chicagowench

I think it's more the brainbendingness of their locale wedged inbetween the tavern, a paint store, and the eye-searing ultrasuede tones of the contemporary furniture store. Then again, my favorite french bakery in Chicago was, for a while, inbetween a XXX video store, a bike store, and a head shop.

At 119th and Glenwood, unbelievably next to Johnny's Tavern. Anyone been yet? I'm taking a hit for the team and either going tomorrow morning or Tues morning (yes, they are open July 4, 7 am to 2 pm), will report back slavishly and calorically.

I blame you all for the fact I'm making carnitas tomorrow (which I guess means I'd better break down the pork butt tonight and get it marinading). Wish me luck.

Naw. I drive a late model volvo. You can hide the bodies (or the overflowing boxes from the CSA) in the trunk better than you can in a minivan- cargo area's too exposed. Best fried pickles I had were at some greasy honkin diner around the corner from the marriott in New Orleans. That may, however, be more a result of my famished state at 2 am and not the actual quality of the food.

I see how it is. She gets the lovin, I get the assault. Thank god for allergy meds and epipens. Our dayplanners, miniscrapbook brag books...The list goes on and on. And on. (I will refrain from disabusing Katie Nell of her notion that I am a 'lady')

I'm pretty sure it's CPK. Joy. Hey, Katie Nell! Did you see that? moosnsqrl on the plaza around 5:30. Get the minivan and the giant handbag, we'll administer a Joco beatdown.

Boldly jumping into the fray. So, I've eaten at fine dining establishments for, oh, 15 years or so as well. And frankly, having dined at both Alinea and Avenues within a fairly short span of time, I can assert from my own experience there are some dishes that looked meh (the matsutake at Alinea, the prep resembled nothing so much as the bailey's 'blow job' shots we did in college which I assure you were not haute cuisine) and tasted far better than they looked. This is my experience. I would in no way claim to be able to intuit the flavor of a dish based on a photo. The thread on regrettable dinners here on our very own egullet provides ample demonstration of food that looks downright revoltingly foul and yet tasted okay. Now then, have I looked at photos from some restaurants and gone 'looks like too much' 'looks too busy' or 'what the hell are they thinking?' You betcha. But to my mind, that's very different from being able to discern the taste and flavor of a dish from a photo. Even if I licked my computer screen.

Katie Nell and I will simply have to form a posse, moosnsqrl. I'm sorry, I'm still coming to terms with Somehow, I don't think burned out shells of buildings, rampant drug dealing, and intermittent gunfire when I think of the Plaza. But, um, topic. I'm starting to travel enough (and find myself out by MCI with time to kill often enough) that I'm compiling a list of good places to grab a quick meal.

What kind of yogurt, u.e?

u.e., I'd suggest moseying to Brookside next weekend and asking the vendors- they may well know a local fiddlehead source. There was one teeny, sad basket of craptacular looking ones at whole foods yesterday, horrendously overpriced. Our haul from OP and Brookside: wild strawberries, lots of lettuce, raab, purple spring onions, green garlic, teeny red potatoes, carrots, spinach, sugar snap peas, asparagus, various plants (basil, mint, lettuces, 2 kinds of summer squash)

Bumping. Not quite offal, but does anyone have a KC area source for pork belly? I asked at McG's, and got the big ol' 'buh...wha?' stare.

They did not! They were surprisingly low key on the garlic. (My post on the experience is on my site for anyone interested. (Edited to add handy link directly to entry)

I also really liked Jilly's on Green Bay and Jackie's Bistro right off of central. Little bit father from campus, but accessible via bus.

Oceanique is a great, elegant seafood place and it's right next to Piron (convenient, no?)

No brandade on our menu tonight. However, that in no way precluded it from being freakin awesome. Details tomorrow, when sober.

I'm actually relieved to hear of others having poor experiences there. We had two dreadful meals there and haven't been back since (sloppy service, wrong appetizers, overcooked pasta, gristle laden liver), and I was wondering if we'd just hit them on incredibly off nights or what.

