Illinois Archives - Page 2 of 2

In American

The Publican: Homage to Beer, Pork and Oysters in Chicago

September 3, 2013

The Publican plays a homage to beer, pork and oysters. The restaurant is owned and operated by Executive Chef and James Beard award winner, Paul Kahan. We made a call before we went to dine here and sure enough, they did have space available.

The interior is style like a European beer hall with lots of communal seating. There are some standing tables in the centre, but set up in a square are long tables. They can seat about 100 people in the restaurant. There are portraits of pigs all around the restaurant.

The waitress was nice and explained how the menu works. It’s family style, so everything is shared. She suggested about 2 plates per person. We had 4 people, but we only chose 6 items.

Complimentary bread service available upon request. So, it won’t come until you ask. What arrives is rustic bread with butter. I found the bread to be quite burnt on the outside, so most of us avoided that part.

Beets ($9) were very delicious. You can really taste the freshness of the beets. There were some grapefruit and pistachios accompanying the dish.

Tomatoes and Burrata has some balsamic drizzle on top with sprouts.The tomatoes were very cute and had so many different colors. The creamy and rich burrata is a great combination.

Taste of Three Hams ($21) has their 3 signature cured hams with their distinct tastes. It is served with nordic creamery goat butter and peasant bread. It’s a nice item to munch on if you’re having a few drinks.

Loup de mer ($28) has a yummy sauce with a nice crispy skin.

Pork Belly ($26) comes in a thick slab with potatoes, shrimp and corn. The pork belly is just cooked so nicely and falls apart. One of our favourite dishes of the night. Highly recommended.

Farm Chicken ($25) with summer sausage & frites. The fries were very crunchy and oh so gooood. Chicken was very moist and the outer skin had a nice smokey flavour. The sausages were ok, but wasn’t very moist but more dense.

Overall, The Publican was a great place for dinner. When you come here, you must have pork! Some of the dishes can be a bit heavy and greasy, but you can wash it down with some beer.

We Rate The Publican:

Address:
837 W Fulton Market
Chicago, IL

Website:
http://thepublicanrestaurant.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.google.ca/maps?q=837+W+Fulton+Market,+Chicago,+IL+60607,+USA&sll=49.2399859,-122.95816940000002&sspn=0.1721632379598321,0.3516140337636478&t=m&dg=opt&hnear=837+W+Fulton+Market,+Chicago,+Cook,+Illinois+60607,+United+States&z=16″]

In Bakery

Saint Anna Bakery & Cafe: Pies and Milk Tea

September 2, 2013

Chinatown in Chicago was a place I wanted to check out. Usually on my travels, I just have to stop by to see how it compares to Vancouver’s Chinatown. I usually find that no matter where in the world you go, every Chinatown has a similar odor of fresh produce and dried medicine.

I wanted to grab a little snack, so my aunt suggested Saint Anna Bakery & Cafe for some egg tarts or little baked goods. People usually come here for egg tarts and pork buns.

On the inside, there are display cases for cakes and the baked goods. There are lots of round tables where you can order other items off the menu that aren’t buns or tarts like noodles and rice dishes.

Chicken Pie and HK Style Milk Tea. The chicken pie was good. Nothing fancy and inexpensive. I found the milk tea to be a little bit too sweet, so ask them to do it half sweet.

Curry Beef Turnover and HK Style Milk Tea. The outer layers are nice flaky and crunchy with the savory fragrant beef curry on the inside.

Overall, it’s a nice hole in the wall restaurant. No fancy decor, but has some good food.

We Rate Saint Anna Bakery & Cafe:

Address:
2158 S Archer Ave
Chicago, IL

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.google.ca/maps?q=2158+S+Archer+Ave,+Chicago,+IL+60616,+USA&sll=49.2399859,-122.95816940000002&sspn=0.1721632379598321,0.3516140337636478&t=m&dg=opt&hnear=2158+S+Archer+Ave,+Chicago,+Illinois+60616,+United+States&z=16 “]

In Chicago

Street Food Artistry in Chicago

September 1, 2013

On August 11th, 2013, during our vacation in Chicago, we took a visit to Street Food Artistry – a one day event celebrating of Chicago’s hottest street food and art scene . It was located in Zhou B Art Center. Being a tourist, it just seemed like the festival was in the middle of no where. There was a lot of old buildings in the area.

Admission is $10 for adults and once you get inside, food items from the trucks go to a maximum of $5. For some reason, we just walked in without paying the $10 admission. We were very confused.

