mbh wrote: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.

Sadly I dont get over there as often as I should, most of the time my travels take me East. Traffic school this a.m. in Oglesby made the stop a no brainer.

Shrimp and grits at Wishbone on Washington Saturday. I felt like I was in Mississippi. The added bacon made it really shine, and the creamy cheesy grits smooth as silk.

A red salsa and pork tamale from Manolo's, but lightly fried in vegetable oil until nice and crispy on the outside. It was my first time trying it this way, based on a recommendation from my best friend, and it was fantastic!

Manolo's Tamales
5341 S. Kedzie ave
Chicago, IL 60632
773-436-7029

Moussaka at PrarieFire. (See report in Prairie Fire thread). Rich, balanced, perfect autumn comfort food.

Local albacore with New Mexico chiles in black rice with aioli at Sitka & Spruce in Seattle. Like a Mediterranean-style rice salad with large pieces of the most flavorful albacore I've ever had and what tasted like harissa--significant heat. Blew me away with first bite and every bite after that, which is saying a lot because I had excellent food today at Dahlia Lounge, Elliott's (actually, just OK oysters) and Spur before walking over to Sitka & Spruce. Thanks, REB, for the recommendation.

Lexyfur wrote:A red salsa and pork tamale from Manolo's, but lightly fried in vegetable oil until nice and crispy on the outside. It was my first time trying it this way, based on a recommendation from my best friend, and it was fantastic!

If you are an egg eater, you owe this to yourself:

Slice the tamales into rings, sautee them in a lil oil till crispy and browned on both sides. Beat some eggs, and add them into the pan. Cheese, cilantro, salsa, etc - you get the drift. Another riff would be onions, and or diced jalapeno in the pan to soften while the tamale slices are browning.

Maple pecan, pear, and Hoosier sugar cream pies from Hoosier Mama. It's a good thing I decided to drive to work this morning, because I don't think I'd be able to handle walking & riding the bus after today's pie gorging.

Cha Ca La Vong (catfish marinated in turmeric and sour sticky rice fried in turmeric oil with scallions and dill on rice noodles with peanuts and mam nem) at Pok Pok in Portland. Ridiculously delicious. My friends tried to carry on normal conversation during dinner; I just kept saying, "This is so good."

happy_stomach wrote:Cha Ca La Vong (catfish marinated in turmeric and sour sticky rice fried in turmeric oil with scallions and dill on rice noodles with peanuts and mam nem) at Pok Pok in Portland. Ridiculously delicious. My friends tried to carry on normal conversation during dinner; I just kept saying, "This is so good."

There's a street of restaurants in Hanoi that pretty much only serve that dish...it's one of the best smelling streets on the planet, I'd wager. I don't see it too often over here, best guess would be that it's because most of the Vietnamese in the states came from the south. If you're in an area with good northern Vietnamese food, look out for Bun Cha Ha Noi (Charcoal grilled pork patties marinated in nuoc cham, served over thin rice noodles)...probably the most delicious thing I've ever eaten.

The Crocodile Pie at Sweety Pies Bakery in Skokie. I says to myself, I says Pie, you're just going in for coffee and that's it. Well, I did not buy dessert, folks, I bought Research that just happened to be in the form of pie. This is in the name of Science!
It's basically chocolate pecan pie. I don't like traditional pecan pie because it's tooth-achingly sweet and there is usually a sad ratio of nuts to goo, about 1:5. But an article on the wall claimed this pie was made with less corn syrup and the nut-to-filling ratio was more like 1:3. Facinating. The science journals will love this.
This pie was outstanding. Very rich and chocolatey with a decent crust, with just enough sweetness and plenty of nuts. A little pricey at $4.50 a slice, but worth it.
By the way, the new location is adorable.

Sweety Pies
8042 Lincoln Ave (just north of Oakton)
Skokie, IL 60077-3632
(847) 213-0900
http://www.sweetypiesbakery.com

Sometimes you have to make sacrifices in the name of science. I'm glad you took a hit for us.

kl1191 wrote:

happy_stomach wrote:Cha Ca La Vong (catfish marinated in turmeric and sour sticky rice fried in turmeric oil with scallions and dill on rice noodles with peanuts and mam nem) at Pok Pok in Portland. Ridiculously delicious. My friends tried to carry on normal conversation during dinner; I just kept saying, "This is so good."

There's a street of restaurants in Hanoi that pretty much only serve that dish...it's one of the best smelling streets on the planet, I'd wager.

Pok Pok credits on their menu La Vong Restaurant in Hanoi for their cha ca.

New "best": basil macaron from the Two Tarts stall at the Portland State University Farmers Market yesterday. Light, airy meringues with an extremely rich cream and unmistakable basil throughout. Bakers' dozen was $7.50. Guess how many my friend and I ate, sitting on the grass immediately across from the Two Tarts stall.

By far!!!

