Lentil soup with crispy foie gras at Le Hanger, I have no words.

Le Hanger
12, impasse Berthaud - 75003
Paris

Apple Salad with sunflower chimichurri at Publican Anker. Everything we ate was really grand, but this was positively singing, and i'm going to be busy recreating it.

Biscuits with cranberry preserves and seafood gumbo at Luella's Southern Kitchen. I have made a bed out of a table and chairs and refuse to leave.

Seared haloumi sandwich and potatoes for lunch at Americano 2211 about an hour ago. I feel pretty certain these are the best potatoes in Chicago.

Has to be the cilantro-centric Aguadito soup at D'Candela. I'd never had this before until the other night and man, was it spectacular. A rich, herbaceous, soul-warming bowl of awesome. It's only available there Friday-Sunday.

=R=

Potato Crusted Oysters at Edison Food & Drink Lab in Tampa.

stevez wrote:Potato Crusted Oysters at Edison Food & Drink Lab in Tampa.

Heard great things about that place--was everything else at the same level?

ronnie_suburban wrote:Has to be the cilantro-centric Aguadito soup at D'Candela. I'd never had this before until the other night and man, was it spectacular. A rich, herbaceous, soul-warming bowl of awesome. It's only available there Friday-Sunday.

=R=

Seconded. This is a much-traveled bowl with near-identical versions in southern Mexico (as caldo cantina, usually without potatoes), Colombia, and even Brazil (Taste of Brazil has a great rendition every day). The molten garlic-cilantro combo gilds everything.

boudreaulicious wrote:

stevez wrote:Potato Crusted Oysters at Edison Food & Drink Lab in Tampa.

Heard great things about that place--was everything else at the same level?

Yes! One of the best meals I've had in quite some time. I hope to do a full post once I get back to Chicago.

stevez wrote:Kung Pao Tofu at Jade Court. It's not something I would even think to order, but it turned out to be a revelation.

Mr. Z,

Dug the Kung Pao Tofu, fell head over heels for Jade Court's Hainanese Chicken.


Jade Court, Count me a Fan!

Jade Court
626 S Racine Ave
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 929-4828

justjoan wrote:

pairs4life wrote:

pairs4life wrote:Damak!

I am not much of a chocolate lover. But I spotted a milk chocolate square filled with pistachios and said why not⁉️

It is delicious. It is new to the states, but well known in Turkey. Don't be put off that it is Nestle. The chocolate and pistachios are from Turkey.
Just shy of 3oz/80 g cost $
i am bothered that this is sold by nestles. nestle's is 1 of many big corporations that relies on child labor to grow/harvest its chocolate. a good reason, imo, not to be buying this chocolate bar... http://usuncut.com/news/beware-of-these ... ld-slaves/

So this changed my day-to-day. I am not much of a chocolate lover but if you know me you know I have literally eaten hundreds of candy bars from these companies over the last few years. This post caused me to stop that. But sent me down the rabbit hole of finding ethically sourced cocoa that tastes okay for baking.
Today in Costco I spotted Nestle's semi-sweet morsels plainly stamped Cocoa Plan/Utz certified. This is very good news for humanity and those who like chocolate. With Nestle on board my hopes are high that the other major players have similar plans in place.

http://www.nestleusa.com/csv/nestle-cocoa-plan

Not earth-shattering, but pretty darn good--salad with organic baby kale, radish, yellow grape tomatoes, unsalted cashews, mini-cucumbers, and some Gorgonzola from Ehlenbach's Cheese Chalet in DeForest, WI, just north of Madison. This was topped with cracked black pepper and some Dorothy Lynch Homestyle dressing that I had picked up at Garden Fresh. The dressing is from Columbus, NE and apparently is well-known in those parts. It's sweet/tangy with a limited amount of fat, and really offset the sharp Gorgonzola nicely.

https://ehlenbachscheese.com/

A perfectly grilled Alpine sausage on the roof at Gene's in Lincoln Square today. Nothing feels more summer like lounging away on their beautiful rooftop and eating something so damn delicious.

I was on my own for dinner last night and didn't feel like cooking after shopping. I saw that lobster tails were $6 at Jewel (Addison & Elston) and figured, what the hell. Holy hot damn, those were delicious. Steamed 'em for maybe 10 minutes, and they were sweet, salty, and tender. This may be all I eat until they go off sale. Too bad I can't convince Mr. Pie to eat shellfish.

Smoked mackerel and fish spread, saltines, Crystal hot sauce, ice cold cheap draft beer, Ted Peter's, St. Pete FL. Treasure. How that place doesn't have a Beard classic yet, I don't get. Along with Mike's in Detroit, it would be in my inaugural class of non-Chicago GNRs.

