Please note that Gourmet magazine ceased publication after the November 2009 issue.
Subscribers can look forward to receiving Bon Appétit magazine for the remainder of their subscription. If you have questions about your Gourmet magazine subscription, please contact subscription services. If you'd like to purchase past issues of Gourmet, please go to the Condé Nast store.
We regret any inconvenience and thank you for your loyal readership.
Los Angeles: Umami Burger
The first time I went to Umami Burger it was six weeks old, which is irritating because that meant I had lost five weeks and six days of eating at L.A.’s newest best hamburger joint. The complicated flavors in the titular Umami burger, a weighty round of freshly ground flap meat, juicy grilled mushrooms, roasted tomato, caramelized onions, and a crispy parmesan tuile, are impressive. But it doesn’t floor me with that why-didn’t-I-meet-you-sooner? longing the way the delectably smoky Triple Pork burger, made of ground pork, chorizo, bacon, and aged Manchego, does. I am now equally attached to the Mideast burger, a Sonoma lamb patty with harissa-honey sauce and shallots cooked in red wine, and the just-spicy-enough Hatch burger topped with four types of chopped green chiles. The owner, Adam Fleischman, has instructed his employees to be coy about the harder-to-identify ingredients he uses to achieve the flavor-enriching fifth taste in his food known as umami. “It’s secret,” our server kept repeating. But the appeal of hand-cut, triple-cooked fries and malt liquor–tempura onion rings served with homemade ketchup and roasted garlic aïoli is deliciously obvious.
Umami Burger 850 S. La Brea, Los Angeles (323-931-3000; umamiburger.com)
Umami Burger 850 S. La Brea, Los Angeles (323-931-3000; umamiburger.com)
Comments
Post a Comment