Category: Dining

Fine dining, restaurants and food

Leaving Evanston

So ends the summer in Evanston. We packed up, cleaned out the refrigerator and prepped the condo for a month of idleness, then headed to the airport. Not exactly traveling light, because I needed to get everything back to Orlando, and Dani needs to pack for Orlando, London and Iceland, with everything then ending up back in Evanston, an interesting challenge. We had a leisurely lunch (due to the leisurely server) at Harry Caray’s at Midway airport, and then an uneventful flight home. Linda met us and we went to The Vineyard at The Ritz Carlton for dinner on the way home, where we had a spectacular Aubert Lauren Vineyard Chardonnay. They’ve really upgraded this restaurant’s food, service and wine. It’s nice to be home, but I’ll miss Evanston.

Mission Acomplished!

Dani took her chemistry final this morning. While she was away I put up the banner Jackie made for her. She was very surprised when she arrived home to find that, and my lame excuse at cake decorating.

In all fairness, the cake is only about four inches across.

Bombay Indian Grill and Merle’s #1 Barbecue

For lunch I was going to try the local JK Sweets, which is the bizarre combination of an ice cream parlor and Korean restaurant, but it looks like they’re on vacation. So I walked over to Sherman and on a whim went into Bombay Indian Grill, a narrow storefront that used to be a Dunkin’ Donuts.

Bombay Indian Grill is a small restaurant that offers quite tasty and authentic Indian food, and at least at lunch the prices are quite fair. I had the Chicken Korma. There seems to be some disagreement about what goes into Korma sauce, with some places adding spices that turn it pink or red, while others make the traditional white. This was the pink variety, and it was savory and delicious, and mild as advertised. I love garlic naan bread, so I ordered that, rather than the plain naan that comes with the lunch, and took rice instead with my chicken. Both the rice and the garlic naan were excellent, and the two chutney accompaniments — tamarind and cilantro — were perfect. A tiny salad was as also on the plate, really just some shredded lettuce that might have been lightly dressed, but it actually served well to clear the palate. The two fried bits of smashed and breaded cauliflower aren’t really my thing, but they were good with the chutneys. A lot of food for ten bucks. Service was attentive and friendly. There’s free wifi, too, due to the fact that Starbucks is next door! No complaints, and I’ll be back.

Today they’re washing the windows of the condo building (they actually weren’t very dirty), so a guy dangling from ropes is passing by. It’s amazing how fast he goes from floor to floor, dropping down the side. Then I guess he takes the elevator back up!

Today Dani gave her chemistry lab project presentation about a UV light exposure sensor to prevent sunburn and got voted best presentation by her 14 classmates, so she won a Northwestern Chemistry hat.

For dinner we ordered ribs from Merle’s #1 Barbecue. Dani thought there wasn’t goof barbecue in Evanston, but the “spare ribs, falling off the bone, mild sauce” were terrific, as were the accompaniments: corn bread, baked potatoes and very bacony baked beans.

Al’s Deli

It really is true that you need to live in a place for a while to discover its secrets. I’ve been in Evanston for two months, yet it’s only in the past two days that I’ve happened upon two of my favorite places. Last night it was Bistro Bordeaux, and today it’s Al’s Deli, which is also, oddly enough, French.

Today was perfect weather for a walk: mid-seventies, clear, a light breeze. So I headed back up to the area west of NU to further explore the business district there. Along the way I stopped at Howard’s Books, a used bookstore at Maple and Foster, and of course I had to buy some books.

I continued up Maple to Noyes. The area is full of charming little rental houses, some of them not twenty feet wide.

About a block to the east is Al’s Deli. It was founded in 1949 by Al Pottinger, a francophile, who offered European groceries, baked goods, soups and sandwiches. His sons took the business over in the 1970s, and are still there. They offer traditional french sandwiches such as brie on a baguette, plus homemade soups. The Soup au Pistou I had today was wonderful, a cup full of chunky vegetables with a dollop of garlic aeoli that turned it into something you might find in a bouillabaisse. They also make six types of enormous, tasty cookies themselves. The place is a short walk from NU, in the charming little area around Noyes and Sherman.

Bistro Bordeaux

After a quiet morning reading, we went to Kansaku for lunch.

