Actually, I could have had some outstanding tomatoes a week and a half ago, except that I had forgotten that my heirloom tomato plant was a yellow-orange variety, and I kept waiting for the darn things to turn red. It was only when I went out to pick some of the less-wonderful red "Big Girl" type that I saw some rotting on the vine and realized that what's there is all extremely ripe, kind of a yellow-pumpkin color with a blush of red at the bottom. Sweet, low acid, meaty and juicy.

Joel, that would be a Mr. Stripey heirloom. Very delicate & prone to cracking & disease, but what a taste! Almost like a watermelon. And some years the weather is not conducive to them at all--this year, maybe with the lack of heat & lack of rain, is the ticket. I've been enjoying them for a month--sadly, they're coming to an end.

I picked a couple of tomatoes from my mom's garden on Monday. I accidentally left one in the car yesterday while at work. It slowly warmed all day long. When I got in the car after work I noticed it and knew I was in for a treat. I sliced it and drizzled with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. It maintained the fresh acidity that make homegrown tomatoes so tasty but the slow heat added the enhanced savory note inherent in stewed tomatoes. I almost brought another with me to work today but decided to save the rest for a caprese. What a delicious mistake!

Fiery Tomato Sandwich

2 slices of ciabatta bread - very lightly toasted and spread with mayo
heirloom tomatoes - sliced - piled on one slice of bread
1 finely chopped Dragon Turd* - sprinkled on the tomato slices
cover with second slice of bread

Bite into possibly one of the best sandwiches. The bite of the spicy, smoky chorizo and jalapeno contrasting spectacularly with the sweetness of the tomatoes/

Jyoti
* Recipe for Dragon Turds can be found in the forum archives

jygach wrote:* Recipe for Garden Turds can be found in the forum archives

I think you mean dragon turds. The kind of turds found in most people's gardens would not make good sandwiches.

LAZ wrote:

jygach wrote:* Recipe for Garden Turds can be found in the forum archives

I think you mean dragon turds. The kind of turds found in most people's gardens would not make good sandwiches.

Yes indeed - I have edited my post to reflect a much more palatable recipe.
What was I thinking
Thanks LAZ!

Chaos Theory`s symphony cake. It is a textural/chocolaty work of art with wonderful alternating layers of chocolate, caramel buttercream frosting, carmelized hazlenuts, hazlenut cake, an inch thick layer of ganache and another bottom layer of hazlenut cake
which is very moist, almost to the point where it tastes like it was soaked in some liquer.
Oh and did I say that there is a layer of caramel too...there is that as well.

I skip deserts now when I go to restaurants as Chaos Theory over on Lincoln Ave ( 2900
block ) is open late, until 10pm every night ( closed on Mondays ). So it makes for a great
pit stop on the way home from a dinner date with my wife.

jygach wrote:

LAZ wrote:

jygach wrote:* Recipe for Garden Turds can be found in the forum archives

I think you mean dragon turds. The kind of turds found in most people's gardens would not make good sandwiches.

Yes indeed - I have edited my post to reflect a much more palatable recipe.
What was I thinking
Thanks LAZ!

Jyoti, I was wondering about the Garden Turds you mentioned, but I just assumed they were a vegetarian version of Dragon Turds. Now I am disappointed because I was looking forward to the recipe.

Well, I hope somebody takes that as a challenge next picnic! Hmmm...let's see...jalapenos stuffed with garlic, spinach and mushrooms? Wrapped with frizzled leeks?

Mhays wrote:Well, I hope somebody takes that as a challenge next picnic! Hmmm...let's see...jalapenos stuffed with garlic, spinach and mushrooms? Wrapped with frizzled leeks?

Great idea, Mhays!

I shall have to come up with a creative way to redeem my gaffe
The vegetarian suggestions you propose sound promising!

Jyoti

Herring plate appetizer at Tre Kronor:

Two types of pickled herring, minced red onion, hard-boiled egg wedges, chopped tomato, red leaf lettuce, and fresh bread.

A fantastic appetizer at one of Chicago's more unique restaurants.

Best,
Michael

Creamy farro with stone barns berkshire pig’s feet and crispy snout, local tomatoes, zucchini and pancetta. Blue Hill restaurant, NYC

The feet and pancetta were diced and slow-simmered with the tomatoes to make a rich bolognese-type sauce. The farro was cooked risotto-style with pork stock and the "bolognese" sauce. The pièce de résistance was the remarkable snout, sliced into pieces about 2 inches long and 3/4 inch wide, then cooked sous vide and crisped under the salamander just before service.* The result was an almost melt-in-your-mouth texture with just a hint of chew (reminiscent of, but better than the best pork belly preparations I've had), contrasted by super-crispy pig skin and true, deep pork flavor I imagine you can only get by raising animals the right way (Blue Hill has their own farm where they raise berkshire-style pigs)


*description of the preparation based partially on what I could get out of our server, and partly on educated conjecture

Bone-in ribeye at Flemings. I was surprised at how outstanding it was.

Spiced Pumpkin Whoopie Pie at Kim's Kitchen in Evanston.

Two moist pumpkin cakes (in cookie form) with a thick dollop of buttercream in between. The cake was moist, delicious and touched with just the right hints of cinnamon, clove and allspice (you know, the fall bouquet that goes with these pumpkin dishes). The buttercream was, well, a rich and delicious offset to the spice. Did I mention it was moist?

I learned that Kim's Kitchen has changed hands. The new owners are a husband-wife team from the neighborhood. They were so excited about pumpkin that they admitted to pushing the season a bit by bringing them out now. There was also a pumpkin cake. The whoopie pie was roughly 3:1 cake to frosting ratio. The cake might have been more like half and half.

