Umami Burger - Yum-a-Yumi!!

So I'm adding a new section to the blog called: "Everyday Deals."  These are the places where you can get absolutely fabulous food for under $10 an entree everyday.  No waiting for Tuesday nights or Happy Hours (though I'm more then happy to wait for those as well:)  So, what better way to start of this section, then with a place people have been raving about: Umami Burger.

It's easy to miss the restaurant, as it is a nondescript store front on La Brea, wedged between such non epicurean delights as a donut shop and a car wash.  But find it we did.  Normally, I try and avoid valet parking (what's the point of $3 chicken when you've paid $10 for valet?), but for a mere $2, Umami gets the prize for the cheapest valet parking around.

H and I walked in to be greeted by our dear friend J.  It's really a very small restaurant, but they've made delightful use of the space, using warm woods and neutral colors, as well as leaving one wall entirely open to windows so that light pours in.  We settled in to to the simple table with a paper table cloth and small succulent plant. 

The menu is simple: one narrow page of burgers with the reverse of the page detailing sides, drinks, and desserts.  But I say, if you do one thing and do it well, then that's all you need.  I'm sick of the cheese cake factories of the world doing a mediocre job on EVERYTHING.  I hope this micro-specialization continues.  

And speaking of micro-specialization, these guys specialize in Cola!  They don't have a liquor license, but they will happily send you across the street if you want to bring in your own booze.  But... should you be less alcohol inclined, they have a wonderful assortment of unusual sodas.  I opted for a Chai Cola.  The first sweet sip is filled with the complex spices of chai tea, although it does have a bitter aftertaste.  Think next time I'll opt for a different unusual option. 

  

Then came the house specialty: The $9 Umami Burger.  Umami is that fifth elusive taste.  When it's not sweet, spicy, sour, or bitter, it's: Umami.  And this burger has it in spades.  Juicy, perfectly cooked beef, earthy complex mushrooms, a crispy parmesan cracker, a sharp, melted cheese that I'm guessing is gruyere, and an oven roasted tomato, all encased in a meltingly soft bun.  They warn you that you will crave this one, and they are indeed correct.  Be prepared to get hooked into a lifetime of deliciousness.  

  

Being a SoCal kinda girl, my beautiful friend H opted for the $9 SoCal Burger.  This lovely patty is topped with butter lettuce, caramelized onions, oven roasted tomato, and what they call: house made processed cheese.  Do not be put off by visions of kraft singles dancing in your head.  This is more akin to a manchego: creamy and flavorful.  This burger is sweeter then the Umami, but still cravably delicious.  

J opted for the $10 Turkey Confit Burger, which, while tasty, simply wasn't in the same league as the other two.  I would skip this one if I were you.

We ordered the $3 triple cooked hand cut fries.  While they had a crisp exterior and a nice dusting of salt, they were so thick that it almost seemed more like eating a potato then eating a french fry.  Of course, the house made ketchup made anything utterly palatable.

Far superior in the realm of sides is the $2.5 malt liquor tempura onion rings.  The light tempura coating and the complex hint of the malt flavor elevate these onion rings far above their normally greasy, soggy counterparts.  (Oh, these are greasy too, it's just a different, yummier kind of grease:)  I think I'd eat just about anything in that malt liquor tempura batter.

  

We ended with Cake Monkey's $3.75 Raspberry Red Velvet Ding Dong.  The red velvet cake is light and spongey, and the chocolate coating actually tastes like chocolate.  I imagine this is what ding dongs used to taste like before all the chemicals came rushing in to make things taste like plastic.  Oh, and then there's the delectable tang of the raspberry filling all mushed together in your mouth.  Perfectly sweet!

Overall, we had a wonderfully delicious evening at Umami Burger and will certainly be back for more.  Four and a half belt notches!!

One Caveat: get there early!  We arrived at 7pm and sat down in a mostly empty restaurant.  By the time we left at 8:30, hordes of hungry diners stared longingly through the glass at our table.  This is not a restaurant to linger in!!  Get in, eat scrumptious burgers, and then move on before ravenous diners start swiping food off your plate.  

