10,958 days and counting (subline: holy crap, I turned thirty)

((warning: concidentally, there are thirty pics in this very very long post, which is pretty fitting if you ask me.  and it's my blog, so you practically did...))

as a new Chicagoan with a mission to enjoy all that this amazing city has to offer, my thirtieth birthday was (shockingly!) centered around food.  

we started with lunch at Blackbird, a restaurant that's been perched (see what I did there?  perched?! like a bird!??!) near the top of my 'must try' list.  

since Rob and I really need no excuse to imbibe, and actually had an excuse, we ordered (left to right):

Something Borrowed and New: XXX Shine (white whiskey), stewed citrus fruit, Bittermans Hellfire Habanero Shrub

Blackbird Orange: Murphy's Law Reisling (wine), Bianco Vermouth, Pharoah's lemon peel, orange-ginger puree

I still don't understand like two-thirds of the ingredients, but the drinks were good.  really flavorful, citrusy, and not overly sweet.

I ordered from the lunch prix fixe menu, and got an appetizer, entree and dessert.  Rob spotted one thing he wanted and didn't need to look any further...

our appetizer: kombu cured fluke (fish) with spring mojo verde, spruce tips and lardo

the fish was really light and delicate, and a bite with a little of everything was awesome.  you can barely see the flakes of salt, which added a ton o' flavor.

my entree: wood-grilled sturgeon (fish, again) with green cabbage (braised), enoki mushrooms (those little fried 'trees'), walnuts and kaffir lime (sauce)

wow - this was super flavorful.  a little smoky, with lots of different textures.  sturgeon is pretty meaty, so I actually had a difficult time finishing the entire thing.  I was a pinch disappointed by how salty it was, but good nonetheless.

Rob's entree: short rib burger with smoked provolone, capers, pommes frites (fries!) and a (pickled) spring squash salad

sweet jeebus, I will never not want this in my mouth.  so meaty and tender.  those fries...gah.  I would go back just for this dish.

our dessert: espresso chiffon (cake cubes) with blood orange segments, honey and turnip ice cream

I tend to gravitate toward the 'odd' when it comes to food.  my m.o. is to never order something I can ever make myself.  I often ask for the strangest item on the menu, because life is too damn short to eat boring food.  so yes, you read that right: turnip ice cream. and did it ever taste turnip-y!  the candle was a cute little touch, too.  the little white chunks had the shape, size, and texture of a macademia nut, but tasted kinda earthy.  odd.  and awesome.

after lunch, Rob packed up his work stuff and we headed home for a pre-dinner nap.  on our way to dinner, we headed up to the 96th floor of the Hancock building for a drink at the Signature Room.  the building is so tall you can actually feel it sway in the breeze.  the views are stunning, as expected.  the drinks are stronnnnnng. (have I mentioned that one of my fave things about this city is that I never ever ever have to worry about drinking and driving, since we don't even have a car?  cabs are cheap enough)

looking North, toward our neighborhood

we actually tried to spot the buildings near our place, but we live a handful o' miles away, so it wasn't easy...besides, we were focused on the beverages (and making our dinner reservation!)...

take a guess as to who ordered what...

Strawberry Mojito: the usual mojito ingredients with muddled strawberries

Lake Shore Martini: Grey Goose vodka, Marquis sparkling wine, raspberry liqueur

my drink bordered on paint-thinner, it was so potent.  it was fun to look out over the city and find our fave spots with a drink in hand.

the sun was so bright from the west that half of the pics were silhouettes..whatevah.

a quick cab ride (with an awesome Romanian cabbie...so funny) later, and we pulled up at iNG restaurant (it lives right between Moto and Next...holy shit.  the Fulton Market area is a gee-dee food mecca.)

iNG is a tasting restaurant, with a set 6-course menu featuring really cool and creative drink pairings.  it's a sister restaurant to Moto, which features waaaaay more courses.  to be perfectly honest, I'd never even heard of iNG until Friday.  Rob did a ton of research and knew a lot about it, but had suggested that I just go with the flow and do the digging later, so I did.  as if I weren't excited enough for a 6-course paired tasting menu (my mouth is watering just typing that.), Chris Jones from Top Chef season nine friggin' greeted us as we walked in.  not kidding.  what a surprise ... everything Rob had read said that he typically didn't work in both kitchens, so it was such a cool twist.

