kennyz's peach and porcini risotto--oh my goodness...a truly gorgeous combination. We have no pescatarian diners at home so i did add in a bit of thick cut pancetta

Kudos Kenny and thank you.

Garlic black pepper beef tenderloin, shredded duck with vegetables, Chinese eggplant with garlic sauce, and baby octopus homestyle (clay pot) at Double Li. Intense, floral, sour, sweet, buttery, silky, crunchy, palate-coating flavors hard to come by elsewhere for a very reasonable price. The right combination of things at Double Li add up to more than the sum of their parts; I lament for the emptiness of the place.

boudreaulicious wrote:kennyz's peach and porcini risotto--oh my goodness...a truly gorgeous combination. We have no pescatarian diners at home so i did add in a bit of thick cut pancetta

Kudos Kenny and thank you.

Glad you liked it. Funny, we had it again last night too. This time with some terrific fresh oyster mushrooms in addition to porcini broth.

It was just as good cold for breakfast this morning...

Speaking of cold for breakfast....Lou Malnati's thin crust pizza, one piece sausage, one piece pepperoni. Coworker-hosted breakfast (an office tradition) included this pizza as part of the spread. It was ordered yesterday afternoon and stuck in the fridge overnight. I had only taken a piece of the sausage, but went back for more because it was so good. Buttery crust, still crispy, a little zing from the tomato sauce and/or the sausage. Pepperoni just as good. I might have to go back for one more piece.

cheeseburger and fries at Top Notch tonight

followed by:

Our first Rainbow Cone

Perfection!

Smoked corned beef brisket sandwich from Bluegrass at the Highland Park art fair today. I've never been to or heard of the restaurant, but this was one tasty sandwich.

If "best thing I've drunk lately" counts, then the Escalade Margarita at Depot Nuevo in Wilmette the other night. Don Abraham Reposado, Grand Marnier, fresh orange juice, fresh limonada, small ice cubes (not shaved or crushed), and salt on the glass. A perfect balance of flavors. Only my sense of responsibility to my fellow man kept me from pounding them.

jesteinf wrote:Smoked corned beef brisket sandwich from Bluegrass at the Highland Park art fair today. I've never been to or heard of the restaurant, but this was one tasty sandwich.

I've been there. It isn't bad for it's geographic location.

The spicy sour squid appetizer at Lao Sze Schwan on Sunday. A cold appetizer, tender scored squid in a fiery red chile oil, sort of like the stuff the spicy cabbage appetizer is served in, with a little vinegar. I used the rice to sop up the remaining oil, it was so good.

The corn, green bean and pork belly saute medley yesterday at Province.....wonderful confluence of tastes and textures..

riddlemay wrote:If "best thing I've drunk lately" counts, then the Escalade Margarita at Depot Nuevo in Wilmette the other night. Don Abraham Reposado, Grand Marnier, fresh orange juice, fresh limonada, small ice cubes (not shaved or crushed), and salt on the glass. A perfect balance of flavors. Only my sense of responsibility to my fellow man kept me from pounding them.

I have at least one of those Escalade Margaritas everytime I eat at Depot Nuevo, which lately is usally once a month.

Vanilla Peanut Butter Ice Cream from the Babcock Hall Dairy Store on the UW-Madison campus.

Babcock's known statewide for their creamy vanilla, which isn't over-the-top vanilla bean flavored, but just enough. Then the addition of soft, vibrant peanut butter that isn't separated from the vanilla at all, more of an integrated swirl. I'm not a huge ice cream guy, but I couldn't eat this fast enough & immediately grabbed a quart for home.

It'll make you forget Reese's...

Babcock Hall Dairy Store
1605 Linden Drive
Madison. WI
(608) 262-3045

http://www.babcockhalldairystore.wisc.edu/FeaturedFlavors.htm

Cold sweet corn and summer squash soup at Green Zebra. Wow. The ingredient list-style description does not do it justice (topic for a menu-writing thread). This soup was in the style of a perfect cold vichyssoise, and had the same texture, and leek underpinnings. Very flavorful and filling, not vegan though, so there must have been some cream.

jnm123 suggested:

Vanilla Peanut Butter Ice Cream from the Babcock Hall Dairy Store on the UW-Madison campus.

Thanksfor the tip! We're heading up to Madison/New Glarus this weekend for the Customary Dining Companion's first trip ever to the Dane Co. Farmers Market and to our Mecca, the New Glarus Brewing Company, and this would be a lovely interlude between the two on Saturday. Much obliged!

Black pepper cashews from King Sweets. I usually have some around the house, but haven't in a while, so picked some up today. Because they seem to be more delicious than the sum of their cashews+black pepper parts, I thought maybe they were roasted in ghee. But the folks at King assure me it's just vegetable oil.

Multiple bests from the weekend:

Homemade by Mr. X's nephew: a coconut-vanilla ice cream. The blueberry was almost as good.
Taste of Heaven's chocolate cake with caramel frosting.
Watermelon-feta-mint salad I made for a friend's barbecue.

I've cooked umpteen racks of ribs over the years, but the ones from yesterday were unusually good.

The deviled chicken thighs and braised leeks we made this weekend from the Suzanne Goin cookbook. My second go-round with this rather awkwardly-written recipe, but my, were they tasty! My cousins devoured them.

Tonight, though, I will be making a beef carbonnade (since the thermometer has dropped below 90 I take that as a sign to start braising) and we will be eating that tomorrow. I imagine that for me it will surpass the chicken thighs in tastiness.

