Happy New Year!  I can’t believe the holiday season passed so quickly, and now we are in 2012.  Soon we will be bitching about the hot summer.

I was in Japan for the holidays, and had quite a few good food moments. I am really thankful to iPhone since I can now take pictures anywhere (and pretty decent quality ones).

Wine in a can.

Top part becomes a glass for your drink — a brilliant idea. But it tasted pretty crappy. I bought this before my flight to Melbourne, after enduring a 13-hour flight from New York to Tokyo, and I went right to sleep after drinking it, so thank you crappy canned wine.

Very pink shabu-shabu beef from Nagano. I think I had four shabu shabu meals during my stay, and every time the beef was extremely pink. I am not young any more, and my doctor warned me that my cholesterol is too high and to avoid beef, but when I am in Japan, it’s just impossible not to eat fatty beef.

People say you don’t need teeth to eat these babies, and it’s very true. They literally melt in your mouth.

MOS burger. The best hamburger chain EVER.

Despite so many selections like pork tonkatsu with cabbage, or teriyaki chicken with crispy lettuce, which are two of my favorites, I ordered the original MOS burger, which has a huge slice of tomato, minced onion, and meat sauce. Heavenly.

For the first time in my life, I went to the Tsukiji fish market. I was not interested in seeing bunch of fish, but I was very much excited about going to a sushi restaurant there. Since they are directly connected to the market, the quality of fish is superb, and prices are very reasonable.

Neighboring restaurants Sushi Yamato and Sushi Dai, are the most famous ones in the area, hence the lines are very very long. I hate waiting in lines, and I asked one of the shop persons in the area for another recommendation and he suggested Iwasa Sushi. We still waited about 30 minutes, but it was SO worth every minute of the wait.

I am still salivating from looking at this picture.

From left: very sweet squid, aji (horse mackerel), kohada (gizzard shad), fatty tuna, and my favorite of the day, katsuo (bonito).
The katsuo was so sweet, and almost creamy, as was the tai (snapper). So good.

This place  features a lot of different kai (clams), and my friend ordered kai galore. I can’t remember what they were, but they were apparently awesome.

Uni, say no more. When I was in San Francisco, I had very good Santa Barbara uni, but it doesn’t compare to this one.

Shirako, aka raw fish jizz. It literally bursted in my mouth…

It was like dessert.

This is the original Yoshinoya.  I had no idea they started in Tsukiji.

After Tsukiji, I went to Kappa-bashi, which is sort of similar to Bowery Street here in New York. Store after store of restaurant supply and kitchen gadgets. I was in heaven. Look at these food items made out of wax!

The reason I went to Kappa-bashi was because I was picking up my press. I ordered MOTO logo press. How cool is this?

How cute are these coffee cup balconies??

I was done with busy Tokyo, and went back to my hometown. On my way back to rural Japan, I stopped by at a home supply store (I needed to buy scissors to cut nose hair since they were getting way too long), and found bags of fermented cow poop as fertilizer.  I mean we all know animal poop is used to fertilize soil, but I’ve never seen them packaged and sold in bags. Look how happy both farmers and a cow are.

Japan is obsessed with crab meat during holiday season. Holiday season is all about spending money, and Japan is no exception. In the US, the holiday meal is usually turkey, ham, steak, etc., but in Japan, it’s crab or beef. This was a newspaper ad filled with crab meat.

My brother went fishing in the middle of the night one day, and came home early in the morning with super fresh horse mackerels.

He served this fresh sashimi for breakfast.

Unfortunately there was no rice to eat with, so I had a bagel. Bagel and horse mackerel sashimi for breakfast. I usually don’t care too much for small fish, but these were super fresh.

By the way, WTF does “Orange & Lemons said the bells of saint clements” mean on the plate?  Is this a total Japangrish? What an odd mixture of dishes, too. Anders wouldn’t approve of this. Soy sauce on a fake Pooh-print dish? My home is equipped with very odd mixtures of dishes, in sets of 3, since mom, brother and sister-in-law are the only regular residents of the house.

A couple days before New Year, I tagged along with a friend of mine to a fish market nearby. Extremely busy, since everything there was quite reasonably priced. Snappers are also big during the holiday season, and there were bunch of them. Did you know there are various types of squid? Mongo, aori, yari, to name a few, and each has different shapes and texture.

Here are the items I brought back from Japan.

