If you’ve never heard of Umami Burger, it’s a hipster burger joint in Los Angeles that emphasizes the taste of umami in their burgers. If you’re asking yourself what the crap umami is (like I did) here’s how it’s explained by the restaurant:
“Taking its name from Japanese, umami is a pleasant savoury taste imparted by glutamate, a type of amino acid, and ribonucleotides, including inosinate and guanylate, which occur naturally in many foods including meat, fish, vegetables and dairy products. As the taste of umami itself is subtle and blends well with other tastes to expand and round out flavors, most people don’t recognize umami when they encounter it, but it plays an important role making food taste delicious.”
So there you go. Umami is a savoury taste imparted by glutamate, a type of amino acid, and ribonucleotides, including inosinate and guanylate. Duh.
Honestly, I’m pretty sure I still don’t understand what the umami flavor is, but I will say that these burgers are delicious. They’re perfectly juicy (medium rare, the way beef is meant to be), and the bread has this great fluffy/chewy consistency. It’s like they took a normal hamburger bun and mated it with a donut. And for the record, I fully support the mating of any food with donuts. The babies could only be delicious. The burgers were a bit smaller than I was expecting from an $11-12 burger, but I remedied the situation with my quick thinking: ordering more burgers.
Umami Burger
850 S La Brea Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 931-3000
www.umamiburger.com/