Cuban sandwich, at L&E. What an incredible sandwich.

Baby Red Crab at GNR Nha Hang

Four cheese, lamb shank risotto at Tuscany in Wheeling. FYI..half price on EVERYTHING on menu every Wednesday from 4-6 (with cocktail purchase)...

Carne asada at a place called El Tigre on the side of the road, Highway 15 between Morelia and Quiroga, about 16 km outside of Quiroga, more or less halfway. My brother in law told me to stop all of a sudden. Corrugated iron roof, open sided place with the best carne asada I ever had. Beef fresh from the butcher, (just down the road) grilled over a wood fire. Hand made tortillas that they kept coming, a terrific sopa de frijoles, fresh tomatoes, grilled onions and avocado from out back, talk about farm to table. Crumbly farmer cheese from a couple towns over famous for their cheeses. Washed down with a couple of Modelo Especiales. Nothing fancy, just a traditional dinner done incredibly well. And for four people including everything about 26 bucks. Extremely attentive and friendly service. Less than 20 miles away, worth a Sunday afternoon drive just to get it again, I'm thinking about it.

Oyster Po'boy sliders from GT Fish and Oyster last night at a business dinner...easily could've polished off a dozen of those bad boys!

Murg Malai Tikka--tender cubes of boneless chicken marinated in mild spices & cream cheese from Urban India on Devon. A fairly new restaurant from the owners of Uru Swati down the street and Raj Darbar on Halsted St. in the Lincoln Park.

I was on the floor working Baconfest the entire day and didn't have enough time to try everything I wanted, but the garlic smell arising from Vie's table made me rush over there. Nathan's braised pork belly (sliced thinly) with whitefish brandade, peas, and green garlic was AWESOME. I can't believe I've never been to Vie and will make it a point to get there soon.

I could easily call out the broiled mackerel I had from Sunshine Cafe last night, but we decided to head down Clark to George's for dessert. I could then call out the Fat Elvis ice cream I decided to order (banana ice cream with chunks of peanut butter and chocolate).

But the real star of last night was the pretzel cone that I ordered my ice cream in. I've never seen this wondrous invention before. Even better, it was a salted pretzel cone. The sweet/salty thing from the ice cream and the cone was everything that it needed to be (note: this probably does not work with all ice cream flavors).

More places need to have pretzel cones.

George's Ice Cream and Sweets
5306 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60640

jesteinf wrote:But the real star of last night was the pretzel cone that I ordered my ice cream in. I've never seen this wondrous invention before. Even better, it was a salted pretzel cone. The sweet/salty thing from the ice cream and the cone was everything that it needed to be (note: this probably does not work with all ice cream flavors).

More places need to have pretzel cones.

Wow, yeah they do. If Bobtail had pretzel cones, I might actually get a cone instead of a cup of their Guinness, chocolate bourbon, or salted caramel flavors (we live around the corner from Bobtail, so "let's take the girls for a walk" usually means "let's buy some peace & quiet by cramming their cry-holes with cookies 'n' cream" ).

A great Kedzie one-two punch of shredded D'Candela chicken atop zaatar pita from al Khayyam bakery.
Dotted with ajvar and D'Candela's green hot sauce, this was a seriously good lunch.

Fried eggplant parmesan balls at the Purple Pig

Xoco's seasonal torta: flank steak, mushrooms, chimichurri, crema. SO GOOD!!!

Everything my brother made for us during our visit to his home in Pennsylvania over the last few days was fantastic: smoked chicken and smoked spare ribs on a WSM, from Gary's Low and Slow book; a warm smoky potato salad of red potatoes, bell peppers, and red onions; local German-family-brand natural-casing hot dogs dressed Chicago-style in toasted New England-type split-top buns; and spicy shrimp po'boys on big soft buns with lettuce and tomatoes and a spicy mayonnaise sauce. Not to mention a take on a salade frisée with mixed greens and vinaigrette wilted with sautéed mushrooms and lardons and poached eggs. Fudgy chocolate brownies with vanilla ice cream.

Days later, I'm still thinking about them all. Some time like that spent with such an excellent cook inspires me to keep practicing and improving at cooking, and to up my grilling and cooking game for the whole spring and summer to come. And to renew my hunt for a smoker.

The Ma Po Dofu (AKA "pock-marked woman's bean curd") from Fuchsia Dunlop's book, 'Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook.' Scrupulously authentic, it is smoke-your-hair hot. Great eats on a chilly evening. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for devotees of Hunan cooking, and for chileheads in general (this particular recipe incorporates fresh hot chiles, Hunan salted chile condiment, chilli bean paste, ground Sichuan peppercorns, AND dried chile flakes! ).

sundevilpeg wrote:The Ma Po Dofu (AKA "pock-marked woman's bean curd") from Fuchsia Dunlop's book, 'Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook.' Scrupulously authentic, it is smoke-your-hair hot. Great eats on a chilly evening. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for devotees of Hunan cooking, and for chileheads in general (this particular recipe incorporates fresh hot chiles, Hunan salted chile condiment, chilli bean paste, ground Sichuan peppercorns, AND dried chile flakes! ).