This is one of the fine purchases from the trip. Silicon cooking chopsticks. I wanted dishwasher safe chopsticks since my wooden ones got pretty bent from high heat, yet I refuse to hand wash them.

These are far better than wooden kind since the tip grips extremely precisely. Unlike the wooden kinds, they don’t slip at all.

Do you know what this is?

Slide in a piece of seaweed.

And it punches out smile face. How cute?  There were a couple of different faces. I bought them at a dollar store. I may have to start character bento spree.

These are very convenient — you can now make conbini (convenient store) style rice balls. Seaweed can be stored separately and so whenever you eat it, it’s always crispy.

Japan is filled with cool food stuff.

I don’t miss Japan much as a whole, but I do miss Japan’s high quality food. I went to Mitsuwa market in New Jersey to feel good, and surely I found a lot of good stuff, but Mitsuwa is always very dangerous. $32o, for I don’t even remember what I bought….

Do you serve your best food on ugly plates? Are you still using the saucers from your mom’s back closet from when you moved away from home? Or do you instead spend all your birthday money on new additions to your Floral Heaven dinnerware set, dreaming of one day completing the whole thing to impress your grandma?

I guess most of the readers here care more about what goes on the plate than what goes on underneath the food.

Which is fair enough as this is a food blog. But to a lot of people, that’s just not good enough. When enjoying the meal, everything has to go hand in hand  with the taste, the elegance; it is the complete and dignified experience.

At least that’s what our high society grandfathers believed. The Japanese went all out with the wabi sabi style, perfecting every detail of the dining experience, even among humble villagers. And in the Western world, nothing could beat a fancy meal served on good china. That is, after 1711 when Europe for the first time finally were able to put porcelain into production and after decades of trying to reproduce the fine products from the distant lands of China.

Before we had porcelain to serve our fatty pork and stale bread on, the Western world used plates of tin, copper, wood and low-fired clayware which were all heavy and clumsy–quite the opposite of the Asian elegance and refinement.

To celebrate the 300-year anniversary of creating good china in Europe, the Copenhagen based Design Museum has arranged a small show and opened up their abundant collection of decadent porcelain affairs to the public. I dropped by this Sunday to find inspiration for my own dinner parties.

The Designmuseum Danmark is situated in the most fancy part of Copenhagen, right next to Amalienborg, residence of Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II and the rest of the royal family.

European porcelan from the 17th century inspired by the decorative Chinese style.

Fancy porcelain was invented in China for almost 2,500 years ago. The first pieces of Chinese porcelain came to Europe in the 13th century via the Silk Road (think heavy stuff on horsebacks).

A Europe-produced teapot in an oriental style with a scenic motif and gold details.

From the 14th century and onwards the import grew steadily–the fascination of the thin, white material was instantly there, but the manufacturing process was not easy and the Chinese kept their secrets to themselves (ha, surprise!).

Early European china, looking like a doll’s tea set.

Not before 1710 a factory in the German city Meissen succeeded in creating porcelain of the same quality as the Chinese. Soon porcelain, called “the white gold”, became a sought-after luxury and a much-appreciated collector’s item at the European royal courts who enjoyed sipping their tea from beautiful delicate cups and gossiping over biscuits served on white sparkly plates. I bet the gays were up in the air too posing with their pointed little fingers on the fancy cups in their well-powdered wigs.

From Meissen the technique spread quickly and during the 17th century porcelain factories popped up all around Europe. In 1775 we even had our own factory here in Denmark–known today as Royal Copenhagen, yay! Today mostly rich gay people, bewildered tourists and grandmothers appreciate traditional porcelain dinnerware. But for other uses porcelain is most popular among the young arts and crafts generation.

View of the marvelous room containing the “Study Collection of European Faience and Porcelain 1700-1880“:

The study room contains thousands of pieces of china.

It feels like stepping into a flowing universe of so many dinner parties through the 1770s, afternoon tea settings in a forest on May 12, 1835, beach venture on a sunny afternoon on a hot July day in 1801. All these objects and all these lives they have followed, and survived. All the people have gone, all the parties and meals are long forgotten. But the food vessels are still here.

Will your hot cup of coffee next to your computer be put on display in a glassbox in 2127 when your life is long gone? Perhaps your grand children will visit the museum and spare a second of their busy hi-tech life, looking at their grandfather’s worn out Umamimart mug?

I took a walk around the glass montres amazed. But I think we have seen enough tea cups already so I tried to spot some of the porcelain dinner/teaware elements that stood out.

