“I built Umami from a single kitchen and a thousand memories. Each recipe is a love letter to the flavors that once inspired me.”
Ohmami Asian Kitchen is my little dream that I’ve been nurturing, one product at a time. It began in 2019, not as a business idea, but simply as a reflection of my love for Asian food.
For as long as I can remember, whenever I traveled, Malaysia, Dubai, Thailand, I carried the flavors of those places back home with me. But when I returned, I often felt something was missing. I couldn’t find those bold, comforting, and soul-stirring Asian dishes here. So, I started recreating them in my own kitchen. At first, it was just for myself, family and friends, but soon it became something more.
I began with the two things closest to my heart: kimchi and chili oil. My kimchi is vegan, created without fish sauce or shrimp paste - a recipe I’ve carefully mastered and made my own. The first chili oil I made was the Chiu Chow chili oil, inspired by the original Chinese classic, and that set the foundation for what Ohmami would become.
When the world slowed down during COVID and I was jobless, my kitchen became my refuge. It was during that time that I began cooking hot Asian meals too; dishes like fire noodles, jajjangmyeon, bibimbap, and comforting bowls inspired by Korean, Chinese, Filipino and Malaysian flavors. At a time when hardly anyone else was doing Korean or regional Asian food in pakistan (except for mainstream Chinese and Japanese), Ohmami became a small but heartfelt place where people could find those flavors in Karachi.
But here’s the real story: Ohmami is a one-woman kitchen. I cook, I package, I seal, I label, I take orders, and I practically do everything except deliver. Every single jar of chili oil, every batch of kimchi, every hot food, sauce or mooncake- it all passes through my hands and is made with love. This isn’t just a business for me; it’s my passion project, my way of sharing flavors that once inspired me, with people who long for something different.
Ohmami has grown slowly, with patience and heart. Today, it’s not just kimchi and chili oil anymore. I’ve expanded into varieties of Kimchi and chilli oils, sauces and also sweet treats like mooncakes, and soon, more sauces and sweet bites will be added that you can enjoy with your food and tea. Each step forward feels like a little celebration of how far this small kitchen has come.
Ohmami is proof that even from one home, one pair of hands, and one heart, something meaningful can grow. It’s more than food; it’s love, memory, and passion packed into every bite.