Nothing says I can't go twice, see.

Of course it's not. But why settle for magnificent when one can go for horrify-the-babysitter rolling in at midnight excess? (Also, we're doing 40 the following Saturday with friends, and then the next day I'm smoking at minimum 3 pork butts- I've got to spread my gluttony out at least a little)

OK. Finally coming in with some more of my stuff. I'm keeping it snappy, since UE and I overlapped on courses so much (and I have no shiny happy photos) Third course: Kangaroo, in exactly the same prep as u.e., I do believe. Every so often, I run into some gorgeous piece of tableware which is hard to eat from. The swoop bowl is it, especially if one's wearing a big chonky bracelet. The gentle *kawhang!* of my wrist against bowl did nothing to heighten the sensation of eating my child's favorite animal at the zoo, but the kangaroo was quite tasty. Fourth: Foie-lava (as in baklava). Similar flavors but a very different presentation than u.e.'s- the foie was in a bird's nest of phyllo, and unlike u.e.'s, the honey was not too little- mine was in fact too much. The foie was perfect and silky, but as it warmed up a touch the honey became almost too overpowering. Fifth: Risotto. The same as u.e.'s, and I too found it a little loose for my taste (I prefer it a bit firmer). That said, it was like eating a glorious bowl of a tidepool, briny and foamy and bracing. Sixth: Langoustine. Easily one of my favorite courses, and not on the menu I was ordering from (thanks GEB!). I was carefully pacing myself on alcohol thanks to big important meeting the next day, and that was shot to hell by the waiter dropping off a glass and saying, "From the kitchen, not my idea, even if I am Mexican." Patron silver was a perfect accompaniment to the plantain dusted langoustine, black bean puree redolent with cumin, and quenelle of avocado. This dish made me positively giddy with joy- the langoustine was perfectly prepared, the crusting not gooey or doughy at all. The flavors were impeccably clean and brilliant. Magnificent. Seventh course: Turbot. This was, alas, the 'meh' dish of the meal for me (thus I have few notes). Like u.e.'s rouget, this was served atop a polenta, with baby spinach, red peppercorn oil, and chutney. The chutney was entirely too sweet, and swamped out the delicacy of the polenta and overwhelmed the whitefish. Eighth: Rabbit, aka 'Thumper 101 Ways'. Same plating as u.e.'s, I too loved the kidney though the bacon was probably my favorite. Mmmm, bacon. Three more courses to go!

I so completely forgot the impulsive was only available mon-thurs. Hrm. Now I'm definitely ditching our upcoming Sat. night reservation for a midweek res.

I swear I'll get my descriptions up tomorrow, today was jam packed. To expand on what u.e. just said... -One large rectangular room, with an inset rectangular room in one corner for private parties. -Trio also offered a non-alcoholic beverage service when Achatz was there.

Oh no, I've got 4 more pages of notes, they're just illegibile. Maybe after tomorrow morning's latte they'll make sense. I'm going to go out on a limb and say you would so totally have known if they were smoked. Because mine tasted like gnawing on a scallopy chonk of wood.

