Chicago Foodies

Prairie Moon

So much food, so little cost.  Prairie Moon offered a large amount of really good food for little money.  Our bill for the night before Thanksgiving was under $50 for two fish entrees, a beer and a martini (and good, warm, sourdough bread at the table).  I could have made two meals out of the plate had I exhibited any self control, but when the food is that good, why bother.

I enjoyed the fish and chips - buttery soft fish in a crisp, deep-fried breading  Served with skinny skin-on fries and yummy tarter sauce, who can beat it?  Complemented by a good cold Stella Artois,  I was happy.

Devon's Black Friday

Sabri was not only my favorite restaurant on Devon, it was one of my favorite restaurants in the city. It's one of the few places that I posted about more than once and used unfairly as a yardstick to compare other restaurants against.  Their nehari was spectacular. Their chicken makhani would be my last meal on earth. Usmania is across the street and down a block or two but it's a different restaurant.

I came back from the holiday to the terrible news that Sabri burned down. A fire stretching from Campbell to Maplewood closed many businesses in addition to Sabri.

Infused Vodka Focus Group

I had a houseguest from Birmingham (UK) who mentioned that she loves skittle-flavored vodka. It's something I think I'd like so it's the next experiment. There's an endless variety of additives like Jolly Ranchers, Gummi-things, bubble-gum, etc.

Crack a bottle of vodka, do 2 shots and add a packet of Skittles. Let it sit a week shaking it every chance you get.

The big problem with dissolving a pack of Skittles in vodka is the hydrogenated gunk that ends up floating around in it. All it means is that you need to filter it out. Given that the Skittles have turned the vodka into a sticky, staining mess it is an extra step that I don't really appreciate.
It does taste like Skittles... shaken with Red Bull and look out.

Needless to say, I began adding less staining and less sweet items.

Domino's Brooklyn Style Pizza

OK... I saw the ad for Domino's Brooklyn style pizza and thought. Hmm. That should work. My problem with Domino's is that their crust is rarely cooked through and the cheese has that uniform crispy bubbling. I would think they're cooking them in ovens that are too high.

Bleached Flour - No Good Reason?

It seems like capitalism will cycle our baking aisle in the grocery to include more organic options. Consumers appear to be far more comfortable with less processed ingredients. Aesthetic taking a backseat to safety. Two examples are Safeway's introduction of the Organic's line and Frito Lay's "Natural" line... meaning their regular line must be un-natural? I do have an unnatural urge to eat Cheetos...

There are tons of options of sugars and flours that are not bleached, are bleached in different ways, etc. I'm really not sure why are we obsessed with "white" flour. I guess in white cakes maybe though that would be cake flour, no? But bleached flour for everything? I don't get it. There are even questions about the safety of white flour.

The Zodiac Room

After a late morning of shopping for wedding dresses my friend and I decided to girl it up for lunch at The Zodiac Room on the 4th floor of Neiman Marcus.  Walking into the dining room the atmosphere was very calm and comforting, the perfect place to sit and chat. Models twirled around the room as we dinned, displaying the new fall lines.  It definitely felt like something out of a movie.

Top Chef: Season 2

Oh alright. The hostess is wearing hot pants. What is the deal? Well she plays an Egyptian princess in the remake of The Ten Commandments so I guess she's qualified.

Top Chef was pretty good last season. It was new. It's not new anymore. Since then I've gotten used to the screaming Englishman in Hell's Kitchen. This season on Top Chef I have come to the conclusion that the staff, hosts, judges, etc. aren't as fun to watch as the contestants. This show is more about the critique than the food. They're brutal. Tom Colliccio's a little stiff and mean. The Food and Wine special projects lady, Gail Simmons, is also a little stiff and mean. They probably aren't really mean it's more likely the decisions the director makes on what to show and what not to show.

Maybe mean is the wrong word. It's hard to find their criticizm constructive. When they say they like dishes they are definitive and when they dislike it they're as definitive. It's the authority I have a problem with. It's not enough that these judges like or dislike something. They need to explain better why they like or dislike things. On Project Runway, even Michael Kors, who did sometimes seem to enjoy the critique, did a good job of helping us understand not only what was wrong but why it was wrong and what would make it better. There's no back and forth... There's no Chef-Assistant or Kitchen Manager like Tim Gunn on Project Runway.

Starbucks Breakfast Sandwiches

I'll admit it. I go to Starbucks fairly often. I get it at the office and over long car rides. But I just get coffee. No lattes, mochas, frapps, etc. coffee... black. But I have started getting assorted pastry before a decent car ride. I tried the flax seed braid that actually isn't half bad but I recently tried a breakfast sandwich thinking that it's gotta be better than McDonald's.