When we heard Umami Burger opened up a new location in Costa Mesa, we knew we had to get there ASAP. If you’ve never heard of Umami Burger, all you need to know is there’s no other burger quite like it. These folks don’t take their craftsmanship lightly. In a nutshell, “Umami” is an experience, a specific taste. (Click here to learn all about what umami is!) Anyway, we hadn’t been in a few years and we certainly had never taken Ruby, so we figured that was reason enough to get over there today!
We met up with our friends Mark, Lisa + Ollie and had a great lunch date! We started things off with the house pickles. I particularly loved the pickled cauliflower. Then I ordered the original Umami Burger, which comes with shiitake mushroom, caramelized onions, roasted tomato, a parmesan crisp + umami ketchup, and Ed ordered the Hatch Burger which comes with 4 types of green chilies + house cheese.
Ruby was a big fan of the umami ketchup – and she didn’t hesitate to help herself to Daddy’s Hatch Burger either! You should check out the list of burgers and see which combination of umami sounds best to you!
This weekend, on our way up to LACMA, we realized that we arrived an hour before it opened and Ruby had fallen asleep in the car. To kill some time, we thought we’d drive by Sprinkles’ new 24/7 Cupcake ATM to see what it was like. We certainly didn’t expect to get a cupcake, especially since all of the coverage on the news was reporting that the lines were hours long!
Well, we got lucky. Maybe it was because of the pouring rain outside, or maybe it was because it was only 10:30am, but there was no line whatsoever! I hopped out of the car and returned with a perfectly packaged Chocolate Marshmallow cupcake! It was just as delicious as it sounds.
Last Saturday was the 1st Annual Long Beach Street Food Fest in Rainbow Harbor! Basically that meant some pretty awesome gourmet food trucks were all parked out in one place (check out all the trucks that were there) , and we got to spend the day walking around the park, hanging out with friends, lounging on the grass and sampling food after food … pretty much a perfect day in our opinion! Here’s a short clip we took from our shady spot in Rainbow Harbor:
It’s no secret that the gourmet food truck phenomenon has been growing strong over the last few years. Ed & I credit the original Kogi BBQ truck for all the hype (We chased them around L.A. one night – you have to get their location by following them on Twitter). Many, many chefs have followed in Kogi’s direction, and now there’s a truck for just about any food you can possibly think of.
Where do we begin with Ahn Joo? It was amazing – we ended up visiting this truck twice, and we decided it was our favorite truck of the food fest. If you watched the Food Network’s “Next Food Network Star”, you may remember Debbie, who was one of the contestants. This was her truck! She was known on the show for being Korean, but growing up in the South. Mixing up bold flavorful Korean flavors with Southern Comfort food is an absolute winner!
Left: This was my “KFC” – Korean Fried Chicken! Yep, juicy on the inside, crispy on the outside – and glazed with a sticky sweet garlic sauce. I want to eat this everyday! Right: Ed was loving his Mama Lee’s Meatloaf! And these were the simple, yet perfect, showstoppers: The “Seoultown Spuds”. Potato Wedges with a spicy chili sauce & green onions! LOVED THESE!!!
We also sampled Bacon-Wrapped Rice Skewers and Kimchee Citrus Pork Skewers with Grilled Fuji Apple. We WILL be searching out Ahn Joo in the future!
Buttermilk was a fun truck! They kept it simple – and indulgent! – by offering three things on the menu: Glazed buttermilk doughnut holes, Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Pancake Bites and “The Brick”. The Brick consisted of hashbrowns and an over-Easy egg smothered in chorizo gravy, with a buttermilk biscuit right on top. Ed was all over it – and this was a big fave from the day as well.
Ed & I were super excited about hitting the Border Grill truck. Border Grill is none other than Chef Susan Feniger, who is an inspiring and energetic chef who we especially loved watching on Top Chef Masters (you may also know her from The Two Hot Tamales?). Unfortunately – the food we got on the truck was just “meh.” We tried the Yucatan Pork Taco, the Crispy Baja Fish Taco, the Potato Rajas Taco, the Carne Asada taco and an order of Cumin Fries w/chipotle ketchup. Maybe it was the crowds (this truck had a HUGE line) or maybe something was off, but the food was kind of a disappointment. Oh well, we still love you Susan!
