Alex

After reading through the whole topic on eGullet, I had to get Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

I hope you mean four who will have been present at both, rather than four who are still participating members. It would be pretty sad if it were the latter! ← Both, actually. It was a pretty small group, though -- 18 adults (and one child), of whom only half were eG'ers. The missing five may yet lurk, but they don't post any more, at least not on eGullet.

No kidding! We've come quite a ways in five years, eh? You know, as of today, there will be only four of us who also were in Grand Rapids in 2003.

The magazine is called Hour Detroit, one of those semi-fluffy but mildly useful regional publications. Mon Jin Lau is in Troy, a northern suburb. It's been around since 1969, beginning its life as a straighforward Chinese restaurant, eventually morphing into a multi-Asian format. Here are a couple of brief blurbs: msnbc.msn.com Hour Detroit

Well, Ms. Alex and I finally made it to Vie. True to Ronnie's word (of course), it was a fine experience. We opted for six small plates served in three "courses," plus dessert, rather than the traditional app +entrée. We started with salads: -mixed lettuces, local turnip slices (I guess they were out of the marinated and shaved fresh hearts of palm listed on the web site's menu), garlic and herb vinaigrette, shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano -local beets, burrata, wood-grilled onions, Meyer lemon, lemon olive oil and aged balsamic A great start. This was the smallest, sweetest, turnip I've had in a long time, and the kitchen didn't skimp on the Parmigiano. The vinaigrette was perfect -- finally, enough salt and not too much acid. The beets were wonderful, but Ms. Alex allowed me only a couple of tastes. Primi: -ricotta gnocchi, pan roasted oyster mushrooms, Werp Farms sorrel, sweet butter -seared Au Bon Canard foie gras, warm English crumpet, local squash butter, Wisconsin black walnuts and walnut vinaigrette The gnocchi were light as (insert your choice of simile here); the mushroom and butter added depth. We originally planned to order the eggs and truffles, but they were out, so we ordered the foie gras. This dish had the sweetest accompaniments I've ever had for foie gras, but it worked wonderfully. The walnuts were an inspired choice. "Fish Course": -pan-seared hand-harvested sea scallops, mussels, wood-grilled fennel, Marcona almonds, lemon, local honey -olive oil-poached bluefin tuna, microgreens, something else (Yeah, I know, I should've written it down.) The scallops were my favorite of the evening. I'm a fennel junkie anyway, and this combination of seafood, fennel and Marcona almonds is going on my got-to-make-this-at-home list. The tuna, on the other hand, was the weakest dish of the evening. I felt that the delicacy of the tuna was overwhelmed by the oil. Desserts: Ms. Alex had the warm caramel gooey butter cake with almond chocolate chip ice cream, almond lace cookie, and almond toffee square. Ronnie discussed this earlier. I had an ice cream trio -- buttermilk, chestnut, and almond chocolate chip. The tart-sweet buttermilk was a revelation. We appeared to earn some wine cred by ordering a very pleasant Contrapunto Albariño, which worked well with everything, except perhaps the foie. Apparently not too many folks order that one. Service was, as expected, prompt and professional. It was a few small glitches short of a perfect evening. The house was slammed, with several big tables, so I realize some slack is in order and therefore I won't enumerate them here. Well, maybe one: the straight-metal-back chair was very uncomfortable, especially for a nearly three-hour meal.

Excellent idea, Tammy, teaching Liam to appreciate fine beverages.

In for both events on Thursday. Bits, please.

In Evanston, home of Saturday's activities: Dream About Tea Argo Tea

Accompaniments: -Seared scallops w/ blood orange butter sauce and navel orange segments -Salmon w/ lime-ginger-garlic rub, redskins w/butter and parsley, roasted asparagus w/truffle oil -Palazzolo's Tahitian vanilla gelato w/strawberries and Callebaut chocolate sauce

You can check each restaurant's web site. This is the Restaurant Week's web site, but I didn't see any menus. Kiki's Bistro has the menu posted on their web site. Naha doesn't intend to post theirs; you'll have to call.

A bottle of Tattinger, accompaniments tbd.

Full story here.

Mediterranean Street Food, by Anissa Helou.

