Birthday Chow report

This weekend (Sunday) was my girlfriend's birthday, so there was much rejoicing. Here's a run-down of the meals we ate friday through sunday:

Friday Dinner: Ixcapuzalco.

Ceviche starter. Still excellent, but more tomato/onion and less fish than usual. A bit of jalapeno or serrano background heat and lots of lime. Served with a good tomatillo salsa.

Her: Lentil cakes with rice and a sauce I can't remember. They were surprisingly good, with an almost meaty flavor.

Me: Duck breast in a very peanutty sauce. It was tasty, but the duck breast was overcooked and the sauce a bit too sweet, almost reminiscent of peanut butter.

Dessert:

Pineapple upside down cake. Very good, but also very sweet.

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Saturday Lunch (kind of): Vanille Patisserie

I was swinging by Vanille to pick up the cake for Sunday, and couldn't resist two of the individual desserts, the lemon tart (lemon curd tart with a meringue topping) and the "Manjari": Chocolate biscuit, chocolate cream and chocolate mousse.

Both were superb. The lemon was sour but not overly so. The manjari was heavenly. Great mousse, though, is always a good start.

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Saturday Dinner: Coast Sushi

Early dinner since we had an incredibly nutritionally-unbalanced lunch. She's a maki person, so we had: A sunrise roll (ginger-mint seared tuna maki wrapped in thinly sliced mango), a crunchy spicy tuna roll (spicy tuna w/avocado+cucumber with tempura crumb on the outside), and an asparagus tempura roll. All were fine, but certainly nothing special.

The jalapeno miso soup I started with was very non-traditional, but also really wonderful.

Prices are very reasonable, it's BYOB with no corkage if the bill per person is $15+, $5 otherwise.

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Sunday Brunch: Lula Cafe

A fine brunch at Lula. Not special, but close by and tasty. Unfortunately, also incredibly popular for brunch, so there was a 35 minute wait. But we had nothing better to do, and hung around in the cold.

Her: spinach and feta frittata, orange juice
Me: french toast, hot chocolate.

They were out of what I originally ordered, a french toast special. We assume they were out either of the fruit sauce topping it or the pastry cream filling it.

All fine, filling, and cheap.

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Sunday dinner: Green Zebra

We split everything. Here's a list of what we had, order they appeared:

First pairing: Three seasonal salads and Cauliflower soup w/spaetzle and truffle "essence".

The salads were apple/fennel, arugula/lemon, and pear/red onion. They were all wonderful. I preferred the arugula/lemon and apple/fennel, she the pear/red onion.

The soup was divine. Better than I ever thought cauliflower could taste.


Second pairing: Gruyere souffle and sweet potato dumplings in an anise broth.

The dumplings were the clear winner. Really wonderful. The souffle was good, but almost a little overdone. The gruyere added a good nutty note.


Third pairing: Wild rice and barley cakes w/kale and huckleberry sauce paired with a trio of squashes.

Squashes: I haven't the faintest clue what the topping or varieties of squashes were. This was one of the specials. One variety was topped with a really great gorgonzola, but I can't for the life of me tell you the others. They were all very good, though.

The rice and barley cakes were fine, but really nothing special. Ixcapuzalco did a much better job making a similar cake on friday.

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Sunday dessert: "Amelia" cake from Vanille Patisserie.

Very, very good. Not quite as sublime to my taste as the chocolate/chocolate/chocolate from Saturday, but she preferred this over the rest. The Amelia is a mousse cake with chocolate mousse, passionfruit cream, and candied pineapple on a thin layer of cake, all topped with chocolate ganache.

I have a lot left over, but I think I won't mind disposing of it over the rest of the week.

All in all, one of my most favorite eating sprees. Especially when you add on the meal I had with my parents Thursday night at Paprikash.

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Paprikash
(773) 736-4949
5210 W Diversey Ave
Chicago, IL 60639

Ixcapuzalco
(773) 486-7348
2919 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60618

Coast Sushi Bar
(773) 235-5775
2045 N Damen Ave
Chicago, IL 60647

Lula Cafe
(773) 489-9554
2537 N Kedzie Blvd
Chicago, IL 60647

Green Zebra
(312) 243-7100
1460 W Chicago
Chicago, IL 60622

Vanille Patesserie
(773) 868-4574
2229 North Clybourn
Chicago, IL 60614

On Ixcapulzalco:

I did this is passing, in I do not even remember which thread, but I commented on a meal there two weeks ago. Anyways, we had the duck in peanut sauce too, and like you, were not impressed. Still an outstanding place.

Rob