Groupon recently featured Manny's Deli, an old-school Chicago deli and cafeteria established in 1942, and frequented by none other than (you guessed it) Barack Obama. I've been meaning to check out this place for months, so armed with a $15 gift certificate, I stopped by to investigate Chicago's answer at a New York-style deli.
Great burgers at a great price... three kinds of meat lends a nice anisey-herby flavor. Nobody said that they come with fries! 500 S. Dearborn- Split the cab, it's worth it.
With the cutting winds and single-digit temperatures of Chicago's winter, I find that making soup is a wonderful line of defense: warm, fast and comforting.
Having made at least a pot every week since October, I was starting to run out of soup ideas when I came across this article on chicken noodle soups with a Southeast Asian twist. In particular, the curry coconut soup caught my eye, with its keen array of spices and aromatics. Suffice it to say, this is not your grandmother's chicken noodle soup. And though some of the ingredients are a little esoteric, it's well-worth a trip to your nearest Asian market to procure them. The recipe is as follows:
Seven diners in northern Japan
fell ill and three were still in hospital today after eating blowfish
testicles prepared in a restaurant not authorised to serve the
poisonous delicacy.
The owner of the restaurant in Tsuruoka city,
who is also the chef, had no licence to serve blowfish and was being
questioned on suspicion of professional negligence, police official
Yoshihito Iwase said.
Iwase said the seven men ordered sashimi and grilled blowfish testicles at the restaurant last night.
We trust something in a grocery store and assume
it's good. We don't learn about the most precious thing in life-the
food we put in our body. Educate yourself!
I finally caught an episode of Chopped! It's the Food Network's response to Bravo's "Top Chef" and while it's different in some ways, I can't say that it's up to par. Hell's Kitchen which is back this week as well also makes for better T.V.
The contestant-food looks horrible which might be camerawork that is digital video at it's worst. The color is very cold and the detail is pretty sharp which makes for food that looks mysteriously mucky and bad. Then again, it may be that the food is a mess on the plate. After seeing some downright inventive and complicated dishes being pulled off on 'Top Chef', these contestants were unfortunately mediocre. Salads and crabcakes, one that became a soup after repeatedly failing to be executed, were all that was offered from the four contestants at the appetizer stage when after tasting one chef gets... are you ready? "Chopped!" (ugh) etc. Until, after dessert, one chef remains to claim ten grand.
Mooshi... that's right meat-sushi. Meat-maki too. It was over a year ago that we mentioned nyotamori (naked sushi), so it's time for another bizarro-sushi incarnation.
This time around we're leaving it up to the young folks at Cheffervescence. A nice bacon lattice in lieu of wakame and some beef and potato and look out. Although the prosciutto roll looked like it had the best chance, most of it seemed kind of nasty. I guess it's all about the plating.
The only thing harder than collectively deciding on what movie to see at Old Orchard on a Saturday night was what restaurant to go to first for dinner. The mall does provide a convenient yet extremely unappealing variety of chain restaurants to choose from like The Corner Bakery, Johnny Rockets and the Cheesecake Factory. Although we were all willing to compromise on the movie we weren’t ready to compromise our food choices and decided there just has to be something worthwhile to eat close by that wasn’t a chain.
Last week, I was lucky enough to be treated to dinner at Sixteen,
the restaurant at Chicago's Trump International Hotel & Tower.
This officially marks the most expensive meal of my life, though
ultimately I wasn't paying for it (phew). Sixteen opened fairly
recently last spring, to much hoopla and fanfare as is appropriate for
a Trump property. Now, does it live up to the hype?
It's happens. You lose your appetite and it's an odd feeling. I had some food poisoning this past week and have yet to really get my appetite back. Of course I get preoccupied with it and it makes me think about how integral the appetite is to the sense of taste.
The other senses don't have a similar cue. Maybe the semi-conscious urge to bust bubble wrap bubbles? That might be close for touch. I guess some people really like fireworks or the orchestra... but it's not the same thing. We need the meals we eat as much as we want them and that sums up the overpowering nature of the appetite.
Driving north of the city through Lincolnwood we used our trusty iPhone to locate a suitable spot to satisfy our hunger pangs. Being in the mood for Chinese we were directed to a tried-and-true neighborhood spot – Kow Kow Restaurant – on the corner of Pratt and Cicero. The original Kow Kow opened in 1949 on Devon as a Chinese take-out joint and then moved to the Cicero location in the 80s. It is still family owned and operated by the original proprietor’s son.
