Do I like Pies, Bacon and Beer? Yes, Chef!

My Saturday started off with me driving up to Snaidero in Chicago for a signing of Marcus Samuelsson’s book Yes Chef.  He is touring for the release of the book in paperback form.  The venue was basically a showroom for all of these amazing Italian kitchen setups that I will probably never be able to afford in my lifetime, though they were pretty good and interesting to see. The little marketplace that they were displayed in could be a cool little place to window shop.  It’s kind of how I feel whenever I browse through some outrageously priced store.  I make a pretty decent amount of money but there’s nothing like walking through a place like that to make you feel absolutely poor.

Chef and I

I’ve been a big fan of Marcus Samuelsson ever since his somewhat underdog victory on Top Chef Masters.  Being a big fan of Top Chef in general, it was pretty good season to watch him compete and I honestly didn’t he would win at all until a few episodes before the end of season two.  He was born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden.  His dishes take on that eclectic global fusion cuisine.  I did get a chance to eat at C-House, his restaurant in Chicago and I thought that it was okay, but it was a deviation from his typical cuisine which introduces bold and vibrant African flavors.  In all honesty, I don’t think that Chicago needed another contemporary American restaurant.  Though the food there was good, I think that the citizens of Chicago and I were in agreement on this sentiment as the C-House went to restaurant heaven.  Someday I will make it to Harlem to try Red Rooster.

Signing My Book

Marcus is an easy going person.  My friend Tiffany referred to him as that jerk on Chopped, but I don’t think you can judge the character of a person based on them doing their job, to be critical of the food which is served to them in a competition.  He’s actually a pretty nice guy and I actually got a chance to show a couple of pictures of some of the food that I made.  He seemed a little impressed by my presentation, and I felt a little validated as a home cook.  In hindsight I wish I could have overcame my overwhelming starstruckness in order to be able to ask him a few questions about technique cooking wise.

I would enjoy the casual mingling among the crowd and tasting the various hors d’ouvers at the singing.  For $50 I felt as though it was an awesome bargain to have the chance to meet a celeb chef, have a couple of glasses of wine and have some tasty little bites.  There was smoked salmon accompanied by a thin dressing of lemon and dill served on thin slices of bread.  My favorite was the cured beef with a little bit of a mango jam and orange zest.  It was slightly salty from the cure and the meaty strong earthy flavors of the beef were balanced by the sweetness of the jam.

Tiffany's Pie

For dinner I picked up my fiend Tiffany and we went to dinner at Pleasant House.  I wanted to get something relatively cheap and quick and that’s what we eventually decided on though we talked about going to Red Door and also tried to go to another place that was not yet open.  The only downside to Pleasant House is if you aren’t really looking for it you can drive by it several times.  If it was a snake it would have bit me, after circling the block twice we ended up dining at the place.  There was a little bit of a line but we ended up making an order.  I would have the steak and ale pie and she would have the chicken pie.  The crust on the pie is very tender flaky and buttery.  Once you got through that amazing golden brown crust you had this amazing combination of very tender and delicate steak surrounded by a rich sauce that bought me back to my childhood.  I remember growing up enjoying many of those frozen pot pies.  This was so far elevated from that standard though.  On the side I had mashed potatoes that were very smooth and buttery and the gravy was one of the tastiest I’ve had in a long time.  I’m still wondering what gave that gravy such character.

Tiffany’s pie had chicken and was accompanied by a subtle acidity but more sweetness than anything based on the quality of tomatoes cooked into her pie.  It also came with this chutney that really reminded me of a chimichurri.  

They did not sell alcohol but they did have a great artisanal drink selection.  I ended up having the house made ginger soda.  I could have had a little more spice for my taste but my threshold of spice is much higher than the average person so I can understand the choice to rein it in and create a slightly sweet drink that was palatable for the masses.  She ended up having the house made hibiscus soda, which was good as well, but we ended up making the right selections because she enjoyed her drink better and I enjoyed my drink better.  

After checking into the place on Foursquare I found out that the mushroom and kale pie was one of Time Out Chicago’s best dishes.  I had to try so I ended up ordering it to go.  They asked me if would be okay to pack a cold one and I that was just perfect for me since I didn’t plan on eating it until much later.  They gave heating instructions that I would follow.  It reminded me why I no longer eat those pot pies, 45 minutes is quite a bit of a wait.  My patience was rewarded by the great combo of those earthy mushrooms and kale.  For me I can’t really decide if it was better than the steak and ale pie since I am judging a fresh pie against a reheated one.  That aside it was honestly almost as good as the steak and ale pie which was a bit of a surprise.

