Lollapalooza: Sunday Recap

Sunday got off to a late start as I needed the sleep after the aftershow.  There were some ironies to the day.  Despite wearing the pair of cargo shorts that had the most pockets of any day I was there I did still end up loosing my camera (more on that later).  Anyhow, we woke up in time to get there early but opted for sleeping in for a few more hours.  The first thing we wanted to see that day was Wild Nothing.  I kind of didn’t know what to expect, as I wasn’t truly a fan of Wild Nothing but they still played a good set.  Hey I’m down for listening to new music at anytime especially with a drink in hand.

Wild Nothing

That being said, we were able to make our way down towards the front of the stage to listen to some of these very mellow indie rock tunes.  I love the way a light electronic melody is integrated on to tracks like “A Dancing Shell”.  All in all the set was pretty fun but not very memorable at all to be honest.   Still they are a band that is now on my radar to listen to a bit more.

The next band that I wanted to see was The Mowgli’s.  Unfortunately, they were at the stage I hated the most, The BMI Stage.  This stage suffers from three problems.  First, the next closest main stage (Bud Light Stage… As if I needed another reason to hate Bud Light) was the loudest stage at the park, and you get terrible bleed over to the BMI stage.  Then, you also have to deal with the fact that it is poorly planned.   It faces Lake Michigan, and with no backdrop to the stage, you really just end up watching a bunch of shadowy figures preform more than anything.   Last, it is in a really small area.  I guess like me there were many fans of the song “San Francisco”, because the stage was completely overrun with people, as if they were zombies on a farm at the end of season two of Walking Dead.  The stage was pretty loud though, and we could still hear them preforming through the bushes on a bench next to the fountain.  Luckily Alex Clare’s set on the Bud Light stage was done ten minutes into the Mowgli’s set, because you could still hear Alex Clare clearly over the Mogwli’s.

Tegan and Sara

Then everything started to blur together as we got to the rushed part of the day.  We saw a bit of Tegan and Sara which is where I lost my camera.   I must have just been careless and completely droped it when trying to put it back into my pocket.    As we headed for lunch and I was about to take a picture of the grilled cheese I had from Brunkrow Cheese.    When I say grilled cheese, I know what you might be thinking, but this particular grilled cheese does not involve any bread at all.  It is actually a piece of cheese thrown directly on to a grill.  You get nice grill marks and a wonderful taste of crisp cheese.  I really liked the original version, because the salty cheese goes good with the sweet maple syrup.  I was not a big fan of the bacon version, as I felt like the bacon just made things a bit too salty.  It is one of those rare instances where bacon actually made something worse.

We trekked back across the park to see Alt-J.  They were one of the bands that I was most looking forward too and they also had a huge crowd.  It was almost as though they could have played a larger stage as well.  I have been a big fan of the band since I heard their single “Breezeblooks”.  They have a very interesting sound that is pretty mellow.  Their song “Fitzpleasure” is also featured in a Microsoft commercial.  After hearing most of their set and another one of my favorites “Tesselate”, we were on a mission across the park again to see DIIV.

DIIV

DIIV was playing on the smaller The Groove stage right before 2 Chainz.  They drew a pretty small crowd that got a lot bigger a lot of 2 Chainz fans when the set started to end.  Their music is pretty hypnotic.  My favorite song from them is the song How Long Have You Known which has a pretty trippy video.   You’ve got to appreciate any band that preforms while wearing alien masks.   I missed a bit of the performance because I had drunk so much by that point that I had to pee several times.  I also used the opportunity to grab a bit of food as well.

We then caught a little bit of Vampire Weekend.  I am a moderate fan of Vampire Weekend.  I loved the first two albums but the third one just fell a little short for me.  Still they are a great band, but they can’t really compete with Major Lazer.  Still I wanted to stay and see a bit of their set before running across Grant Park yet again.  We only caught a couple of their hit’s like “Holiday”, and fortunately they were at the Bud Light Stage so you could hear them most of the way across the park.  As we started to walk away they started to play the song “A-Punk” that I had to run back to hear before finally committing to leaving for real.  I really wish that they weren’t playing as the same time.