I decided to check out this Alsatian Gewurtztraminer, which sells at Whole Foods for $23.99. What I seem to find is that the $20 to $30 range can get one a Gewurtz that is anywhere from mediocre table wine to amazing Grand Cru quality (and Grand Crus usually start in the high $20s). Riefle falls somewhere in the middle. This slightly off-dry wine had a pale yellow color color, with pears and fruit cocktail initially, followed by rose petals on the finish. What I like about this wine is that the rose petals did not interfere on the palate, and while clarity of flavors is sought out in Gewurtztraminers, rose petals can sometimes ruin a flavor. Acidity and structure are decent
My wife and I stumbled upon Riccardo Trattoria when we were checking out the line at Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder next door and decided instead to pursue other options. We decided to eat there on a whim, and when we were done felt that we needed to return a second time.
All but one of the staff I have seen so far are Italian. The passion for the food, the homemade pasta, and the attention to detail make this mid-priced restaurant an incredible value for money. For an appetizer I ordered the Honeycomb Tripe Florentine, which was braised with tomatoes, what I believe were basil leaves, and Parmesan cheese. It was outstanding and exceeded expectations, and I would recommend it to those who do not normally care for tripe. My wife ordered Minestrone Genovese, which was not your typically tomato and lentil soup, but rather a wonderful pesto and rice soup.
I
recently returned on a trip from La Jolla, California where I satisfied
my craving for the freshest sushi I could get my chopsticks on.
Rappungi Sushi Bar, centrally located in the heart of downtown La
Jolla, was the place of choice.
Reminiscent
of the days years ago that I spent working in the great food city of
San Francisco and being spoiled by the delights of this new-to-me
cuisine, my earthy Midwestern food roots were instantly replaced by
tiny raw-fish I could shove into my mouth in one bite. Who would’ve
thought?
If you're feeling motivated enough to venture out into the cold to try some exotic foods I can guarantee you've never had before, then be sure to check out the Taste of the Aztec World event going on from Sunday, January 11th through Saturday, January 17th.
Local restaurants will be preparing Aztec inspired drinks and dishes to commemorate the opening of The Aztec World exhibition at the Field Museum. 16 restaurants will be offering Aztec inspired dishes that range from truly authentic Mesoamerican to more loosely interpreted Mexican classics. For the classic, try Aria’s melt-in-our mouth chili-braised short ribs with tomato and cheese tamales.
For the truly authentic visit Mundial Cocina Mestiza where owner Mario Cota took the challenge literally, working with chefs in Mexico City to create some rustic dishes from the past. For starters you can munch on the Aztec version of nachos with your choice of topping; crickets, worms or prawns. The crickets on top of salsa Cruda, a raw blend of tomatillo and avocado, have a great mix of sweet and salty crunch.
The stars and lights shine so bright with this interesting Texas Merlot. Though I'm not a huge fan I like Merlot, but I think the bashing as of late is rather unfair. Some of the criticism is due to its sweetness, and some California winemakers appeared to have engineered their Merlots to make the wines more sweet than they need to be. And, of course, there's the Sideways movie. When offering a red wine to a guest, sometimes it's "any red, as long as it's not Merlot".
I know he's doing it for the money, god knows we all have to eat but isn't is a shame that he's not cooking? Isn't that where his talent is? Isn't that where a chef's passion is? Bourdain I get. His shows are great because he's genuinely interested, at least he's fooled me, and he's up for anything. He may be a sports fan too but I could care less about his opinions there. Some folks may consider Flay to be a snappy dresser but I really don't want dressing or dating advice from that married man.
Buy really, I digress, can you have too much Flay? Bobby "Iron Chef" Flay debuts his own talk radio show that while focuses on food covers dating, dining, sports, etc. It's a call in show on SIRIUS XM so who knows... His wife, actress Stephanie March, will occasionally co-host. Maybe he can run for Vice President in 4 years.
There are not many occasions where you can break out a full bottle of dessert wine and use it up in one night. And with a great wine like Sauternes, it would be a crime to vacuum seal it and stop it, even if we can get more life out of a sweet wine instead of a dry wine.
Sauternes is lighter and more exquisite compared to other dessert wines that can sometimes be a bit more heavy, and I don't mind heavy, but that means I can drink more than one glass of Sauternes whereas I can only consume one glass of Hungarian Tokaji or PX Sherry.
With the cutting winds and single-digit temperatures of Chicago's winter, I find that making soup is a wonderful line of defense: warm, fast and comforting.
Having made at least a pot every week since October, I was starting to run out of soup ideas when I came across this article on chicken noodle soups with a Southeast Asian twist. In particular, the curry coconut soup caught my eye, with its keen array of spices and aromatics. Suffice it to say, this is not your grandmother's chicken noodle soup. And though some of the ingredients are a little esoteric, it's well-worth a trip to your nearest Asian market to procure them. The recipe is as follows:
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