Fast Forward to Tuesday night.  I went out to dinner at Heaven on Seven.  They were having a bacon and beer dinner.  Eight course of food containing bacon alongside a beer by Ommegang with each course.  I got there much too early because I guess anticipation built up so much that I thought that the dinner was a 6:30 instead of 7. Anyway the dinner got off to a great start.  The first course was popcorn.  I am not really a fan of popcorn but this popcorn was particularly good because where butter would have been used bacon fat took it’s place.  If they did this at movie theatres I would probably weigh 300 pounds easily.  There is something magical about surrounding light and airy kernels of popcorn with rich and salty bacon fat.  That subtle smokiness can turn popcorn haters like me into a huge fan.  With that first course they served the Gnomegang, a light beer that I liked quite a bit.

"BLT"

Next up was the BLT.  Applewood smoked bacon jam, on a crostini with arugula.   I have my complaints about this dish.  The size of the tomato made it a little difficult and unwieldy to eat, even though the jam was quite tasty.  I liked the idea of playing on the sweet and salty parts of the palate and then balancing off with a bit of acidity from the tomato.  I also thought that the one single leaf of arugula kind of left me there thinking what is the point really.  You couldn’t taste the arugula at all alongside the overpoweringly strong flavors of bacon jam.  It went well with the biere D’ Hougoumont.

The next dish was the one that I was the most interested in and also the low point of the evening.  An avocado soup with double hickory smoked bacon.  In my mind I expected the soup to be cold because who in their right mind would heat avocado.  Excuse my writing, I don’t think that point had quite enough emphasis… WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD HEAT AVACADO?!?!  It just ended up being very weird, a creamy taste of nothing that was trying to be redeemed by some wonderful tasty smoked bacon.  Avocado on it’s own doesn’t have the greatest or most memorable flavor in the world and they robbed that avocado of what I think was it’s best quality.  It’s creamy texture.  It was accompanied by white, which was ironically the lightest and most tasteless beer of the night. 

Chicken Creole

Things picked right back up after those couple of stumbles into a blissful combination of pecan smoked bacon and chicken.  The chicken creole had rich gravy whose amazing taste and complex flavors could only be achieved by a long cooked dark roux.  Piling that on top of perfectly creamy cheesy grits and you’ve got something special.  This dish had everything the subtle acid of a bit of tomato, built upon a strong combination developed by the trinity.  I wish I had more of it.  It was also topped with raw scallions to provide another light touch of onion flavor.  It went well with the Iron Throne.

Scallops

Wild boar wrapped scallops with a habanero red bean puree.  Someone else at the table commented that they liked the red beans and they liked the scallops but didn’t like them together.  I am not personally a fan of bacon wrapped around scallops because it ropes you into one particular preparation.  Baking.  Scallops are one thing that is an exception to the rule of everything being better with bacon.  One thing I love about getting scallops is getting a good sear and enjoying the wonderful taste that golden brown carmelization produces.  Baking does not give you that.  Searing off scallops for a dining room of that many people could have proved to be a challenge for the kitchen though. The dish was nice though, and the habanero in the red beans did not prove to be overwhelmingly hot so they were used with just the right hand.

The firth course and I weren’t spectacular friends.  It was tasty don’t get me wrong, but when you break down the play by play it was really just a bacon burger.  There were good points to the slider the caramelized onions, but the barbecue sauce was borderline too sweet for me.  The shoestring potatoes were good to me but most people passed on tasting them.  

Pork Belly

The main event, the star of the show was the pork belly.  I will always have a soft spot in my heart (and a warm place in my stomach) for pork belly.  Pork belly is what bacon is made from.  This particular version was glazed with root beer and served over johnnycakes.  I’m surprised there wasn’t much uproar about it because looking at the plates come out of the kitchen, they definitely lacked consistency in the cutting of the pork belly.  I had no reason to complain because I had the biggest piece of pork belly at my table and it was almost twice as large as another one.  It was just a major failure as far as consistency goes.  That aside there is something great about a well-cooked piece of pork belly.  There was a little bit of sweetness from the root beer and I wish they would have had a little more of the glaze, because the johnnycake was a little dry.  Otherwise it was often.

I took one bite of the pecan pie topped with bacon before I decided that if I took just one more bite my stomach would probably explode.  It had great texture, good sweetness and I love how the saltiness of the bacon went with it.  It would make a great snack later on.

Go Cubs Go!

I used Park Whiz in order to get my parking space for the Cubs game at the Nationals.  The parking that I would get was in a Safeway parking lot about half a mile away from the park itself.  It was my first time at Nationals Park.  It's my 7th MLB park, which totally reminds me that I have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to seeing MLB stadiums.