That being said nothing trumps LAZERPALOOZA.   It was a swift walk across Grant Park in order to make it over just in time to Major Lazer run the track “Original Don”.  It is a track that I can’t listen to without getting hype.    As soon as I heard it I was pushing my way through the crowd towards the front of the stage dancing.  You’ve got to really appreciate what Diplo does as a DJ  for Major Lazer, popularizing the obscure Dancehall genre and taking it main stream.  “Pon De Floor” was actually used as the beat for Beyonce’s “Run The World (Girls)”.

Knife Party

I had to cap things off with a bang, as this was decidedly a dance music night.  Knife Party was preforming and how could I turn that down.  I’m not big on Pheonix and The Cure so it was an easy choice for me.  Their most popular track “Internet Friends” boasts the iconic line “You blocked me on Facebook, and now you’re going to die.”  Those Dubstep heavy tracks was all that I wanted to finish off the weekend with a bang.

I was a little mad about loosing my camera but I overall had a good weekend.   I went to the lost and found and heard nothing from them.  Eventually I had given up hope.  That was until I found a post for my camera being found on Craigslist.  I knew that checking it was a longshot but I eventually got it in my head to check it again.

I had to drive up to Logan Square to meet the person who had my camera, so I had a quick dinner at Longman and Eagle while I waited on them to show.  Longman and Eagle is tucked away in a corner of Logan Square.  It is a nice little whiskey bar that serves phenominal drinks.  Not to mention the fact that when I was looking over the menu, I really wanted to order absolutely everything.

Bone Marrow

So many things jumped out at me on the menu but I decided to go for the marrow bones.  The idea of combining bone marrow which is one of my favorite appetizers to get especially  since it is rarely on menus stuck out at me so much that I had to try it.  It didn’t disappoint but it wasn’t exactly a perfect dish.  The presentation for all is beauty, made the dish so much more difficult to eat.  The  roasted bones were standing up like little towers with the bacon shallot jam on top.  The waiter told me that most people don’t get down into the bones and get the marrow and end up eating the bacon shallot jam and proclaiming it to be the best marrow ever.  This is kind of understandable with the whole setup they give you which leads you down the road and makes the actual marrow hard to get to.

For everything the dish gains in beauty it loses in practicality.  This dish would have been perfect had those bones been cut lengthwise, and the bacon shallot jam spread evenly throughout.  All that aside, I’m really stretching to find fault in the dish because it tasted amazing.  You have a lot of fat in the bacon shallot jam and some sweetness.  Then to cut through the sweetness you get a little bright burst from the lemon zest.  You might think the sea salt would make things too salty in addition to the jam but if you use a light hand with both the salt and bacon jam, you can achieve perfection.

New York Strip

I decided to try the margarita since it was the drink of the day and it definitely was a winner for me.  It had all you wanted in a drink.  The drink was about as good as a margarita as you could have.   For my second drink I would have the Longman and Eagle Manhattan.  The Manhattan is a drink I often use to measure the quality of cocktail that a place can produce.   This particular one was right on the money.

For dinner I had the New York Strip.  The only fault I can find with this dish was that I had to rush through eating it in order to meet and get my camera.  When it first arrived, It almost seems as though there wasn’t enough steak, but it was well more than enough.  The steak was a perfect medium rare.  I loved the crispy potatoes on top of the braised ox tail.  The sauce was very hearty and a little acidic.

Lollapalooza: Saturday Recap

NOTE: I lost my camera on Sunday... So if all of my pictures look like they are the drawings of a six year old kid then I will have you know that that six year old kid is me.   You know what they say when life gives you Lemons:

You throw those lemons at a douche.

I'm no artist and I definitely couldn't do something as cool as this:

I woke up early enough in the morning to brace the continental breakfast offered since my room was on the Executive level of the Palmer House Hilton.  It was pretty much a circus but I still escaped with a cup of coffee, some pancakes and a banana.  Shortly thereafter, I was headed down for day two.  I was there well before the first band even started playing.  For the second time I was way early.