I recently read Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, and Getting the Girl by Markus Zusak, and I’m now reading his I Am The Messenger on Kindle for iPad. It’s good, but nowhere near as good as The Book Thief.

For dinner we went to Bistro Bordeaux, which is actually the closest restaurant to the condo, a couple hundred yards down the alley, by Whole Foods. We had contemplated going there at lunch time on two different Sundays, but after standing by the podium for several minutes one day there was no sign of employees, and everyone seated in the fairly busy place seemed to be waiting for something. Still, it won Chicago Magazine’s Best New Restaurant award for 2010, and the menu is incredibly authentic, so we thought we’d try it at an odd hour (5:45pm).

We should have tried this place sooner. It was easily the best meal of the weekend. Just like being in France, right down to the Badoit water. By 7pm the place was full, and the service was good.

Dani started with Rillettes de Saumon, and I started with Terrine de Foie Gras de Canard, both pates served with croustinis. Both were excellent, but the pate would have been better for sharing, given the generous portion size. The salmon was extremely flavorful.

For entrees Dani had a Croques Madame with pommes frites and I had herb roasted New Zealand lamb leg with braised flageolets and pearl onions. The pommes frites (french fries) are as good as any I’ve had, even in France, not greasy, crisp, thin and full of flavor. The croques madame was delicious and a bargain. The lamb was my least favorite, a bit gamey, but the flageolets were succulent.

For dessert we shared a creme brulee, which was delightful in its straightforward simplicity. We had a 2005 Volnay, full bodied and a reasonable price, although the most expensive wine on the list, much better than last night’s 2005 Morey Saint Denis, and only two thirds the price.

The food was better than Graham Elliot, and as good as Sepia (though quite different) at half the price, and a block away. We will definitely return, as this is about as authentic a French bistro experience one can have, in the US or anywhere.

Sepia

Dani spent the day writing new material for The Last Telepath. It’s very vivid.

Tonight we went to Sepia, which was recommended to me by Scott Joseph. What a different experience from last night at Graham Elliot! We could actually communicate, with each other and the waiter! The menu has a varied but limited selection of starters and entrees, Very straightforward. Each dish is completely distinct, offering a lot of choices. Service was friendly and efficient, and they turned every table at least once. It’s in a trendy building in what used to be an industrial area. A very pleasant dining experience.

Graham Elliot

This morning while Dani was taking her midterm I unlocked Jackie’s bike from its parking meter and examined what was keeping the front wheel from turning. Not only was the hand brake pressed against it, but the wheel was bent.

It was almost impossible to push it (although I later learned how to easily disengage the front brake) and it was too heavy to carry with the front tire off the ground, so I rode it down to Turin Bicycle. It was like riding an exercycle all the way, because as soon as I stopped pedaling the bike came to an abrupt halt! Obviously a new wheel was needed, along with other adjustments. The repairs came to $9 less than the original cost of the bike, but what the heck, at least it’s fixed. We picked it up after lunch at Lulu’s.

A couple of nights ago Dani couldn’t get to sleep so she sat up making notes about new ideas for her completed novel The Last Telepath. Now that she has a weekend break, she’s been writing a new first fifty pages like a maniac. Since she was only thirteen when she started the original manuscript, I’m sure this first fifty pages will bring a new level of depth to the story.

Tonight was our next to last fine dining blowout this summer. We went to Graham Elliot, which Ron’s friend Bruce reported as his favorite from a recent trip to Chicago. Mistake! You do NOT want to go here. It is a little slice of hell. The food is okay, but the ambiance is non existent. The place is deafening, with non-stop techno/grunge/rock/rap/pop soundtrack so you can’t even hear the descriptions of what is in each dish. We had 21 courses and 18 matching beverages. 50% of the courses were completely forgettable, the others were good, but not one was as good as a typical course at V&A or Moto. Here’s an example of one course, a deconstructed tomato mozzarella and balsamic foam. If this looks about one inch wide that’s because it is:

Or how about these TWO courses, carpaccio and a “Caesar salad” (I already ate half the salad in my first bite):

The wine list is a bunch of silly young whites. The wine carafes are 2 liter chemistry flasks. The  waiters wear jeans and t-shirts. The tasting courses are microscopic. Most dishes have many, many ingredients (couldn’t hear what) but don’t seem to combine to create a whole greater than the parts. On the plus side, price is reasonable, and it was neat to have a different beverage to match nearly every course, but 80% were mixed drinks, not wine.

