around,” and promised to follow up with an additional post. While it’s been nearly a year, I’d like to post...
I just watched Animal House for the first time last night. What a clever movie! There were many iconic scenes that I had heard about through the years, and it was clearly a pioneer of the perverse fratboy-themed storylines that Hollywood keeps reusing...