The new owners are trying out all the recipes and seemed particularly excited about this one. They will make other flavors of whoopie pies throughout the year.

I've enjoyed scones and muffins from Kim's Kitchen in the past, but I've never had anything this good.

Kim's Kitchen
815 Noyes Street
Evanston, IL

Homemade green papaya salad with lime, tomatoes, green beans, crushed roasted peanuts, chiles and shredded smoked fish (Khmer style!!!) - tangy, slightly sweet, with rich, ethereal notes from the fish. Perfect with sticky rice and so easy to make. Just make you sure you give the papaya time to 'cook' in the lime juice (20-30 minutes preferred). Any kind of smoked fish will do - I used some Filipino smoked fish from Pacific market on Broadway.

"Take a Hike" scone from Bleeding Heart Bakery - far and away the most delicious wad of seeds, nuts, dried fruits and whole wheat goodness that this muesli-loving guy has encountered. I'm a big fan of BHB in general, and this scone has become my go-to order. Each visit includes one of these and one of something new I haven't tried before.

It is worth noting that this thing does stretch the limits of what could be coined a scone. It's by no means the classic, buttery, crumbly, mouth-drying delight that I got hooked on back in Virginia at Albemarle Baking Company, but as long as you don't bite in to it expecting that, it's truly awesome.

-Dan

Urban Belly Ramen
Urban Belly Special of Pork belly, kimchi stew with rice cakes

This is the most exciting new restaurant I have tried maybe this year. For the price this is one of my top values in the city.

Between Hot Dougs, Kuma, the mexican grocery with the best steak taco's in Chicago on the corner of Bemont and California and now Urban Belly this might be the best cheap eats neighborhood in town!

Burgundy Truffle and Foie Gras Crème Brulee At NOMI Saturday night.

Nomi? Yes, me!

The potee at the Publican. OMFG.

Prosciutto, arugula, red pepper, cheese, and vinaigrette on french bread with artichokes and oil cured olives on the side followed by Lazzaroni Amaretti cookies. Our picnic in the woods was complete with leaves underfoot, dappled sunshine through the trees, and the sound of the wind through the tall grasses. No restaurant could possibly come close.

Bourbon wrote:Urban Belly Ramen
Urban Belly Special of Pork belly, kimchi stew with rice cakes

This is the most exciting new restaurant I have tried maybe this year. For the price this is one of my top values in the city.

Between Hot Dougs, Kuma, the mexican grocery with the best steak taco's in Chicago on the corner of Bemont and California and now Urban Belly this might be the best cheap eats neighborhood in town!

Your definition of "cheap eats" is a lot different than mine. There is no way I would classify Urban Belly as "cheap eats". I've had lunch there twice, and it cost me around $20 (once under, once over) each time. That is NOT a cheap lunch. If you consider UB one of the "top values in the city" , congratulations on having a lot of money to throw around. I don't. To me, UB is expensive; on the verge of being completely out of line with their pricing. By that, I mean that I can get similar food for a lot less at other places.

I'm glad you enjoyed the restaurant and the ramen. I responded because I don't believe that "cheap" and "value" are words that should be associated with this restaurant.

Back to the subject at hand. A few weeks back, Renga-Tei featured kampachi (amberjack) in various forms on their specials menu. One of the forms was an appetizer similar to the hamachi collar that is on the regular menu. It was half the head and neck that was simply grilled and lightly salted.

Wow.

Wow.

I never thought any dish could supplant the tako wasabi at Sushi Kushi Toyo as the greatest thing I'd ever eaten at a Japanese restaurant, but this may have done it. If they ever have it again and I'm there, I'm going to order two of them. At least. If you enjoy the hamachi collar, you'll love this dish.

At Fresco, the new restaurant on the rooftop of the Madison (WI) Museum of Contemporary Art.

Buttermilk beignets, hot out of the kitchen, with liquid milk chocolate centers and lightly dusted with powdered sugar, served with a great creme anglaise on the side. Sheer heaven!

Burnt Ends at Gates and Sons BBQ in KC


The Meat was sweet, the Char perfect. The size of the chopped bits was just right. The sauce was just a hint spicy. The size could feed two, even though it only fed one .

Gtomaras, you need to replace the squiggly brackets with the straight-sided ones for your pics to show.

Got it, thanks! I don't know why I just didn't use the "Img" box at the top of the post box.

Nichols Farm Honeycrisp apple at the Daley Plaza Farmer's Market $1. Thats cheap eating.

Kurobuta Pork Crisp at Shibuya at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. This was six chunks of tender braised pork, each chunk inside of a crispy spring roll skin and topped with a perfectly seared chunk of tofu, a nihon glaze (perhaps a soy sauce glaze) and served what I assume was a sriracha sauce. I don't know if I've ever tasted pork so good.

4 stellar dishes at Avec last night pre-Bulls game...

Pheasant sausage with lentils, candied bacon, brussels sprouts, onions - A perfect fall dish. Both the sausage and the bacon were insanely good
Roasted beets with shaved fennel, chives and chili oil vinaigrette - so fresh, and a great contrast with the sausage dish
La Quercia prosciutto with apples, almonds and marinated manchego - outstanding prosciutto and some of the better manchego I've had
Foccacia with tellagio and truffle oil - always one of my favorite things at Avec. Last night was particularly good, with the cheese nice and oozy and the whole thing hot and deliciously salty

The candied sweetbreads on the dessert plate at Schwa.