Umami Burger = Japanese for Best Burger EVER?!

Picture it:
It’s a few days after Christmas in Los Angeles. Despite the date on the calendar, it’s a beautiful 70 degrees with the sun beaming through cloudless skies. TC and I are sitting at the end of the Santa Monica Pier, after gridlock traffic prevented us from accomplishing Plan A: The Getty Museum. This was turning out to be a nice consolation prize though, and a game of Skee-ball and air hockey definitely helped to cheer us up.

As the street musician armed with a keyboard and an amp belts out old, cheesy love songs, I turn to my Yelp app to research lunch possibilities. A familiar name comes up: Umami Burger. One of us remembers, “Hey, isn’t that the place that ZF recommended?” A few days earlier, ZF, who had graciously agreed to let us stay at his apartment during our L.A. trip, gave us a list of recommended restaurants and bars. Indeed, Yelp backed up his recommendation: this Umami Burger place was quite popular, with an average of 4+ stars and over 970 votes.

To avoid the lunch rush, we take a long walk around Santa Monica and finally head to Umami Burger around 2:30pm. Even with the large picnic tables outside, the place is packed. The wait isn’t horrible though, maybe 20-30 minutes. About 5 minutes into our wait, TC gets up to ask the host about getting our orders to go. Miraculously, two seats open up for us outside. Score!

we have arrived.

We are starving, but our hunger is reigned in by the prices. Starting at $10, these burgers aren’t cheap, and they don’t come with fries either. But whatevs. We’re on vacation, let’s splurge a little. I order the truffle burger, which features house-made truffle cheese and truffle glaze. TC gets the Kombu #1 meal, which includes a Umami burger (hamburger patty with shiitake mushroom, caramelized onions, roasted tomato, parmesan crisp, umami ketchup), thin fries, and a bottle of Singha.

Maybe it’s because we’re starving, or maybe because we had no idea what to expect, but this experience is easily one of the most pleasurable meals I’ve ever had. I’m two bites into my luxurious, truffle oil-soaked burger when I hear TC look lovingly at his burger and say, “I never want it to end.”

Amen, TC, amen.

Because sharing is caring, we each eat half of our burgers and then trade. While we like the Umami, we agree that the truffle is superior. Every bite is just so unbelievably awesome… it’s hard to put it into words.

The Umami burger

The truffle burger: pure deliciousness.

After we finish our burgers, TC considers ordering one more but we decide to save some room for dinner, which is only a few hours away. We seriously think about coming back for another meal before we leave L.A., but then we find out that they just opened a Umami Burger in San Francisco. Hooray!

So, less than a week later, we’re visiting with EF at her mom’s place in SF, which just happens to be a 5-minute walk from Umami Burger. What a happy coincidence! We convince EF that it’s a great idea to go there for dinner (it wasn’t that hard really).  The three of us shared the truffle burger, the green bird (turkey burger), and the oxtail, which was the special that day. I have to admit — the truffle burger wasn’t as good the second time around. It might be because TC and I had hyped it up too much in our minds, or perhaps it’s because the Santa Monica location is superior to the SF location. Regardless, it was still pretty darn spectacular and way better than any burger I’ve ever eaten. The turkey burger was surprisingly flavorful in a meaty way (a good thing). I don’t remember much about the oxtail. I think it was kinda salty? Maybe TC and EF have a better recollection of it.

My advice: go, but keep your expectations in check. Oh yeah — the fries and the umami ketchup are great too!

(About the title: I know that umami means the 5th taste in Japanese, but that just didn’t sound as good, OK?)

 

2011: The Year in Knitting (and Crocheting!)

It seems a little late to still be talking about 2011 when 2012 is well underway, but what the heck… I’ve always been a bit behind the times. I realized that it’s been a while since I updated y’all on my yarn crafts, so here’s what I was up to in 2011:

For one thing, I learned to crochet. You might have seen the baby blankets I’ve made. As lovely as they were, knitting them took FOREVER AND A DAY and I heard that crochet goes much faster. Since I wanted to make myself this lovely afghan from Lucy of Attic 24, I thought I’d better learn to crochet. First, I got some practice making these two projects:

Skulls + potholders = skullholders!

Skull + baby hat = skullholder!

I made the potholders for LF from a pattern from The Happy Hooker, the sister book to Stitch n Bitch. The baby hat was an original pattern that I came up with all by myself (a first!). It was for Baby R, born in the spring to 2 very hip friends living in Boston.

So then I started working on the afghan, in the middle of the summer. Not the smartest idea I’ve ever had. It is huge, and I’m still not done. The good news? Sasha loves to cuddle up in it, and so does TC. It’s not quite big enough for two people, but I’m getting there slowly but surely.

This is not Sasha cuddling on the blanket-in-progress, but rather his confused expression at being planted there for this photo op.

I put the afghan project on hold and went back to knitting. I decided to make a baby sweater for TC’s nephew Nathan, who turned one in late October. Making a sweater is sort of a big deal, but I figured that making a baby sweater would be less of a big deal while still legitimizing me as a “real knitter.” I was knitting down to the wire, and despite some major issues, I managed to pull it all together by the birthday party. I was super relieved that: (1) it actually fit him (he is a long, skinny baby whom I had to measure in secret… yes, I’m that sneaky) , and (2) it was pretty darn cute, to boot.

Nathan, looking so handsome in his sweater.

And finally, Christmas presents! I wanted to make a cowl for TC’s mom and sister, but was told by certain parties that they didn’t like cowls or turtlenecks. So, I made a hat for his mom and a scarf for his sister instead. The hat was a quick knit and done in time for Christmas, but I’m embarrassed to report that I just finished the scarf yesterday. Bad Jen!! Well, at least it was finished before… Chinese New Year? Happy Chinese New Year, LJ!

The "hurricane hat" I made for TC's mom.

Peek-a-boo! LJ's seed stitch scarf.

I already have a long queue of projects for 2012 about which I’m quite excited. I wish I had more time to work on them all!

p.s. You can check out any of these patterns on my Ravelry site.

Inaugural CSA box from Eatwell Farm

As I mentioned previously, TC and I “resolved” to get CSA boxes this year from Eatwell Farm. Here is what we got yesterday, in our inaugural box:

Mandarin Oranges
Arugula
Spinach
Broccoli
Romanesco*
Bok Choy
Turnips
Collard Greens*
Daikon Radishes
Leeks
Savoy Cabbage
Pink Lady Apples
1/2 dozen pasture-raised eggs

*denotes items I have never cooked previously

And here is how it all looked:

So exciting! TC and I cooked some of it tonight. One dish was a recipe that we got in our box for cabbage, leeks, and white beans. It sounded promising, but it only turned out so-so, even though we added bacon(!). Still, at least it was healthy? (Minus the bacon.) The other dish we made was a derivative of my mushrooms and bok choy stir fry that is always reliably good, if I do say so myself. I think my favorite thing so far, though, are the oranges. They are exactly what an orange should taste like, if that makes any sense. And we have loads of them. Hooray!

Here’s a completely random photo of the Spicy Peanut Eggplant and Shallot Stew that we made on Saturday. It was super delicious. I’m think I’m developing a huge crush on The Post Punk Kitchen blog.