Attendees could enjoy a Food Truck Pavilion with some of Chicago’s favourite food trucks, an art exhibit showcasing local artists, a marketplace with designers and handcrafted pieces, and the Street Music Stage outside the gallery with entertainment.

While we were there, there was someone playing the electric violin and a belly dancing lesson. It was actually a pretty fun time.

Some of the food trucks and vendors that were there were:

Dia De Los Tamales
Gelato De’Oro
Getta Polpetta
Baby Cakes
Curried
Herby Pop
Porkchop
Cheesie’s Pub and Grub
Izzie Sparkling Juice
Jerk
The Fat Shallot
Puffs of Doom

There were so many delicious options that I was a little bit overwhelmed.

The Street Food Artistry was a pretty cool event. If you did a bit of digging around, there were a few deals online for discounts and something on Groupon. It’s still a fun time if you really love to eat at food trucks and check out local artists.

Website: http://streetfoodartistrychicago.com/

Porkchop

Since I was feeling a bit full from the previous meal, I decided to check out Porkchop Food Truck. It looked and smelled pretty good. As you can tell by their name, they sell a majority of items with pork. Yum! Too bad they didn’t have any pork belly today.

I wish I could have went to more food trucks, but I really couldn’t fit any more in to my stomach.

Pork Ribs ($5) had a very delicious BBQ sauce and the meat was quite tender and fell off the bone. Yum.

Website: http://chicagoporkchop.com/

In Four Beakers

Yusho: Sunday Noodles in Chicago

August 31, 2013

We were near Logan Square and headed to Yusho for their Sunday Noodle set meal. My aunt saw them featured on TV, so we went. Owner and Executive Chef Metthias Merges created Yusho using influences from his trip to Japan and you can see it in the decor and the menu.

The interior looks pretty amazing!! Everything is breathtaking and there is so much to look at.

The back room has a nice feeling as well. Lots of natural light make you think like you’re eating outside.

Awesome machine!!

Only on Sunday, the noodle set meal is $20 and you get a beverage, a choice of noodle and a dessert.

Chicken Skin ($5.50) is topped with Japanese mustard, garlic, and togarashi. It’s really nice and crunchy with the sweet and savoury toppings. Highly recommended.

We get a choice of their draught cocktail or home-made soda. A majority of us got the strawberry soda and it was pretty great. I can’t remember what the draught cocktail was but it was also pretty good. Not too alcoholic.

Logan Poser Ramen has a crispy pig’s tail (not actually a pig tail), hen egg, nori, cucumber, and bonito flakes.

Maitake Mushroom Ramen is served with the broth and noodles separate from the toppings. The other items in this ramen is angry red ball, tofu, umeboshi, and a hen egg.

Grilled Shrimp Ramen has a skewer of grilled shrimp, bonito, kimchi, and bamboo shoots. The kimchi added a nice acidity and crunch to the dish.

The soft serve ice cream has hibiscus, thai basil, tamarind, and sancho pepper crunch. It’s a crazy unique soft serve with strange flavours.

Overall, the ramen was pretty decent but it’s a nice spin on the traditional ramen dishes. It was a good set meal and enjoyable.

We Rate Yusho:

Address:
2853 N. Kedzie Ave
Chicago, IL

Website:
http://yusho-chicago.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.google.ca/maps?q=2853+N+Kedzie+Ave,+Chicago,+IL+60618,+USA&sll=49.2399859,-122.95816940000002&sspn=0.1721632379598321,0.3516140337636478&t=m&dg=opt&hnear=2853+N+Kedzie+Ave,+Chicago,+Illinois+60618,+United+States&z=16 “]

In Farm to Table

Prasino: Farm to Table Concept in Illinois

August 30, 2013

My first meal was at Prasino in La Grange, Illinois. My aunt and uncle brought me here right after my flight landed in O’Hare. They are best known for their sustainable practices for using organic and hormone-free produce when possible. They even try to be eco-friendly when thinking about vendors to pick or even decor.

The menu has gluten-free options, vegetarian and vegan options.

P.E.I. mussels ($11) is cooked with white wine, garlic, herbs, and butter. It is served with grilled bread. The mussels come in a cooking pan. The mussels were of a decent size, tasted great, but could be a little bit more plump.

Lava spicy ($16) has tuna, crab, avocado and topped with tempura panko and firecracker sauce. It was a pretty mediocre tasting roll and quite expensive.

Lobster Roll ($16) is made with warm maine lobster, lemon, herbs, and a New England bun. It has potato chips on the side. It was pretty delicious!