I made the mistake of getting dressed without knowing how cold it was outside and 65 was just a little bit too cold for the stadium weather.  Not to mention the fact that it was very windy at the Stadium.  I got there extremely early though.  I thought that the 2pm game started at 1:30.  It gave me a good chance to walk around the stadium and get some good pictures though.  I still had a very good view of the field from the the section I sat in 200 level off of the first base line.  I couldn't beat the price either.  $12 off of Stub Hub.  My only complaint about where I was siting is that you couldn't really see the catcher and part of the batter.  Though it wasn't like I was sitting close enough to be calling balls and strikes anyway.

I ended up trying the garlic Parmesan fries and they came with a smoky bacon sauce.  They were pretty tasty but the line to get them was slightly absurd.  I must have waited for about 20 mins, but there wasn't anything going on at the time so I didn't really mind that much.  It seemed as though every place there that didn't serve the standard ball park fare had an extremely unreasonable line.  The best beer I could find there was a Blue Moon which isn't too shabby.

After leaving the park I had dinner at Founding Farmers.  I really wanted to try the Deviled Eggs and Pot Roast, since I had seen both on TV, but I wasn't really in the mood for either.  I took some time looking over the menu and the great thing I liked about it was that they had designations for menu items that were vegetarian, vegan and nut free.  It shows real care.

Fried Green Tomatoes

I ended up trying the fried green tomatoes.  They were nice and crispy and just a little bit spicy.  They came with this cream cheese spread.  It's a very good combination because you get that spicy kick tagging along with the creaminess of the cheese just slightly cut through by the acidity of the tomatoes.  They were fried just right and weren't at all greasy.

Along with my appetizer, I enjoyed the Chelsea's Manhattan it was the priciest drink on the menu but it was well worth it.  A Manhattan is usually my drink of choice, and this particular version had a chai-infused Dolin Rouge Vermouth, which is one of the better Vermouths that you can buy.  It added a subtle hint of spice to the drink.  I also got to try a whiskey that I have never tried before in the drink, The Black Maple Hill 8 yr. Bourbon.  This drink had a lot of character  strong and not very sweet.  Just the way I like it.

Chicken and Waffles

Then came out the very crisp Chicken and Waffles.  I ended up getting the green beans as a side.  The green beans were cooked nicely and came with some candied lemon that added some sweetness and acidity at the same time.  The mac and cheese that came alongside it wasn't that great in my personal opinion.  I did like the blend of cheeses on it but I could have gone without it all together.  It is an unnecessary and unadvertised extra starch when you already have waffles.  The chicken was good and crisp.  I really liked the gravy that was 

After dinner, I left to visit my friend Sam’s work.  I couldn't believe that that jerk worked right across the street from a Dogfish Head Ale House.  Who does that honestly?  He also claims that he didn't know it was a big deal.  I mean seriously?!  I got to see his work which is actually pretty interesting.  Sam works at a research reactor.  It’s pretty cool to watch that reactor generate power for experiments that many people do.  Many of the researchers get approval to do their projects as the scientists review the experiments to basically see if they are worth preforming.  Then they either pay to use the time there if they want to keep their findings private or it’s free if they choose to share their findings.  It seems like a pretty laid back gig.

I went over to the Dogfish Alehouse for a  beer before heading back to Sam’s house to crash for a few hours before catching the plane home.  I was awake well before they woke up and was up and checked through security about a hour before my flight.  United has flights going from DC to Chicago just about every hour or so.  While I was there some huge jerk got all mad because he missed his flight.  The flight he was on had closed the doors about 10 minutes early.  He gave some angry excuse about how it took him a long time to get through security.  I guess he didn't think that a major airport would be busy on a Monday morning.  Anyhow his meltdown granted me with some much needed entertainment before my flight, which also ended up being the flight that he would be on started to board.

Sweet Life Festival

My day started with a little bit of Shaun T's Insanity before waking up and hanging out with Sam and his son for a bit and breakfast of some scrambled eggs and toast.  He also agave me some of the most horrible coffee I've had in a long time.  I can't remember when the last time I've ever even seen anybody buy Chock Full O Nuts.  With good reason.  I think my great grandma used to drink Chock Full O Nuts.  It tasted like sludge.  We then headed over to Rio to do some of the greatest window shopping ever.  I have been budgeting myself for the most part to prepare myself for my upcoming trip to Europe.  I only made one purchase, a 750 mL bottle of Duvel.  I love that beer and was determined to get him to try it.  I would then introduce Sam to some good coffee.  Starbucks.  Not many people know this but you can order a short at Starbucks.  It's great when you want just a little bit of coffee.

