huiray

...and is what I meant by "fresh peas" in my previous post (still in the pod), whether from the supermarket or from the farmers' market.

I don't have the answer to your specific question but I would mention that it may not be a universal truth to diss frozen peas. "Fresh peas" do need to be really fresh - like picked from your own plants just an hour or so ago, certainly less than 24 hours - otherwise they would have degraded (becoming more "starchy", for example) and "supermarket-fresh" peas can be guaranteed to be far older than 24-hours-ago-picked. Even the stuff one picks up from farmers' markets may have been picked several days prior to market day. Frozen peas, OTOH, are stated to be processed and frozen within several hours of being picked (by the major players in the business) and there are various taste tests where frozen peas were said to be quite good indeed. Google the topic, if you like. ETA: IIRC, when I cook even frozen peas from a fresh package briefly they do not wrinkle; whereas cooking "old" frozen peas or residual stuff from a previously-opened package will wrinkle.

Fern, hope you have a nice time whatever you two eventually decide on. Do report back, that would be interesting! BTW I realized something - IF you do go to G&tG on Monday, then the "walk over to the Aviary" that I suggested is non-operational as Aviary is closed Monday & Tuesday. So your only opportunity to go there (with regards to when you are in town) would be Wednesday night.

Lunch today: Hot Dogs w/ Nathan's Beef Franks and Dietz & Watson natural casing Beef Franks (two each; one of each shown in pic) in French Brioche Hot Dog Buns [The Fresh Market] and garnished/topped w/ the meat sauce (chez huiray) from here (made with cinnamon & cloves as two of the spicing agents). Accompanied by pickled rakkyo (scallion bulbs; Allium chinense) [shirakiku] (see below) and julienned Napa cabbage inner leaves & a few sprigs of flowering spinach. The pickled rakkyo.

Oh, a few articles that may be of interest too. :-) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elysabeth-alfano/chicago-greasy-spoon_b_2929514.html http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20140806/BLOGS09/140809881/where-chefs-eat-on-their-days-off ...and, with a more national range... http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2013/11/chefs-favorite-bars-new-york-portland-san-francisco-chicago-best-places-to-drink.html

Nice article. Tom Sietsema (the author) forgot about the Jean Banchet Awards, though. :-) As for Italian Beef, I was going to mention "The Stance" but I see Sietsema has mentioned it. Heh. He forgot about rolling up one's sleeves, though, and actually describing the actual positioning of limbs and head and elbows and legs. Of course, "The Stance" is not necessary but it isn't a bad practical way to eat one of these beauties *especially* the fully dipped ones ("double-dipped") which are dripping wet; but "The Stance" has entered the popular folklore of HOW to eat it anyway, especially if you are to be considered a resident of Chitown. :-) ;-) Here's one description (amongst others). :-)

A couple meals which had the background of this other thread running in my mind. Earlier – Hot dogs [Hebrew National all beef], cooked w/ and topped (in the bowl) with instant ramen [sapporo Ichiban Chicken Flavor] (with the seasoning packet added in of course), trimmed leafy celery, sugar snap peas, halved crimini mushrooms, a couple farm-fresh eggs poached in situ, and the broth of course. (leftover soup w/ bits of chopped kale in it was also added to the pot) Later – Meat sauce chez huiray, in a style I hadn't made for a little while: Rice bran oil, diced shallots, chopped garlic, ground chuck (good stuff), chopped de-skinned fresh tomatoes (farmer's market), tomato ketchup [Heinz - "Simply Heinz"], double fermented soy sauce, jaggery sugar, rice vinegar [Marukan], a nice "cinnamon" (cassia) stick, some whole cloves. Simmer till done, about an hour or so. Served over spaghetti [Garofalo] and plated w/ chiffonaded Tuscan kale stir-fried w/ garlic.

EV olive oil, sliced green garlic, sliced Knackwurst, broccoli florets, trimmed asparagus, fresh tarragon (just for the hell of it) plus chopped summer savory, then penne [Rustichella d'Abruzzo] and toss in the pan. Season to taste.