Shrimp Curry ($22) has a vegetable fried rice, egg white, cilantro, and grilled shrimp and yellow Thai curry on the left. The curry was very aromatic and full of flavour.

Tuna Nicoise ($16) has evoo poached tuna, romaine, olives, potato, summer vegetables, and an anchovy dressing. The ingredients were definitely fresh, but the tuna was very dry and over cooked. It would be much better if it was seared tuna.

Gooey Butter Cake comes with lemon gelato, and a blueberry moscato compote. It was good! A perfect dessert to end the evening.

Overall, it’s great that a restaurant like Prasino is really into the local and organic food movement. I found some items on the menu a hit or a miss. I’ve head this place is pretty popular for brunch.

We Rate Prasino:

Address:
93 South La Grange Road
La Grange, IL

Website:
http://www.prasino.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.google.ca/maps?q=93+S+La+Grange+Rd,+La+Grange,+IL+60525,+USA&sll=55.99999999999999,-96.00000000000001&sspn=40.64800078208306,76.7966161218369&t=m&dg=opt&hnear=93+S+La+Grange+Rd,+La+Grange,+Illinois+60525,+United+States&z=16 “]

In Airplane Meals

WestJet: Food Options (Vancouver to Chicago)

August 28, 2013

WestJet is my go-to airline when I just travel around North America. It’s cheap, it’s reliable, and no hassles. At least that’s what I’ve encountered over the past few years.

During my trip to Chicago, I decided to go on WestJet since they had a decently priced direct flight of about $600. The flight was 3.5 hours long and I would much rather pay that amount than save $150 and spend 11 hrs connecting.

The flight take off was pretty smooth, but I was quite interested in their food offerings.

I pulled out the food and entertainment menu. You can select a few items to purchase and snack on during the flight. An alternative plan if you plan on eating is ordering your meal ahead of time with WestJet. The options change every month, but it doesn’t drastically change.

The prices were alright and not too inflated. As I knew wouldn’t be purchasing any items on the flight, I decided to just snack on the complimentary beverages and chips.

When they come by your seat, they usually ask if you want Snack A or Snack B. I usually ask for both. Don’t be afraid, they are always happy to give you both.

The choices were corn chips and cookies. I also got my self a cup of ginger ale.

About 2 hours later, they come back again passing out complimentary snacks and beverages. But the second round of snacks do differ. This time it was the Nacho Cheese Corn Sticks, a cookie and a drink.

They also offer small cups of water just before landing if you need to rehydrate. The staff all very nice and professional.

As it was a short plane ride, I won’t think I really minded what they provided us since I wasn’t expecting anything amazing. Plus the plane tickets are cheap, so everything is quite standard.

Website: http://www.westjet.com/

In Illinois

Lays America: “Do Us a Flavor”

August 25, 2013

A while ago, Lays in America put out a call to their fans to submit their next signature bag of chips. 3.8 million submissions were collected but in the end, 3 were chosen and put out to America to decide which one would be the winning choice.

Chicken and Waffles, Sriracha and Cheesy Garlic Bread were the choices that made the list. Even thought the contest is over and the winner has been chosen, they still sell all 3 flavours in stores.

When I saw them during my trip to Chicago, I just had to grab a few bags to try them all. As they aren’t available in Canada, there was not hesitation to pick them up. It can be found at WalMart, CVS, Walgreens or wherever else sells chips. BUT, I didn’t find them in the airport which was disappointing.

Chicken and Waffles flavour looked promising as it is a pretty yummy dish in restaurants. It has a smokey BBQ taste to them but the after taste was sweet. I suppose it is what the flavour profile of Chicken and Waffles would taste like, but it wouldn’t be my top pick.

Sriracha is an ingredient that has taken the internet by storm. There even has been cartoons written about the addiction of sriracha. It’s good with pho, but is it good as a chip?

I was really excited about this flavour. It has a little bit of a vinegar taste, then a tad sweet, then it gets a little bit spicy. It was ok, but I’d rather take original chips and put some sriracha on top.

Cheese Garlic Bread was created by Karen Weber-Mendham and she took away 1 million dollars for the winning flavour. At first glance it seems to be a boring flavour compared to the other two, but it was decent. Cheese and garlic are the 2 dominant flavours you get.

One thing that Lays in America needs more are Ketchup chips! They still don’t have that flavour that we have in Canada.

Have you tried these 3 flavours yet? What was your favourite?

Website:
www.lays.com