These cork wine bottle plugs look almost exactly like the ones you find in stores in 2011:

Perhaps these portraits were famous composers of the time, or maybe the head of the family, a caring mother, a secret mistress…

These stands are fun! Psychedelic tree trunks holding up a porcelain flower for bread, biscuits or lush cake.

And I love this little fella working fulltime as a sauce can handle. Such exquisite detailing:

Alert doves on their nests–perhaps a bowl for eggs, sugar or cookies?

A diabolical beast crowning an oriental-style bowl lid.

Porcelain plate with no room for food. Porcelain can be both cast and hand modelled like traditional clay:

Figurine man stealing eggs from a nest for his fab gay Sunday brunch.

Farmer lesbian killing some ducks…

…because lesbian women are violent and only like cats and other woman.

The village beauty who is also a lesbian:

Back the day, lesbians were burned at the stake for their witchery, so the only way they could get their hands on some titties was by milking the cow.

A gigantic cupcake holder for 17th century outdoor garden parties:

This object would work fantastic as a macaron holder at your incredible gay Hampton summer wedding in 2012, Yamahomo!

This piece is so weird and mysterious too. A hand-thrown faience (white pottery clay with tin slip glaze) bowl with attached sea corals on the bottom:

Must have been quite the centre of attention when used to serve pudding at a royal court ballroom party.

Nice vase (for a secret stash of mint drops?) in the window…

… and its mermaids are parading their bums:

Yamahomo and friends, keep your dirty paws off this one!

After all this porcelain I almost overdosed and had to sneak down to the Japanese historical crafts department to surround myself with what I personally prefer on my own dinner table:

To me, this is true pottery–a reflection of the natural elements of fire, wood, earth, wind.

Ancient bowls used for traditional tea ceremonies, perhaps by a samurai and his fellow warriors:

It’s beautiful, natural, masculine and humble.

Dying for cold liquid (it’s 28˚C in Copenhagen this week–two months early for those kind of high temperatures) so I walk to the cafe.

A selection of different Danish beer, sodas and organic locally grown lemonades with elderberry, blueberry, etc.:

I sit out in the garden next to the museum walls surrounding the whole court yard:

Summer is here–let’s enjoy our food and drinks whatever way and wherever we choose to serve it. And try to enjoy the moment, because the fact is, our plate is going to be here longer than we are.

We all know how even the saddest piece of stale-ass bread can taste so good when we’re out in nature, hungry after a walk and enjoying the snack with friends and the singing birds.

When you talk about umami, it’s not just about the flavours in your mouth. It’s just as well about all the other things going on at that very moment you choose to stuff your face: the temperature, the light, the company, the time of day–and very much your surroundings. That’s why I write about style, design and aesthetics for this blog, because eating isn’t just eating.

The second your eyeballs fall on a piece of food–say a freshly-baked, steaming-hot slice of blueberry pie with a squirt of creme fraiche on the side–your brain is already eating it. Looking at food creates an instant and very real imagination of eating it in your brain. Science has proven that endorphins are released into your system just by looking at food, making you feel great  despite that fact that you haven’t even placed a single blueberry on your trembling tongue yet.

This of course means that making eatables look good lures people into eating it. But it also means we think in terms of the entire picture, and even if the food looks great but your tables are dirty and your wallpaper looks like s*#!, not that many people will sit down and eat. You have to make it all work: tell a story, lure people in with smells and visions, present your meal with dignity.

So, what do you do at home? Well, you set the table nicely. You need your guests to feel at home the minute they take off their coats, and you need them to love your food the minute you present it.

The gays, the Japanese and the housewives have known this for centuries. The Martha-loving homos like their food served on good china with a vase of freshly bought flowers next to them, the Japanese have practiced aesthetic masturbation on nearly every element in their lives (including the wabi sabi table look), and the housewives have nothing else to do but take good care of the house, so naturally they want to master the art of dining. All of the above take much pride in taking this activity seriously.

Last week I attended a historical exhibition about table-setting through the last five decades at the Royal Copenhagen flagship store in central Copenhagen.

Five tables were set with many different Royal Copenhagen dinnerware collections: plates, bowls, glassware, and featuring other Danish designs from the periods like table cloth, chairs, cutlery, etc.

Let’s take a walk.

1960s

Bam! Amazing. This is so timeless, it could’ve been a shoot for Wallpaper magazine, 2011.

