Installment 2: Sometimes the Best Foods in Life...

...come from Lettuce Entertain You.

Okay, okay...I know.  I have a problem.  I cannot go more than a month without a Lettuce Entertain You meal.  What's that you say?  A twelve-step program?!?  You can't make me!  I can quit anytime I want!!  But why on earth would I want to?

There's this great place I know of where you can get Lettuce Entertain You food...and spend less than $10.

You read that correctly.

And there's five different locations throughout the city of Chicago.

I'll let that sink in.

Two words, lovies.  Wow Bao.  Steamed Asian buns filled with savory meats (and sweet stuff if you want it...my friend said the coconut is delicious).  I usually get the BBQ pork (sweet and savory), the Mongolian beef (a wee bit spicier than I remembered it, but delish), or the chicken teriyaki (how could you possibly go wrong with that?).  I wish I had a photo for you, but it had been a while since breakfast...as soon as I sat down I did my best makeshift Cookie Monster impression.  Bao instead of cookies.  I know, it's a powerful visual...

They cost less than two dollars apiece, and I know I can never eat more than two.  So we're coming in at just under five dollars.  You with me so far?  Now throw in the homemade ginger ale, $2.49, and you've got lunch.  Excellent.

There's one in Water Tower Place, and there's one underneath the Renaissance Hotel at the corner of State and Lake.  Beyond that, you can check their site.

After eating only campus food for way, way, way too long, the highlight of my week thus far has been sitting at the counter at Wow Bao with a friend, enjoying a good meal that was entirely worth what I paid for it.

~AF

A Return to the 'Burbs...But Just For a Moment!

Darlings, the Foodie has a plan...subsist during the week on salad bar creations and soup (plus the requisite latté, of course) so that, when given the chance, she can indulge in things far more delicious than she could ever encounter in the school cafeteria.

On a trip home this past weekend (joy of joys!), I was lucky enough to be able to go to my absolute favorite restaurant...my favorite Italian restaurant, that is...we mustn't play favorites.  Never know who's reading, now do we?

Anyways!  Off to Antico!  The risotto of the day was an obvious seasonal nod, featuring sweet corn (glory be!), along with pork tenderloin, caramelized onions, and a splash of aged balsamic.

Risotto, in my opinion, is one of the many dishes that just make your eyes roll back in your head.  It is that good.  The texture, the flavor...all that cheese!  And this risotto was no exception, by any means.  Velvety and creamy, rich, smooth and yet a bit toothsome.  It was awesome.  And it was only made better by the fact that the corn was just shaved off the cob and tossed in at the last minute.

Now, you may be thinking, 'Raw corn! Oh, but Foodie, that isn't right!'

It is so right.  Especially when the corn is this fresh.  It is sweet without even needing to be cooked.  And by not boiling the stuff to oblivion, there remains a wonderfully contrasting texture, a slight crunch, that lightens up the risotto in a way (unfortunately, it didn't make it seem light enough for me to indulge in a mini dessert...shame, really...).

And now, regrettably, I must offer some notes of criticism to my beloved Antico Posto.

The tenderloin...was not tender.  I've had tenderloin there before that was served with a heavy-duty serrated steak knife alongside, but which would only have required a butter knife.  This time, all I had to work with was an excessively dull butter knife, and a piece of pork that simply refused to disassemble.

The pork wasn't really dry...but it wasn't as luscious as I've had it.  Perhaps someone turned away from it at the critical moment, and it was left to seize up a bit before placed atop my dish.  Whatever the reason, although I found the flavor of the meat to be delightful (what wonders a splash of the balsamic will do!), I could have gone without it entirely.

And I must add also that the caramelized onions could have gone a bit longer.  They were caramelized and sweet, but they lacked a certain velvety spreadability that I have come to appreciate in a cooked onion.  Their residual strength of structure made it rather difficult to evenly disperse the stuff throughout my rice.  I would have liked if it had fallen apart.  All the more flavor to spread around.

But I can hardly complain much more than that.  The closest thing I've had to Italian food on campus was at a Build-Your-Own-Pasta station.  I was met with overcooked, under-drained farfalle sauced with a lackluster and undersalted marinara.  My flavor combinations would have been glorious had they taken some Pasta 101 classes from the cooking school.  And the garlic bread looked like it had toasted breadcrumbs on it...how redundant!

Look for my next post: Building the Best Salad Plate!

Peace, Love, and (Hopefully) Antico to You All!

