chicago is my new favorite city. a main reason is because i remember it by the food i ate.
day 1. portillo's hot dog with everything: mustard, relish, freshly chopped onions, sliced red ripe tomatoes, kosher pickle and sport peppers piled onto a perfectly steamed poppy seed bun. ok i copied from their menu, but it was seriously perfectly steamed.
for dinner, rockit burger: apparently good morning america's favorite burger, so i kind of figured it would be trendy with the ingredients, but not amazing. turns out it was pretty good. brie and some truffle oil, greasy but good. turns out it's even better cold in the next few days when hungover.
day 2. deep dish pizza from lou malnati's. accidentally got the vegetarian and immediately regretted i passed up the sausage. still really good, like chicken pot pie comfort food.
quartino's. veal meatballs and veal meatball sliders, pizzas, a pasta with fresh peas which i'm really into these days, carafes of wine, smart and funny people around the table. delightful.
day 3. zamboni crepes at yolk. my friend and i were talking about the word "savory," because she had never heard it before. and i kept trying to explain it as the opposite of sweet, like sweet or savory crepes, but i realized it's kind of difficult to explain. it's just delicious. according to dictionary.com (my primary source for all information, after wikipedia. yoikes.)
savory: 1. Appetizing to the taste or smell: a savory stew. 2. Piquant, pungent, or salty to the taste; not sweet. 3. Morally respectable; inoffensive: a past that was scarcely savory. i like the 3rd one. i clearly need to use this word more. anyways, i explained to the waiter that i wanted something savory, and he pointed me in the direction of the zamboni crepes, which are: Scrambled eggs, ham, and spinach folded into two sweet crepes and topped with hollandaise sauce. Served with red diced potatoes or fresh fruit and toast, pancakes, or english muffin. i was a little scared of the hollandaise and eggs but it was so good. sososo good. i kept thanking the waiter, it was was that good. superlame. i also carried the leftovers around millennium park like it was my baby and kissed it while posing at the bean, it was that good.
i think we had beer for lunch? cold hamburger? big ass ohio state football fan sized glasses full of beer.
day 4. sunday brunch at home with (her) friends: egg strata (is this a midwest term? bc i don't know it), fresh fruit, pumpkin bread, turkey bacon, sausage, blintzes, low fat blueberry muffins (that one didn't go over so well), bagels and bellinis. happy!
definitely had cold burgers and fruit for lunch, and i'm pretty sure it was chicago mix popcorn for dinner (cheddar mixed with caramel). i think i could eat that every day.
so you can see why my trip to chicago was awful. apparently i like to talk about food, because this has turned into a food diary.