If you are going to do the walkabout northwards as Alex suggests then also wander around Division & State. Maybe do the tourist-walk up Wells as well. Drop by the Old Town Ale House, preferably at night, though, (a great dive bar, favorite of many folks) and take in the wall decorations (e.g. Sarah Palin, nude, w/ a hunting rifle & scarlet pumps; Rod Blagojavich almost nude in jail getting ready for his cavity search; etc... :-) ) It also amuses me to walk around Wacker (including some of the riverbank walks), have dinner at wherever I am heading for in the River North area or whatever, wander around after that up State/Clark/Rush, maybe drop by someplace like the Redhead Piano Bar and have a drink or two, back up State/Rush to the Viagra Triangle taking in the, um, Human Scenery as well, have a gelato from the stand in the teeny park at Rush & State, then wander back to my hotel. OK, one could take in a cocktail or two at Sable along the way too. :-) BTW if you want some nice views of the Chicago skyline a few ways to do that include walking out to the end of Navy Pier (which is pretty touristy, true) and looking back at the shoreline; taking a drive up and down Lake Shore Drive from say, around McCormick Place (which you would do if you were entering Chicago downtown by taking exit 53C off the Ryan Expressway (Route 90)) all the way up alongside Lake Michigan to, say, Uptown or Foster Ave and back down. (I myself might swing by the Wrigley Field area (lots of bars & restaurants there), or drop by Little Vietnam at Broadway & Argyle for a nice bowl of phở & some shopping) Another nice drive (albeit traffic is another factor) is a drive down from the northern parts on Rte 90 (Kennedy Expressway), e.g. from the O'Hare area, down towards the city especially towards sunset, and get a view of the skyline from "the other side". :-)

Oh, one does not need jacket and tie...so that would be "informal" :-) In fact, I don't believe they would turn away someone in jeans. :-D As in any other similar place, one can dine relatively frugally or somewhat expansively – it depends on what one chooses.

There are so many varieties of dried shrimp/prawns available from Chinese/Asian groceries. Surely that is an enticing alternative to laboriously doing it yourself with iffy results, just because you are supposed to do it on eG.

I just thought of something - perhaps a slight thing, but nevertheless... There are Chinese places around Chitown which serve a form of "Spring Rolls"/"Egg Rolls" where peanut butter is used, in a somewhat large-ish roll reminiscent of stuff that one gets from Chinese take-outs in many places, but which have this specific taste, at least part of which is due to the peanut butter used. Of course it could be considered "American-Chinese" but it seems to be something that the old-time Chinese diaspora in Chicago seem to have "created" as a "Chicago-recognizable" taste, according to what I understand. But perhaps there are other similar situations in CT or New England (not that I was aware of, when I lived in Boston in the 1980's) One place "known" for these peanut-butter "spring rolls" is Great Wall, just to the NE of the "center split" in the "New Chinatown" arcade on the NW side of S Archer in Chinatown in Chitown. This place is also where I tend to pick up roast duck, chicken of various sorts, roast pork, "poon-fei-sau" BBQ pork (char-siu), etc etc when I am in town. :-)

Another place that is worth a think-about is North Pond Restaurant in the northern end of Lincoln Park. It is in a beautiful Arts & Craft building with views overlooking the Pond and the Chicago skyline (part of it, anyway) if you get a table next to the floor-to-ceiling windows. Some have declared it a place which gives a crystallizable snapshot of a lovely facet of Chicago. The food is pretty good too, from James Beard-acknowledged chef Bruce Sherman. The tasting menu has been one of the delights for me in past years too, and they are obliging about adding items from the a la carte menu to the tasting menu and inserting it appropriately in the progression. Plus they give you freebie items depending on the chef's whim - or at least I have had the pleasant experience of being the recipient of that. One can cab it up there from Mag Mile, or drive there and leave your car with the Parking attendants (for a fee) at the station on N Lakeview Ave just to the west of the restaurant and you then take a brief walk through the park on a well-delineated path to the restaurant. Sit outside, too, on the benches if you like, to take in the view, before you go into the restaurant (or after). A meal at the place just before sunset, besides the windows, is quite lovely.