Umami Burger is located at:

850 S. La Brea Ave.

Los Angeles, CA  90036

323-931-3000

www.umamiburger.com

Happy Hour at Cafe Rodeo - No Thrills in Beverly Hills

Walking down Rodeo drive past all the designer clothing stores, one can't help but feel posh.  (Even if one happens to be wearing a T shirt and is feeling smug for having found free street parking.)  So I was excited for my Friday night date with P at Cafe Rodeo in Hotel Luxe.

The outdoor patio was bustling with people when I arrived at 6:45, but I had requested indoor seating (given that I normally freeze whenever I'm outside unless it's 100 degrees.)   So I walked down a perfumed hall curtained in white and arrived at the actual Cafe.  It was smaller then expected and, as there was no hostess, I had to just grab a passing waiter to tell him I had a reservation (wanted to make sure I got credit on my opentable.com account!).  

The interior can't quite make up it's mind as to the look it's going for.  The large skylight, creamy neutral palette, and aerodynamic silverware suggest something airy and modern, but the uptempo continental music, the servers all in black, and the recessed lighting seemed to suggest they are going for more of a loungey feel.  The crowd was mostly in their late thirties and forties.  If I had to guess...I'd say 80% tourists.  Hmmm...not a good sign.  

We began with what was listed on the menu as $7 Pork Tacos.  However, our server informed us that they were out of pork, so instead they brought us Braised Beef Tacos.  The meat was tender, moist, and full of flavor.  The natural sweetness of braised beef was accented by the bits of pineapple, cut with a fiery chipotle sauce.  Add to this the crisp bite of the iceberg lettuce and you get one textured and complex mouthful!  This was by far the best thing we had all night, it's a shame it's not on their regular menu.   

Next I dived into their $3.60 Fried Chicken Skewers.  For that price, how could you go wrong?  Well, I wouldn't say they went wrong - but they certainly didn't go right.  The chicken itself was moist and tasty, but the coating was bland and lacked the crunch I expect from "fried" chicken.  And forget about the sauces.  We might as well have gone to McDonalds for the BBQ sauce and grabbed some little packets from our Chinese Takeout place for the Duck Sauce.  Nothing exciting there.    
My least favorite of the night was the $9 Filet Mignon Sliders with Blue Cheese and Grilled Onions.  I expect Filet Mignon to be melt in your mouth tender, but these little nubbins were filled with sinew and fat (and not the marbled, tasty kind, more the clumpy, hard to chew kind).  The dusting of blue cheese and three or four strands of onion were barely present enough to give much flavor.  The "buns" were little circles cut out of English Muffins that were not toasted.  They pretty much just served to remind you how small and sad the whole dish was.

We also got the $3.60 Parmesan Fries.  While I do wish they had been dusted with a little more parm, they were piping hot, crunchy on the outside, and soft of the inside.  Plus, they were presented in a sweet little pot.  

Having found the food adequate but not at all special, P and I decided to skip dessert, since we imagined it wouldn't be anything special.  After waiting forever for the over worked waiter to pick up the check, we headed off in search of tastier desserts.  Sadly, we forgot that it's Beverly Hills and most places are closed by eight.  Foiled Again!  Overall, I give this 2 belt notches out of five - not worth your time.    But, should you still wish to go..

Cafe Rodeo has Happy Hour Monday-Saturday from 4-7:30pm.  They are located in Hotel Luxe at:

360 N. Rodeo Dr.

Beverly Hills, CA  90210

310-273-0300

www.luxehotelrodeodrive.com

LA Barbeque Festival - Finger Lickin' Good

As my friend C and I stepped out of the car parked three blocks away, the heady scent of wood, smoke, and meat filled our nostrils. BBQ powerful enough to traverse three city blocks? This was going to be a good day. Anticipation only mounted as we crossed the bridge over the PCH and saw the rows of white tents waiting for us, each containing their own secret ingredents, believed to hold the key to the very best barbecue.