Imagine, it’s the mid-1960s (circa Mad Men Season 4) and people are meeting up at home for couple dinners and small talk. The 60s is a period of wealth, uprising and good times in Denmark. The middle class are doing well and are now able to afford a nice house, a car and lots of material things. 1968 hasn’t happened yet, porn is still illegal (made legal in Denmark in 1969 as the first country in the Western world, yo!) and the hippies are still in elementary school.

Tablecloth by Marimekko; dinnerware is Blåkant (“Blue Edge) by Grete Meyer for Royal Copenhagen; chairs by Arne Jacobsen.

Notice the typically Scandinavian elements: natural colours, lots of wood, clean functionality. I’d sit down and drink that coffee right now.

1970s

The hippies have arrived, and they divide and conquer–even on the far lands of the vikings. Pop culture explodes and so begins the rebellion against the square bourgeois middle class. The hippie mentality–inspired by nature and a relaxed way of life–breeds flashy colours and plastic galore.

Chairs by Verner Panton; dinnerware by Anne-Marie Trolle for Royal Copenhagen (1975).

Porcelain is out; stoneware and crazy glassware are in. Notice the certain “plumpness” in the table products, for example the glasses which are more “the local Country Inn” than they’re elegant, slim funky counterparts from the 1950s.

This is during my very early childhood and it’s funny how these things made me barf later on in life when I came by a stoneware kitchen pot, repulsed by the heaviness, lack of taste and its “thrift store quality”.

Now, I adore this look, and you actually see stoneware coming back very much in all the hot hot interior magazines. It’s all about the combination of of all this dishware, placing stoneware next to something clean and modern etc.

I’m currently attending ceramic school and am working on stoneware dinner settings and several other products for the table inspired by the earth, its volcanic soil and the 1970s.

Notice the fondue pot in the middle of the table–a typical 1970′s dinner feature. This was the time of true communal living: the collective, shared sex rooms (and partners). No more caged housewives. Now it’s time for the man to enter the until now forbidden area: the kitchen. And for dinner parties, it’s a pot luck, a mutual cooking experience. Or maybe just a another key party.

Below: Botanical and plant-inspired stoneware with wooden details: 90% of people across the globe would scream and run for the hills if this was placed on their doormat.

I’d be psyched, though. I adore it.

Spice jars. Adorable, no?

Really, aren’t they?

Smørplatter is a small plate to butter your bread before placing it on your dinner plate.

Top left one is by world famous Danish illustrator Bjørn Wiinblad who did many dinnerware decorations in his lifetime. The bottom right ones each containing a “gruk” – a poem by Danish writer Piet Hein which you could read while buttering or hang it on the wall.

1980s

Oh, the horror.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached postmodern territory. A terrible misstep in the age of man.

Action causes reaction and the functionality of the 60s and the heavy stoneware of the 70′ are thrown away for a new form focused style that is… just style with no content or practicality. Elements from different time periods are mixed and matched into products, furniture and buildings that look like Socrates made love to a Lego factory. And ironically enough, dinnerware from the 60s are still around today and are worth a lot, while the crap from the 80s was thrown away before 1990 had even begun. Thank God for that.

Despite the fact that this decade contains lots of unemployment, depression and poverty, it was all about looking successful and having a lot of money. Same goes for the dinner party where it’s important to show your wealth through your dinner table: the expensive silverware, the trendy Phillippe Starck kitchen utensils and the designer cool glass vases. The pink/black/white was HOT. Add lots of metallic shine and glitter for effect.

This dinnerware is called “konkylie” (conch) by Arje Griegst in a sort of postmodern, neo-Rococo style from Hell.

This is what a unicorn would buy for his dinnerparty in Rainbow Wonderland.

Gay.

This thermo coffee dispenser was in every Dane’s home (30+ colour options) until the day they realised how cheap it looked, how badly it kept the coffee warm, and for dripping everywhere.

1990s

The decade of everything and nothing. The 90s was a period that didn’t really have its own style. It tried to mimic the 1950s in fashion, the 1960s in functionalism, and the 1970s in organic shapes. The 80s resurrected for a moment, but we put it back to sleep asap. Basically, the 90s was just all over the place.

It was a time fascinated with the future –the rise of the internet and the event of Y2K made a big impact in people’s minds. Futuristic organic forms were everywhere, as well as the new hot trend of “minimalism”. It was also a period where all products had the label “designer” put before their name. “Designer furniture”, “designer tableware”, etc. Everything was suddenly “designed”. Oh, how fancy.

