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| - I reviewed this restaurant and interviewed the owners for the upper midwest food magazine the "Heavy Table" in honor of Umami's 1 yr anniversary.
It is now a year later and I am still thinking about some of the dishes I ate, and plotting a trip back to Madison. While the ramen (especially with the amazing "flavor infused" egg!) and the paper thin, crispy dumplings were delicious; the top dishes on MY mind are:
1. The only seafood on the menu, tuna poke ($10), is a must. Sashimi-grade ahi tuna is served with seaweed salad and apple cucumber slaw in a sweet soy sauce, atop crispy pork rinds. It's a balanced bite of salty / sweet and crispy / meaty each time.
2. The pork buns ($7) feature roasted, thick, juicy pieces of Berkshire pork belly and pickled vegetables in a homemade hoisin sauce stuffed inside a fluffy steamed gwa pao bun (Taiwanese clamshell style). If you prefer spicy over sweet, try the ones filled with Korean beef.
3. Finally, although you are sure to be full, the green tea crème brulee ($6) is a flavorful end to a savory meal.
To read the entire review in the "Heavy Table", which includes the story of how two Chinese-American friends in Brooklyn who 10 yrs ago regularly played basketball together and daydreamed about opening a dumpling shop, moved to Madison to make it a delicious reality, here in the link:
http://heavytable.com/randy-ng-and-michael-ding-of-umami-in-madison/
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