Okay – technically, this is just a 1/2 stop, because while we were in line at Border Grill, people kept walking away with food from this truck that looked AMAZING (like that cute little meatball slider you see on your right!) and we had to get in line. But, we were too late – by the time we got near the front, they were sold out of many items and all they had left were bigger plates (which we didn’t want to indulge in, because we had to pace ourselves – there was a lot of food to try!). But I definitely want to find these guys again soon … they have a really fun menu (“Ballafel”, anyone?), and we are intrigued!
5th Stop: COOLHAUS I could not wait to check out COOLHAUS, where I’d saw online that they are known for their “architecturally inspired ice cream sandwiches”! (The truck itself also rules – notice the rims!)
They have unusual (and some classic) flavors like: blood orange, brown butter w/ candied bacon, chocolate chipotle, cinnamon, coffee toffee, dirty mint chip, meyer lemon, vanilla bean, lambrusco, baked apple, sea salt caramel, mascarpone balsamic fig, ed velvet, peanut butter, strawberry, carrot cake, pistachio w/ black truffles, and even foie gras! They come sandwiched in-between two yummy freshly baked cookies.
My pictures didn’t really turn out (this one comes from their website) – but they come as minis, which is optimal for trying multiple flavors/combinations! Unfortunately, by the time we hit COOLHAUS it was later in the day, and the infamous Brown Butter Ice Cream with Candied Bacon was sold out – as well as the Red Velvet! But my Minty Brownie sandwich was awesome. It’s gonna be a long hot summer, so I guarantee The Kims will be seen chasing this truck in the future as well.
And for some summery refreshment: Del’s Frozen Lemonade There’s not much better on a hot summery day than a Frozen Lemonade. Del’s was a classic. You could also consider this a palate cleanser, no?
Overall – it was a great day in Long Beach. We can’t wait for next year! (Or maybe this weekend, we we just go search out all the trucks again on our own?)
Today was wide open and we had an itch to get on the road – Ed sold his beloved Mini this week, but it was happily replaced by his favorite car, a VW Jetta SportWagen! We decided it was a good day to break it in. We decided to head south down PCH and see where the day would take us. Too bad the sun never came out today – but the drive was gorgeous nonetheless …
We were hungry for lunch, so we hit up Yelp to find a new good place to try. We stumbled upon Crab Zone in Laguna Beach. Don’t be fooled by the cheesy name, this place really delivered! It is a seafood restaurant offering traditional type items like Clam Chowder and Seafood Gumbo, but they also have an interesting Asian Fusion twist, too. There was definitely a lot to choose from.
The 5-star ratings were pretty hard to ignore, and everyone seemed to be raving over the Dungeness Crab with Garlic and Pepper Butter Sauce, so Ed went ahead and ordered it. They really weren’t messing around – look at the size of that thing! Although he said it was probably the messiset meal he’s ever eaten, Ed swears it was worth the mess. They actually chop the legs off and cook everything in a wok, and then they “assemble” the crab back on to the plate. You get a lot of attention when its brought out to the table!
I decided to order a cup of the gumbo and get some steamed King Crab Legs. Wow – those did not disappoint either! Everything was delicious! Once again, big thanks to the Yelpers for getting us to a new destination!
15 Minutes of Fame: Portraits from Ansel Adams to Andy Warhol explores a diverse range of photographic portraits from early modernism, to photographs of celebrities from the 1930s to 1960s, photojournalistic street photography from the 1960s, and contemporary portraiture.
All of the photos were fantastic! This photo taken by Lawrence Schiller in 1962 was one of our favorites. See Alfred Hitchcock in the rearview mirror of the car?
They also had a pretty cool photo booth in the exhibit so that you could capture your own 15 minutes of fame. Here we are with our best attempts at celebrity!
We also love OCMA because of its beautifully designed modern space.
Here’s Ed looking dapper in the tulip chair …
Okay, so this is sooo belated, but if we don’t stop posting around here with nothing but Baby updates, people are going to revoke our thosecoolkims license. So, here are a few highlights from the epic FOODCATION we took with Brittany & Wade to celebrate Wade’s 40th Birthday! 2 days in Wine Country, 2 days in San Francisco, and many, many Michelin-star restaurants!
While every single meal we had was simply fantastic – both Ed & I probably agree that our meal at Ad Hoc was the most special somehow. Being that it was one of Thomas Keller’s restaurants makes it very special on its own, but the concept of the place was so warm and inviting. As described on the Ad Hoc website:
The building at 6476 Washington Street was originally intended to be a very different type of restaurant. While we were designing it we thought we’d experiment by opening a temporary restaurant and calling it Ad Hoc, which literally means, “for this purpose.” The idea for Ad Hoc was simple – 5 days a week we’d offer a 4 course family style menu that changed each day, accompanied by a small, accessible wine list in a casual setting reminiscent of home.