Brunch became the new super hot big city life trend. As breakfast for the late sleepers, it was a perfect way to hang out with your friends to discuss the 2 Unlimited concert the night before.

Dinnerware “Ursula” and “Ole” by famous Danish ceramic designers Ursula Munch-Petersen and Ole Jensen. Notice the sculptural, clean and playful shapes.

“Trinidad” chairs by Nanna Ditzel. Glasses by Holmegaard.

The 2000s

Throw out the heavy potroast, pork chops and meat balls, cause sushi has reached the coasts of Denmark. I can’t believe my first taste of sushi was just 10 years ago, it was really a super exotic delicacy one had only heard about from movies like Akira. Now in 2011 Denmark has been flooded with sushi takeaways everywhere (watch out for the Chinese-owned sushi places, they totally don’t know how to cook rice!).

Like in the 1980s, the inspiration from the East once again became super hot in 2001, as well as influences from other global cultures by way of the internet. With designers becoming increasingly aware of environmental problems, the word “sustainable” became the new black in design and fashion. It was suddenly ok to relax, be aware of your body and mind and invite friends over for slow cooking and have big kitchens where everyone could sit down, talk, and maybe do a bit of yoga.

Feelings of nostalgia rose along with a need for real things free of “hip design”. Designers looked back towards the classic dinnerware forms paired with a creative minimalist approach.

“Mega Mussel” dinnerware by Karen Kjældgaard Larsen and the Japanese inspired “Elements” by Louise Campbell–both based on old Royal Copenhagen designs but redone and redirected into younger territory for the new generations.

And here we are in 2011. What is the new trend on the table this decade? Will this be the decade where cooking more or less stops because people live on takeaway and Cup Noodle? Will we be spoonfed by robots at the end of 2020 anyway?

Discuss!

I’ve taken an initiative here to start a new column. It’s a hodgepodge of gay-related posts on food. Please enjoy.

My apartment is filled with stuff. From expensive All-Clad to ass-chap printed glasses to Prada to Louis Vuitton, I have them all. Gaysians are especially bad when it comes to brand names. I usually don’t categorize myself as a stereotypical feminine gay Asian, but when it comes to Louis Vuitton and expensive kitchen items, I am a total sucker for them. Whatever it may be, I will buy it.

Let’s examine my brand whore-ness here.

My very manly wallet/purse. I have my life in here. Cash, credit cards, insurance cards, house keys, all in one small pouch.

My very manly purse. I bring it to work everyday, sometimes, filled with lunch items and the container leaks and the bag will smell like soy sauce for the next 10 days. Many other times, it’s empty. I walk with it to make sure everyone knows I am a brand whore.

My travel luggage. Do you see the smashed Louis Vuitton bag underneath the red Prada one?

On to the kitchen. My favorite glasses. When you are at a store and see this, no matter how much it may be, you MUST buy them, right? Fish’s Eddy has them, if you are interested in buying them for yourself.

After I sold my old nesting bowls to Kayoko, I was in upstate one weekend, and found these beauties. I had to buy them. It was a lot more than I wanted to pay, but every gay guy should have Pyrex nesting bowls.

Here is my collections of All-Clad pots and pans. It’s pots-and-pan-porn. Gosh, I’ve spent more than $1000 here. I have two other pots that are not shown here. Total of 9 All-Clad pans, each one of them bought separately, not combo set that comes with one useless pot the manufacturer wants to get rid of.

Stand mixer is sitting next to all the spices and other food related items.

Dishes, dishes and more dishes. Top shelf is for top notch lacquerware  bowls.

Le Creuset dutch oven. I always giggle when I say dutch oven. Hehehe.

Global and Henkel knives. I only use one knife I brought back from Japan (which isn’t shown here), but they are pretty and manly to look at.

In my linen closet, there is an electric hot pot (Zojirushi)– a very useful item, and versatile since you can grill meat, or make hot posts. Middle are my worst enemy mandolin if you remember my near-death experience. Takoyaki (octopus ball) maker. Every Japanese household should have one of them. And the right is a newly obtained item, the IH cook top. By the way, the bottom right is a leg of ironing board. The linen closet multi-tasks.

When my mama came to NYC last week, I asked her if she can schlep this IH (induction heating) cook-top for me. It’s not widely known here yet, but IH cook-tops are so useful.  It’s an electric burner, basically.