I watch a ton of Top Chef, and always joke that the appetizers I make at home are amuse bouches.  you can probably imagine how stoked I was to have a little bite placed before me (with a glass of champagne, since they discovered it was my birthday!).  instant baller status.  these little popcorn balls were filled with honey and seasoned with Old Bay seafood seasoning.  such a fun, yummy start to the meal.  

nothing about this place it typical.  the menus were folded up as cubes, and I almost destroyed mine trying to get it open.  Rob had no trouble with his, which was pretty ironic.  the menu only listed a few key words for each course, to leave a little bit lot of mystery.  we were encouraged to go as quickly or as slowly through the courses as we wished, and took full advantage (more on that later...).

we decided to kick off (continue???) the celebration with some fun beverages before diving into dinner.  per our server's expert suggestion, we tried (left-right):

my champagne

Domaine du Salvard's Cheverny: Chardonnay/Sauvignon Blanc blend

The Kimura: vodka, St. Germaine (elderflower liqeuer), aperol and grapefruit

that Cheverny was so awesome.  it had the perfect blend of Chardonnay's buttah and Sauv Blanc's bright and floraly notes.  the Kimura was really complex, despite the simple list of ingredients.

after beverages, we alerted Scott that we were ready to get our show on the road.  most of the meal was focused around the South African miracleberry, which affects the tastebuds that pick up sour/bitter notes and makes them register sweetness.

our first course was called strawberry rhubarb, and featured the most melt-in-your-mouth olive-poached salmon.  holy crap.  the rhubarb element was in the rhubarb-jalapeno vinaigrette served in a little pipette, alongside the ginger-dressed arugula salad and the carbonated orange.  we were instructed to try each component individually, then together.  next, we should let a little bit of miracleberry dissolve on our tongues, and then repeat the process.  it was awesome.  sweet stuff was a little sweeter/brighter, and the acid in the vinaigrette and ginger dressing totally changed.

please pardon the dark pics, but that up there is a shot of two test tubes on the rocks.  one contains sour ale, and the other holds Lambic vodka, green chartreuse, cherry, and lime.  as with the food, we were told to try each part, then mix them up however we liked in the rocks glass, and then try it with the miracleberry.  pretty damn cool.  the ale was definitely sour, and really played off the ginger in the salad. 

our second course was called the thaw, and blew me away.  pork belly sat atop a kombu noodle with maitake mushrooms and puffed rice, and was dusted with a 'snow' of ...get this...pulverized packaging peanuts (a.k.a. cornstarch).  kombu broth was poured over the top and the snow melted into deliciousness.  the pork belly was a little crispy, even after spending some time in the broth.  there were so many flavors happening at once that it should have been a disaster, but it just flowed so well.  this course was served with a hoppy Belgian pale ale called Atomium by Brouwerij Van Steenberge.  we typically don't love Belgian beers, but this one was really tasty and not too 'white'.  I'd drink it again...

the third course was baozi gyro, a fusion of Greek and Chinese flavors.  each of three jazzed-up Greek flavors was nestled on a tender bao bun.  braised lamb and hummus were awesome, I absolutely loved the tzatziki (with fennel, an olive tapenade and crispy parsley!), and Rob's favorite was the tabbouleh.  another Belgian ale make this little dish feel like a whole meal (you'd be shocked how filling these seemingly little portions can be!), this time a brown ale from the Abbaye de Leffe.  the beer was caramel-y and butterscotch-y and has definitely been added to my list of faves.

up next was april showers, a deconstructed chicken pot pie which looked like bars of sudsy soap!  the little dollops of 'shampoo and conditioner' were added at the table from those travel-sized squeezey bottles.  such awesome and thoughtful and fun touches.  one bar of soap was butter-poached capon (male chicken), and the other was a leek confit.  the suds were a pastry cream foam flavored with carrot and celery.  the shampoo was actually a spinach and cauliflower puree, and the conditioner was a puree of turnip and garlic.  I remember this course being the most filling, and taking a long time to eat...I just kept hopping around from bite to bite, mixing and matching.  the wine paired with the dish, a 2010 J. Hofstatter Lagrein from Alto Adige, Italy, was rich and refreshing.  I'd never heard of a Lagrein before...it was rad.

look at that teeny tiny carrot!