That sounds real good. Have you seen this thread viewtopic.php?p=309992#p309992?

Pan fried smoked pork cake @ Potsticker House.

Mushroom and Kale pie from Pleasant House Bakery.

Green garlic soup at Publican Quality Meats. Gawd, what a great, flavorful soup.

sundevilpeg wrote:
The Ma Po Dofu (AKA "pock-marked woman's bean curd") from Fuchsia Dunlop's book, 'Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook.' Scrupulously authentic, it is smoke-your-hair hot. Great eats on a chilly evening. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for devotees of Hunan cooking, and for chileheads in general (this particular recipe incorporates fresh hot chiles, Hunan salted chile condiment, chilli bean paste, ground Sichuan peppercorns, AND dried chile flakes! ).

SteveZ replied:

That sounds real good. Have you seen this thread viewtopic.php?p=309992#p309992?

Interesting. The Hunanese recipe is WAY hotter, and uses no black beans, and a much different bean paste (comprised of nothing but fava beans, whole small chiles, salt, and wheat flour).

Tonight, since it is again a relatively chilly night, I'm going with her Gong Bao Ji Ding, AKA Kung Pao chicken. Delicious and fool-proof, with a fascinating history of its nomenclature. I sometimes fiddle with the peanuts, by using either honey-roasted or Mexican-style chile peanuts. Either style works, should you not have roasted peanuts around.

Som tum from TAC Quick was fine when we had it for dinner yesterday (we live in their delivery area now...it's a glorious time for us)...all the flavors were there, but it seemed like they were all in business for themselves. We each had a bit, then stashed the leftovers in the fridge.

However, when I ate the leftovers today for lunch, fireworks! It was spectacular...all the favors had melded together and made their way into each papaya strand and little dried shrimp. Even the raw cabbage wedge garnish (I assume it's a garnish, as it shows up in a few of their dishes) had been rendered delicious. When everything edible was gone, I greedily guzzled down the spicy, limey, funky water that was left behind.

In the future, I'm going to order TAC Quick's som tum specifically to stick in the fridge until the next day.

Great Lake ramps with grilled asparagus salad.

I think I'm making this at home very soon. Someone's out of town for a few days.

Chicharron mac 'n cheese at Coppelia, NYC:



Rich, comforting creaminess balanced with crunch and a good measure of creeping heat.

Coppelia
207 W 14th St. (At 7th Ave)
New York 10011
(212) 858-5001
24/7 Cuban/Latin food

I'm so excited to have something to contribute to this thread finally!!

I had an egg sandwich with house-cured ham, cheddar cheese, creole mustard on a homemade croissant at Cochon Butcher in New Orleans last weekend. It was THE best thing we ate all weekend and I cannot recommend it highly enough if you're in NOLA.

http://www.cochonbutcher.com/

Oh, and the stone ground grits that I ordered with it....fantastic!! The husband/daughter had brioche french toast with balsamic strawberries, sliced almonds and I think whipped cream. I was not offered a bite but it looked great.

Sol de Mexico:

Shrimp with Green Mole
Chicken with Black Mole
Habanero Salsa

First time there and it was great. Great food, great decor. They gave us a tasting of all four moles - and all are great. I happened to like the green one. And I could have drank the habanero salso it was so good.

For anyone for whom this is an actual Great Neighborhood Restaurant - you are lucky.

Black Spaghetti with Rock Shrimp, Spicy Salami Calabrese and Green Chiles at Mario Batali's Babbo in NYC.

Tiny, perfectly-fried Lake Superior smelt, house made tzaziki-tartar sauce, under the dusky, lushly-rendered gaze of lushes, Miller's Pub.

JeffB wrote:Tiny, perfectly-fried Lake Superior smelt, house made tzaziki-tartar sauce, under the dusky, lushly-rendered gaze of lushes, Miller's Pub.

So poetic!

Two poached eggs with "smoked Salmon bacon" on polenta at Filini this morning.

I did a search on here for Opart Thai and noticed it's apparently not a crowd favorite, but I recently tried their Tom Yum Kai soup and thought it was great. Tangy with a little bit of heat - perfect for getting over a cold.

A banner day--I had 2 great eats today:

1) Collaboration Goat Pie from Pleasant House Bakery and Jonathan Zaragoza--yes it was THAT good. I didn't even heat it. And I only had a few bites. But those were definitely some of the best bites ever. Can't even imagine what it was like hot.

2) The beef shank with pickled wild peppers from Lao Sze Chuan. A new dish there and one that I hope stays on the menu.