The succulent, delectable, heavenly roast duck stuffed with dried fruits and onions at Smak Tak.

All of the sides--mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, sweet and sour beets, and carrot salad--were perfect accompaniments, but I would have been happy with just that platter of duck!

(The duck is an off-menu item that must be ordered ahead of time. I'm grateful to leek for making the suggestion and Cathy2 for following through for last night's LTH Small Household Food Exchange dinner.)
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=29715&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=30

PS. We pretty much had the restaurant to ourselves last night, so Smak Tak looks like it still needs LTH love. Go, people!!!

Smak Tak
5961 North Elston
Chicago

Egg drop soup w/white rice from Sun Wah....even better the 2nd day!

1) Rice cooked in the Egyptian style, from Claudia Roden. My wife grew up in Cairo. When she likes it, I know I got it right!
2) Breakfast of chickpea soup (chickpeas, harissa, and garlic) poured over toast, plus a big pile of wild arugula from the backyard. Tea.
3) Lamb and beef BBQ from Moishe and Isaac, Highwood. Goat is on Sundays.

Tomato chutney with curry leaves by jygach. Word has it she will be making someone at the LTH holiday party very happy!

A couple of dishes from dinner earlier tonight at La Fontaine de Mars in Paris . . .


Charcuterie Plate



Seared Foie Gras and Poached Pears



C'est si bon!

=R=

La Fontaine de Mars
129 rue Saint-Dominique
75007 Paris, France
01 47 05 46 44

Looks like all is well in Paris!! Enjoy (and post frequently )

Whole branzino w/ grapefruit/orange, capers and roasted fennel at Piccolo Sogno. This is the second time I've had the branzino at Piccolo Sogno (previously I believe it was with a citrus aioli) and both times it has been in the top 5 pieces of fish I've had in Chicago (Katsu & L2O included). A very strange crowd on a Friday night, and the griglia mista was over cooked, but the sea bass was stellar.

kl1191 wrote:Whole branzino w/ grapefruit/orange, capers and roasted fennel at Piccolo Sogno. This is the second time I've had the branzino at Piccolo Sogno (previously I believe it was with a citrus aioli) and both times it has been in the top 5 pieces of fish I've had in Chicago (Katsu & L2O included).

I've had the whole branzino preparation at Piccolo Sogno a couple of times and I agree that it is fantastic - perfectly cooked and the perfect combination of seasoning, citrus and fennel.

Roasted carrots with goat cheese, honey, and pistachios at Mado. A highlight of one of the better meals that I've had there.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

I don't suppose you're bringing some home to share?

Glad to hear the pastry unions aren't on strike! Hopefully the charcuteriers are working too?

-Dan

ronnie_suburban wrote:

I am magenta, yellow, tan, and green with envy.

Stephen wrote:I am magenta, yellow, tan, and green with envy.

LOL . . . all sorts of crazy-intense flavors, including red fruits, raspberry (magenta) citron (yellow) ginger, hazelnut, chocolate, caramel with salted butter (tan), green apple and pistachio (green).

dansch wrote:Glad to hear the pastry unions aren't on strike! Hopefully the charcuteriers are working too?

As far as I know. We've been having quite a bit of it, including the plate I showed upthread. Hopefully, more of it will 'qualify' for being posted about in this thread. The strikers/protestors are beginning to cut off fuel supply lines to the airports, so there's some possibility we'll be stuck here beyond our scheduled departure date and end up with some extra time to find more outstanding charcuterie...not that's it particularly hard to find around here!

Here's another item that qualifies for this thread . . .


Canelé at Senderens

Not that I've had many of these but this was definitely the best canelé I've ever had. It was dense, aromatic, heavily caramelized on the outside and almost custard-like on the inside. This was actually served as a mignardise after our lunch on Sunday (forgive the odd color but the lighting in the restaurant -- including some coming from inside the table -- was constantly-changing and very colorful).

=R=

Senderens
9 Place Madeleine
75008 Paris, France
01 42 65 22 90

Fauchon has some mighty fine macaroons as well and is a great market, I am sure you know that though......

jhawk1 wrote:Fauchon has some mighty fine macaroons as well and is a great market, I am sure you know that though......

Oh yeah. It's on the list. In fact, if they weren't closed on Sundays, we'd have already been there, as they're just a few doors down from Senderens.

=R=

OMG! I'm sooo jealous that you're in my favorite place in the world. Don't bring home any macarons since they won't hold up well. Just eat as many as possible and bring home some chocolates from Patrick Roger. Best chocolate I've ever had and believe me, I tried lots of them in Paris. This is the one we went to. In fact, if you take the metro (Odeon) it's staring at you as you come up onto the street. Beautiful shop.

108 Blvd. St. Germain 75006. I checked. It's open Tuesday thru Saturday so don't go today. I'll be looking for lots of posts from you while you're there.