The Best Method for making coffee at home starts off with good quality fair trade beans.  I would rather not drink coffee at all than to drink coffee that exploits the farmers that grow it.  I just believe that when love is put into a product it tastes that much better.  The other thing you need is a coffee grinder.  I keep two at home, one for spices and one for coffee.

We ate lunch at BGR.  I was very interested trying the lobster burger, but was drawn towards the Wellington.   It was a symphony of earthiness brightened up with the sharpness of the Dijon mustard in the sauce.  It was a messy burger, but all really good burgers are really messy in my personal opinion.  Somehow I managed to eat the entire thing like a grown up without getting any of the burger on my white shirt.  I passed on getting the roasted garlic on my fires which would have likely been my topping of choice but I figured it wouldn't be a good idea to eat a ton of garlic when I would soon be in close quarters with so many people.

I ended up going with the Parmesan to top the fries and thought the fries were pretty good as well.  I loved the mosaic tiled tables and the kid in me arose to sit at the table that had the superman logo on it.  Who passes up on Superman? (With the exception of that one Superman movie where Superman lifts an entire island of kryptonite into space.  Not only does that defy all logic of the movie, I mean a little piece of kryptonite brings Superman to his knees, now he can suddenly lift whole islands of it... Give me a break.  Not to mention the fact that the acting in that movie was abysmal.  I would rather watch slug documentaries rather than see that movie again... but I digress).  I also liked that they served beer and ended up getting a Hefewiezen.

Then as we got ready to leave disaster struck.  Car battery deadz.  After much pacing around, I had the brilliant idea of going to Target and getting jumper cables.  (I mean I am the smarter one between me and Sam).  We eventually got somebody to help us out and give us a jump because everyone we talked to before we got the cables was "Driving their wife's car which does not have jumper cables."  Why would you not have jumper cables in your wife's car?  I don't have jumper cables but I live on the wild side.  

I quickly checked into the Doubletree.  I wanted to drop off my bags and get into my room before I went out to the festival.  I mainly wanted the hotel room in case I got too drunk out there, I'd be able to take a cab back to the hotel, without bothering Sam or his very pregnant wife.  The hotel was pretty nice.  I loved the fact that it had open elevators, which may be a point of contention for those acrophobic types.  Though it is only four stories.    I checked in got the warm chocolate chip cookie and ran upstairs to the room and almost left forgetting the ticket.  A quick double-take and I was off to the festival.

I got there just in time to see Gary Clark Jr. start to preform.  I missed him a Lollapolooza last year.  I've been a pretty big fan ever since I got a chance to listen to his album Blak and Blu.  His voice is soulful and he combines skillful guitar play reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix with an amazing singing voice onto melodies that range from bluesy to upbeat.

One of the pluses at the festival was that the food and beer was pretty good too.  I had a great crabcake sandwich, but the star of the show would have to be the lobster roll which was packed with awesome fresh lobster.  The best thing I had there was the kale and chicken sandwich.  I had to go for it after hearing the guy in front of me diss it by saying that the pork and slaw sandwich had to better.  The chicken was slightly spicy and went very well with the rich lemony aoli resting against the hearty kale.

The star of the show that day for me was Robert Delong.  I love his music.  It was a few months ago when I was driving to Atlanta when I heard the song Global Concepts on the radio and had to buy it.  Then in a search for his music video, I happened across this video:

I mean in my personal opinion, the song Global Concepts is amazing in and of itself, but to watch and see him create that amazing sound all by himself.  It is amazing to me.  The music is awesome and has a bit of that electro vibe to it.  Amazingly enough the lyrics are good and pretty complex as well.

I left a little bit early since I'm not a huge fan of Pheonix or Passion Pit and I was pretty wet and cold.  I like their music just fine, after the rain, it wasn't fun at all since it was like 60 outside.  In hindsight I could have went for the regular tickets vice the VIP since I didn't get any of the benefit of the VIP.  The bar for the VIP section had a longer line than the other bars.  The VIP bathrooms also had a huge wait.  Oh well now I know.

The next morning I enjoyed breakfast at the hotel, and it was pretty good.  I'd say a little above average as far as hotel breakfast buffets go.  One added bonus was that thay had crepes.  They were filled with a sweetened up cream cheese.  It was a good start to the morning.  I enjoyed the crepes alongside crisp bacon  scrambled eggs and potatoes.  Topped everything off with some Orange Juice.

reVOLT

I've been looking forward to my trip to DC for a long time.  Because I'd get to see my friends Sam and Emily and their son Zach (who has to be one of the cutest and most well adjusted youngsters I've ever seen).  I had big plans for this trip.  It started with the flight there. I arrived at the airport unusually early and was able to score an earlier flight to DC.  The flight I was on was relatively empty and I was able to get the whole row to myself.  It was my first time flying United in a while and they quickly became one of my favorite airlines.  I now place United Airlines firmly below Virgin America and Jet Blue.