Fried up a couple chickens from Peoria a few weeks ago, with a gravy made from their backs and guts and some ridiculous mashed potatoes to sop it up with. At the last second I felt guilty and sauteed some old spinach that was hanging out in the back of the refrigerator. The chicken was one of my best fried chicken efforts yet. The spinach? Not so much.

Store-bought recent bests were an elk summer sausage and a jalapeno buffalo jerky from a little meat shack in Rollins, MT (M & S Meats, which I believe was written up in Saveur or Bon Appetit or some such rag a few years back). Also some Rainier cherries from that same area which were--how shall I say it--resplendent with that dusky sweetness that only cherries have.

My Mom's friend made some bread and butter pickles this season that were little green discs of sweet briny heaven. I had to fight my Grandpa with a fork to get the last ones out of the jar. He started it!

I had a pork belly sandwich with garlic fries for lunch at Blackbird the other day. I am sure I don't need to describe pork belly (or Blackbird) on this board, but I will say I think Blackbird has some of the best fries I've ever had (and I try to eat fries almost every day).

Recently I tried the porchetta at Longman and Eagle. It was fabulously funky, a crackling spiral of pork on the plate, and the only stand-out in an otherwise lackluster meal. But I do seem to remember a Manhattan that I enjoyed as well.

Restaurants are not so much in the current budget (we went to L&E on a gift certificate), but I hope to have some scratch soon and more "best things" to write about and eat.

We had an anniversary dinner at Prairie Grass Cafe the other night.
Part of the special was a twice baked potato with bacon and cheddar.
I think it might have had an egg in it-whipped up so light and baked untill it was almost like
a bacony cheesy potato-ey Yorkshire pudding.
TO DIE FOR
SO SO GOOD.

The filet it came with was also perfectly excellent, but OH the POTATO

Great week of eating in Sao Paulo Brazil. Top 2 -

Pizza @ Braz. Best Neopolitan style Ive had outside of Naples, certainly one of the best pizzas I've ever had. www.casabraz.com.br

Burger @ Sujinho. SP had 2 burgers that left the Chi looking a little pale. I wish I was a food camera man, but can never bring myself to do it. www.hamburgueriadosujinho.com.br

Many great meals, wouldn't have thought that pizza and burgers would be the highlight, though.

My meal at Chizakaya last night (I've posted on the restaurant's thread as well)

Hamachi sashimi with bone marrow and umeboshi
Puffed pig ears dusted with togarashi and vinaigrette dipping sauce
Crispy chicken thighs (kara age) with mizuna salad and dashi mayonnaise
Teriyaki chicken livers with negi
Kushi yaki: Sweet sausage, pork meatball, beef tongue

All washed with the ethereal Hitachino Nest white ale (on tap)

Black-bean and turkey thigh "cassoulet" made with LTHPicnic charcuterie: Laikom's estonian sausages, Khaopaat's german sausages, and other random delicious picnic sausages of unknown provenance.

I thought about putting the slivers I'd kept of CrazyC's beautiful spanish ham in there...and then I just waved them over the pot and ate them. (Well, almost all of them - Sparky took some to school in his "homemade lunchables" today. I bet nobody else has that!)

WooHoo Concrete at Andy's Frozen Custard in Evanston. Vanilla custard with dark chocolate bits from Askinosie Chocolate blended in. The very rich, almost bitter chocolate was the perfect contrast to the sweet and creamy custard. They have definitely improved since they first opened last spring!

The GP wrote:Multiple bests from the weekend:

Homemade by Mr. X's nephew: a coconut-vanilla ice cream. The blueberry was almost as good.
Taste of Heaven's chocolate cake with caramel frosting.
Watermelon-feta-mint salad I made for a friend's barbecue.

'Scuse me...watermelon-feta-mint salad?

sandman wrote:

The GP wrote:Multiple bests from the weekend:

Homemade by Mr. X's nephew: a coconut-vanilla ice cream. The blueberry was almost as good.
Taste of Heaven's chocolate cake with caramel frosting.
Watermelon-feta-mint salad I made for a friend's barbecue.

'Scuse me...watermelon-feta-mint salad?

I was inspired by this thread. It's a surprisingly good combination.

Prairie House Buffalo Grove
Went here the other night with a couple buddies-heard they had really good drink specials and I was definitely not disappointed. It is a dive bar to be honest, but don't let distract you because the burgers we got were actually really good.

I ordered a regular burger with bacon and was pleasantly surprised at the burger. It was everything I could have asked for- thick juicy and at medium rare perfectly cooked. The season fries were plentiful and tasty.

The best part was my total was not what I expected- very reasonable!

I would recommend this place to anyone interested in some after work drinks/dinner.

I smoked a boston butt on Saturday (12 hour cook). Served it Sunday at the Wilmette rib cookoff. One of my best ever!

A perfect burger and a frosty glass of rootbeer from The Rootbeer Stand in Oglesby, IL. this morning:






griddle cooked bacon double cheeseburger(lettuce, tomato, pickles and 1000 Island), and the creamy rootbeer for $4.25 with tax. Not sure if there is a better burger and rootbeer for the price anywhere.

When I was at your place in June, I stayed an extra day and found the Root Beer Stand wandering around. I've been thinking about the burger & root beer ever since. I may have to make the drive back out. Lucky you to live so close.