Jeff,

Congratulations. You managed to bag the elusive mackerel at Ted Peters. In all the years I've been going there, they've always been out of it when I tried to order it.

stevez wrote:Jeff,

Congratulations. You managed to bag the elusive mackerel at Ted Peters. In all the years I've been going there, they've always been out of it when I tried to order it.

Haven't been to Ted Peters in many years but I was always partial to the smoked mullet, a fish that is almost unheard of here but quite popular in that vicinity.

Florida is indeed rich in mullets.

Manchego cheese, shitake mushrooms corn and green onion empanadas served with a sweet corn sauce at Honky Tonk BBQ. Yum.

Matcha almond croissant at Gontran Cherrier in Tokyo. Any number of other things I've eaten in the last few days could easily fit in this thread (e.g., the best ramen I've ever had), but hachi machi, this was good: buttery, almondy, slightly bitter from the generous amount of very good matcha.

Roasted tomato, onion and oregano focaccia at Publican Quality Meats. Wow! Does focaccia get any better than this? Does any bread?

Polish with grilled onions, stone ground mustard, and brie, fresh off the grill in my brother's back yard, washed down with an icy spotted cow. Damn that was good.

The Swedish meatballs with lingonberry jelly at Tre Kroner. Was there Saturday night. Been there 3-4 times and always get the meatballs, they're just too damn good to try anything else.

Also, never realized they had such a nice outdoor patio seating till this weekend, definitely sit out there if the weather allows.

Panzanella at Eataly with their housemade focaccia and a handful of peak basil ribbons. I'm easy since this is an ultimate comfort food for me, but you know that thing where when eating anything with cherry tomatoes you're just waiting for one to suck, and then it does? Never happened with this batch. Little sublimated orbs of sunlight.

Last night's dinner at Big Jones was excellent, but I'll put the strawberry shortcake as one of the best things I've eaten lately. We got the last one of the night and it was plate-licking good. (No, we didn't lick the plate...but we thought about it!)

Pie Lady wrote:I was on my own for dinner last night and didn't feel like cooking after shopping. I saw that lobster tails were $6 at Jewel (Addison & Elston) and figured, what the hell. Holy hot damn, those were delicious. Steamed 'em for maybe 10 minutes, and they were sweet, salty, and tender. This may be all I eat until they go off sale.

I rarely shop Jewel, was near Parents house and needed a last minute item so stopped in, spied the small lobster tails on sale ($5 burb price). Opened one side of the shell, placed a skewer through the meat & put some minced garlic & olive oil on the meat, then grilled. Holy crap they were tasty, went back a number of times to do the same prep.

The lightly breaded and deep fried Ipswich Whole Belly clams appetizer served on a bed of celery root slaw at Hemingway's Bistro in Oak Park last night.

Sweet Willie wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:I was on my own for dinner last night and didn't feel like cooking after shopping. I saw that lobster tails were $6 at Jewel (Addison & Elston) and figured, what the hell. Holy hot damn, those were delicious. Steamed 'em for maybe 10 minutes, and they were sweet, salty, and tender. This may be all I eat until they go off sale.

I rarely shop Jewel, was near Parents house and needed a last minute item so stopped in, spied the small lobster tails on sale ($5 burb price). Opened one side of the shell, placed a skewer through the meat & put some minced garlic & olive oil on the meat, then grilled. Holy crap they were tasty, went back a number of times to do the same prep.

I remembered these posts when I saw small lobster tails on sale for $4 at Mariano's in Vernon Hills. I broiled two for just a few minutes, shell up then shell down, and ate them with melted butter with garlic and dill. They were great!

The Jewels (ha ha) near me had them for sale for $3.99 Wed-Fri. I missed that sale but plan to get back to Mariano's this weekend to pick up a few more for $4.

Katie wrote:saw small lobster tails on sale for $4 at Mariano's in Vernon Hills. I broiled two for just a few minutes, shell up then shell down, and ate them with melted butter with garlic and dill. They were great!

Just to the side of Mariano's Elston meat counter on the 4th was a free-standing display of $4 lobster tail on ice. Remembering this post I picked up a few tossed them on the grill and they were in fact delicious.

A nutella shake at Slim's on Montrose (2020 W. Montrose). I was walking past there one Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago and saw a sign in the window for nutella shakes. I finally went over there. They don't have them on the menu on the website, but they have a huge variety. I only needed to confirm they have nutella. It was thick and rich, about 16 ounces for $3.05!

I've never been there before, but I will be back.