The options are endless with this thing. You can deep fry a whole fish on the counter top. I am not kidding. Or you can use Le Crueset pot and have a wonderful hot pot party. In the winter time, people have hot pots like every night, and needs a ton of gas canisters, but this one doesn’t require any gas. Yet, it heats up so high that you can totally do table cooking very easily. You can find these cook-tops here, but they are still pricey. I think this was only 8000 yen (due to strong yen however, it’s close to $100. Thanks mama!)

Every part of my apartment contains kitchen items, due to lack of space in NYC homes. A modern TV stand, right?

Plastic bowls, rice, cocktail shaker, more dishes, and candle holders are all stored here.

More dishes; rice cooker on bottom left; and serving platters. Bottom right is an expensive lacquer box for Osechi (New Year’s celebration), in which tons of ivory spoons and forks are stored (I don’t know how real they are, but I bought tons of them in Bali last year since they were dead cheap).

Do I need to have three different sizes of soy sauce dispensers? Definitely not, but I couldn’t resist when I saw these in Japan. They are modern, yet very useful. They don’t drip at all. When you buy soy sauce dispenser, the most problematic thing is that it leaks when you  pour. But these guys are leak-proof.

Even coffee table center is actually a big serving bowl.  My current knitting project is sitting in there.

I didn’t bother digging out my pasta-maker, hand held blender, blender, collapsing colander, ice cream machine, all the cake pans, piping tips and cookie cutters, my mother’s handmade chopstick rests, hard boiled egg shapers, 18 rubber spatulas I bought just because each color looked pretty.

Thousands upon thousands of dollars have been spent throughout the years. I have no regrets though. When you buy expensive stuff, such as All-Clad, Prada and Louis Vuitton, you can basically use them until you die. They (including All-Clad) have a lifetime warranty, so they will fix/replace if it breaks under normal use. At the end of the day, Brand Whore wins, I hope.

As I’ve said in the past, we all eat pussies and dicks, so life is all about eating, right? This is Faglicious.

I was checking up on the backend of Umamimart the other day, and noticed something peculiar– someone had landed on this here blog by Googling the keyword phrase, “whore teacup.”

After a little Googling myself, I came to find that Lady Gaga had posted a naked photo of herself on Twitter with a teacup that had the word “whore” written on it.

I ain’t no Gaga, but I do LOVE the fact that someone got to Umamimart by searching for LadyG, and her cute little cup that everyone is making such big fuss about.

So as not to disappoint all you “whore teacup” Googlers, I present to you, my (war)Whore Teacup.

Trust me, I contemplated posting a naked picture of myself in the dark, with my face painted like a drag queen, while holding my Warhol cup with perfectly manicured fingers. That totally would have been awesome, right? But… that’s just too much work! It must be so exhausting to be Lady Gaga. PROPS!

And let’s be real- Warhol invented Gaga. We miss you, Andy.

PS- People seriously land on Umamimart by Googling the most bizarre phrases. “Tofu porn” is a mucho popular one. What magic can you create with tofu, Lady Gaga???

I’ve been in the US for 14 years, and I have pretty much tried all of what this great country has to offer for the kitchen. As you remember, from Smart Lidz to vegetable-life-prolonging bags to cheap mandolins, I’ve experimented with many gadgets, and found them all very useless (and almost lost my thumb). But I guess the stand mixer is super great, which I don’t think is sold in Japan (or if they are, I wouldn’t be surprised they cost $1,500 a pop). Or the American sized jumbo oven (which I don’t have currently) is great to cook large quantities, like a 20 pound turkey, roast vegetable, apple pie, and stuffing all at the same time.

Having said that, I haven’t converted on two things (or I should say, I re-discovered the beauty and usefulness of them) in my kitchen. I think they are worth while.

1. Saran Wrap

Let me tell you, American saran wrap absolutely sucks. It’s basically just a piece of plastic, nothing more.  Glad’s Cling Wrap is somewhat ok, but you can never compete with the quality of saran wrap from Japan.

Words can’t explain the strength, durability, and stick-ability of Japanese saran wrap. you don’t need Ziploc containers, you can just cover leftover dish or bowl of leftover food with a piece of wrap, and it’s tightly covered, so no need to worry about its freshness the next day.

On top of this, the sizing is so smart. There are wide variety sizes available in Japan, but even here, there are long (regular size) and short ones.   Short ones are perfect for covering small dishes.  That’s so Japanese, to not waste anything, even saran wrap!