After my flight I would get my rental car from Alamo.  The kiosk that they suggested I use was slightly annoying.  It took quite a while to get my information (which I think should have been automatically populated somehow) entered and it took several attempts to get my driver's license to scan.  After all of these small issues I was on my way about DC in a VW Passat.  One minor problem, my phone was experiencing major problems with the GPS on my phone almost the entire time.  Weirdly enough these GPS problems only really occurred when I was driving.  I found it very strange but that aside the Passat was kind of fun to drive.  It took me a bit to figure out the cruise control, which was also integrated with the turn signal weirdly enough.  Bluetooth pairing went fine, allowing me to have access to my music throughout my trip.

After my flight I had held out on eating breakfast because I was planning on grabbing something from Tortas Frontera at O'Hare, but I was starving after getting off of the plane and couldn't wait any longer.  I made a quick stop at the Good Stuff Eatery on Crystal Drive.  I had been wanting to try the place, being a top chef fan and see just how good the burgers are.  I wish I didn't have dinner reservations at Volt later because I was trying not to have too much to eat.  I ended up deciding on the Obama burger, and it was a tender and juicy burger, but in hindsight I wish I would have gotten the Spike's Sunnyside.  Then again, a burger with a fired egg would have likely been much to messy to eat while driving.  I loved that the burger was not over powered by the blue cheese, and you could really taste the sweetness of the onions and the salty smoky flavor of the bacon.  Somewhere along the lines the horseradish mayo gets completely lost.

The fries were nothing to really write home about they were good and tasted and I definitely appreciated their freshness.  They also had several dipping sauces to choose from.  The Old Bay one was a little strange, but I get it being in the Maryland area, and I kind of like Old Bay Seasoning.  I don't think the average person would go for it but it was quite tasty to me.  The sriracha sauce sauce was tasty and approachable without being too spicy.  The mango sauce was sweet and interesting and something that I wouldn't combine with just about anything save chicken or fish.  I wish I could have tried some of the shakes they sounded awesome.

And then there was traffic.  Mind blowingly amazingly horrid.  The 50 mile drive took me a total of 4 hours.  I guess it kind of made sense considering that I was leaving the DC area at around 2 pm on a Friday afternoon.  I finally made it to Federick for my 5:45 pm reservation at 6pm.  It was a good thing I got that early flight I suppose.

I think this might be a case where I hyped up what I thought the food should taste like in my mind to a completely unattainable level.  I've been to restaurants of many Top Chef competitors.  Season 4 winner Stephanie Izard's Girl and the Goat and Little Goat.  Aria and Spiagga of season 9 runner ups Beverley Kim and Sarah Grueneberg.  I expected to be wowed by every dish that was the product of the imagination of Season 6 runner up Bryan Voltaggio.

The restaurant did a very good job of playing up the fine dining aspects but not coming across as stuffy and pretentious via very subtle means, like the burgundy pairs of Chuck Taylor All Stars that all of the servers wore.    It relaxed what would have otherwise made you feel as though the place was a jacket required sort of affair.

Dinner stared with me ordering the Manhattan, which was expertly crafted and to my liking  along with ordering the tasting menu after about 15 mins of painful deliberation about courses that sounded so much better than what was on the tasting menu.  In actuality I should have taken lots more time to read over the menu.  Ordering from a tasting menu seemed so much easier though.

Trio of Amuse-bouche

The dinner got off to a very good start with a trio of amuse-bouche.  My favorite of the three was a spring roll with rabbit and a soy foam.  It was delicate and light start to the meal while being bold and slightly earthy with the gaminess of the rabbit and the added depth of flavor from the salty soy foam.  Alongside the spring roll was a beat macaroon with a chicken liver mouse.  I am very particular about liver.  I will only eat the liver of poultry but even then it has to have the right preparation to get me to enjoy it.  even the slightest bit overcooked and it takes on that horrid acrid taste akin to calf's liver.  The macaroon was quite enjoyable though.  Then there was the ramp aranchini.  I love ramps, there short season is a reminder of the upcoming spring season.

The first course was green strawberries.  I could only describe this course as interesting.  It wasn't necessarily bad but not anything that I would ever order again by any means.  I've never had greens strawberries before and I can understand the thought process behind the dish.  The green strawberries were extremely tart and I thought could have benefited from some additional sweetness.  It was almost like a deconstructed PB&J sandwich once you throw in the peanut praline.  Then there was the serrano ham.  While delicious I didn't feel like it belonged at all.  All of the individual elements of the dish were great but this is one of those cases where the individual elements didn't exactly sing together.