At the end of the evening, too late to do us any good, we received a printed menu of everything we had. Across the top it read “the alcorn party is awesome.”

graham elliot is not awesome.

Zoba Noodle Bar

I packed up three boxes of mostly books and took them down to the UPS Store to ship back to Orlando.

On my way back I stopped at Zoba Noodle Bar to get some take-out food to bring home for lunch with Dani. It’s weird, the place is called a noodle bar, but has no bar, and the noodles are the worst thing they serve. Overall the Chinese food was just edible. Strange that they have a really good rating on Yelp.

Dinner was burgers (using up the last of the charcoal for the season) and macaroni and cheese, comfort food for Dani before her last midterm.

West of Northwestern

I got ambitious today and decided to walk up to The Spice House on Central and get some more of that magic powdered cheddar cheese that is the secret ingredient to Smoke House garlic bread. I took the residential streets west of NU and shot photos along the way.

On the way back I stopped at Rollin to Go, a sandwich shop on Noyes, and had a very tasty chicken sandwich on flatbread. There’s also a deli next door I’d like to try, but it’s closed Wednesdays. For dinner I made Scampi on linguine marinara with Smoke House garlic bread.

Cosi

My head was a bit better today, but I mostly took it easy. I fixed Dani a steak sandwich for lunch using the leftover strip steak from last night, and then went to Sashimi Sashimi for sushi while her tutor, Lee, was here.

I also stopped into the last two coffee houses I know of: Starbucks, which was packed with people standing in line — I used their restroom but couldn’t bring myself to order their coffee; and Cosi, which is almost next door to Starbucks, serves the same types of coffee, and was empty. I had a mocha there and read an interesting article on Instapaper about the development of phone phreaks in 1971.

For dinner I made Indian Butter Curry Chicken and froze the leftovers in three separate meals for two that she can use next quarter. I must say the freezer is pretty much full of ready made meals as a result of the last seven weeks.

Trattoria Demi

The forecast was for scattered thunderstorms and it was gloomy when I awoke, so despite the persistent head / sinus / jaw ache I went the Whole Foods early to restock the kitchen.

But by lunch it had cleared off and turned into a beautiful day, so I went to Trattoria Demi, a short walk down Orrington. The Fettuccine Cacciatore lunch special was tasty, and the espresso was excellent.

By this afternoon my headache was finally starting to abate. Dani got home pretty late — almost 6pm — because she was working on her lab data. Her raw score on the midterm was pretty low but apparently on the curve it was quite high. It must have been a very hard test, compounded by the rushed delivery of lessons last week. So far she has an A- the first “quarter” and an A the second, with seven days of lessons and two tests to go.

I grilled a strip steak for Dani and some Tuna for me, on what will probably be the BBQ’s final outing for the year, although I have one load of charcoal left.

An Evening With Stephen Schwartz

I made orange rolls for breakfast, in my ongoing effort to clear out the fridge for vacation. Then for lunch we walked down to Addis Abeba and had a platter of mostly vegetarian offerings — very tasty. On the way back we passed the interesting chair sculptures in Raymond Park and stopped at Vinic to buy some chardonnay.

Tonight was the final program in the summer season at the Northwestern Interpretive Center, An Evening With Stephen Schwartz. It was definitely the highlight of the series. In a half hour interview before the show, Mr. Schwartz played and sang two of his songs, and discussed the development process. Then there was a two hour review put on by the NU orchestra and six musical theatre majors. It featured songs from all of Mr. Schwartz’s shows.

A highlight was a segment where Mr. Schwartz discussed the development of the song The Wizard and I from Wicked, and played and sang the two versions of Making Good that preceded it in the development process. Shoshana Bean, the second Broadway Elphaba, was a special guest, and performed a half dozen numbers, ending with Defying Gravity.

We were also delighted that the fifteen songwriters we saw last night had an opportunity to perform four of the songs we enjoyed most, and this time I got them on video.