Though it’s about $5 per 20 meters (65 feet), which is a bit more expensive than the US brands, it’s worth every penny!

2. Dish Washing Sponges

This is actually cheaper than any of the sponges you find here. Again, words cannot explain how great this is. The lacy outer with soft sponge inside keeps suds very very well.  When you wash dishes, you want to have enough suds, and this is super perfect for it. It’s very soft and won’t scratch anything.  Five of them for about $1.50. What a bargain!

You can buy these items at any of the Japanese grocery stores in the city. Trust  me, they are worth trying.

The 25th Umamiventure took place at Hida Tool and Hardware in Berkeley. After writing about sharpening Carbon and Stainless Steel knives on Umamimart and receiving a lot of questions, I thought it would be good to take these questions to the source. Chika, the knifemaster, at Hida Tool and Hardware. Chika has been working with knifes for 8 years and gave us a generous peek into her pool of knowledge.

The knife-sharpening demo started promptly at 2:05pm. Chika went through different grits of stones (the lower the number the faster the sharpening process goes), different knife situations (beyond repair, dull, rusted, etc.) and a super informative explanation about the different steel types commonly available today.

It was all about the sharpening stones as several Umamimart readers brought their own knives (European and Japanese) to ask Chika how to bring them back to life after years (or generations) of use. Chika was kind enough to sharpen many of the knives we brought in, which also helped us to understand how the stones worked in relation to specific types of knifes and how to assess the condition of a knife.

Many of us went home with 1000 grit stones (the most versatile grit for kitchen knife sharpening), and some of us went home with hocho (Japanese knives).

After getting just enough education for a Saturday, we headed to Pyramid Brewery which is across the street from the legendary punk venue, 924 Gilman, where Green Day got their start (from Berkeley to Broadway, who knew?). We were seated outside as a party of nine and enjoyed three pitchers of beers and two sampler platters – which my Japanese husband dubbed the “American-fried-stuff” dish.

This was the first time I hosted an Umamiventure in the U.S., and I had so much fun. It was the perfect balance of education and relaxation.

Thanks to everyone who came, Chika at Hida Tool and Hardware and to the California sun.

Now, a few words from the attendees:

CINDY

Since attending the workshop, I had to chop carrots to make chicken pot pie and decided what better time then now to put my water stone to work. I sharpened all of our non serrated knives and it worked out amazingly. Never before have I cut carrots with such ease.

This Umamiventure was great. I thought it was particularly helpful when Chika looked at the knives that people had brought and gave advice on each of them. I am not a knife person. I don’t even really know the differences or uses for certain shapes so I learned a lot. One particularly helpful tip she offered was how to tell when your knife needs to be sharpened.

Another point I found really helpful was actually hearing the sound of the knife being sharpened, because when you are sharpening at too shallow of an angle it doesn’t quite make the right sound. It also helped seeing the actual movement. The only thing was that I wish I had paid more attention as she moved up the blade, because I had a hard time sharpening the tip of the knife and maintaining the right 15 degree angle.

The actual shop was amazing. I dream of having a  workshop like that someday with a little shop cat.  That place made me want to give up my laser-cutting and take up wood carving.  All and all the venture was a great one. The staff was super nice and helpful and all the tools make you want to go outside and get your hands dirty.

SERI

Things I learned:
- What knife angle to use while sharpening (although Yoko’s post already taught me this).
- Knowing that it’s near impossible to screw up the knife while sharpening with a stone.
- To NOT use the honing blade to sharpen the knife (oops!).
- How to tell if the knife is sharp by looking for a reflection on the blade edge.
- Knives that could barely cut through veggies CAN be sharpened to easily cut through pork meat!
- Japanese knives are the best (because they use harder steel and will last longer between sharpenings and also because they just look cooler, IMO).
- Where to go if I need knife advice, buy another sharpening stone, or a new knife.
- You can easily hide/carry 9″ blade knives in a purse/bag as demonstrated by 4-5 of the attendees.

HIDA TOOLS & HARDWARE
1333 San Pablo Avenue
Berkeley, CA
T: 510.524.3700

*Umamiventures are organized monthly, traveling far and wide to find good, cheap grub off the beaten path.