our fifth course, the first of two desserts (!!), was may flowers: a lime curd layered with andiginous hazelnut and tea cookie, and topped with edible flowers.  it was like a new-and-improved version of crushed Oreo + chocolate pudding mud pie, minus the gummy worms.  this course was served with a hefty dose of miracleberry and lemon slices.  the idea here was to try the potted dessert on its own, which tasted limey and tangy and sweet.  the addition of hazelnut was awesome and made it almost a little earthy.  then, we let the miracleberry dissolve on our tongues for about 45 seconds before biting into the lemon slice - it totally tasted like a pink lemonade!  then, with the berry still coating our tongues, we dug into the dessert again...and it tasted like an orange creamsicle.  in.sane.  the wine served with this dessert, a (hold on here, this name's a lonnnng one:) a 2009 Reisling Kabinett by Paul Anheuser Schlossbockelheimer Konigsfels was light enough that it didn't overpower the amazing flavors, but could stand on its own.

lastly, we had an easter egg hunt: black forest cake, with brandied cherry nibs, white chocolate shell, liquid-nitrogen-created chocolate drops, with phylo 'grass', a cherry gastrique and cherry dust.  so. much. chocolate.  the textures really played well together.  the cocktail pairing here was a Makers Mark whiskey with a touch of Kirsch, cream and vanilla, and served with a vanilla-chocolate truffle with a Cadbury gel.  such a perfectly sweet way to finish off an amazing meal...

after our five-hour dinner (whoopies), a long chat with Chris (sidenote: I joked with him at one point, joking that "sorry by ya'lls food sucks", which he though I meant seriously and resolved to send out course after course until I changed my mind...eeek!), and some quality time getting to know our amazing server-slash-up-and-coming-chef, Scott, we were invited to take a tour of the kitchen!  VIP treatment...it was so fun.  we chatted with the executive chef, Nate Park, about how their systems worked and how he comes up with the ideas for dishes.  after such an tremendous experience upstairs, it was really fun to peek behind the scenes and be able to compliment the team first-hand.  after our 6:30pm reservation, we finally left (stuffed, buzzed and really happy!) around midnight...

update/ed note: so I found a video explaining all of the courses in a waaaaaay better manner than I've done above.  I'm not going to bother going back to change any of my words above because I prefer to leave this account just as I experienced it, and I do notice a few little tiny differences, but here are the pros themselves explaining what we ate.

*****

the shenanigans continued on Saturday with one of my favorite activities: day drinking.  few things top getting buzzed in daylight (paired with snacks, natch), getting to bed at a decent hour, and actually being able to function the next day.  boom.


we started with a long and boozy brunch at Stanley's with our friends, Chris and Jen.  then we made our way to Big Star, a sister restaurant to Blackbird, for some killer tacos and $1 Schlitzs (I know, right?!?!).  we wrapped up the afternoon at Northside Bar & Grill before hitting the couch with a movie and some leftover pizza.  perfect. Saturday.

Sunday was for recovery, eating (mostly) healthfully, and scoping out bikes for tooling around our city. between the unreal food options and the fun, friendly people, this place just keeps growing on me...

if you couldn't tell from the post above, Rob absolutely KILLED it with the birthday celebrations...I am so so so appreciative and so very lucky to have him in my life. I couldn't imagine a better way to celebrate my 10,958th day on this planet.

for the love of food: Chilam Balam (05.05.12)

we didn't have big plans for Cinco de Drinko this year, and actually had no plans at all (for once!)  on Saturday.  after people-watching from an outdoor table at Einstein Bros on Clark Street, we wandered through the Lincoln Park farmer's market, swung by a sneaker store, and took a nap.  we are lucky enough to live within three blocks of two (TWO!) restaurants of former Top Chef contestants, and had been itching to try Chilam Balam, an upscale-ish, tapas-style Mexican place focused on sustainably- and locally-grown ingredients.  Chuy from Top Chef Texas (season 9) was a founding owner (and a Cali boy by birth!).  Their menu changes with the season, and the restaurant is teeny tiny.  seriously, its barely twice the size of our living room.  we'd read that unless you show up right at 5pm, to count on a two-hour wait.  we showed up at five on the button, and were seated right away, noticing that a couple that showed up just six minutes later was quoted a decent wait...