One lasting impression was that each of the fifteen student songwriters, their three mentors and Mr. Schartz are all talented musicians and singers in their own right, which is contrary to my previous concept of musical songwriters.

It’s been interesting that the only two programs we would have skipped during this summer theatre series were the two that were theatre! All three concerts have been terrific.

We had a late night pizza at Lou Malnati’s, closing the place up at 11pm.

Songwriter’s Showcase

Dani had her chemistry midterm this morning. It sounds like it wasn’t as hard as it could have been, but in any event she’s glad it’s over and she can enjoy the weekend. She’s looking forward to being done in two weeks, while I have mixed feelings, because I’ll miss Evanston.

For lunch we went to Kansaku and had some excellent sushi rolls, especially the salmon ceviche, which is like Aji’s heaven roll, and the spicy tun, which is fat and cheap, and has a touch of mayo.

On the way back from lunch we stopped at Barnes Noble, where we learned something about Teen Non-Fiction.

Tonight’s program at the Northwestern Theatre and Interpretation Center was Songwriter’s Showcase, an annual event where fifteen young musicians from all over the country come together for a one-week workshop directed by three Broadway composers (including Andrew Lippa, who wrote The Addams Family musical). At the end of the week, they perform a song that each of them wrote during the week. The styles range from musicals to pop. Some of them were still working on their songs this afternoon, yet they came out fully arranged, often backing each other with several instruments and harmonies.

Wow! What a delightful surprise it was. This was a free event included in the season tickets, and it was far and away the best. I would buy every one of those songs.

The Secret of Smoke House Garlic Bread

I’ve been converting Bill Bryson’s new book, At Home, from CD to m4b so I can listen to it as an audiobook on our trip to England next month. I use a program called audiobookbuilder which works quite nicely. I could have purchased it as an audiobook, I suppose, but I wanted the original BBC version, which was only available as a 14 CD set.

Bryson is an interesting guy. He grew up in Iowa, lived in England for twenty years, and then returned to the US and lived in New Hampshire for almost a decade.

I bet this frat house fire escape gets a workout during parties.

He became famous writing about his travels, and I think he’s actually bigger in England than here. Since 2003 he’s been back in England, and is now the Chancellor of Durham University.

Bryson always reads his own audiobooks. He’s actually not a great reader, but because they’re his, there’s something endearing about his delivery; you can pretty much hear the twinkle in his eye. For anyone visiting Australia, his In a Sunburned Country is essential reading.

I spent the afternoon walking around Evanston, visiting the US Bank up on the Northwestern campus, and then continuing my survey of coffee (and tea shops).

Dream About Tea is a strange cross between a cafe and a shop. The Chinese owner sells a hundred or so herbal teas, brewed or dry,  plus accessories. The Morrocan mint I had was pleasant and inexpensive, but unremarkable.

Across the street at Bennison’s Bakery I had a pretty good large espresso and a pain au chocolat. The espresso was one of the better ones I’ve had in town, but La Duree in Paris needn’t worry about the pastry competition.

For dinner I tried a recipe from Simply Recipes. It was definitely a hit. Very lemony. I found the pine nuts at Whole Foods ($30 a pound! Fortunately they’re very light.) In retrospect I don’t think they’re very important, but using the juice and zest of a whole fresh lemon is. I think it should be called Lemony Smoked Salmon Pasta.

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces pasta
  • Salt
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1/3 cup chopped onions
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/3 cup dry white wine
  • 1/4 cup cream
  • 1/2 cup diced frozen carrots and peas
  • 1 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 Tbsp lemon zest (divided into 1 Tbsp and 1 Tbsp)
  • 2 Tbsp chopped fresh dill
  • 4 ounces smoked salmon, cut into bite sized pieces
  • Fresh ground black pepper

Method

  • Brown the pine nuts.
  • Saute onion and garlic.
  • Cook pasta.
  • Add white wine, lemon juice, and 1 Tbsp of lemon zest. Increase the heat and let boil down by half.
  • If you want a slightly creamy sauce, add the cream and let boil a minute more.
  • The sauce should be done about the same time the pasta is done. If you get done earlier with it than the pasta, take it off the heat.
  • Combine pasta and sauce. Add the smoked salmon, toasted pine nuts, dill, and the remaining lemon zest. Season with freshly ground black pepper.

