i saw umami burger’s (u-mini) location in westwood yesterday so when i went looking for a lunch spot today, i didn’t have to look far. i ordered the ALT burger because i didn’t want cheese. i didn’t want grilled onions either but it’s not that kind of burger place so i played by the rules.

the place has good seating and a small menu and the burgers come out tattooed with the umami burger logo (nice touch), but my burger was very (very) raw on the inside. i tested it, the meat was warm…now what? i really don’t mind undercooked meat – depends on how i feel about the establishment. i mean, c’mon, i eat raw meat at sunnin. sunnin!!!

i took the burger inside and let them know it was cooked irregularly. they offered me another one but i turned them down. i said i’d eat it but thought they should know because many people won’t eat it looking like that.

i returned outside with my burger, already satisfied that i would test my iron stomach and my luck. i didn’t want a second burger – i would puke from too much food. the cashier came to my table offering me another burger – again. or a shake. i turned down the burger – again (!) citing the same argument i just outlined above. i deliberated about the shake and ultimately accepted, choosing the chocolate over the salted caramel.

i now am carefully monitoring my stomach and slowly sipping my shake which tastes like a mix of the two flavors. oh, umami, you have been open for 5 weeks and you need to iron out quite a few kinks…

we finally made it to gloria’s cafe to partake in both salvadoran and mexican food. of course, with any restaurant on our to-do list, we ordered waaaaay too much food. thank goodness we went with 2 other people. we started with fried yucca and pork. i love the way salvadorans prepare this. we made fried (baked, actually) yucca once and it was good but not as good as at a restaurant. this was the least greasy yucca and pork i’ve ever had. next time, i’ll just order this and nothing else. maybe i’ll order two…

we also ordered pupusas, sadly there didn’t have loroco but the pork and cheese and bean and cheese pupusas didn’t disappoint. i loved the hot (physically) salsa and curtido and the pupusas weren’t drenched in grease. they were definitely better than the ones at the west la farmers market.

m ordered the house special: pork adobada. wow. the salvadoran rice was seasoned as i expected and the spiced sauce and pork were rich but delicate and perfectly tender. and not swimming in oil. the not swimming in oil is key, as you might have guessed.

i ordered the pork and elote salvadoran tamales and the beef and ortega chile mexican tamales. salvadoran tamales are made differently – something about being cooked before being steamed in a banana leaf and then cooked again (maybe?). the elote is almost like a dessert tamale as it had a sweetness to it. it wasn’t stuffed; it reminded me of cornbread. both of the salvadoran tamales had a wonderfully fluffy texture and were much better than the mexican ones. of the mexican ones, the ortega chile was the best. awesome green sauce and chile flavor.

bottom line: i would definitely go back and i would probably order just as much food. at the end of the day, guacamole, 3 pupusas, yucca & pork, pitcher of sangria, 8 tamales, fish tacos, and house special pork totaled less than $90.

having a large iced cinnamon coffee at la monarca. best iced coffee ever and i don’t even like iced coffee.

and apparently she refers to herself in the third person…

before i display the photo, i must warn that these are the ugliest rolls i’ve ever made (i’ve only made rolls twice so my rolls are ugly 50% of the time), but their redeeming quality is in their crispy crust. and the fact that i completely jacked the dough before i baked them but they still turned out ok (so much for that consistency goal):

1. this dough was very wet – maybe i mismeasured the poolish
2. at the last minute i decided to make rolls since there’s no way this dough would stay shaped – too wet
3. i mismeasured the first row so i added bits of wet dough to each one (in varying, non-measured, eyeballed amounts)
4. i mismeasured the second row so i had to remove bits of wet dough from each one (in varying, non-measured, eyeballed amounts)
5. i let it proof too long – didn’t seem to harm it any
6. i baked it for 40 minutes (i think) because 20 minutes just didn’t seem like enough and i don’t even know if i had the amount called for in the recipe (see #1)
7. fresh baked bread needs to sit and dry out before eating (much like resting meat) – i absolutely did not do this. i ripped open a bunch of rolls and slathered jam all over them.

they are ugly but they are crispy in a way my loaves rarely are. and my stomach doesn’t care what they look like.

ugly. crispy. tasty. homemade rolls with homemade jam!