I’ve been in and out of Asia for six months now for my husband’s work, and across from our current hotel in Shenzhen, China is a Carrefour! Not quite like the ones seen dotting the motorways of the French countryside. This is more of a Walmart cracked out on too much MSG.

Where else
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Matsutake are to Japan as truffles are to France. They are hard-to-find, fragrant, expensive and coveted. “Matsu” means pine and “take” means mushroom.

Matsutake are harvested in the fall, the earliest occurring in September from pine forests in diverse locations around the world including Korea, China, British Columbia, Morocco, Sweden, California and
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I love mushrooms. They’re strange, beautiful, alien creatures and usually a common motif in my own work. They are such a contrast– cute, but deadly; delicate, but powerful.

I also love eating them although that happens not so commonly. In contrast to the Tokyo supermarkets being full of many different freshly wrapped shrooms ready for
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*Mercadão = Big market

The Mercado Municipal took four years to build and, once completed in 1932, was used by rebels in the “civil constitutionalist revolution” to hold and store weapons. It finally had its grand opening in 1933 as a market. It was built by the river (which is paved nowadays)
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As if little $1 yogurt cups of vodka to-go weren’t amazing enough, I have also found oversize ketchup type packets of vodka at corner stores in Tel Aviv! These are also $1 and will fit in by beach bag even easier. I just pick up a bottle
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My very first apartment in NYC was in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, in 2002. Although the exact area has been redubbed today by developers as “South Park Slope”, it was pretty grimy back before the hipsters swarmed in.

The famous
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A shouk is a big outdoor market that sells not only produce but meat, cheese, bread, spices, housewares, clothes, shoes and pretty much anything you can think of. The shouk in Tel Aviv is amazing and much cheaper than a grocery store.
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Mortadella, prociutto cotto, and prociutto crudo slices… in a CONE.

This is how we’ll be eating meat in the future. How about steak (medium rare please!) in a cone? Hot dog in a cone? Slab bacon in a cone?

Hmmm… I think I’m onto something. This reminds me of…
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One of the many funny little things I love about Israel is that in almost every convenient or corner store, you can find little cups of vodka to go. In the same place you would find your diet coke in the mini-fridge near the check-out, you will find these portable
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My first post for Umamimart and it’s going to look like a confession of an ultra lazy cook. My mother did not bring me up to subsist on ready-meals and instant ramen. I used to do a lot more adventurous cooking as a
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