Serves 2 to 3.

Most importantly, I FIGURED OUT HOW TO MAKE SMOKE HOUSE GARLIC BREAD!

It’s:

  • Sour Dough Bread
  • Butter
  • Minced Garlic
  • Grated Parmesan Cheese

and the secret ingredient:

The cheddar cheese powder is definitely what they use. In the past I’ve tried it with Kraft Macaroni and Cheese mix, but that has other stuff in it, too. It’s just straight, sharp cheddar cheese powder that duplicates not only the flavor, but also the crumbly texture. Win!

Lupita’s

The day began with a thunderstorm, but by 10am the rain had moved through leaving things hot and steamy, with intermittent sunshine.

I walked down to Main Street, towing the shopping basket behind me, and killed time at the newsstand until Lupita’s was open. It’s the third Mexican restaurant I’ve tried in Evanston, and saying it’s the best isn’t saying much. It certainly wasn’t worth the long, hot walk. It’s weird that just a couple of miles farther south there are all kinds of neat little hole in the wall Mexican cafes, but none up near the university.

On the way back I stopped at Jewel and stocked up on Diet Coke for Dani, then bought salmon for dinner at Whole Foods.

By mid-afternoon the rain had settled back in, and it was hard to believe I was getting sunburned on my morning walk.

I had a variety of different plans for the salmon, but in the end decided to keep it simple, sauteing it with seafood rub, and accompanying it with basmati rice. It turns out Jewel carries bread from LaBrea Bakery in Los Angeles. It’s better than any of the bread from Whole Foods. Who would have thought?

Olive Mountain

I walked around Evanston a bit today, having breakfast at Einstein’s and running errands to CVS and Whole Foods.

Lunch was at Olive Mountain, a new Middle Eastern place on Davis, a couple blocks from the condo. They offer at least a dozen lunch combos with an entree and choice of hummus or salad plus a drink for $5.95, with sit down service. Needless to say, the place was packed. The falafel sandwich was excellent, and the hummus was the best I’ve had, seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice and various bits of herbs. Much better than Pomegranate.

For dinner I fixed tarragon chicken, using some fresh herbs I bought last week, and accompanying it with brown sugar carrots, broccoli, Caesar salad and cranberry walnut bread.

The Cellar

Not much happening here today. Dani’s been reading, and I’ve been installing WordPress on my website. Once it’s up I’ll transfer all these journal entries over from the iPad.

We went to Chili’s for lunch; Dani had a craving.

For dinner we went to The Cellar. It’s a place I’ve passed a dozen times on the walk from The Hilton Garden Inn. It’s a really narrow storefront on Clark, just around the corner from The Stained Glass. What I didn’t realize is that it’s owned by them. It’s a casual place that serves essentially the same food, tapas style. In fact, they had exactly the same special as at the Stained Glass last night, and many of the same desserts. It was terrific, and inexpensive, and everything is served the same way that we order at the Stained Glass anyway. It’s a definite must for your next visit.

Amaranths and Argos

Since tomorrow is the chemistry final, Dani had Lee come over for three hours today to review for the test, so I had plenty of time for a long walk. I went to Ace Hardware, which it turns out can cut the roll-up blinds to order. Unfortunately I already ordered one on Amazon, but haven’t heard a shipping date.

I stopped at Amaranth Books, a “Used and Rare” bookstore on Davis. The owner seems like a bit of a jerk. They don’t really carry much in the way of fiction, but what they do they consider used, not rare, so I bought two $1 books for Dani that I enjoyed a while back as audiobooks.

Since I’m running out of coffee places (and haven’t yet stooped to going to Starbucks) I tried Argo Tea, where I had an espresso that was good but very bitter. Like Starbucks, they’re mostly interested in selling high calorie sweetened beverages, so I guess it doesn’t matter if the ingredients are bitter.

On the way home I stocked up on the last few Vidalia onions of the season at Whole Foods. Tonight we’ll try chicken with the Tiger Tiger butter sauce from World Market.