Stepping inside, we were surrounded by barbecue enthusiasts of every age, race, color and creed. There were the hipsters, the aging hippies, the frat boys, the beach bums, the families, all of them gathered in joyous celebration of grilled meat. Perhaps the UN should start holding more 'ques.

We decided to scope out all the options before commiting to any plates. After all $10 got you quite a hunk of meat in addition to a side, so we knew going in that we would probably only be able to sample about three different kinds. **Note to organizers: it would be amazing if next year each booth had small plates (a rib or two) for just a few bucks so that attendees could sample more varieties.** We immediately eliminated all LA based vendors, vowing instead to actually go and try out those restaurants at some later date. So then it was all about deciding which regions looked the most scrumptious.
C has eaten her way across the country multiple times, and she said those Missourians knew their 'que. So we opted to get the Kansas City Spare Ribs and Baked Beans from L.C.'s BBQ. They use a wet rub, which leads to the meat being incredibly moist with a flavor that invades your mouth with the force of a hurricane. The ribs had a nice warmth without being overly spicy, as well as a crunchy crust. If only they'd had just a pinch less salt they would have been perfect. But the baked beans, rife with pork fat, were phenomenal! Sweet and spicy, they literally melted in my mouth.

Having procured our wet ribs, we also wanted to try a dry rub, so we purchased Memphis Championship BBQ's Ribs and Coleslaw. (A disclaimer, I don't like coleslaw, so I won't be reviewing it). I'll be honest, the main reason I insisted on these ribs was that this recipe was named the Champion at the 1902 World's Fair. Are you kidding me? I had to try any recipe older then anyone I know. The ribs were tasty and the spices well balanced, but the flavor was not nearly as powerful as I would have liked.

For our third dish, we went with the Pulled Pork Sandwich from Butch's Smack Your Lips BBQ in New Jersey. This was my favorite of all three! The pork was as tender as a dream, and the extra sauce that I slathered on was delicious, complex, sharp, sweet, tangy and so much more. The sauce and pork juices were all soaked up by the bottom bun, transforming an overwhelmingly ordinary piece of bread into a pillowy burst of flavor. (Note to BBQers - your meat is fantastic, but it might be time to investigate some better bread!). My one quibble was that the meat was not as hot as I would have liked, but I partly attribute that to the massive amount of sauce I used to smother the meat. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, this was C's least favorite dish. A Boston girl at heart, she's enjoyed the best "BBQ sandwich" out of a shack somewhere in the middle of Mississippi, and, for her, there's just no going back (certainly not to Jersey!). But for my money, these Jersey Boys can do the 'que.

Thoroughly stuffed, we nonetheless made room for $3 Polkatots Cupcakes! These cupcakes are smaller then most, but still pack plenty of flavor. Their Vanilla cupcake is good, with a sweet, smooth frosting and moist vanilla cake contrasting with the crunchy "blue sparkles" on top. But it's their Dulce de Leche cupcake that is a revelation!! They have somehow figured out a way to pack enormous Dulce flavor into the creamy softness of frosting. Add to that the extra punch of actual Dulce de Leche squiggled on top and you have one of the most phenomenal cupcakes I've ever tasted (and trust me, I have tasted my fair share...someday I may write an entire essay on cupcakes in LA). If you ever find yourself anywhere NEAR Pasadena, go get these cupcakes!

Author's note: Lost in my Dulce de Leche rapture, I suddenly looked up to discover that C had dissapeared. Apparently, despite her full stomach, the lure of a Texas Sausage proved irresistable and she went back for fourths. And, man, she was glad she did (as was I, as it left more of the cupcakes for me!)

Overall, we had a wonderful day at the festival. Good people, delicious aromas, and a stomach full of pork and cupcakes. What more could a girl want?

More information on the Barbeque Festival can be found here: www.labbqfest.com

More information on Polkatots Cupcakes can be found here: www.polkatotscupcakes.com

Two Exciting Announcements!

