ronnie_suburban

For all you lushes: $4 Mai Tais on Monday.You rang?!? Is this at the Chicago location only? This I do not know. Might want to call them. For your weekly Mai Tai fix, Thursdays at Trader Vics also does a $4 Mai Tai. Then on Friday go to Mambo Grill for their half priced Mojitos. ← Fetch me my diet pills and call the police! ← LMAO! =R=

Yes, that's the spot...on Ridge, just before it hits Green Bay Road, north of Emerson on the east side of the street. =R=

Us and others as well =R=

You guys are a bunch of nerds. ← Completely =R=

Ahh, George...you beat me too it! =R=

No, just too little capacity What a mess, though. I hope none of your books were injured in the accident. =R=

November 3, 2004... From today's Chicago Tribune - Good Eating section: Matching the complex flavors of Mexico...where better than Chicago (other than Mexico, of course) to face the challenge of matching Mexican cuisine with wine? Tribune Food & Wine reporter, Bill Daley, walks us through it, with assistance from some of Chicago's most notable Mexican eateries. Tasting notes are included. Rollin' to Go...Judy Hevrdejs files a Cheap Eats review of this cozy Evanston carry-out. The food's the thing...Virginia Gerst reports on Omnium Gatherum, a play that unfolds during an elaborate dinner party, which begins its Chicago-area premiere Nov. 11 at Next Theatre in Evanston. Exploring India's myriad, distinct cuisines...Bill Daley reviews a bevy of Indian cookbooks including Indian Home Cooking, by eGullet member Suvir Saran and Stephanie Lyness as well as Meena Pathak's Indian Cooking for Family and Friends and Atul Kochhar's India's Essence: The Fresh Face of Indian's New Cuisine ===== From today's Chicago Sun Times - Food section: No-baloney Tony...Mike Thomas spends some time with Bourdain and reviews his new Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook. Countdown to T-Day...Sun-Times Food Editor, Sue Ontiveros, starts the clock a'tickin with some good advices about getting ready for Thanksgiving. Steak Puffs...Denise I. O'Neal previews upcoming events at Grotto on State, Burhop's/Wilmette, one sixtyblue and Marshall Fields. Tastings around town...previews of upcoming events at Petterino's, Spiaggia and Corner Cooks/Winnetka ===== From the Chicago Reader...What's New...reviews of Venus Mezedopolion, Eppy's Deli and Sticky Rice Thai. ===== From today's Daily Herald - Food section: Cooking classes...a comprehensive listing of upcoming food classes, tastings and events around town; broken out by day. ===== And last but certainly not least, in this week's installment of Chicago Magazine's Dish...Penny Pollack and Jeff Ruby reveal the identity of Le Francais' new Chef...none other than Roland Liccioni (Les Nomades, Le Lan) himself. ===== =R= <><><><><> Media Digest Notes... Updates from some Chicago media outlets, which do not 'go to press' on Wednesday mornings, will be edited into each week's post as they become available. Please do not reply on this thread. For discussion of any stories which are linked here, please feel free to start a new thread or contact the forum host who will be happy to do it for you.

Yeah, I saw that they are now on Open Table and even in that venue they seem to be the hottest spot in the area right now. 5:00 only from what I could tell--and from what the reservationist told me. Also, no surprises about Mr. Nambiar's abilities, as he's the former restaurant manager at Season's. And yes, you are correct about their beef; at least as it was originally reported by metromix.com back in July... =R=

Bustling! I just called PGC to make a 6 pm reservation for this Saturday and they were already booked It's a little frustrating but I'm very happy for them. Suddenly, having a small child is becoming the best conduit for dining at PGC. When we have the boy in tow, we have to go early (5:00-5:30) and at this point, those are the best--and only--hours to get a table. =R=

Thanks, George, for sharing your Bob Chinn's experience with us. $21M per year?!?! Wow, I knew they were a heavy hitter but that's a huge number. I don't think anyone could question the quality/freshness of their food but yes, their schtick can wear a bit thin. I LOL'd when I read your description of the sign in the bathroom. Tough story about your server-friend. I hope she finds happiness on her new path. That's a lot of time to put in somewhere without anyone even questioning her resignation. A very sad detail =R=

Ok folks, move along...nothing to see here. But here would be a great place to check. =R=

So, you can imagine where it left me =R=

Thanks for the kind feedback, everyone and thanks Dejah, for the soup tips, which sound great. I'll need them to trump her next time out. =R=

Exactly -- the border of the first row of squares lines up exactly with the packaging seam. Have you ever had the rum raisin kind? They really go fairly "adult" on the rum... Great blog, BTW, very fun to read. ← Cool...now I'm doubly looking forward to breaking into it And I will definitely try the rum raisin; it sounds great. They carry Rittersports at Cost Plus World Market and I'll be right near one later this week. Thanks again, for the tips. =R=

Thanks Marlene...I love those mini snickers bars Rittersport: Square. Practical. Good. Do you know about the special "snap open" quality of the packing? I didn't, until I married a german dude. ← Ahh...so you don't even need to pull the rip cord, just snap the bar? If that's the case, I do now and thanks If not, please enlighten me (if I go find it now, I'll eat it now ) =R=

Thank you Dave...and I did catch your reply about the red tamale. Thanks for that as well! =R=