Addis Abeba

I did the laundry this morning (wow, that’s a big washer) and then walked down Chicago about half a mile to Addis Abeba, an Ethiopian restaurant. It was delicious. I had a variety of vegetarian items: spicy chick peas, mild yellow lentils, spicy red lentils, marinated cabbage, and salad. There are no utensils in Ethiopian restaurants; you tear off pieces of the crepe-like bread and use it to scoop things up. Excellent service and iced tea. I’ll definitely be going back to this place.

For dinner I made meatloaf. The new secret ingredient is five spice.

Walker Bros. The Original Pancake House

I took advantage of my last day with a car and drove north to places that would be difficult to reach without one. First stop was Walker Bros. The Original Pancake House, the most famous link in the 180 store chain.

It’s easy to believe this is the most popular; the sprawling place was packed at 9AM on a Tuesday. The menu is extensive and well designed, and has actually been recognized by James Beard. I had an omelet which, with the right ingredients, could have been like one of Harold’s. The pancakes that came with it were definitely the star of the show. They sell their famous apple pancake (which looks more like an exploded fritter) frozen, to go, so I brought one home for Dani.

After breakfast I drove north past the Skokie Lagoons, a pretty series of linked ponds, to Glencoe, a hilly suburb of estate homes and country clubs. Then back down through Winnetka, another neatly kept township, stopping at Wilmette Village on my way home to take photos of some of the quaint shops. This whole area north of Evanston is more suburban, but also more upscale, interspersed with little shopping districts. All the serious businesses such as supermarkets are on Green Bay Drive, the road that parallels the Metra tracks in a straight line from here to Wisconsin.

Back in town, I returned the rental car and walked home.

In the afternoon, while Dani’s tutor was here, I walked down to Main Street to work off the apple pancake, and had a coffee at The Brothers K, which was unremarkable.

La Cazuela Mariscos

I took advantage of still having the rental car and ran lots of errands. Sam’s Club for ziploc bags and gum, the market for Diet Coke, the gourmet shop for some caramels Dani likes and some artisan bread.

I went south on Clarke about 5 miles to the Mexican district and tried La Cazuela Mariscos. It had great reviews on the Internet, so I was expecting a bit fancier place than the simple storefront and counter, but it was delicious, and almost free. My torta de pescadero (fish sandwich) was $4.99, and hand made delicious guacamole was $2.50. I felt bad that I was the only customer. My bill with a Diet Coke came to less than $9, but I left a $20.

Dinner was homemade fish sticks using a recipe I got from Scott Joseph’s blog: tilapia, coated with beaten egg, Japanese panko breadcrumbs, dill, seasoning and spray grape seed oil. Very tasty.

Moto

We went to Chicago for lunch, a play and dinner. Lunch was at Petterino’s, in the heart of the theatre district. It’s a lot like Sardi’s, right down to the decor.

After lunch we walked across the street to see Billy Elliot at the Oriental Theater. It was interesting to see it in America after seeing the original London production several times. Minor changes to the presentation and blocking had been made throughout, and there was some background provided in the introductory film clip. All of these changes worked well. The only thing that didn’t quite work was the accents, which seemed to come and go. Overall, the cast was very good, and it’s an excellent show that was very well received by the audience.

After the show we went to Moto, which is just an incredibly fun restaurant, where molecular gastronomy turns things into completely different things, all tasty, and served without any stuffy pretense. It was nice to see them very busy, they deserve it.

Les Nomades

Today was the hottest day so far this summer, at 93. I guess Linda brought both the rain and the heat from Florida. For lunch we walked down to Davis Street Fishmarket, which has a wide range of non-fish items. Incompetent waiter.

For dinner we drove into Chicago and went to Les Nomades, the city’s top rated French restaurant. the five course meal was excellent, and one of the most beautiful I’ve experienced, in terms of the composition of each plate. However, we couldn’t help but compare it to the pleasure we had the previous night at The Stained Glass, at one fourth the price.

The Stained Glass

It was rainy today, and the fire alarm went off, so Linda and I fled up to Central Avenue and shopped at the Spice House and gourmet store. Then we went to Kansaku for a sushi lunch. The spicy tuna, fiesta and salmon ceviche rolls were all delicious.