**Stay updated on all future trips via Twitter or the Facebook Fan page.

Past Umamiventures include:
1.) Ocean Jewel Restaurant – Flushing, NYC; June 2007
2.) Red Hook Ball Fields - NYC; June 2007
3.) Taste of Jackson Heights – NYC; October, 2007
4.) Sripraphai Restaurant – Woodside, NYC; November 2007
5.) WINTERMARKET – South St. Seaport; December 2007
6.) Jackson Diner- Jackson Heights, NYC; January 2008
7.) Pacificana – Sunset Park, NYC; February 2008
8.) Puerto Alegre – The Mission, SF; March 2008
9.) Dinosaur BBQ – Harlem, NYC; April 2008
10.) Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden – Astoria, NYC; May 2008
11.) Brooklyn Banh Mi Crawl – Sunset Park, NYC; August 2008
12.) Sheapshead Bay Lobster Crawl – NYC; September 2008
13.) Flushing Food Circuit – NYC; October 2008
14.) Strong Beer Month – SF; March 2009
15.) Loisaida Throwback Crawl – NYC; April 2009
16.) Harley Farms Goat Dairy – Pescadero, CA; June 2009
17.) Tomales Bay Oyster Farm – Marshall, CA; August 2009
18.) Din Tai Fung – LA; September 2009
19.) Din Tai Fung – Tokyo; September 2009
20.) Schroeder’s Oktoberfest – SF; October 2009
21.) Fish Taco Crawl – San Diego; November 2009
22.) St. George Spirits & Hangar One Vodka -  Alameda; January 2010
22.5) Everett & Jones – OAK; January 2010
23.) Sammy’s Roumanian Steakhouse – NYC; February 2010
24.) Guerilla Ramen Night – SF; April 2010

My pops got a new fish slicer-dicer for work. Check it.

He got it engraved with the family name, or as fancy Upper Eastsiders would say, “monogrammed.” AKABORI HOLLER!

Kinda awesome (Mifune/YOJIMBO) slash creepy (Mishima/SEPPUKU).

Also interesting to note (and somewhat suspicious) is that this is the same company that makes those Aerobie flying discs. I almost decapitated someone with that thing in high school… Anyway, the Aeropress is very easy to use. You hardly have to read the instructions.

First the coffee beans: Today Tmonkey is having an Italian Roast from Empire Coffee & Tea.

Grind the beans for about 20 seconds. Do the bean-grinder dance.
No Tmonkey, the coffee grinder is not an electric shaver.

One of the key components to the Aeropress is this filter.
You place a little paper filter on it:
Then screw it onto the test tube component.
Scoop the ground coffee into the test tube.
And place the test tube atop a coffee mug.
Now we’re ready for the water. The Aeropress manual recommends water at 175 F, which is quite low (water boils at 212 F). (Fuck Farenheit, by the way, why can’t we convert to the metric system like the rest of civilization??) This lower temperature prevents the coffee from getting bitter. We have our Tiger water maker with a setting for 194 F. Close enough…
Pour the water into the test tube.
And mix it up with the special paddle.
Allow the coffee to sit for a moment.
Now the pump part! This component, like the piston of a syringe, has a rubber gasket on one end.

This is what pushes the water through the filter and creates the rich, dark, coffee with little bitterness.

Good morning!
How awesome is this thing? Let me count the ways:

• Made by a frisbee company!
• Uses hardly any electricity (perfect for office or camping)!
• Cheap-o ($20!)
• Hardly any clean up of coffee grounds (you just pop the filter and grounds out and it practically cleans itself!)
• Fun to pump!

But all of these reasons would be meaningless if it didn’t make an amazing cup of coffee. Which Tmonkey insists it does. As a coffee nerd, he has tried every single method of making coffee — from the super high tech chemistry set Japanese siphon vacuum method to the totally low-tech cowboy coffee method (stay tuned, Tmonkey might do another post demonstrating this method) — and, according to Tmonkey: “The Aero-press makes an incredibly well-balanced, aromatic, pure expression of the coffee bean.”

Although I myself am not a coffee drinker, I’m quite fond of the Aeropress — i just get a huge kick out of the mechanics of this thing. I’ve been calling it the “Penis Pump” for obvious reasons, but the other day, I did happen to catch Tmonkey doing something else very strange with it…

So what are you eating is the next question, right? Well, before you can eat, you need something to eat on, so check out these lovely cook and meal sets (includes the awesome spork!).

Unfortunately these kits are a little too expensive for me but if you have deep pockets, they look amazing. Well designed, colorful and best, very functional.

More on food soon…
Happy Trails!