~AF

The End of Great Food Recommendations? Certainly Not!

It isn't the end, readers!  The Foodie has found herself dropped into the middle of a veritable Mecca of tasty cuisine.  And our first stop on this culinary journey is the beautiful country of Spain for (you guessed) tapas!

I feel like I'm cheating on Meson Sabika with a sleeker, hipper restaurant.  And I guess in a way I am.  But Naperville is just too far away for me right now!

So there's this place in Lincoln Park, down on Halsted...you may have heard of it.  Or maybe the name just reminds you of a Ricky Ricardo catchphrase.  Of course, I'm referring to Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba.  No, I'm not joking...that's the name of the place.

Anyway, it's a Lettuce Entertain You restaurant, so if you get points...more power to you.  The decor is old-fashioned and cool.  Think a blend of wood paneling, exposed brick and murals, toss in some rockin'-looking Iberico hams (love!) hanging from the ceiling above the bar (not joking...they have hooves on them and they're imported and awesome), and you've got one heck of a spot.

The gorgeous bar is a main feature when you walk in, framed up nicely by the long row of windows to your right when you walk in.  The bartender has a really snazzy mustache (this must be a big trend, because Bayless's bartender has some wacky facial hair too).  And according to my parents and my aunt, their sangrias (both traditional red and seasonal white peach) were tasty.  Not that I'd have any clue.

Anyways...

We went to town trying their tapas, even ordering some dishes that we consider our mainstays at Meson Sabika (just for comparison).

I'm going to make this a photo review!  Something shiny and new!  Read the captions, dearies...

~AF

(For the record, I do still adore Meson Sabika.  It is my first love when it comes to tapas.  And I like it just a little bit better.  But this is an awesome place too.  Nothing scathing on this page, that's for sure.)

Okay.  Clockwise from top: sangria (looked pretty); bread (heartier than Meson...but tastier in a way because it was served with olive oil, not butter!); aceitunes (marinated olives, more of a mix than Meson...I like the variety of it, but the flavor at Meson was far superior. But you should still order them); datiles con tocino (loves, they are so good! Crispy bacon, melt-in-your-mouth dates, dressed in an apple vinaigrette and served with little apple chunks.  There's bacon. Can't go wrong.).

Queso de cabra al horno: Baked goat cheese in a tomato-basil sauce.  Almost as good as Meson.  Missed it by that much.  Sorry, the first was the better in this case.

Meatballs in sherry tomato sauce: They were tender to the point of being crumbly.  And the sauce seemed a little flat to me.  Sorry, but I just wasn't digging it.

Oh. My. Goodness.  That is a plate of sweet potatoes with pomegranate aioli.  Order it.  Order it now.  It is that good.  I could have just eaten the aioli with a spoon.  If only they'd given us more of it...

Skewer of chicken and Spanish chorizo: Not what I would have ordered.  It was my sister's idea, and it was a good way for her to branch out a little.  There's not much that could mess up good chicken and good sausage.  If you're not adventurous enough for pomegranate aioli, this is the route to take.  It's good, just not bold enough for my liking.

Well, she ain't pretty...These are sherry-glazed pork ribs.  And they're good.  Thing is, there's a lot of sherry glaze going on on the plate.  If you like barbecue ribs, you'll probably like this.  It seemed a little more South Carolina than south of Spain.  But it was tasty.

Ask them to bring you a spoon with this item.  This, my friends, is a slow-braised beef shortrib.  And you can cut it with a spoon.  Try it.  It comes with velvety mashed potatoes, and if you're smart you'll have it brought out early, before you've filled up on hearty bread and goat cheese.  I just wish I'd had room for it.  Because it was good...

Pincho de Solomillo: It's so simple.  And simple dishes are where you can tell if a restaurant is doing things right.  Ba-Ba-Reeba sure is.  This was just as tasty as the pincho from Meson, and I may have even liked this horseradish cream a little better.  Just meat and a grill.  And they made it taste good.  This is how you do it.  But I still love my Meson Sabika.

Bella, Bella, Bella Means Beautiful...Food that is

It's carefully hidden in Oakbrook Center.  Or at least that's what it says on the menu.  Almost a next-door-neighbor to ma cherie, Mon Ami Gabi, the restaurant Antico Posto is like Gabi's quiet Italian cousin.  It's a "Lettuce Entertain You" restaurant just like Gabi and another restaurant I love, Wildfire.