Hello dear readers. This isn't an actual review - just two exciting bits of news that I wanted to share with you!

The first is that there is a BBQ festival in Santa Monica this weekend. Admission is $10 for a regular pass or $50 for a VIP pass. After that, $10 can get you a plate of award winning bbq from such far flung places as Texas or Missouri (plus, of course, the best that LA has to offer). Oh, and they have dessert too!! I will definitely be in attendence, so look for a review some time next week. You can check out all the details here:

www.labbqfest.com

The second announcement is that I have started cooking school! I figured if I'm going to be writing about cooking every week, I should understand what goes into the whole process. Hurrah, I am so excited! We meet once a week for twenty four weeks, so probably not enough time to become a top chef, but I'm hoping to get a good handle on the basics and be able to throw amazing dinner parties by the time I'm through! Wish me luck!

50% off Tuesdays at Bella - Brava!

At lunch with a friend the other day, she happened to mention that the Dolce group (Dolce, Bella, Ketchup, etc.) has 50% off nights at their different restaurants. Amazing! I called and had secured reservations for the following Tuesday. But, dear readers be aware, you must mention it to your server! They do not promote this special at all (on the menu, on the Bella website) - it's only mentioned on the Dolce website. So make sure you ask for your half off, or they will charge you full price!!

I stepped out of the hustle and bustle of Hollywood Blvd. and into this dimly lit little haven. It's a small but efficiently designed space, with a bar taking up one long wall and booths under slender windows taking up the other. My friends J, H, and I lounged in a roomy booth in the back. High ceilings, black glass chandeliers, and black and white photos of celebrities give the place a trendy, almost masculine vibe. The Dolce group has clearly perfected the art of cool.

My first bite of the focaccia bread made me think that perhaps it was a little past it's prime. The flavor was still fine, but it was a little dried out, like day old bread. Luckily, it is served with a tangy, vinegary, tomato dip. This lovely sauce helped to moisten the bread and had a fantastic flavor.

We decided to start by splitting the $3.50 Gnocchi in a Basil Pesto Sauce. The gnocchi was silky smooth, as soft and pliant as you could wish for. The sauce was creamy and packed a garlicky basil-y punch. A scrumptious combination - I could have ordered two and happily called it a meal.

Since it was 50% off Tuesday, I decided to go all out and get the Rack of Lamb for a mere $13! Although the meat was a little overcooked, it was still mouth-wateringly delicious, thanks in large part to a crunchy pistachio crust and a heady blackberry demi-glaze. The sweet and tart sauce was so generously portioned I decided to try it on everything, including the medley of fresh steamed vegetables - an experiment that payed off richly. The plate also came with a heaping mound of parmesan mashed potatoes. The sharpness of the cheese complimented the creaminess of the potatoes wonderfully. And thanks to the ample portion size, I was able to enjoy the whole meal again for lunch the next day. Altogether, a steal for $13!!

We ended the night with the $4 Molten Chocolate Cake. Typically, it is served with vanilla ice cream, but since they were out we opted for the strawberry sorbet. The cake was indeed dense and chocolaty, though not as meltingly molten as advertised. I think it could have used another minute or two in the oven as the very center was even a little cool. The sorbet, on the other hand was light and rich at the same time with a potent strawberry flavor.

All in all, my friends and I enjoyed a wonderful night on the town with good food in a trendy atmosphere for not a lot of cash. Go check it out!

Bella offers 50% off all food all night on Tuesday Nights (Drinks are still full price.)

Bella Cucina Italiana
1708 N. Las Palmas Ave.
Hollywood, CA 90028
323-468-8815
www.dolcegroup.com/bella

The Grilled Cheese Invitational

Los Angeles is a city full of diet conscious people. We have our vegans, our raw foodies, our macro-biotics (I'm not judging, as I have enjoyed the cuisine of all three.) But couple that with the fact that so many of our residents are as tanned and toned as the cast of 90210, and you may start to think there's little full fat, purely indulgent gastro-fun in the City of Angles. Enter: The Grilled Cheese Invitational.

