Before I start this week’s post, let’s congratulate Kayoko and the crew for revamping the Umamimart site to a whole new level. Orange is my favorite color, so this is cool, and soon enough, we will be FAMOUS bloggers!! Hooray.

As you’ve seen from my past posts, I’ve made cakes for basically all of my friends birthdays
Read More →

My trip to France was my first international experience ever. As much as I tried to prepare, there really is just no preparing for the unknown. From walking a mile underground in between each subway line to the reality of the hotel rooms, everything seemed to be more difficult than I had anticipated. What do
Read More →

When I was but a spring chicken who had just graduated from university, I went on a backpacking trip to Italy with one of my friends. It was hot, we were young and Italy was a marvelous cacaphony of ancient ruins, art & culture and food. From Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum to
Read More →

Can you believe it?!?!? Governor Cuomo and a bunch of super wealthy Republican bankers really said YES to gay marriage in the state of New York. When it was announced that, “Same sex marriage bill has passed”, I was overcome with amazement, joy, “it’s about f#*&ing time”–a lot of emotions.

Until this becomes a
Read More →

After having spent my later teen years plowing through the novels of Douglas Coupland, Bret Easton Ellis and other post modern cynics, I can’t help but see myself in so many typical Generation X situations. Meaning that you suddenly find yourself in a condition that requires an ironizing snark or
Read More →

As you know, I love to bake, and I am especially fond of cakes. I do it all–classic cakes, crazy cakes, Japanese cakes, chocolate cakes, wedding cakes (trauma). I love to come up with crazy combinations, that I try to master after tweaking the recipe over and over. Over
Read More →

After getting canned without reason, the day after her maternity leave was up, Paula Cinini was not sure what to do; she had always worked as a journalist. To find some solace in this devastating situation, and cope with her mother’s passing, Paula dug up her mother’s old, partly-burned, worn recipe book
Read More →

As you may all know, I’m half-Japanese and half-Sri Lankan, so anything to do with either country sparks an immediate interest. So when I began hearing rumours about a new Japanese cake shop and tea salon springing up in trendy Primrose Hill in north London last year, my ears
Read More →

I know this piece of cake doesn’t look so hot, but to be fair, it’s been through a lot.

Last weekend I was at a house party in Williamsburg. It was still Passover, so I was having wine instead of beer, cheese with no crackers and trying not to look at the cookies. I’d
Read More →

Lyons used to operate teahouses all over England in the early 20th century, only to begin shutting them down in the 1980s. To my eternal regret, I arrived in England too late to visit them.

These teahouses turn up in all sorts of
Read More →