For dinner we walked to her favorite, The Stained Glass. We had a superb meal, as always. In particular, the foie gras BLT was a stunner. It was served on the kind of brioche they used to have at V&A, and accompanied by a drizzle of lemon truffle mayo and a dot of balsamic. Wow. We also had our favorite server, Scot Morton, who is a wine lecturer who works at the restaurant Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday night. Scot has an amazing pallet and personality (he’s also a voice over artist).

Our favorites:

House Charcuterie
Surf Flight (ceviche, tartare, smoked mousse)
Foie gras BLT
Tuna, tuna, tuna (tartare, carpaccio, seared)
Pork Belly
Filet Mignon with shortrib “pot-au-feu”

Also, their house-made gelato sampler and creme brulee sampler are great, and you can finish with a snifter of Nonino Amaro.

A Very Short Cruise with Linda

I rented a car. Because I wanted one with an audio jack (so I could use the TomTom nav program in the iPhone) I ended up with a Toyota Prius. It takes a bit of getting used to driving a hybrid, but it’s a decent car.

I picked Linda up at Midway and we slogged through lots of traffic to get to Topolobampo, Rick Bayless’ high end Mexican restaurant. The guacamole and Linda’s ceviche sampler were particularly good, as was my molé.

We spent a couple of hours at the Field Museum, mostly looking at the Egyptian relics. It’s a good collection that they’ve tried to put in context by creating a fake tomb, but the experience doesn’t really work, and there isn’t any successful storytelling. Also, the signage is not really good for kids or scholars, just sort of wordy but shallow.

We drove to Navy Pier for a dinner cruise. It was a beautiful evening that afforded a great view of Chicago as the sun set. The food was okay, except for the entree, and the Odyssey ship was nice.. They were using only one of three decks, but the live trio played all styles of music. (Apparently on busy nights they have a different band on each deck.) After dinner there were impressive fireworks launched from a barge about 200 yards away.

Chef’s Station

We had a quiet day at home while Dani got caught up on her online chemistry study and prepped for her Monday lab. We walked over to the Celtic Knot for lunch, where I had a ploughman’s lunch, which is cheese, bread and salad. Oddly, the music was Cajun. It’s not a completely authentic Irish pub, though, because it lacks one food we encountered at every pub we visited in Ireland: nachos.

I downloaded a free app for the Mac called Jing, and used it to make a demo video of my ed2go processing app, which I sent off to see if there is any interest in it; it’s sure saved me a lot of time over the past few months.

For dinner we tried a place called the Chef’s Station that is under the train station. They have a nice outside area and it was a beautiful evening. Good food, used to be the highest Zagat rating in Evanston, but I suspect The Stained Glass has surpassed it. On the way to dinner we crossed through a bike race, with the pace car, a hundred cyclists and a chase motorcycle going round and round downtown Evanston.

The Doobie Brothers and Chicago

I walked up to Windy City Garden Center on Green Bay Road. It’s basically a fenced lot with some tables of flowers. My goal was to find some flowers to put into the two planters where the seeds I planted are doing nothing (the third planter now has little sprouts coming up). So I bought a flat of impatiens and carted them back in the wheeled shopping basket and planted them. It’s nice to have a bit of color on the porch. I asked the guy at the garden center if anything I could plant would come back after the winter. He just laughed.

Dani felt good about her chemistry midterm.

In the evening we went to The Stained Glass (superb, as always) and then caught a limo to the Charter One Pavilion on the shore of Lake Michigan to see The Doobie Brothers and Chicago. The important members of both bands are still kicking, and it was a good show, and we had excellent seats, fifth row center (ear plugs required). The best part was the last half hour, when all sixteen members of the two bands came on stage and played non-stop hits.

Spiaggia

We took advantage of having a car and drove North to Wilmette, a rather tony suburb, where we had lunch at Hackney’s, an old fashioned restaurant that reminded me of the places we used to go when I was a kid. Next door we shopped at Trader Joe’s, and then stopped at Sam’s Club.

For dinner we went to Spiaggia, which is supposed to be the best Italian/Continental restaurant in Chicago, although it is owned by Levy Restaurants, which is a bit worrisome. Spiaggia was good, not life changing. The place is a bit like Per Se, but with an Italian focus. Their tasting menu had an interesting theme, of the development of balsamic vinegar, with each course using a vinegar from farther along in the life cycle. The wine pairings were mostly so-so. It was a nice evening.