Casual and reminiscent of home is exactly what it was. We felt right at home as the servers brought out plates and plates of family-style food. As there is no menu, you literally just get whatever is being served that evening. We really lucked out! Our night was Surf-n-Turf night! Check out all of this meat and lobster!
Also what made things very special is that Thomas Keller has his garden directly across the street from his three restaurants on the street. We literally saw chefs outdoors, picking ingredients from the ground, and going right back into the kitchen to serve them. Our first course at Ad Hoc was a salad served with all produce from the garden! It was amazing to eat something so fresh & natural – it was definitely much more special than a usual salad! We walked the grounds after our meal reveling at each thing we saw growing that we had eaten just hours before!
Yes, we ate plenty of these Fava Beans!
Look, there’s a chef out picking from the garden!
Another very special meal was at Redd. Redd is the very best in “California Cuisine”. A sleek modern setting, a very fun and varied menu and the perfect afternoon to dine al fresco made this a wonderful lunch! Brittany is modeling her gorgeous plate of Pot Roast and I am thrilled with my mini Chinese-style Pork Buns!
Of course, it wouldn’t be a trip to wine country without a wine tasting! Here is Ed looking dapper at Terra Valentine vineyards!
We finished off our time in Napa at Thomas Keller’s other restaurant, Bouchon.
It was very french – I ordered the Poulet Roti …
… and we all indulged in this gluttonous seafood platter!
Leaving Napa was difficult to do, but fortunately we had a lunch at The Slanted Door to look forward to! The Slanted Door has the very best in Asian Fusion cuisine! It was the best I think we’ve ever had!
It was a legendary meal, we just kept ordering food, and they kept bringing out other things they thought we’d enjoy. We felt like rockstars throughout the meal. We can’t wait to return!!!
Beautiful sashimi for everyone but the pregnant girl :(
More oysters for Wade & Ed
Later that evening, we celebrated Ed’s birthday the way he wanted to celebrate it – at an East German restaurant! Everyone knows Ed’s obsession with all things German, but Walzwerk was special because it contained all of the old-school East German communist kitsch that Ed can’t get enough of! The posters, the dishes … everything about the place made you feel like you were in Berlin, circa sometime in the late 60s-early 70s. Anything for the birthday boy!
Ed and his giant plate of Jaegerschnitzel!
My giant plate of traditional schnitzel!
Old posters
The whole gang!
Another foodie stop in SF is none other than the Bi-Rite Creamery.
It just so happened we weren’t far from there after dinner at Walzwerk, so we headed over to try out some of their famous flavors! At Bi-Rite, they’re known for unusual ice cream such as Salted Caramel, Honey Lavender, Balsamic Strawberry and Earl Grey! There was a line wrapped around the corner when we arrived! Being the ice cream enthusiast I am, I wish I could’ve tried them all, but I went with the Salted Caramel and the Malted Vanilla with Peanut Brittle. YUM!
The finale was the big dinner at Hubert Keller‘s restaurant, Fleur de Lys for Wade’s actual 40th birthday. We are all big fans of Chef Keller – he’s been seen a lot as a guest judge on Top Chef, and he also was a finalist in Top Chef Masters.
This was a pretty fancy place, and needless to say, it was a little too fancy for me to bust out my camera at the table! So, there’s not any pics. We had a 4-course menu, and everything from the presentation, to the service, to the food was spectacular. Unfortunately, it doesn’t bode well for blogging purposes – but it was an experience that just can’t be explained! We are grateful to have gone and will remember it as a very special evening always!
I think this wraps up our highlights! We didn’t eat for about a week afterwards, but it was absolutely worth every bite!
When we heard Umami Burger opened up a new location in Costa Mesa, we knew we had to get there ASAP. If you’ve never heard of Umami Burger, all you need to know is there’s no other burger quite like it. These folks don’t take their craftsmanship lightly. In a nutshell, “Umami” is an experience, a specific taste. (Click here to learn all about what umami is!) Anyway, we hadn’t been in a few years and we certainly had never taken Ruby, so we figured that was reason enough to get over there today!
+ umami ketchup, and Ed ordered the Hatch Burger which comes with 4 types of green chilies + house cheese.