Completely Accurate Interpretation of Bright Light Social Hour

I got there early because from listening online I kind of fell in love with The Bright Light Social Hour.  They sound a lot like The Black Keys.  To tell the truth It has been a long time since I've heard Guitar and especially bass playing that good.  They were really fun to listen to, but they could have easily called themselves, The Beards and Excessively Long Hair Band.  Pretty easy to remember when you consider their appearance.  Jokes aside I love the bluesy melodies on songs like "Detroit".   My favorite song on their debut album has absolutely no lyrics and is called "Rhubarb Jam".


After they went off I had plenty of time before the next band that I wanted to see.   All of the bands on Saturday's Groove Stage got pushed back because of Azelia Banks not preforming.  We decided it would be a good time to get some food.  Of course the Triple Truffle Fries from Frank's 'N' Dawgs were involved again.  This time I also had a sampling of cheeseburgers from both M Burger and Edzo's.  Putting the burgers head to head I would have to give the clear advantage to M Burger.  Their burgers were made a lot closer to when they were served and the burger's from Edzo's sat in a hot box for a bit.

The cheeseburger from the M Burger follows a simple recipe, cheese, lettuce, pickles and sauce.  The sauce is sort of one of those mayo based sauces that kind of a weird (in a good way) cross between McDonald's special sauce and Thousand Island.  The burger itself, is one that most closely resembles In N Out's burger, Damn tasty and without a trip southwest.  As for Edzo's burger, the cheese on that burger tasted better, but my burger was sligthly dry and the patty was coming apart a little.  There was also a little bit of overwhelming amount of pepperonchini on the burger.

The next band  we saw was Family of the Year.  I couldn't be more indifferent about this band at all.  They were just incredibly mediocre.  So much so that I still can't decide whether that experience of listening to them was good or bad.  It was simply forgettable.  The only reason why I even remember seeing them is because we really wanted to see St. Lucia.  Had I realized the timing, we probably would have gotten


St. Lucia has a really mellow electronic sound going on.  I love the strong bass line on "September", and I;m totally not being partial to that song because I was born in September.  There music really is interestingly stays very cool and mellow despite being uptempo on many tracks. It's like Coldplay and Afrojack got together and made this amazing sublime and sexy dubstep free baby. You can't help but sing along and get involved with the incredibly catchy chorus on "We Got It Wrong".


Next we had a pretty brisk walk to the other side of Grant Park to see Local Natives.  I like this band despite being wildly unfamiliar with their music.  Funny enough they played the only two songs I really know soon after they arrived to start watching them.  I think that their song "Airplanes" I think suffered from that classic problem of me hearing it on the radio and not being able to get my phone out to shazaam it fast enough.  That catchy chorus sounds so good against the folk melody.  The song that followed was "Heavy Feet", which probably has one of the weirdest and seemingly unrelated video I've seen in a long time.  They are a a great band that has mastered those three part harmonies.
 
Continuing with the trend of walking a ton, we headed over to catch a little bit of Unknown Mortal Orchestra while catching a bite to eat. Puffs of Doom, offered something interesting that I had to try by this point.  I was a little saddened by it overall because the basic premise of the place is to create a basic choux pastry and fill it with something.  I didn't know what to expect when I ordered the bacon macaroni and cheese puff, but I also don't know why you would take a something as starchy as macaroni and stuff it inside of a choux pastry.  Other than that Unknown Mortal Orchestra was a pretty mellow band and I can't really judge them since I only heard about 15 minutes of their set.  They did get added to a long list of bands that I want to explore later and I do actually like their song "So Good At Being In Trouble" quite a bit.



Next up was The National.  While I am only vaguely familar with the band, I think by this point I have had almost enough of the the very mellow somber bands.  The funny part is that every band worth seeing was pretty mellow and somber.  I mean it's still kind of shocking to me to look at their wikipedia page and see that they've been around for fourteen years.  Their sound is incredibly relaxing and borderline melancholy.


