CuriousEpicurean

i haven't blogged about food in a long time. however, i think after our adventures in chicago, a post is necessary. chicago is a food town. if you're a foodie, like i am, go to chicago and you will have an amazing time. Between friends and i, we probably have over 1000 photos from chicago... but thankfully only Food photos here

my friends, sharlene & rena (since we were 11 years-old)...affectionately "shaka" and "bo" were there at the same time the hubby and i were and we just hit the town and all the food goodies chicago had to offer. we even did a "food tasting" tour of the city - touristy but fun. i mean you gotta do it. where else can you taste food and pass by hugh hefner's original playboy mansion while drinking iced tea from tea gschwender. :P

i'm going to blog our food escapades in this blog. but we did do more in chicago than eat our way through it. seriously. really. i'll probably just leave those for another place since this is my "foodie" journal of sorts.

day 1: jack and i slept after a day of delays in traveling. food was not in the agenda but sleep. however, we snuck in dinner at the park grill on the plaza at millennium park. this outdoor eatery is a skating rink during the winter. i had a chicago dog and jack enjoyed a tilapia taco.

day 2: had lunch with brie, a friend born & raised in chicago. she took me to the fabulous and legendary "the walnut room" at marshall fields... sadly the historic marshall fields, to the chagrin of chicagoans everywhere, will be no more and become the future macy's on state. :(
the walnut room is glorious. food was amazing. i ended up with lobster ravioli and creme brulee for lunch. however, i was eyeing brie's meatloaf the entire time.
then afterwards, brie introduced me to world famous chicago garrett's popcorn. this will be our group's addiction while there. always order the chicago mix. nothing tastes yummier than a mix of cheese & caramel popcorn fresh from the popper.
for dinner, jack and i joined his coworkers at the IMTS convention at the palmer hilton's "big downtown." the guys wanted ribs, steak, etc... and to watch the car race on tv. jack and i shared a salmon dish and was floored that a soda cost almost $4.

day 3: bo & shaka arrives in town. while shaka was proctering optometry students, bo and i had lunch at "the walnut room." i thought she would enjoy it. i ended up with the meatloaf this time and for dessert, the "smallest banana split." bo had the meatloaf as well as the peach and blueberry(?) cobbler with vanilla ice cream. yummy. then i took her to garrett's popcorn and we introduced the "popcorn" fingers to future chicago photos. instead of the peace V sign...we did the "popcorn." photos of this are probably in shaka & bo's camera.

for dinner, jack, bo, shaka, and i went to navy pier's dock street cafe. we were all so full from garrett's popcorn that we just wanted something casual. bo and i shared a hot dog while jack had some kind of wrap. he really needed dinner as he only had popcorn for most of the evening.
navy pier was fun. we rode the big ferris wheel and enjoyed the fireworks over lake michigan.

day 4: poor shaka had to work at the optometry exam at the illinois school of optometry and test the newbies. jack and i had lunch at ada's kosher deli down the street from our hotel while we waited to meet bo. jack and i really enjoyed the fare there. i had a b l t sandwich with the chicken soup w/ kreplach. kreplach is so good. and jack had his pancakes for breakfast.
we met bo later at millennium park and we all walked towards grant park where they were having a latin festival. bo had festival food of carne asada. then off we went to the shedd aquarium to look at some fishies.
for dinner, we met up with shaka and then proceeded to head on to Vong's Thai Kitchen VTK for some Thai-French fusion restaurant. We ate very flavorful dishes - starting with a spicy watermelon soup. I wish I would have written down exactly what we had because a fried rice, a curry dish, a noodle dish, would not do them justice.

afterwards for dessert, we took a trip to ghirardelli's soda fountain and chocolate shop. jack and i shared a banana split, shaka had a chocolate soda, and bo had some kind of caramel sundae. jack and shaka even exchanged maraschino cherries. :P

day 5: shaka had the week off. so bo and i took her to the walnut room. bo and i had the scrumptious meatloaf again while shaka had their famous chicken pot pie. for dinner, we met up with jack and took the train to greek town where we found Greek Islands. Our bellies were so happy there. For an appetizer, we shared the flaming saganaki cheese. Then I ordered dolmades - which is grape leaves stuffed with rice, meat, and herbs. jacko had keftedes - Beef and lamb meatballs stewed in tomato sauce. Bo had meat shishkabobs and I think so did Shaka.