Try chopped tarragon with egg dishes. Try an omelette with it beaten into the egg mixture, with or without other stuff (diced tomatoes, say...or a fairly neutral protein...chicken...) Almost any egg dish done in a "Western style" will go well with a dose of tarragon in it -- which is not to say that such dishes need tarragon, of course. Try a tarragon (don't be shy about the amount) & mustard sauce (YUM!!) with sautéed chicken or similar. Add in sliced button mushrooms if you like. (p.s. the mustard should be a Dijon-type or similar, do not use something like ballpark yellow mustard) Try tarragon as one of the herbs in a "herb salad" where the majority of the greenery are herbs. Mustard-vinaigrette dressing.

There are unpeeled dried shrimps/prawns in the E/SE Asian pantry (especially Korean) but the majority of the dried shrimps/prawns I know and find and use are peeled. There are some with very thin shells that are for practical purposes sort-of-peeled.

(Earlier) Lotus leaf-wrapped glutinous rice w/ pork & shiitake mushrooms [commercial], steamed. (Later) Pork & shrimp wontons¶ [Prime Food]; with chiffonaded savoy cabbage (outer) leaves & green garlic in chicken broth w/ some extra oil added. ¶ Cooked in a separate pot of simmering water, then fished out with a sieve and added to the chicken broth & veggies when being bowled. The water used to cook the wontons, containing excess and leached-out starch & flour etc, is discarded. (I almost always cook wontons and shui kow and dumplings etc separately from the soup they will be floating in subsequently. On the rare occasion when I cook them directly in the soup - due to laziness, say - I always regret it because the excess starch etc makes it gooey and also usually makes it murky with a "flour-y taste" – both not desired in something like wonton soup or shui kow soup.)

Further to Alex's post - Naha is a nice place, and has been on my rotation for years. Be warned though that you need to be aware of what you are ordering or how hungry you are. I've had lunches there before that topped $70 (just for myself) when I ordered according to my healthy appetite, and at least one dinner that exceeded $200 for myself - but that was with a double order of foie gras plus full wine pairings. :-) ETA: Oh, if you're going to be around Naha or Topo/Frontera during the day I wonder if you might be interested in taking a peek at an interesting antique shop. :-) (NB: I have no financial interests in that place but have got lovely pieces from them)

Some ideas off the top of my head in a few seconds...for your bone-in skin-on chicken breasts... Pad kee mao Pad see eu Pad woon sen Kari kapitan Chik kut teh Ayam goreng Inche kabin etc etc etc

OK. Have a look at this, if you like. Look also at the 'eating out' forum there too. Or, peek here if you like, and narrow it down by searching using relevant terms. As you walk or travel around, consider having a Chicago Dog and Italian Beef at some point (lunch, or a snack) - these two are thought of as iconic Chicago foods. (NB Wiener's Circle, which is on your list, is more known for char dogs which is a variant of the more usual wet-cooked Vienna dogs) There are a few well-known purveyors (Portillo's, Al's Beef) close to Mag Mile, well within walking distance. If you are visiting the Art Institute of Chicago there's an Al's Beef very close by. There are other places; different folks have their favorites and fierce disputes arise over which is "best". One convenient way to look for places serving one or both is to go to Google maps, center it on the Chicago Loop/Mag Mile/River North etc area, then type in either "Chicago hot dogs" or "Italian beef" (without the quote marks) into the search box. BTW, Hot Doug's has closed down. As for cocktails, Aviary and Violet Hour has been mentioned above besides Sable. I would urge you to seriously consider a visit to Aviary. It is not a cheap place but consider it still, as the offerings are unique. A reservation is probably best, if you can manage it - maybe after your meal at G&tG you could hop over to Aviary...or walk there...(Note: the area is, yes, a little gritty but I've never felt unsafe walking around. Just use common sense and be alert) I can't help you with local breweries, as I've never paid much attention to them (not a beer drinker) - but yes, there are several around Chicagoland, some with national recognition. Consult other forums, or perhaps someone will chime in here. (Ditto coffee - although a name that comes to mind are the Intelligentsia places in Chitown which seem to get a lot of love. I believe there is also one of their coffeebars in NYC)