Next up I had to catch a little bit of Blondfire.  I love Erica's voice.  It's high pitched in a way that you think would be annoying but is totally not.  Those nasally tones brightened up my day quite a bit.  I only got to see half of their set because I wanted to catch the Lumineers, but hearing her play Waves was enough to satisfy my day.  Still I wish I would have gotten to hear them play Where The Kids Are which is probably my favorite song by them.


Once again we were rushing across the park to catch The Lumineers.  I have no idea why music is trending towards a folk sound and a dubstep sound.  When I first heard the song "Ho Hey", I was suckered in to listening to their music.  You can't help but like that song because the tune is incredibly catchy.  You know a song has a good chorus when you're ready to sing along with it along the first time you hear the song.  They have a good happy energy about them and even came out into the crowd to play a couple of songs.  I only heard the echoes of sad yet very encouraging breakup song "Stubborn Love" because I wanted to beat the crowd and grab food before running across the park for The Postal Service.


This was kind of historic.  The second to last performance ever by The Postal Service.  I had been looking forward to this for a while.  The Postal Service is kind of like the McRib of music.  It's awesome and made up of mostly artificial sounds but the overall popularity of it is based somewhat on the fact that it's so incredibly rare.  Like making an album and disappearing for a decade rare.  I was impressed.  Very impressed, as soon as you heard them start to play "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight" you are transported to a place of musical bliss.

Laura Burhenn of The Postal Service

In hindsight it does seem like a little dickish to start a show saying "It's been a long time Chicago" yeah a decade is pretty long time.  It seemed like he was kind of rubbing the crowd's nose in the fact that this was one of their last performances.  That doesn't matter because "Tattered Line of String" makes up for that.

Then came the after show.  I had to battle traffic relentlessly, via the backseat of a taxi cab.  I couldn't wait because I really wanted to see Robert Delong.  I've been addicted to his music since the first time I heard his first single "Global Concepts".   It's incredible to watch him preform, and you think there would be more than just him but no it's just one dude being awesome.  He played a couple of new songs in his set, but I was slightly disappointed that I didn't hear him do "Change" which is one of my favorite songs on the album.  It starts out with him just singing the word change and the beat and words get more complex as the song goes on.  Very clever.


I got to meet Robert Delong and take a picture with him and he was a cool dude which is one of the main reasons I'm mad I lost my camera.

Then there was the Matt and Kim performance   I've got to say I was completely caught off guard by how good they were.  Let me say, it would likely be impossible to recreate the absolute fun these guys have on stage.  From the moment they start you're like yeah I want to drink and party with these guys. They are the literal life of the party.  I must say that up until I saw them live, many of the songs that I've heard from them on the radio I would instantly switch the channel the moment I heard it.  I recognized a few of the songs like "Let's Go" and "Daylight".

Me and Robert Delong
I'm really good at drawing myself

What's crazy is it takes seeing them live to truly do their music justice.  I just don't think it translates well over the radio. Their overly happy music and simple choruses seems like it's a bit of a shtick, but once you see them you're like oh that's really them, and that's really cool.  They have an amazing energy and with one performance they transformed me into a pretty dedicated fan of their music.

I mean you have to appreciate a band so fun that they will do this:

But seriously.... Even that video doesn't do the band justice.  You just have to go out and see them.  They are pretty much a band for everybody (or at least everyone that enjoys some really popular music) as they integrate lots of popular hip hop songs throughout their performance.  

Lollapalooza 2013: Friday Recap

Lollapalooza is my favorite summer music festival.   Not only from a music standpoint, but the food is awesome every time I’ve been there.  You can attribute this to Master Chef Judge and winner of two Michelin stars Graham Elliott being the culinary director for the event.  He is a really nice guy as well and offered everybody free popcorn last year after the festival got rained out for a little bit.  It was one of the few moments of my life of where I was truly star struck.

