My good friend from my Boston years and serious fellow grub hound Nab ( Tatterdemalion) came into town for what was a whirlwind tour of Chi-grub. Nab was supposed to get in at around 5pm but O'Hare delays moved his arrival to around 9pm which precluded pretty much anything but a (very good) sausage and gardinara deep dish delivery from Mi Pi (no Photo on that one).
After a nice long night of imbibing, we had planed a breakfast run to CJ's Eatery but a call from Gary diverted our efforts to "brunch" at Sticky Rice.
As Gary and Steve Z. pretty much covered this this meal with his wonderful photos, I'll abstain from posting any more redundant images. Save for a picture of our lovely sever and a few assorted images of our post meal carnage.
I will say that the one letdown for me was the Northern Pork Stew which was missing its normal depth of flavor from the preserved garlic, ginger and fermented chilies... Oh well..
Next stop (2nd lunch) was at Hot Doug's for a few Sausages. Upon viewing the line, takeout seemed to be in order:
We picked up a Teuben and a Calvados-Infused Smoked Duck Sausage with Black Truffle Butter and Truffle-Armagnac Chicken Mousse and made the short trek to my house.
Dinner began with cocktails at Wicker Park's new favorite speakeasy, Violet Hour:
Rene G. samples VH's finest libation:
From there we moved on to GNR winner San Soo Gap San for some Korean BBQ
Ooooouuuuccchhh...Soju:
Yook Hwe
Train wreck of panchan
Pork Belly, Octopus, Short rib
Group shot!
Breakfast the next morning was at Katy's. What more can be said about such a wonderful place. Perfect noodles, soup and potstickers.
Dry chili Noodles (no Krab)
Beef Noodle Soup:
Potstickers:
Proof of existence:
Out final meal before Nab had to catch a plane and I had to head down to CT for Jewish X-Mas Dinner was at El Taco Veloz for some carne en su jugo and tortas.
Carne en su Jugo:
Torta Suiza (sorry for the bad pic):
All in all not a bad trip. We managed to hit many if not most of the places on Nab's list but, on the other hand, given the amount of food and drink consumed, I think this pic says it all!