October 2013

In Four Beakers

Bien Trucha: Mexican Food in Geneva, IL

October 5, 2013

We headed into the suburbs to Geneva for some yummy Mexican food at Bien Trucha. It was a long drive from the city, but this little suburb is quite nice with a river flowing right through it.

We went to Bien Trucha for dinner and came early since they don’t take reservations. The sister restaurant – A Toda Madre located next door does take reservations. The menus are slightly different.

Fresh chips and a refried bean dip (Complimentary) very fresh and really good. A nice start to the meal.

Fresona ($10) is made of strawberries, lime, sugar, orange liquor, and exotico blanco. really good and refreshing.

Mojito ($9) has fresh muddled mint, lime, brown sugar, rum, and a splash of soda.

Ceviche ($8) has tilapia, lime, extra virgin olive oil, serrano, tomato, and onion. I wasn’t a fan of the ceviche since I felt like it needed more acidity.

Crema de Chile Poblano ($5) has creamy roasted poblano, potato cubes and queso fresco. It was pretty spicy, but the flavours were great.

Esquites ($4) has grilled corn, epazote-butter, lemon-aioli, queso cotija, and chile piquin.It was really good and addictive! Highly recommended!

Pescado taco ($11) is crispy beer battered tilapia, red cabbage, onion, tomato, lime, and a chipotle-morita aioli. Quite delicious!

Pastor taco ($10) contains ancho-guajillo marinated pork, cilantro, onion, pineapple, and morita salsa. The pineapple was perfect to add juiciness and sweetness to the pork.

Bien Trucha ($10) has grilled skirt steak, chorizo, chihuahua, and roasted tomatillo salsa. No worries, there is not dog in this taco. Chihuahua is a type of cheese. I had to ask the server cause I thought it was funny. it was a delicious taco.

a la Diabla tacos ($11) has sauteed shrimp, butter-mojo de ajo, chipotle lime, and avocado slice. It came piping hot and with 4 pieces per order. It wasn’t too spicy and tasted great.

Flan was our dessert. It was pretty good as well. A nice ending to a great meal.

Overall, I really liked the restaurant. They have delicious taco and great drinks. A must go place for the summer. If you’re just a visitor in Chicago, it very very out of the way. Good thing I had my aunt and uncle to take me around the different suburbs.

We Rate Bien Trucha:

Address:
410 W State St
Geneva, IL

Website:
http://www.bientrucha.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.google.ca/maps?q=410+W+State+St+Geneva,+IL&t=m&hnear=410+W+State+St,+Geneva,+Illinois+60134,+United+States&z=16 “]

In American

Chicago Food Planet Tours: Gold Coast & Old Town Food Tour

October 4, 2013

I had a week in Chicago and it’s quite hard to eat everything. There’s only so many restaurants I can go to in one day. I contemplated for a long time if I should take a food tour or not. 7 restaurants in 3 hours is always enticing for a foodie for $50.

Chicago Food Planet Food Tours offered a tour of Gold Coast and Old Town‘s best eats. It’s a cool neighbourhood, but the only reason I went on the tour was to try a slice of deep dish pizza from Lou Malnati’s. I really didn’t want to eat a whole pizza to myself or eat alone.

We explored:

Lou Malnati’s
Delightful Pastries
Kamehachi Old Town
The Fudge Pot
The Spice House
Old Town Oil
Tea Gschwendner

The group was only 16 people, so it was a nice decent size. What made me feel awkward was that everyone else came to the tour as a group or a couple. It made me feel like an awkward turtle.

Lou Malnati’s

Our first stop was Lou Malnati’s for their famous deep dish pizza. This was the starting point of the tour. They are an iconic Chicago-Style Deep Dish pizzeria. It’s been around since 1971.

All 16 of us sat down and started beginning chowing down on our meal.

We began with a salad.

Then the deep dish pizza! So satisfying and the crust is so crispy. Definitely the highlight of the tour.

Tea Gschwendner

We then walked a short distance to Tea Gschwendner. They are Europe’s leading specialty loose Green, Black, Oolong and White teas merchant and have been around since 1987.