The Neighbourhood

Before the gates opened, I used Parkwhiz in order to get parking downtown for the entire weekend for just $33.  When you consider that the hotel charges upwards of $70 per night, that savings is tremendous.    The parking was a little bit of a walk though, just a quarter of a mile.   After parking though I would have breakfast at Harold’s Chicken.  It had been a long time since I had Harold’s and I had been longing for a quarter dark with mild sauce.  This location took a while to get the food ready, but it was worth the wait in order to get that crispy fried chicken with that sweet tangy sauce on top.

This was the first year I’ve ever made it when the gates were opening.  The traffic on the way to Chicago was much less than I expected, and the drive there which I expected to take like an hour and a half only took like thirty minutes.  This was fine though and it gave me a chance to exchange my wristband since the one I had wouldn’t scan as well as do some walking around.

Triple Truffle Fries

The first band I saw was The Neighbourhood.  I honestly thought this band was British for the longest time.  Yeah I know they don’t sound British at all, but they spell “Neighbourhood” with a “u” so I thought has to be a British band.  Not true though.  This was also a very hard choice to end up seeing them as I really wanted to see Robert Delong, but I have tickets to the after show featuring Robert Delong on Saturday night, so it was more prudent choice to see The Neighbourhood.

They definitely didn’t disappoint at all, getting the festival off to a great start, as lead vocalist Jesse Rutherford swooned his way through verse after verse.  My appreciation for the band only grew more after seeing them live.  They are a pretty mellow alternative rock band that often uses mellowed out beats the likes of which you could easily see being used in a song like Ice Cube's Today "Was a Good Day".  It is a welcomed backdrop to lyrics that range from the romantic and mellow “Sweater Weather” to the darker and more introspective tracks like “Afraid” and “W.D.Y.W.F.M.?”

Atlas Genius

A note on drinking at Lollapalooza.  The cheapest legitimate way to drink there is to buy bottles of wine for $25.  The next stop was to pick up a bottle of a Chardonnay, which was just slightly oaky and buttery, but not too much.  Thorny Rose does all of the wine for Lollapalooza.  If you have a pocket flask though and you were to fill that with spiced rum, it is the perfect combination with Sweet Leaf's Citrus Tea.  By perfection combination I do mean perfect as you get the vanilla notes of the rum blending in and playing off of the citrus notes of the tea.

Next up was San Cisco.  They’re a cool Australian band and you’ve gotta appreciate any band that has a female drummer.  Female drummers are awesome.  They were clearly in that band that has that one song you know category when I saw them.  Their song “Awkward” is so bright and cheeky and has this irresistibly light and bright pop vibe.   You can’t help but indulge yourself in that a little bit.  The band in general is kind of dorky and super hipster, which is fine with me.  The performance was pretty good and I will be checking out more of their music later on though.

The best French Fries I’ve ever had in my entire life.  Yes they were here at Lollapalooza.  I get them multiple times every year at least once or twice a day.  The Triple Truffle Fries from Franks ‘N’ Dawgs are absolutely so good out of this world incredibly freaking awesome worth killing and dying for.  Undeniably the undisputed king of Fries.  They are light a crisp waffle fries that are airy and perfectly salted and the truffle makes everything slightly earthy and delicious.

Then we quickly headed over to see Icona Pop.  Of course I went to indulge in the amazing guilty pleasure of their summer anthem “I Don’t Care”.  What I don’t understand about this song is that I should hate it, but it just works.  As soon as you hear that beat with that Swedish duo aggressively singing those lyrics at you, you can’t help but get excited.  The crowd went absolutely crazy as soon as they started that song, ending their set more impressively than a well-executed Ultra combo in Killer Instinct.

Atlas Genius is one of those sneaky good bands.  When looking through the schedule I was like man that band sounds familiar.  Then I went online to listen to some of their songs and it was like man I know all of those songs.  Their most popular song has to be "If So".  I love the upbeat melodies of this band that is in many of their songs like "Trojans".  Keith Jeffery balances out those higher pitched upbeat chords with his intriguing mellow and somewhat raspy voice.  Really a great band with an album well worth buying.

