Les Madeleines, Salt Lake City

This past weekend Brian and I were in Utah for his mom's college graduation. Congrats Kathleen! We ended up with some down time on Saturday and Brian suggested we head 30 minutes north to Salt Lake City to check yet another restaurant off our list. This time is was a patisserie and cafe called Les Madeleines. This ended up on my list from another episode of The Best Thing I Ever Ate when the Neelys went on and on about this pastry the Kouing Aman. (Still not sure on the pronunciation.) Our friends, the Colson's, recently visited SLC and told us this place was not to miss. The Kouing Aman is by far the best pastry I have every had. It was caramelized and crunchy on the outside, buttery, gooey and flaky on the inside. I probably should have shared one with Brian, but I was a little sick so he didn't want my germs. So I had my own and had not problem polishing the whole thing off. Two would have definitely been out of the question though. So if you're in the area, stop by and enjoy one tasty pastry.


My three favorite boys

Umami Burger

On Friday Brian had the day off work, so I decided to ditch out of my day job and we spent Thursday night and all day Friday playing in Los Angeles. When we were deciding what to do while we were there I couldn't come up with any specific activities, just a list of restaurants I've been dying to try. So as it turns out, food was the main focus of our quick LA get away.

On Thursday night we hit up our first restaurant, Umami Burger. I've been watching The Best Thing I Ever Ate on Food Network and I practically drool for the 30 minutes it's on. On the show, chefs just sit around and tell you about the best food they've eaten and where to get it. The topic was hometown favorites when Giada was singing Umami Burger's praises. The thing that got my attention, besides how amazing the burgers looked, was that they make their own ketchup. I love ketchup. Brian constantly makes fun of how much ketchup I consume during a meal that involves hamburgers, fries, or quite a few other menu items. If the bottle at the table isn't full when I sit down, I'll always have to ask for more. Umami Burger is a simple, but gourmet burger restaurant, with extremely friendly staff and simple but hip atmosphere. (What is Umami?) Their burgers were a nice size, much smaller than your average restaurant burger, but I liked that. I ordered their Umami Burger, (also what Giada had) and it comes with tomato, mushroom, a thin, crisp slice of Parmesan cheese, and homemade ketchup. It was so soft when I bit into it, it was sweet, salty, juicy, oh so good. Brian got the Manly Burger that is topped with beer-cheddar cheese, smoked salt onion strings, and bacon lardons. He loved it. We also ordered their hand cut fries. They were very thick, which was fun, but we both would have preferred the regular size fries (which they do offer). The fry to ketchup ratio was off since the fries were so thick. Their menu has a lot of other delicious sounding burgers and the price is definitely right. The burgers range from $9-$11. We even got some dessert. I had read that their ice cream sandwiches were very good, so we ordered one up. We got vanilla bean ice cream, which came between two macaroons, with half dipped in chocolate. To die for. I'm still thinking about that one. Bottom line, if you are ever in LA, stop by. They have three different locations plus a burger truck. Visit their website for more info. And if you need a little extra incentive, I read online that a Jonas Brother was spotted eating there.