Before he learned to walk, our founder Mark Engel was on a quest for 牛肉， 肌肉， 豬肉， 魚 和， 菜!!! Those were actually his first words (beef, chicken, pork, fish and vegetable), when as a young adult, he packed up his American life and moved to Taiwan in search of good food and some Chinese language skills. One of the biggest souvenirs from his time spent wandering back alley restaurants and food markets was a fried rice recipe that has become his culinary signature. Over years of perfecting this, he realized how easy it would be to master any culinary creation, if only everything needed to bring the dish to life was already available in just one jar. oo'mämē was born.

After thinking about the Chinese Chile Crisp, Mark realized there is nothing like this in other global pantries. He thought this could be the go-to essential ingredient that elevates any dish and gives beginner home cooks confidence, while providing expert home cooks a few more hours in their day. We could not agree more!

And with that, a brand was launched. 1001 Uses. One Spoon. Mark's passion for travel and zest for all things culinary comes through in every bite. oo'mämē brings all those deep, layered flavors and crunchy bits together in one jar so those at home can make quick, easy, TASTY fried rice…. and 1000 other dishes.

It turns out we are not alone in seeing Mark's brilliance in launching this line. A few short months after launching the brand, Mark was selected by Airbnb as one of 100 Talented Home Cooks throughout the world to travel to Italy with David Chang (and his mother) for a once in a lifetime trip. Unfortunately world travel was on a solid pause the summer of 2020, which made us all the more grateful that those tasty global oo'mämē Chile Crisps were available to bridge the gap in exploring new cuisines left by all those canceled flights. As it turns out, oo'mämē has the ability to transport you at mealtime, without ever leaving home. Check out Airbnb 100 Talented Home Cooks Announcement.

Founders Mark and Karen Engel - Circa 1992, Taichung, Taiwan。
東海大學 - 在 台中， 台灣 - 一九九三年。

We don't think you will find anything on the market that comes close to our line of global chile crisps. Our product, oo'mämē, is made in small batches, using all-natural products, right here in the USA. We stand by our quality claims due to the premium ingredients we carefully select—like high oleic sunflower oil…more expensive, but better for you than the soy oil often found. We eat this stuff too (a lot of it) and want to make sure to nourish our bodies with things we can pronounce, sourced from responsible producers. We are careful in choosing partners and purveyors, and we insist on pristine production conditions and follow Good Manufacturing Practices in the production of oo'mämē. We guarantee a quality product, safely made.