By the time the gates opened at noon the line stretched all the way around the park and back! This is probably because the first 1700 people got to JUDGE the contest. As we waited in line, my friend N and I signed waivers giving them the right to kill us, steal from us, and basically do anything they wished without us holding them accountable. Then the nice folks at Kraft handed out little triangles of Kraft Singles Grilled Cheese. Now you know I'm not one to turn down free food, but I could only hope the quality level would skyrocket after that.

As we judges began milling around the fenced in park, the excitement level was so high I overheard one girl exclaim, "This is going to be the best day of my life!" And indeed it would seem so. Many competitors upped their cheesiness factor with kooky costumes such as robes and berets, balloon hats, cheese heads, etc. Most spirit points has to go to the Challah team, who sported sweat bands and kept inciting the crowd to "Challah!!!"

Then came the organizers, clearly kings of cheesiness. There was a Mayor of Cheese to welcome us all, an Irreverent Reverend to give the benediction, and the organizer of the whole shebang, Mr. Tim Walker, sporting a bright red fez. He spoke of "A sea of cheese that longs to melt, butter that yearns to fry, and bread that cries out to be grilled!" The Reverend actually went so far as to suggest that the answer to all of our nations woes might be found in a Grilled Cheese Sammich, reminding us that we were presently surrounded by 1.75 batrillion slices of hope. We can only hope dear Reverend, we can only hope.

The day had four heats: Missionary (just bread, cheese, and butter, nothing else), Kama Sutra - Vegetarian (Anything goes as long as it also includes the above three and no meat), Kama Sutra - Meat (self explanatory), and Honey Pot (Desserts!). Now here is the sad part: Each judge gets only TWO samples. Yes, of the hundreds of options, you could only try two. N and I of course decided to split our samples, but still four bites of different grilled cheeses does not exactly a feast make. Each sample came with a ballot on which you could rate the grilled cheese. Now, I understand that you can not ask competitors to make 1700 samples, but this still strikes me as a highly arbitrary way to judge. Especially considering the fact that in order to get a sample, you had to enter a crush of people, wave your ticket madly, and hope that the "runner" would take your ticket and give you a sample. You didn't even have any way of knowing exactly what was in each sammich. N and I just tried to spot a few ingredients we liked and then go for that.

This strategy produced mixed results throughout the day. Next year, I wouldn't waste any tickets on the "Missionary" heat as it was just too simple. The sample we procured there was a huge disappointment, just a step or two up from the Kraft samples. But the samples vastly improved with the Kama Sutra round. The best one we tried there had goat cheese, thinly sliced apple, some sort of spread, and a beet cut out in a star on top. Very tasty.

But the most delicious aspect of the day had to be the demonstration I attended by Chef Eric Greenspan of The Foundry. As last year's winner, he was serving up a decadent creation made of creamy and sharp Tallegio, oven dried tomatoes, arugula, braised beef, and an apricot caper puree with white wine, all of which was served up on a nutty bread that had been grilled in about a pound of butter. AMAZING! This sammich is apparently a fixture on his bar menu at The Foundry, so you may just see a review of that coming soon!

N. and I left the competition having been entertained and heartened by this show of a community in support of cheese, and we are now determined to enter next year! So be on the lookout, we're thinking we'll wear cheesy ballgowns as our costumes!:)

The Grilled Cheese Invitational takes place once a year and costs $5 (Certainly a deal considering they had free Kraft Singles Grilled Cheese and Izze Soda in addition to the competitor's samples).

For more information, you can go to: http://grilledcheeseinvitational.com

Happy Hour at Cafe La Boheme - Ohh La La What A Deal!

