One of my favorite restaurants is Kajitsu, as I’ve written a couple of awesome reviews about the place. Chef Nishihara is simply a genius. His creativity and flavoring, using only vegetables (it’s a vegan/shojin restaurant), is just amazing.

I saw an article in last week’s Times Magazine, where Mark Bittman cooked with Chef Nishihara.
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I usually make a vat of potato salad before I leave for a trip, leaving my husband poor and defenseless against the elements of bachelorhood. But this time I didn’t have time before the trip and figured he’d be able to fend for himself…

It turns out that while I was gone for
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This post is rather late, for which I apologize. Er, about a month late. SORRY! Where has all the time gone? How is it already mid-September? I look outside and the leaves are turning color. The light gives off a deeper glow. It is dark at 7:30pm.

Sigh. San Francisco’s (non-existent) summer is officially over.

So… let
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I’ve become addicted to miso.

You know, that Japanese brown and weird looking paste consisting of fermented rice, soybeans, salt and the fungus kōjikin. Or at least that is the most traditional recipe, but miso can be found across Asia in many different forms and flavours.

Outside Japan miso is mostly known as the main ingredient
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When I was five, my family moved from the heart of the Silicon Valley (Cupertino) to the heart of Tokyo (Aoyama). Although it probably would have been a dream for trendy tots and tweens like Suri or Tavi, I was a tomboy who liked my suburban swing set in Cupertino and despised the high-rise
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I was always baffled by tamari. I had never used it until one of my friends and faithful readers of UM suggested that I should write about tamari vs. shoyu (soy sauce) on Japanify.

So this week, I purchased San-J brand’s Tamari (I chose that brand because I happened to
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In Umamimart’s three year history, I can’t believe we’ve never devoted a post to Japanese mayonnaise. We reference this stuff all the time, but have never really covered it. Blasphemy!

Japanese mayo is more tart than the regular American version. This is because vinegar
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PREFACE: Ingredients + Recipe Prep + Boil

I’m not sugarcoating this. I need you to understand what a truly, utterly, and horrifyingly HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS this entire project is. When browsing the I N T
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This is one of those projects that I always think I can handle, but it just turns into dread, and ultimately only goes to prove what a huge procrastinator I am. Since I picked up the plums from Christi a week ago, it’s just
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Ho Ho Ho, look what I found. Tapatio PACKETS!!!! You Californians might be used to this kind of goodness, but as a longtime expat, this is a HUGE DISCOVERY.

Walked over to Lanesplitter the other day for a pizza, and they
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