miho armacost 11/1/23 miho armacost 11/1/23

Umeboshi

Sweet, sour, salty and bitter: If you ask me to pick one flavor, it's "sour" every time. As a kid growing up in Japan, I didn’t really like sweets. I always preferred sour or savory flavors. My favorite food to this day is pickled plum. Pickled plum was my candy. It still is.

Origami

When August comes around, I am always reminded of what my father did once for my birthday when I was 7 or 8 years old. In my family, birthdays were not really big deals – especially mine, as my mother’s was on the 5th and mine was on the 7th. We would go out for a special dinner on the 6th and that was that.

Japanese breakfast

When my mother was pregnant, she told me she ate broiled mackerel (or sardine) everyday, willing for me to grow up smart. I am truly grateful for her loving thoughts, but always wondered - HOW did she know that mackerel and sardine pack the highest amount of omega-3 fatty acid which is essential for the development of baby’s brain cells?!