The soup was started with stock which my wife made from 2 smoked pork hocks (from the fresh meat dept, not home-made) and water. She then made a 'mirepoix' in the cuisinart with 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, 1 leek and 1 yellow onion. She sauteed the mirepoix, added the pound of red lentils, combined it all and then added the stock. She added a bay leaf, kosher salt, fresh-ground black pepper and let it simmer for a few hours. Near the end, she threw in some flat-leaf parsley and what little meat she could harvest from the hocks. The bread was again, Labriola, via Garden Fresh Market. The butter, President-Unsalted. I also use any one of these other brands, depending on what's available: Plugra, Cabot, Lurpak or my favorite, Jana Valley. Always unsalted. No, as I mentioned upthread, my son traded away all his chocolate before he even came home last night and that's the only candy I really enjoy (other than some in-season candy corn), so I didn't have Halloween candy. My wife, very wisely, took all our leftover (outbound) candy to a donation spot today, so that's no longer available. I do have some variant of a Rittersport bar on hand, so I may break that out a little later. =R=

Ok folks, shown below is the final meal of my blog week... Red Lentil Soup and toasted 'Country' bread with butter (along with a few more of those perpetual chives) It's about 47 degrees F here and it's been raining all day. Combine that with the fact that it's the first day of standard time and, well, it's been a real bummer. It was all but dark out when I left my office, something that will take some mental adjustment over the next week or so But what better way to meet the lousy weather than with some excellent homemade soup? The best part of this is that I only came up with the idea, my darling wife followed my advices/instructions via the phone and turned out a wonderful dinner. Honestly though, I think she's been holding out on my all these years. No one who "dosen't know how to cook" could have made a soup this delicious. I do plan on watching some NFL football tonight and that can often lead to snacking, so I may be back later for a final update. But just in case that doesn't happen, I want to thank everyone for reading along and making my blogging experience such a pleasant one. =R=

Stop you?!?! No way...keep 'em coming! =R=

Thanks, via DK is a place that so many love; I'm probably in the minority. Perhaps I should have given it another shot today instead of just running the delivery back to the office and eating leftover ribs. One of my co-workers ordered the Catfish Po' Boy and he absolutely loved it. =R=

I feel bad using the blog to bash a place from which I didn't even have lunch (which isn't to say that I won't). Luckily, I hedged by bringing a half slab of ribs to the office. Ironically, even those who made the lunch choice (or were happy with it), were delighted that we had ribs. I believe the direct quote from Jim, referring to the joint from which lunch was ordered, was "well, I'll never order that again." Ok, the place in question is a Cajun/Southern Roadhouse-type place in Evanston, IL that attempts, IMO, to do too much instead of focusing on one type of cuisine. Jambalaya, Red Beans and Rice, Peach-Glazed Wings, NC pulled pork, pasta dishes and Johnny cakes are some of their offerings I know that it garnered 3 Forks (out of 4) from the Chicago Tribune (as indicated on their menu) and that many folks whose tastes I respect also dig this place. But, having lived in New Orleans for a couple of years, my bar for cajun food is set fairly high and this place, for all their effort, falls far below it. Anyone know the place of which I speak, err...type? =R= ← Are the initials D.K.? ← Yes, they are =R=

I wouldn't say it was 100% typical, nor would I say it was wildly atypical either. Blog week is somewhat synonymous for me with making fun choices rather than the best ones. That said, I do enjoy fruits and veggies but with my local farmer's market having just closed for the year, I would have really had to go out of my way to get good produce this week and I just didn't have the time or the desire to do so. I'd define this week and the couple on either side of it as "transitional" in the produce area. In the weeks to come I'll likely be eating more soups, root veggies, etc. Just not quite there yet. I am also a big fan of salads too but looking back, I guess I wasn't really in the mood for them very much this week. The most typically representative meals have probably been the lunches. That's pretty much how lunches "go down" at my office. We work hard and eat in the office, at our desks, nearly everyday so we tend to go with convenient and comforting choices. But, by far, lunch is the largest meal of the day for me. As for the meat/cost issue, I love meat but generally make it knowing that it will cover a few meals. Ribs, shanks, pork butt, etc. are all time consuming and thus, made in larger batches and eaten over a few meals. While some of the cuts I enjoy are a bit more expensive (skirt steak, ribs) many like shanks, brisket and pork butt generally cost under $2/pound. I will say that I stashed and trashed a few more leftovers this week than I normally do, just to keep things a bit more varied. As for breakfast...I love eggs. Again, I rarely eat breakfast but when I do, I want it to be something I really love. If I'm not going to have eggs, or a bagel with lox, I'll likely just skip it entirely. I'm not a big fan of fruit for breakfast and the whole pancake/waffle/french toast genre is just not my bag. Generally speaking a big, tall, iced caffeine bomb is about all I need until lunchtime. =R=

Ahh, I thought they served the "full tot" at Sonic Carry on =R=

These, or something virtually identical, are served as Potato Ole's at the Mexican chain, Taco John's =R=

I'm in the "love them every so often" camp. I have fond memories of watching David Letterman's debut some 22+ years ago, while my freshman dorm buddies down the hall cooked up batches of the little buggers for us in their illegal toaster oven. Very near my office, in Glenview, IL is a divey joint called Meier's Tavern which serves a fairly decent burger and their trademark side dish is tater tots. People will go out of their way to hit Meier's for the tots. =R=