The next course was morel mushrooms.  It was over steel cut oats.  This particular dish bode well for me in reawakening my desire for steel cut oats.  I really forgot how great they are despite the pound or two of them I have in my pantry.   The moment the dish arrives at the table you get the big aroma of the beautiful morel mushrooms.  You also have the great textural differences that you get from the sea lettuce.  It was my first time having sea lettuce and the texture can be best described as crisp and a bit plasticy.  My only critisim of the dish is that the star of the show, the morels almost play second fiddle to everything else involved.  They almost get lost behind everything else though it was still tasty.

Corn Dumplings with Crab

The third course was one that I should have known better than to get.  In hindsight when I review the menu, I find out that it had one ingredient that I absolutely hate and can't bring myself to eat.  I don't understand people's obsession with kimchi.  I consider myself to be a pretty much adventurous eater but the Korean staple of fermented cabbage is where I draw the line. The pasta was cooked perfectly in the dish.  I couldn't get past the strong flavor of the kimchi which I originally attributed to the miso, which I am also not a huge fan of.  I had to send it back, but in hindsight I feel  kind of bad because if I knew that kimchi was in the dish I would have requested something different.  I know from now on when it comes to allergies, to mention my aversion to kimchi.

They brought out  corn dumplings to replace the calamari bolognase that I despised.  The dumplings were light and perfectly pillowly soft.  They were so light and delicate that I'm surprised that they weren't  defying gravity and floating in mid air before me.  They were perfectly complemented by fava beans and a light broth that had subtle tomato notes.  I would have enjoyed a bit more crab, it is Maryland afterall...

Best Halibut Ever

One way to really impress me is to perfectly cook a piece of fish.  The halibut that I had was absolutely perfect in every way.  It had that perfect golden brown carmelization without creating that crust of dry overcooked fish that you almost want to cut away.  This was a sublime display of perfected technique in action.  You had the bright green apple juice in the background along with the sherry vinegar you get the acid to complement the fish well and cut ever so slightly through the richness of the chirizo.  The halibut was absoultely the star of the show as far as I was concerned.

Lamb

Next up was the spring lamb, and to be honest I don't really remember the dish at all. I have a picture of it.  I remember eating eat, but I guess it would be like trying the remember the person who went on stage after Michael Jackson preformed.  The only thing you can think about at that point is just how awesome of a performance you've just seen even though you might be experiencing a great show still.

For dessert there was the beet sorbet.  At this point I was far too full to eat anything else and though the beet sorbet was  very good, especially since I'm not big on overly sweet deserts it was a perfect way to end the meal.

Careful, They Might Steal Your Mushrooms

It wasn't my first time seeing Book of Mormon, but the show didn't loose anything by seeing it for a second time.  This particular musical is so well thought out and clever.  It is not one for the easily offended, but if you can overlook all of the profanity and extreme blasphemy, you can really appreciate the humor of Matt Stone and Trey Parker.  It's one of those musicals that is hard to describe without giving away much of the plot twists that add to the overall comedic level of the show.

The acting and singing is absolutely spot on and if someone wanted to go see it again, I would definitely be inclined to go.  My first time seeing Book of Mormon I laughed myself into tears.  This time was more of the same.  The singing, dancing and acting is completely spot on and it is a really fun show to watch.

For dinner that night I would eat at HUB51.  I chose it because it is a Lettuce Entertain You Restaurant and I did have to use some extra cash to use here.  Unfortunately, I left my card at home with my membership number on it and there is no way to easily retrieve that information online.  As a result I would end up paying the full price in the end.  Ah well I still have the extra bucks to use at a later date so it's really not a big deal.

That aside, it should be noted that this was an establishment for ages 21 and up at the time that we went.  It definitely had more of a club type of atmosphere to it, keeping a youthful vibe by blasting hip hop.  For some strange reason, I've decided that I'm temporarily a vegan, so I wanted to hold up to that even though I was eating out.  The two cocktails that I ended up having were pretty good.  I was feeling adventurous as always so I went with the Chipotle Margarita.  I'm not immune to lots of spice so for me personally it could have been a tad bit spicier.  Also, I didn't notice this until after I ordered the drink but it is made with a chipotle vodka and not tequila.  The effect of this leaves you wanting a little bit more of the strong bitter notes that distilled agave provides to the palate.  Overall the drink is good, but it could have been slightly better, again as a disclaimer I like really bold flavors.