day 6: this was a rainy day in chicago. shaka, bo, and i had breakfast at the french quarter at the palmer hilton. just your average breakfast buffet. we then headed out to bucktown for some shopping but instead made some jewelry at a jewelry store. shaka and bo's pieces rocked. afterwards we had lunch/dinner "linner" at an off the beaten path-eclectic eatery called the earwax cafe - where they served vegetarian/vegan dishes. bo and i had their portobello sandwich with goat cheese, spinach, and portobellos. shaka, the adventurer, tried their seitan burrito. seitan being some kind of wheat meat substitute. her burrito was HUGE, ginormous that she was only able to eat half. the other half we carried and gave to someone at the train stop.
we didn't have a special dinner planned for this evening - jack had a subway sandwich and our earwax meal kept us full throughout the night before we headed on out to the musical, wicked, at the oriental ford theater. however, afterwards, we headed back to ghirardelli's for hot fudge sundaes and then some.

day 7: shaka, bo, and i had afternoon tea at the drake hotel's palm court. what a beautiful place. a harpist played music and there was a fountain at the center of palm court. i had a ginger peach tea, shaka ordered the vanilla bean, and bo ordered the wild blackberries tea. we each probably had 3 pot full of teas during our time there. they were so good. the assortment of tea sandwiches included cucumber, roast beef, asparagus & ham, egg salad, etc... and their scones with cream & jam were wonderful. afterwards an assortment of pastries were presented to us. i enjoyed the fruit tart while shaka and bo enjoyed the chocolate assortments.
after our tea, we headed up the sears tower and waited for jack to join us after his work. let's just say we were at sears for about 3 hours and saw the sunset. for dinner, we took a train to chinatown. we ended up at a hole in the wall place that served authentic, cheap chinese food. as it was almost 10pm by the time we had dinner, we were hungry and ate our dishes in 20 minutes record time. we had spicy & salty pork chops, braised green beans, pan fried noodles, and a new favorite, honey walnut shrimp that shaka introduced us to. bo also had an avocado shake, shaka had a shake with red beans, and jack had a mango shake.

day 8: this was our eating day for sure. we met our food tasting tour guide at ghirardelli's and for 2 miles and 3 hours - we walked throughout chicago's gold coast, "viagra town," old town, and armitage avenue for local and chicago based food places. we tasted a "latka" - a potato pancake at a jewish deli, had iced tea at tea gschwender (where we were taught briefly about tea basics), fudge pot, pizza, more chocolate at ethel's chocolate lounge, bread Sun-Dried Tomato & Goat Cheese Spread at breadsmith, and samplings of spices at the Spice Store.
Needless to say, we were full and our feet were sore by the end of the day. however, it was a great way to see chicago. whereelse could we have seen hugh hefner's original playboy mansion at the gold coast near, ironically enough, viagra triangle?
for dinner, jack joined us his okuma team for dinner at some grill pub while shaka & bo and i went back to viagra triangle for some big bowl. we had appetizers of chicken potstickers, shrimp summer rolls, and spicy sesame peanut noodles. then shaka ordered a beef/broccoli dish, i ordered beef chow fun, and bo ordered a chicken curry dish. for dessert, we ordered mochis. green tea mochi for shaka and me and bo had a mango mochi. definitely a great and refreshing dessert.

day 9: shaka and bo's last day. we had breakfast at ada's deli where shaka impressed us with her order of the biggest, dessert breakfast we had ever seen. an alaskan waffle complete with ice cream and whip cream. she even had jacko beat in that department. i ordered corned beef with hash, jack apple waffles, and bo had pancakes. this, we hoped, would hold us over for the next few hours as we took the architecture river cruise. it was impressive and fascinating to see the buildings and know the history of all of them. however, our neck ached at looking up so much. afterwards, we all had a craving for mcdonald's and so headed on to a mickey d's for some grub. later we headed up the john hancock observation tower where we saw more of the city skyline that we've fallen in love with.
but to highlight the week, we all indulged and met up with miss brie at the swanky peninsula hotel for a chocolate bar. a buffet of gourmet chocolate that was to die for. i was surrounded by chocoholics who went back two to three times but no more... . the consensus was chocolate is really good but to have a buffet of it is overkill. i believe they were on chocolate hangover the next morning. i stayed away as chocolate isn't my favorite and instead ordered a ceviche dish. but jack did let me taste the creme brulee...my favorite dessert ever.

and so end my blog on the chicago's foodie tour.

it was fun, chicago, - you are amazing and we had such a memorable trip. we will definitely come back for more gluttony.