A very, very late night / early morning meal. Pan-fried pork Schnecken [Claus']. Halved baby zucchini sautéed in the pan residues & oil. Leftover angel hair pasta tossed in the pan (after doing the zucchini) w/ a little more evoo plus some chopped smashed garlic & chopped summer savory, with halved zucchini blossoms added in at the last; lightly salted; plated w/ additional sprigs of summer savory.

Today's haul.

BRFM & CFM on Saturday. Tuscan kale, leaf celery, savory, green garlic, asparagus. An enormous Savoy cabbage. Tomatoes, baby zucchini w/ flowers, hickory hot-smoked (then frozen) sockeye salmon bellies. ...and strawberries.

Soupy sauce of fresh tomatoes, sliced green garlic, chopped Tuscan kale, Arbosana EV olive oil. Seasoned to taste. Angel hair pasta [De Cecco].

BTW, just for the hell of it, Alinea in Chicago is usually ranked amongst the best restaurants in the world. Of course, if Molecular Gastronomy is not your thing (as it is not mine) then that doesn't matter much. ;-) BTW2, Everest (in Chicago) has what might be the most extensive Alsatian (and related) wine lists in all of North America. Oh, they serve really good food too.

Besides "Mexican" and "Southwestern" (each of which is a MULTI-FACETED many-regional issue) what sort of cuisines are you interested in? HOW MUCH are you willing to spend? Are you looking for high-end or low-end or a mixture? Any other non-North American cuisines? Gosh, there are SO MANY restaurants and cuisines in Chicagoland - far, far more than those examples you cite. Chicago is held to be one of the premier food destination cities in the world – perhaps you might mull over that. BTW, with regards to your list - I would skip Little Goat and simply go for Girl & the Goat instead. Dunno why LG is apparently recommended on eG, according to what you say. A reservation for G&tG two weeks out is basically impossible - but you could just turn up before 4.30 pm at their front doors and GET IN THERE the moment they open the doors to ask for a table. They hold a few tables for walk-ins every day, and they are available on a first-come-first-serve basis. If it is just "two-of-you", they MAY offer you one of the Kitchen Tables. If so, GRAB IT!!! As for Sable - i. do. not. like. that. place. It's great for cocktails (one of the widest ranging in Chitown, but other places (e.g. Aviary, Violet Hour are also well-known and innovative and maybe better known) and also has one of the widest selections of Scotch in town - but for the food, meh. IMO. I'd go elsewhere for food, then decamp to Sable for cocktails and whiskey, if that was what I wanted to do after eating. I wouldn't go there JUST for the food, but that's my opinion. Purple Pig should be on your list, yes. Try going there at the off-hours - your wait will be more bearable. Note that it may be a bit hard to find -- it is on the left side of the building that bears the formal address. Why are you thinking of Wiener's Circle? As for Chicago-style pizza -- i.e. deep-dish type --- keep in mind that the franchises of all manifestations of CDD Pizza outside of the originators in Chicago have generally not been good. If your experience of a CDDP is at some place like Giordano's in CT or similar, it was probably far, far below what the original Giordano's in Chitown puts out. There are arguments amongst folsk in Chitown itself on which place serves the best CDDP - go to another food forum (CH; cough, cough) for REAMS of stuff on that. But, again, there are so many places in town to try - it is not a place that has just one or two things to eat. (Mexique is a good place to try out besides Topolobampo. BTW, If you sit at the bar at Frontera Grill (which is side-by-side, connected internally w/Topolobampo) you can order off both the Topolobampo menu and the Frontera Grill menu.)