as with many restaurants in Chicago, it's BYOB.  here though, if you bring tequila, they'll mix it up with their virgin limeade to make killer margaritas ... or if you bring a bottle of wine, they'll make proper sangria from their virginal version.  neither of us know squat about tequila (any other alcohol, however, and we're self-appointed professionals...duh), so we grabbed a fifth of the only non-Cuervo option at a little market on the way.  proportionally, it was a good choice...and the tequila itself was pretty decent too (with no wicked hangover!). 

we chose four dishes and a dessert to share, and waddled away stuffed.  first up was artichoke soup with fried artichoke leaves, lime, chives, and serrano.  you read that right: artichoke. soup.  it tasted like a happy place in cream form: a little earthy and like blended up artichoke meat.  the serrano pepper added just a touch of perfectly-timed heat.  even Rob could handle it (!) and said that it 'just faded out' at the right moment.  I've already looked up a recipe and made a couple notes of how to add the extra flavors.  it took every ounce of my limited decency not to lick the bowl. 

our second dish was bay scallop ceviche, with tobasco verde, english peas, red onion, and tobiko, served with plantain chips.  again, the kick was just right. microgreens made us feel fancy and added a little extra freshness, and we both swore there was avocado in the dish somewhere because it was so smooth.  the plantain chips added a little crunch, but were more complex than regular ol' tortilla chips.

a big ol' beef short rib tamale was served next, with pasilla tomatillo sauce, bbq bean salad, and mole sauce.  this place does spice right.  I can't say it enough.  and the bbq bean salad was no ordinary backyard-bbq salad.  this was like barbequed black beans and chick peas.  didja hear that?!?!  chick peas!  in a Mexican dish.  deadly.  the textures were spot on, and the mole added just the right oomph.  I'd order this again, fo sho.

Rob loves loves loves carnitas, so when the server offered up lamb carnitas, braised overnight in what can only be described as unicorn tears and granted wishes.  it was served with homemade corn tortillas and a little pickled veggie salad with thinnnnnly sliced serrano peppers (what's the name of that stuff, anyhow?!).  this is one of those things where, individually, each part was awesome, but the sum of the parts was amazing.

after all that delicious and savory goodness, we wrapped things up with sweet empanadas   with creamy peanut butter filling, served with a seasonal rhubarb compote, and Oaxacan chocolate dipping sauces.  I can think of few things better than silky peanut butter, crunchy cinnamon sugar, and slightly cinnamon-y Mexican chocolate.  Rob didn't love the compote because it fooled him by initially looking like it'd taste like strawberries, but housed his share of the empanadas in a hurry, so he must have liked those!  I tried (key word, there) to savor mine and make 'em last, and spooned out every last bit of the chocolate.

this place was so rad.  I'd say it ranks in the top three restaurants in which we've eaten out here, and the bill didn't hurt as badly as I'd feared.  we'll be back, definitely.  it was a damn good, perfectly mellow weekend.

a friend once told me: "if you don't like Midwest weather, just wait 20 minutes"

got my first real taste of Midwest weather today:

12:28pm

partly cloudy, 80degreesF, 20% chance of precipitation, 60% humidity, winds from the NW at 16mph (shorts + flips + natural hair)

9:03pm

thunder/lightning/HAIL, 64degreesF, 80% chance of precipitation, 84% humidity, winds from the SSW at 8mph

do you see that up there?!?!  that's HAY-UHL.  

so we're still far from settled in Chicago, and California doesn't quite feel like home these days since we don't currently have our own place there.  nonetheless, I was stoked to visit after two months in our new city.

first stop: In-n-Out.  duh.  let's note that I'd eaten a full-sized Potbelly sandwich on the plane just an hour before landing, but we rolled in for burgers within 20 minutes of my flight touched down! that's how you know you're from Cali.  tastes like home.

after picking me up at SFO, Brian was on a mission for raw silk to use for a project for the Scottish Games this year, and had read good things about Britex Fabrics near Union Square, so off we went.  after five floors of pretty, my inner Project-Runway-er was all inspired.

a gorgeous day in San Francisco calls for outdoor time with The Bean! 

our 17-year old kitty has developed a new favorite nuzzly spot: underneath her kitty bed.  pick it up and move it, and she'll dart back into her little cave within seconds.  its the fastest she's probably moved in a decade.

coffee foam, coffee foam, I sure love you, homemade coffee foam

an awesome (and checked-bag worthy) haul of good stuff I'd been hunting for months...and these suckers were all on super sale.  boom.