The other drink that I had was a Cucumber Cuatro.  It tasted very much like a day at the spa.  The bit of ginger was used with a very light hand.  I will say the overall technique used by the bartenders seems to be to hide the flavor of the alcohol rather than accentuate it.  That's not necessarily a bad thing for most but it's not the particular flavor profile that I desire in a mixed drink.  I find that sort of thing akin to putting on jeans and a T-shirt to go to a wedding.  Yeah it keeps you comfortable but you are totally out of place.

I had the Garden Roll.  It was very bright and light roll.  It was also my first foray into a vegetarian version of sushi.  The presentation was lovely and the rice in the roll was a perfect texture.  You get  the nice cool mild flavor of the cucumber along with the earthiness of the beets.  The hot appetizer we had was the Three Bean Trio.   I loved the tempura green beans.  They were nice and crisp and tasted very fresh.  The blistered padron peppers weren't exactly great yo me but they were still pretty decent.  Rounding out the trio was some edamame, or as I like to call it, a good way to charge you more money for soy beans.

For my entree, I would have the vegetarian tacos.  It was one of those times I could have sworn that menu read peppers, portobello mushrooms and butternut squash.  Somehow my portobello  mushrooms were absent. I convinced myself that looking at the menu, I must have been mistaking it for some other dish on the menu and that there were no portobello mushrooms served with the tacos.  I mean after all there were black beans present.  Now in the comfort of my how reading the menu online I realized I was robbed of mushrooms.  The sad part is I think these somewhat bland tacos could have benefited from the addition of the earthy mushrooms.  I wondered why the meal only felt somewhat satisfying in the end.

My friend ended up getting the the meatloaf sandwich.  It looked a little unwieldy to be a pick up and eat type of sandwich so she managed it fork and knife style.  I can't vouch for how it tasted personally but she said it was pretty  good.  It is something that I would personally never order though because of all the wonderful ground meat options there are in the world, I find turkey completely abysmal.  It's pretty strange because I do like turkey  in general, but as a rule I'm pretty much against it.  I personally think that Turkey is a one way ticket to bland town.  I did enjoy the french fries they served alongside her burger as I thought they were well seasoned and crisp.

For dessert she would enjoy a few bites of a carrot cake that was honestly so big that it could have probably been shared by about three people.  It had a classic cream cheese icing and looked pretty well put together. As an added bonus it was comped since it was her birthday.  All and all I have to say that HUB51 is a pretty nice place and I would try it again, but it definitely isn't quite on the level of the many Chicago restaurants that I will go out of my way to search for.

Disclaimer: No Animals Were Harmed in the Making of This Meal

I've been wanting to change my diet to more of a plant based diet for quite some time.  Here I've created a totally vegan meal that is based on my experience dining at The Trencherman.  This is a meal that proves that you can really make great tasting food absent of meat.  While I don't think that I will ever switch to a completely plant based diet, I am going to be eating a ton more veg and a lot less meat.

Panko Crusted Gardien
1/4 cup Whole Wheat Panko
1/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp Dried Thyme
1/2 Teaspoon savory
1 tsp Dried Herb de Provence
4 Gardien Lightly Seasoned Chick'n Scallopini Breasts (Found in frozen section)
2 Tablespoons Grapeseed Oil

1. Mix the dried herbs, panko and flour together
2. Press the thawed cutlets into the breading to coat them.  (I didn't season them the frist time I tried them. For this I used the Gardien Lightly Seasoned Chick'n Scallopoini.  I didn't think that this breading technique would work at all because there would be nothing to bind the breadcrumbs to the chick'n, works great).
3. Add oil to pan and preheat over medium heat.
4. Fry until Golden brown (About 2-3 mins per side and remove to drain excess oil.

Spicy Mango Chutney

1 Cup Mango Orange Juice (I used Naked brand for this)

1/4 Cup White Balsamic Vinegar

1/2 Serrano chile thinly sliced (Can use up to one and a half if you like things really spicy)

1 Mango diced I use the second method in the video below:

1. Bring the mango juice and balsamic vinegar to a boil over and reduce to simmer over medium low heat.
2. Add in the Mango and chile
3. Let the sauce reduce until thick, about 30-45 mins.

Stewed Pistachios

1 lb raw Pistachios

3 Bay Leaves

1 cup White wine

2 tbsp Adobo Seasoning

Juice of one lime

1. Cover the nuts in water and add the cup of white wine, bay leaves and adobo seasoning.
2. Bring the nuts to pressure in a pressure cooker and cook at pressure until tender about 45 mins. You don't necessarily need a pressure cooker for this, the pressure cooker just makes fast work of the cooking process.  You could get the same effect by boiling the nuts for a few hours. I use a stovetop one like the one below:
   
   Electric ones are nice as well though:
   
3. Drain the nuts, reserving 2 cups of the liquid.
4. Remove the bay leaves and puree half of the beans with the reserved liquid until smooth.
5. Mix the puree with the remaining nuts.