For our viewing audience playing along at home, I was at Avenues approximately 2 weeks before u.e. Even so, our menus were different and some of the platings were different. Right from the start, in fact. First course: Scallops Whereas u.e. had pickled bay scallops in their prep, mine were smoked. Plated on the same style dish with malted sunchoke panna cotta (best descriptor I can give: a very thick, creamy 'fruit leather' of malt and sunchoke. Seriously, it peeled away from the plate in a chem-lab-experiment-gone-funky solid sheet) along with sliced sauteed sea scallop, tiny dice of granny smith apple, and house smoked shad roe. The plate was dotted with dill microgreens. I had selected a sake to go with the first few courses, and the refreshing zing of the sake played perfectly against the smokiness of the bay scallops and the unctuousness of the panna cotta. The textures all played well together - I had worried the smoked bay scallops might be a touch rubbery, and they weren't. Second course: Duo of Asparagus Again, conceptually a similar dish, but plated very differently. Mine featured 4 interlaid spears of asparagus (white and green), lavished with tarragon infused sabayon and crunchy bacon, accompanied by a goat cheese 'cloud' topped with half a duck egg. The asparagus was perfect- not overcooked to squishiness, but not so rare that it was too crunchy. I found myself trying to remember what the brekkie dish in the UK of asparagus dipped in egg is called (soldiers on horseback?); this seemed like the penultimate luxury version of it. I sometimes find tarragon to be overwhelming in delicate sauces and too licorice-y for my taste; not so here. The goat cheese cut perfectly across the fattiness of the duck egg, bacon, and sabayon in the mouth. It was somewhat maddening- in a jolly way- to try to get just a little taste of everything on a single forkful. So unbelievably good. Huh, I can tell the kir royale had hit and the sake was beginning to, as my handwriting in my notes begins to go to crap right about now.

Oh it is on! (Right after I congratulate ChefGEB on his nom, and wish him only fabulousness in NY). So, to set the stage for my last visit to Avenues, picture this if you will. It's 85 degrees and you have a squally toddler on your hands as you hit nurseries out in the middle of horse farm country in MO. As you deal with the plaintive bellows of ME DO IT as your child tries to push a fully laden cart of plants about, your cellphone buzzes indicating you have voicemail. 3 minutes later, doing 65 mph down a two lane highway while you simultaneously try to unwrap a granola bar and dial your voicemail, you're treated to a polite, slightly breathily embarassed call from the hostess at Avenues, informing you they're very sorry, but they just can't seat you at the chef's bar the night you've got a reservation the next week, thanks to 'an incident', and would you like to reschedule. Calling them back gleans you no information other than an obtuse reference to 'upholstery' and 'catastrophe', and an assurance they'll try to seat you near the kitchen. So, yeah, no chef's bar for me. *fistshakes at U.E.* As the back of my head was whinged with the rejected granola bar, accompanied by an aggrieved shout of 'no 'nola! GOAT CHEESE!', I mentally thanked god the entire restaurant had not shut down, and I had a night of peace to look forward to a few weeks hence. The hostess may well still be wondering what the hell that racket was. I did not bring my camera with (precious handbag space was dedicated to my knitting, because who wouldn't want to challenge themselves to successfully knit on 5, size 4 double-point needles while downing a kir royale in the Penn's lovely lobby bar area?), but I did bring my weeeee notebook. At one point, I was asked if I was a pro. Pro what? Eater? Hell yeah. I demurred and allowed as how I just enjoyed a good night out, and the captain merrily informed me that's what they're here for. My meal got off on the wrong foot. They buzzed over and presented me with a very similar prep to U.E.'s, except instead of red beet and gruyere the gougiere was stuffed with curried eggplant and...somethin. I can't recall the something, because as the young man finished his chipper recitation I trilled back, "And it would kill me." Turns out in their reservation system it had purged all the info on my allergies, and so there was a bit of a flurry and kerfluffle as they hurriedly renoted them and juggled some things. I have to hand it to them for quickly and efficiently dealing. And for having the sense of humour to come over and announce the next course as a 'tantalizing symphony of....' (fill in everything I am allergic to, in various oh so haute preparations). We all had a good laugh, and moved on. So, onto the pinch hitter amuse, a watercress panna cotta. Shot out in a similar plating to u.e.'s, it was good but assertive (as watercress in that concentration can be), and the texture reminded me of a jello shot. (Shout out to the very highbrow table next to me, no, I was not giggling at your stories of renting the Taj Mahal to sleep there on your 30th anniversary, I was giggling at the thought of a jello shot in a restaurant like this.) This was one of the rare cases where the amuse would have benefited from the little treat immediately beforehand- I could imagine the curried eggplant would have been a good palate zinger and prepped one for the smoothness of the panna cotta and the crisp herbaceousness of the micro greens. Tag, u.e., you're it.

I am so sad I am unlikely to make it to Avenues in time.