We were given a little lesson about different types of tea and how to make tea.

Iced tea was given to everyone as a refresher after the yummy pizza. As it was a hot summer we definitely needed.

We then headed into Old Town and was told about the history of some notable buildings and history.

Kamehachi Old Town

Kamehachi Old Town is Chicago’s first Japanese-style restaurant, sake cafe and sushi bar . It has been around since 1967.

We had 2 types of maki rolls, but only 2 pieces. It was ok, but not great. Coming from Vancouver, this doesn’t even compare to what good sushi is like.

The Fudge Pot

The Fudge pot is Chicago’s oldest chocolate confectioner, butter toffee and home-made fudge shop. They have been around since 1963 making delicious sweets.

We were taken to their kitchen to hear the history of the Fudge Pot and their production.

The butter toffee samples we received were pretty awesome. So addictive.

Spice Merchants

We then stopped by the world-famous merchant of hand-prepared spices, blends and artisan seasonings. Once you step close to the door of this place, you’ll definitely smell the amazing flavours. It’s quite strong stuff.

They have hundreds of spices! They have even made their own special blends. You can probably find any spice you’re looking for.

We looked around the shop and then taken to the back to get a lesson on different spices, best ways to store spices and how to get the most flavourful spices. Interesting stop on this tour, but we only smelled spices.

Old Town Oil

Old Town Oil is America’s premiere supplier of aged balsamic vinegars and 100% extra-virgin olive oils. I’ve never seen so many tins of olive oil and balsamic vinegar before.

We were able to try all the flavours we wanted. Interesting flavours.

We continued walking around the neighbourhood and heard more about the history.

Delightful Pastries

Our last stop of the tour was at Delightful Pastries. It’s an authentic Polish-European bakery serving pastries, pierogies and pies.

Two Macaroons

Two different types of perogies.

The Chicago Food Planet Tour of Old Town and Gold Coast was fun and enjoyable, but if you are a hardcore foodie, a majority of the places aren’t super amazing. The shops are unique and have a long history, but it won’t keep you coming back. Especially if you are a local.

As a tourist, it was a good use of 3 hours to visit so many shops and restaurants, plus learn a little bit of history in these 2 areas. The 2 restaurants that stood out to me was Lou Malnati’s and The Fudge Pot. Mmmm pizza and chocolate.

Our tour guide was great! He was funny and was very personable to each person on the tour.

Website: http://www.chicagofoodplanet.com/tours/near-north-food-tour/

In Evanston

Taco Diablo: Mexican Food in Evanston

October 1, 2013

Taco Diablo is a Mexican restaurant in Evanston, Illinois. BaguetteGirl said I have to try some Mexican food before I left Chicago. The restaurant was quite cute and it was quite funny to see all the devil paintings. We came here before heading to the city to watch the Million Dollar Quartet.

Complimentary Tortilla Chips and salsa was pretty good. It came with so many chips in that basket. Really fresh and I wish I could have kept eating this, but I had to save room for tacos.

Taqueria Guacamole ($6.89) chunky avocado, tomato, onion, lime, and corn chips. SO yummy, but it is a bit expensive.

Tortilla Soup was amazing! It was so flavourful and I have not been able to find anything like it in Vancouver. The soup was more clear and just so damn good. Highly recommended.

Spicy Shrimp Taco and Vegetable Taco.

Taco plate ($11.89) comes with your choice of 3 tacos and sides.

It’s Carne Asada Tacos and Pork Carnitas taco. All the tacos we had were pretty good and a good size. Each taco has 2 layers of corn tortillas and has a good amount of meat in the centre.

The sides that came with the taco plate was – rice and black beans. We were so fully from everything else, so we barely touched this.

I like it spicy, so I had to use the Tabsco and the hot sauce.

For 2 people we definitely ate too much. I think we would have been good just splitting the soup and having the tacos.

We Rate Taco Diablo:

Address:
1029 Davis Street
Evanston, IL

Website:
http://tacodiabloevanston.com/

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