Yes, this is the right forum; nsxtasy is right on top of things, as always. It's good you're staying at the Radisson -- it's by far the best hotel in the area. The high-end Webster's, at the hotel, has a very good reputation. Food Dance is just down the street from the Radisson. If I lived closer I'd eat there all the time. Bell's Eccentric Cafe is fun and isn't far from the hotel. Just Good Food, in the Rose St. Market, makes killer sandwiches, cookies, etc. It also is close to the hotel. Cosmo's, noted in one of the aforementioned threads, looks good, but I've never eaten there so I can't make a personal recommendation. It's not terribly far, but you'll want the shuttle.

Josh mentioned the el, which can take anywhere from 35 minutes (in commuting times, when you can take one train all the way) to 50-70 minutes at other times (you have to change trains at Howard, so waiting times can vary). There is also a Metra commuter train that runs more or less hourly from the west side of the Loop to Evanston (Davis St) in about 20 minutes. Josh also mentioned cabs, which will take about 25 minutes in non-commuting times; I'm guessing $25 or so with tip. You might want to see the full, detailed schedule of activities and venues, once it's finalized, before deciding where to stay. While downtown Chicago has the most hotels, there may be other properties that are more convenient to the event venues. Well, the other venues have not been specified yet, so it's hard to say for sure. The Chicago area has excellent public transportation that goes pretty much everywhere; however, it can take longer to get places than driving, particularly on weekends and at off hours. My guess is that you'll do okay without a car. Not only is public transportation an option, but (based on observation at last year's gathering) there are often plenty of other attendees who will be happy to give you rides from one venue to another. ← Adding in my 2¢, I hardly ever take my car to Chicago and I always do just fine. The Farmers' Market and the church are walking distance from the Davis station (El or Metra). Knowing Ronnie, I suspect that most other venues and activities will be reasonably close to public transportation. Or, like nsxtasy, I also imagine that between Chicagoland residents and out-of-towners who drove in, there'll be plenty of rides available.

I'll be arriving Thursday morning, so I'm (just me) in for everything from Thursday through Saturday, and probably Sunday. Thanks again for taking the time and energy to do all this planning, Ronnie. Great job!

As you might already know, the Cubs are at home against St. Louis that weekend. The Friday game is at 1:20; the Sunday time hasn't been determined yet but it probably will be in the afternoon.

I second nsxtasy's recommendation of Fox & Obel. However, it's a little over a mile from your hotel, not half a mile. If you're in the mood for just coffee and pastry for breakfast, right in your neighborhood is Sarah's Pastries and Candies. Good stuff.

Talk about a pin-up photo! That looks incredible. OK, this is embarrassing to admit, especially since I am a card carrying chocoholic, but I don't think I had ever heard of chocolate bread until this thread. Do you slice it and eat it like pound cake? I didn't think I was interested until the siren song of that photo. pat ← More like regular bread. I just put a bit of butter on it. ← It's also outstanding with cream cheese, and makes for a decadent French toast. And if it's getting a little stale (yeah, right -- like it's going to last that long), it's the start of an incredible bread pudding. This picture has convinced me to buy the book. Thirteen dollars for a loaf of cherry chocolate bread from Zingerman's, wonderful as it is, approaches not-worth-it-except-maybe-once-a-year.

Here's a recipe for melon and cured beef salad. (The Chicago Sun-Times called it one of their best ten recipes of 2006.) It calls for watermelon, but I'm sure cantaloupe would do, and bresaola as the beef certainly is an option. Many years ago, at Wong's in Windsor, Ontario, I had an excellent beef and cantaloupe stir-fry, which I reproduced at home a couple of times; onions and green peppers were involved, iirc. Recipes are easily available for beef and bitter melon, but I haven't seen one for regular melon, and I'm not knowledgeable enough to know if one can be substituted for the other.

She's not kidding, folks. From the 2005 Heartland Gathering in Ann Arbor:

I've heard nothing but good things about Terragusto. A friend lives just down the street from them; she reported having had an excellent meal a few weeks ago. (Unfortunately, I didn't save her email.) I love the BYOB feature, including the "$1 recycling fee per drinker." It's on my short list for a future visit.

As a resident of Grand Rapids, MI, home of Wolverine World Wide (well, almost -- they're in Rockford, a suburb), maker of Hush Puppies, I offer a piece of trivia. The basset hound who appeared in all those famous Hush Puppies ads in the late 80s was named Jason, full name Jasonian of Westchester (!).

Welcome to eGullet, newbie21! Oh, yes -- do not miss it. You will eat some incredible food and meet some outstanding people.

I do a very similar preparation using orange marmalade, about 1/4 as much Maille Dijon mustard, and a dash of soy sauce. Good stuff!