I wanted to take my friend, M, out to a nice place in order to celebrate her birthday. From the second we arrived, I knew La Boheme would fit the bill perfectly. We were greeted out front by twinkling white lights wound through the wrought iron fence, inviting us to a world of whimsy. We stepped in to find soaring ceilings, funky chandeliers, large statues, and a huge fireplace. Both of us are east coasters, and the sight of a roaring fire warmed our little snow starved hearts! The whole place reminded me of nothing so much as Beast's castle in Beauty and the Beast. Luckily, the plates did not start singing:)

We walked in to the bar area. With it's dangling red lights and plush chairs it has the feel of an intimate and classy lounge. However, La Boheme is the only place I know that offers Happy Hour from 5-8pm, and when we arrived at 7:15 it was packed!! Hurrah for late Happy Hours - let's hope this is a trend! Not a problem at all though, the very friendly manager escorted us to a table in the main dining room.

We began to study the menu of small bites and sandwiches. The prices ranged from $6-$22 which struck us as reasonable for such a nice place. But no, it's actually an additional half off those prices!! Phenomenal!! We decided to go all out and order five dishes - at these prices, you can't go wrong!


We began with the $4 Grilled Lamb Skewers served with a Cucumber Mint Tzatziki Sauce. The lamb itself was slightly overdone, but it still had a very strong flavor, almost gamy. The sauce had a perfectly cool tang, although I can't say I detected much mint in there. Individually, neither element was stellar, but taken together the two complimented each other nicely.



The rest of our order came all at once after that. I was still busy taking notes on the lamb, but I positively could not resist the aroma of the $4 Four Cheese Mac and Cheese wafting toward me, it smelled like I had died and gone to cheese heaven. This is probably one of the least goopy Mac and Cheeses I have ever had. It feels more like they just tossed the noddles in a bunch of cheese and cooked it, which is perfectly fine by me! The four cheeses played well together, starting out with a creamy mildness and then gradually growing sharper the more you chewed. This was M's favorite dish of the night!


The $4 Veggie Spring Rolls definitely win the award for loveliest presentation (at least until we get to dessert). They were light and crispy, but not altogether different from what you'd get at your local Chinese restaurant. What did set them apart was the House Plum Sauce and the Chinese Mustard. The plum sauce was sweet and pungent, nicely setting off the savory spring rolls.


Next we had what as billed as Japanese Fried Chicken for $4. The all white meat was tender and moist, and the soy based dipping sauce had a hint of heat, but I could have dealt with a little more crunch on the breading.


Finally we come to my favorite of the night: $3 Bacon Wrapped Dates with a Blue Cheese and Pecan Stuffing. In the interest of full disclosure, I will tell you that bacon wrapped dates are one of my favorite things in this world, and the addition of blue cheese and pecan stuffing is a stroke of genius. These little bites contain everything a mouth could wish for: salty, sweet, crunchy, smooth, pungent, and mild. Amazing!! While these were not the juiciest dates I have ever had, they were still out of this world DE-LICI-OUS!!!


We ended our meal with the Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding with Caramelized Bananas and Cinnamon Ice Cream. Normally this dish goes for $8, but we were charged the Happy Hour Price of $4. (In all honesty, I'm not sure if that was a mistake since it didn't say desserts were included in the half off special, but it was certainly a happy accident!). Regardless, this dish is certainly worth full price! The bread pudding was warm, soft, and so comforting it might as well be giving you a hug. The chocolate chips tasted like they had a high concentration of cocoa, almost like the bars you can get that are 60-70% chocolate. But, the cinnamon ice cream and accompanying sauces were sweet enough that it all balanced out. And I must mention the Caramelized Bananas - what an ingenious combination of creamy raw bananas with their crisply caramelized tops. Fantastic!

Overall, we very much enjoyed our experience at La Boheme - it is certainly a FANTASTIC deal - probably the best I've found yet! The two of us ate our fill of tasty food for under $25, and had plenty of leftovers to bring home! This gets four belt notches out of five, for overall value.

Cafe La Boheme has Happy Hour from 5-8pm Daily!

8400 Santa Monica Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
323-848-2360
http://boheme.globaldiningca.com