New Trends Asian Food in Riccione | Discovering and traveling Romagna. Food, Wine, History, People, Art, Culture

It’s a matter of fact that Emilia Romagna’s food traditions, express one of the tastiest dishes in Italy. An all around way of cooking based on simple but natural and unique products, from the mountains to the seaside. Emilia Romagna is the land of well being and good eating, and this is a fact.

But Romagna, and especially some of its towns, may also be the expression of new gourmet trends and Riccione, once called the pearl of Adriatic Riviera, always offers inspirational places to discover and try. This post is dedicated to first Sake’ Asian Fusion restaurant, called Umami.

The taste of fusion: discovering the real Japanise Sake in Riccione

Japan has entered our food habits since long: we all love to go out for a sushi, no matter if it’s for lunch or dinner. Wok restaurants with their “ all you can eat” format rather than exclusive Japanese places, especially in big towns, offer their idea of Asian food.

But the Japanese foodie culture is more than that and sometimes the best expression of this is given by Italian passionate who traveled to Japan, taking away the best of knowledge.

This is exactly the case of Umami, a new Asian restaurant, opened last June in Riccione by 4 guys with different experiences Their idea is quiet original: offering four different ideas of kitchen in one single restaurant.

An open vision of what the best you can have in one single place, which has not one single direction. You can call it fusion, but it’s more than that.

Umami, a word that means one of the five basic tastes (together with sweetness, sourness, bitterness, and saltiness). A loanword from the Japanese (うま味?), umami can be translated as “pleasant savory taste. And this is exactly what I tasted here.

Photo Credits Jody Serafini

The Asian food offers Japanese and Thai cuisine. You can mix the two and have a real and true Asian food experience, since the chef has a very long experience in his own birth country, before coming to Italy.

The Sake House in Emilia Romagna

Jody Serafini, one of the owners of the restaurant, is the right person you should look for, when you take place (by the way, the restaurant has a lot of different spots, if you are with friends or with your love, you can find the right place to sit down).

Photo Credits Jody Serafini

The idea of the first Sake House in Emilia Romagna was his own: a risk but a way to make people understand that Japanese culture of food and beverage is much more complex and rich of what we can think.

Sake is not the glass of hot alcohol that we drink after sushi. There are more than 30 kinds of Sake in the Sake chart of Umami and every one of them is a personal selection of Jody who is an official member of the Sake Sommelier Association.

Photo Credits Jody Serafini

Sake is like a wine, told me Jody, you can match it with every different food you eat and everyone has its taste. It was difficult at the beginning, Jody spend a lot of time with new customers to explain sake and he is really very good.

These was our lunch!

Photo Credits Jody Serafini

Disclosure:thanks to Jody Serafini and to the staff of Umami for the warm welcome and the chance to discover this lovely place. Thanks to Micol Scondotto for being my special co-blogger; thanks to Sabrina Campanella who made me discover the place.