Crystal Castles

Next up in the bands that your friend drags you to category was Crystal Castles.  They have a very interesting electronic type of sound that isn’t too upbeat and plays off of the high pitched vocals of the female lead singer.  It was a very intriguing performance to say the least, but by that time we had shared three bottles of wine already so I wasn’t the most coherent.

Along the way, Samsung had this promotion to switch out your battery on my phone for a fresh one.  I have a lot of spares off of Amazon for events as such, but it was still convenient to use the one they were giving away.  As an extra bonus they gave meal coupons to Grahamwhich.  I’ve got to say I was a little bit disappointed with my lobster corn dog this year as it tasted as though it had been sitting under a heat lamp for a while and the lobster was definitely overcooked.  I would have asked for my money back on it if I paid anything more than free.

Next up was one of my favorites of the day Imagine Dragons.  I first started listening to Imagine Dragons with the release of their upbeat and poppy ballad “It’s Time”.  Though I first saw the song when it was performed on Glee, I quickly became a fan of the band more for their musical diversity more than anything.  The band goes from that folky twang of the banjo on “It’s Time”, to a little bit of Dubstep on “Radioactive”.

Soooo Many people....

So I have to be honest I’ve never heard of New Order.  To be honest I could have done without hearing about them.  Another one in that bands you’re dragged to category, New Order, just reminds me of everything that was wrong with music in the 80’s.   It’s just music which is so in between that it ends up being unpleasant.  Musically they are like one of those movies that tried to use a special effect that is a bit before their time.  Nothing bad about that, it’s just the nostalgia effect is lost on me since I am unfamiliar with their music.

The day finished up with Nine Inch Nails.  This is the band I had honestly been looking the most forward too.  It got off to a bad start for me simply because the more drunk I get the more I tend to use my watch over my phone for time.  My watch was set an hour slow.  So I missed the first 15 minutes of NIN.  There were two problems I had with this show, one was that they performed too many songs of their new material.  It made their set seem like more of a reflective art project than the hard rock they are known for.  The experienced was also worsened by the fact that the screens weren’t working and you could barely see anything.  It was still a good performance by them especially hearing songs like “Hurt” and “Head Like a Hole” but I think I had unattainably high expectations for that performance.

Another Priceless Experience: Publican Quality Meats

A Spacious table and we would get to watch all the food
cooked behind us.

I’ve been to the Publican about 2 years ago for Chicago’s Chef week, so I knew there was good food to be had there.  The fresh made pork rinds made themselves onto Food Network’s Best Thing I Ever Ate.  Yeah I knew it would be a little tough to stay up for a dinner the night after coming back from Europe, but I couldn’t miss out on the experience.  It was something that I couldn’t think of missing unless I had some type of life threatening illness.   I somehow wasn’t even tired at all when it rolled around, I attribute that to a combination of excitement and the relaxing flight that I had in Premium Economy on Virgin Atlantic  (BTW, my Premium Economy Upgrade for $300 was only sort of worth it).

Butchers hard at work after a beef delivery

It was my first time at Publican Quality Meats which does all of the butchering for The Publican as well as bakes all of the bread.  A talk with Chef Kahn and you find that they can not keep up with the meat demand for all of the amazing cuts of sausage and cured meats that they sell at Publican Quality Meats.  The evening started with a few welcome hors d'oeuvres.   Among them were many of those awesome cured meats and those famed pork rinds.  You also had a seafood tower there. 

Dinner was served downstairs in the kitchen and after a quick tour through the meat locker, we were ready to eat.  It is crazy how hungry seeing a bunch of hanging cured meats makes you.  We all sat down at a large communal table and introduced ourselves one by one as Chef Khan prepared his first dish.  Though as we started eating you would have thought that we were all lifelong friends judging based on the loud and s  Every dish had a wine paring.  I am a beer person as well and they also had a beer paring for every dish, but I figured it unwise to try seven beers and seven glasses of wine when I had to make it all the way back to Romeoville somehow that night.

