Chicago Foodies

Orange: Contemporary Brunch, with a Peel

With much anticipation, I finally got over to one of the Orange locations and tried out a bit of their menu. I went to the location in Roscoe Village. Orange is known for putting a modern spin on classic breakfast dishes. 

They have a nice, diverse menu with many healthy options. I opted to go with their special for the week which was a grilled chicken sandwich topped with provolone, avocados, and pesto mayo. Mixed greens with balsamic vinaigrette came on the side.

Roscoe Village Burger Fest...This Weekend!

Summer grilling or winter comfort, burgers are a food for all seasons, and they never go out of fashion. This weekend you can see the Gin Blossoms, 10,000 Maniacs, and eat a lot of burgers!

Formerly known as the Belmont Arts and Music fest, The newly renamed Roscoe Village Burger Fest will run 12-10pm on Saturday & Sunday at the Belmont and Damen intersection.

Live music both days and a wide variety of burger vendors is a scrumptious choice for Chicago summer fun.

Sample burgers from Goose Island, Select Cut, John's Place, Village Tap, The Bad Apple, and Mrs. Murphy & Sons Irish Bistro.

Consumption highlights include: The Bad Apple offers up hormone-free all natural beef from New York, Village Tap is likely to serve cajun veggie or bacon and egg steak burger, and don't forget to try the Goose Island burgers, which may be topped with either a goat cheese croquette and onion marmalade or stilton cheese and roasted garlic cloves. Delicious!  - Here's the link to the website.

Sunday Wine Tastings: Lush Wine and Spirits

For a while a friend of mine has tried to pursuade me to visit Lush Wine and Spirits.   Tucked away in Roscoe Village, it is a bit out of the way for me geographically so I never stumbled upon an opportunity to check it out.  Finally we met up for a free Sunday wine tasting. 

Turquoise: Good Turkish Eats in Roscoe Village

My husband and I recently moved to Roscoe Village after living in Lakeview/Wrigleyville for the past 5 years. We haven’t had a chance to try many of the restaurants around our new neighborhood, so I suggested we try Turquoise, a Turkish restaurant on Roscoe Ave.

Turquoise is a nice but still casual restaurant with some quaint tables for sidewalk dining. Since it was very hot and humid out, we decided to sit inside. Unfortunately inside was not much cooler, but not a big deal. To start, the servers bring you a basket of warm, delicious bread with a yogurt sauce, similar to Greek tzatziki. I admit, it’s hard not to eat the whole basket and the fact that I had a couple pieces more than likely contributed to the fact that I could not complete my dinner.

Ride for Food... Hot Doug's

Sometimes you make good decisions and sometimes you make bad decisions and sometimes you make good decisions that start out good and end up being not so good. I woke up Saturday morning and decided to go for a bike ride, check out the local garage sales, see if I could find another Vita-Mix (I missed out on the first one). But unfortunately there was nothing good and I only saw maybe 5 sales all-told. So I kept heading south and before you know it I was at Damon and Montrose and figured I could go to Hot Doug's for a bite. By then it was 10:45 and I figured I could swing it and be back by noon. The day started out maybe high 70's and I had on jeans. It was what, 90+ on Saturday?

I was a sweat rag on arrival at Doug's. The line was out the door. I was starving and parched. I was also telling myself that *now* I can eat a hot dog (or two) and fries (duck fat) without any (or less) guilt. I waited in line.

Kaze was Awesome.

My favorite restaurant in Chicago is a traditional sushi spot - Torajiro. I do enjoy new tastes and have been around but I tend to gravitate to simple sushi on a regular basis.

People talk ad nauseum about Kaze. I'll admit it was time I tried it. And I'll admit you all were right.

It's a pretty restaurant on Seeley and Roscoe that's not too big with a  long sushi bar and comfortable Louis XVI chairs that look good for the room. The waiter knew what was what and we let him make some suggestions. I've read that Kaze's waiters have been perceived as pushy but we appreciated his suggestions. We seemed to surprise him by constantly ordering more.

We started with the hirami sashimi, pieces of whitefish wrapped around sprouts, bamboo shoots and served on pine nuts and ponzu sauce. The dish arrived as we were going over the menu and it looked very pretty. the pine nuts were a gravel-like bed for the rolled fish stood upright. It tasted great. It was the first sign that the restaurant was matching flavors well.