pretty California poppy

after two solid days of eating all the things, Kel and I dragged ourselves out for a sweaty ass run on Friday.  in case you were curious, Chicago does not have hills and Pleasant Hill has many.  the weather was crazy, with April temps in the 80s.  hell, consistent weather without 40-degree day-to-day swings was a treat, so I soaked up the sun like a lizard.

this is Frederick.  on a trip to Costco to pick up goodies for Grampa's 85th (!) birthday party, I spotted this guy and texted every last detail to our in-house IT guy, who confirmed that it was a good deal for what I wanted.  I've been in the market for a little notebook for a while, and my laptop kicked the bucket riiiiiight before we moved.  Rob's been cool about sharing his, but this 11.5" notebook'll come in handy for flights and cafe visits.

Friday night called for a trip to Berkeley with Kel and her honey for pizza and beer at Jupiter brewhouse.  the place is legit.

  

pretty springy flowers and a birthday boy!  I got to see the facility that he's moving into this weekend, and let me tell you, that man will rule the place.  its just like a college dorm, and he's outnumbered by all the ladies, so I think he'll be a happy camper once he gets settled.

on Sunday, I headed down to the South Bay with Katie and John to meet up with Summer and Chambers for some ziplining up in the Santa Cruz mountains.  the weather was perrrrrrrfect.  

we had dinner that night with Sum's parents at Casa LG, and then swung by WholeFoods on the way home for port-worthy desserts.  

 Summer took Monday off and made epic brown butter iced banana muffins before we hit up our old stomping grounds of tastebud loves:

symphony in C at Barefoot

Strawberry Brazilian and Hot Lips at The Counter (their new cocktail menu rocks) 

hummus, pita chips, falafel and a banana shake from Falafel's Drive In

Strawberry Fields and Red Eye from Psycho Donuts 

we also accidentally stumbled upon the caloric intake associated with various alcohols.  that lil glass up there is about 250 calories.  we measured.  womp womp.

the week FLEW by and I was Chi-town-bound before I knew it, where I was greeted by a delicious homecooked meal. 

to sum up this post: my trip was rad.  I talk about food a lot.  I'm definitely a California girl.  I'm already looking forward to the next visit!

in which I whine

Monday marked my second full month of living in Chicago.

I'm loving this city; there's so much to do and see and eat and drink. but, if I told you it was easy to meet people and make friends here, I'd be lying. I find that I'm surprised by this, somehow. wherever I've lived, I've been surrounded by people I know, and have made a few random friends along the way. when I learned that we were moving here, I figured "oh, I've got blog acquaintances and there'll be a larger population of people our age, it'll be easy to make friends..." so far, not so much.

Rob's the social butterfly, and he's the one with the job. we hang out with his work buddies and their sig others a lot, which is great and they're young and fun and genuine. they're really cool, but I still sorely miss having a backbone crew of my own that I can see in person. of people that really get me. I haven't found anyone here yet that I can wander the aisles of Target with for no reason. or who know silly stories about me. or can read my expression well enough to know when I'm being sassy. don't get me wrong, I'm not shopping for Midwest versions of anyone out here, but I'm finding most relationships to be lacking something. everyone here is so damn nice, I'm still in search of a similarly sarcastic a-hole like me. sometimes, that gets old.

I'm fully aware that the power is in my hands. and that everyone I meet is a potential friend, and that I've gotta put myself out there and all that jazz. so what am I doing about it?! I'm working with two separate organizations as a volunteer, and I'm optimistic that something will come from it. firstly, I'm hoping that a relatively blank canvas will shed some light on learning about myself and what I want in a career. ideally, I'd also love to make some friends along the way. so aside from the warm n' fuzzies I'm getting by helping out, I'm trying my damnedest to introduce myself to people and get lost in those initially awkward 'getting to know you' small talk convos. my comfort boundaries are defintely being pushed upon, and I'm antsy for some results. that's where those two months come back in: am I being impatient? sure. did I think I'd be well on my way to friend-dom by now? yep. do I have any idea how to sit back and wait on things that are completely out of my control? ahhnope.

I know I have to give things time, and that it takes years to really feel like you're part of a community, but that's much easier said than done, amirite?!

hell, you can find anything in the world online...there should be a match-a-friend site or something. maybe it's my calling to create one...