Mint and Lime Zucchini Salad

1 lb zucchini

Juice of two limes

Zest of one lime

2 tsbp fresh Mint

1 tbsp fresh Cilantro

2 tsbp good quality olive oil

1. Slice the zucchini 1/8 inch thick, lengthwise using a mandolin slicer (This is purely for ascetic purposes,  you can still make a great salad by hand slicing the zucchini)
2. Blanch in boiling water for 1 min (Again, this is just to make the salad look pretty raw is better for you but the blanching helps to bring out a bright green color in the skin of the zucchini)
3. Remove to an ice bath (I suggest you do the past two steps in batches, to avoid overcooking the zucchini)
4. Drain excess water.
5. Combine all ingredients

A Priceless Experience at The Trencherman

Inside the kitchen

I was just browsing through the Mastercard Priceless events when I came across the opportunity to enjoy dinner at The Trencherman for a brothers battle and cooking demo.  I have to say it wasn't much of a battle, but I was still not disappointed. “Located inside a former Turkish bathhouse, Trenchermen offers vintage cocktails and a menu of dishes that can probably be described as “substantial.”” according to Ask Men.  The welcome cocktail, a simple daiquiri, was one that would have made Hemingway himself proud.  By daiquiri I don’t mean one of those sugar laden frozen blended drinks that hides the poor quality of the liquor that is used.  I’m talking one that play up the great quality of the ingredients and features the rum.  The location itself is perfect and you feel as though you’re stepping into a different time period stepping into the dimly lit place.  First things first I had was the house made beef jerky.  It was amazingly tender wand mouthwatering.  Soon we were all welcomed into the kitchen where we had the opportunity to try a few more appetizers and ask the chefs some questions.

One of my favorites that we had at this point was the fried chicken skin rillettes.  It took so much restraint in order to keep from taking two hands and eating each and every one of them that was on the platter.  I never had rillettes before so I had to do some research to see what it was.  It is an interesting preparation where you cook the meat in fat until tender and shred it and serve it cold.  Undoubtedly, this is how such a technique delivers such high marks on flavor.  I must admit that even though the said dish was probably fat laden, it didn't taste fatty or greasy at all and I loved it.  There was also a play on the classic lox and bagels in the form of a smoked salmon salad that was brightened with a bit of mustard cream cheese.  I liked it felt like breakfast grown up and refined and was the first of the hors d’oeuvres to disapper.

Another look behind the scenes

After getting out of the way of the servers in the pristinely clean kitchen, we sat down for dinner.  The first course was a beet salad.  The salad combined burrata and pistachios with the beets.   I loved the technique that they used of slow roasting some of the beets in order to give them an intensely sweet taste and chewy texture.  Additionally the candied black olives bought a bit of saltiness to the party.  This dish was so good that I had to go and try to make my own interpretation.

The Second course was a playful approach to tots that has brought them a lot of fame.  The pickle tots, combine that delightfully sour and briny taste of pickles with a red onion yogurt.  I did coax out of them when they came to discuss the dish that it the yogurt gets that beautiful pink color as a result of the addition of a little bit of beet juice.  While I thought it was pretty good and very inventive, I just think the hype was a little too much and it fell slightly short for me.

I did love the Cod.  Cod is a fish that I would probably never think to do anything other than batter and fry and serve on newspaper alongside some chips with some tasty malt vinegar.  This time they did something special that I would not normally expect.  Cod is actually a really good fish that withstood this pan roasting and was paired with a broth that clearly created an experience that was incredible.  The fresh and flaky perfectly cooked fish was perfectly complimented by the rich brown butter and piquillo pepper broth.

My favorite dish of the night was the last course.  A rack of lamb that took a technique to cooking nuts that I had never heard of before.  Until it was explained to me that they cooked down the pine nuts using a pressure cooker in order to get that wonderful texture, I was wondering for quite some time what type of wonderful beans they were.  You also get a little bit of crunchiness added to the dish as courtesy of fried salsify.  The date chutney also stands up well to the rich lamb.

I love desserts that feature unconventional and savory ingredients.  That’s why a chai ice cream and a smoked meringue were such big wins for me.  I guess it is the overall complexity of flavors that I enjoy.  You can also throw in the fact that I don't really have that much of a sweet tooth.   I will gladly accept a BLT over the the best chocolate cake any day of the week.