Let the curing begin

First up to the plate was the Hamachi Crudo.  This dish won based on pure simplicity.  You get the freshness of the Hamachi in a winning combination with the lemon oil providing a slight touch of acid.  The fresno chilies give a little bit of spice as well.  Lemon, seafood and fresno chillies is a combination that I love.  I use it to make a quick supper with only the addition of some mussels, garlic, white wine and pasta.  I think I might have stolen that dish from Gordon Ramsey though, don’t quote me.  The dishes were served family style and I was seated next to two people that took very dainty portions so it gave me the opportunity to finish off every plate.  There wouldn’t be a dish that disappointed me. 

Sides of Beef  Delivered Earlier in the Day

Next up was the asparagus panzenella salad.  When I usually think of panzenella I think of combining Italian bread with olive oil Basil, tomatoes and Parmaggino Reggiano. This took a bit of a different approach to that.    You had their country bread there with the salty elements coming from the olives that were strewn throughout the salad.  The English Peas added a freshness to the salad and you had the radish sprouts and arugula for a bit of spiciness   All of those tasty ingredients were bound together in a lemon caper vinaigrette that was very light and slightly acidic.  The brightness it added was like a little flashlight awakening all your entire palate to taste the individual nuances of each vegetable that worked so well together in this dish.

Steaks Aging away

I love Mussels Frites, so I was so excited to see it on the menu.  My favorite part of the dish is the broth.  When it comes to making mussels, your dish lives or dies based on how good the broth is.  When those guys open themselves up and release that fresh briny juices into the pan it creates this broth that can be a culinary miracle if used correctly.  Realistically, when making mussels, the broth should be so good that if given the choice between having a little broth and some mussels or a lot of broth and some crusty bread, you would easily take the broth and bread to soak up the liquid gold that lines your bowl.  Now take those perfectly tender mussels and that luscious broth and combine them with some awesome French fries, and a garlic aioli to dip them in and you have a winning (though very fattening) dish.  Mussels Frites is one of those anomalies of a dish where it completely socially acceptable to dip French fries into mayonnaise.

Mussels

Next up was the star of the show.  More than anything Publican is known for pork.  I mean look at the Yelp reviews, after scrolling through pages describing how awesome some of their pork dishes are, you may be able to find one thing that is kosher if you look hard enough.  Here you had a dish that was just simply mind-blowing.  It was comforting as it reminded me of breakfast of grits and bacon when I was growing up.  This was so much better though, the grits were so rich and creamy.  They had a really buttery flavor to them and were accented by the light onion taste from the leeks.  The pork belly was cooked perfectly, playing on that edge of sweet and saltiness that everyone loves together.    As if things couldn’t get better you had a side of a spring vegetable ragout with a poached egg.  Slicing into a perfectly poached  egg is one of the things I love most in food.  When you have that egg yolk run out and coat the entire plate it is blissful.  That egg yolk with the parmesan came together to create the perfect sauce for the perfect side for a perfect plate of food.

Hamachi Crudo

By this time I was completely full, that wouldn’t stop me from tasting a bit of the next two dishes though.  All of their steaks are aged in house.  I couldn’t pass up on an opportunity to taste a couple bites of my favorite cut of meat.  Ribeye.   Nothing beats a well marbled bone in ribeye steak when it comes to grilling.  It is the juiciest cut of steak and it just screams out at you with the flavor of beefy goodness.  The steak was cooked to a perfect mid rare, and though I did enjoy both pieces quite a bit, the sear was a little much and gave off a bit of a smoky quality that didn’t bring it to the unrealistically high standard I had set for it in my mind.

Then as if further reading my mind, was my favorite dessert.  I only took a single bite of the cheesecake but the star of that dish was the

Pork Belly

amazing honey that was on the plate.  It goes to show that a great honey can make a lot of difference and bring the taste of a dish to a new level.  They do sell that honey in the store, I just was too caught up in good conversation to remember to ask if I could buy some.  Next time I make it to Chicago I will check it out though.

All in all I’ve been to two of Mastercard’s Priceless experiences, and they have been an amazing value and each one has really felt priceless.  I wouldn’t trade this night for just about anything… Except a trip to Barcelona in the summertime but who can really compete with the beaches of Barcelona?

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.