Ever since the first moment I stepped inside this restaurant through its revolving door, I loved it.  There's a bar at the front and a couple bar tables, but the majority of the restaurant is dimly-lit, white-tablecloth dining.  And it's usually packed.

The first thing placed on the table is crusty, fresh-baked bread with coarse salt on the crust and a dish of add-ons: fruity olive oil with garlic, parmesan, and balsamic and a dynamite giardiniera with green olives, onion, celery, cauliflower, and eggplant.  If the entrees themselves weren't quite so phenomenal, I could just eat the bread.

But the thing is, the entrees are phenomenal.  So don't do too much carbo-loading at the outset of your meal.

They make these really great brick oven pizzas with a chewy crust that tastes a little pretzel-like to me.  They hardly use any sauce, which allows the flavorful toppings to shine, whether it's oven-roasted tomatoes and basil on their goat cheese pizza or sweet fennel sausage and fire-roasted peppers.  The goat cheese pizza is my sister's favorite, and it's the food item that taught her to embrace the roasted tomato.

I happen to be rather partial to the pasta dishes, and I've sampled quite a few.  The pasta is made fresh in-house, and this really makes a difference in their plates.  I love the gnocchi (both bolognese and pomodoro), and the spaghetti bolognese.  While not necessarily authentically Italian (according to Food Network's Alton Brown), this combo of thin, delicate pasta and rich meaty sauce is undeniably delicious.

My all-time favorite pasta at Antico is the cavatelli, which in Italian means "little worms"...delicious, right?  But in all seriousness, it's a hearty yet delicate pasta with a pleasant chew to it.  At Antico, they make it with ricotta, and they pair it with assertive toppings.

I've tried the cavatelli special with vodka-cream sauce, tossed with sweet fennel sausage  and lots of fresh parsley (shown right).  It was a great deviation from my usual, a plate only available once a week.

Behold, ladies, gentlemen, and others: Cavatelli with Sunday Meat Sauce.  It is a heaping plate of pasta tossed in a light cream and topped with a great big ol' dollop of braised meat.  On my last visit, our waiter gave up the names of the meats they use, five in all: pepperoni, sausage, sopressata, roast beef, and roast pork.  All of this is cooked down in garlic and tomato until it's a soft, sumptuous sauce full of meat that is fall-apart tender.  I can think of nothing to improve upon it.

And don't even get me started on the desserts.  They have these great little mini-desserts, from a velvety panna cotta with brandied cherries (my favorite, right) to a creamy lemon cheesecake, topped with whipped cream and lemon curd (my sister's favorite, already half eaten before I got a chance to snap a pic...though I don't blame her).  All you need to cap it off is a LaVazza cappuccino, and you're in business.  Bella, bella, bella.

C'est Magnifique: Macaroni Gratin that Wows

Mon Ami Gabi is one of those restaurants with a few locations: one in Vegas, one in Chicago, and one conveniently close to me in Oakbrook, Illinois.  It's a French bistro-style restaurant that has a wide range of items to pick from, a quality that almost guarantees that no one will go without finding something they will love.

I've tried some great stuff there before, from savory crepes filled with chicken stew to a Burger au Poivre, crusted in pepper and served with au jus and green peppercorn aioli.  Anything you order is delicious, and if it's served with pommes frittes (French-style crispy-fried potato strips) it is downright amazing.  They always bring out crusty French baguette with raspberry jam and whipped butter at the start of the meal (pictured right...superb!).

I've been stuck in a rut lately, alternating between the Burger au Poivre and a special that seemed to pop up a lot, a succulent lamb burger.  But on my last visit to the restaurant, I decided to try a dish that has been calling out to me since the first time I stepped inside: Macaroni Gratin.

Now, this ain't your mama's mac 'n' cheese.  Instead of elbow macaroni, they use teeny-tiny shells that really grab onto the luxurious, silky bechamel sauce.  They add crisped, salty cured ham to the mix and top it all off with a substantial layer of Gruyere cheese.  And then they bake it.  Wow, oh, wow.  It is so creamy, so rich, that you're probably only going to polish off a third of it (just a third!) and that's if you're really hungry.  Isn't it pretty?

Readers!  In my haste (and my excitement about my macaroni) I neglected to mention the tasty soup that I tried as a starter.  At Gabi, they present you with a bowl of garnish and pour the soup into the bowl at the table.  The soup I tried during this visit was a mushroom soup.  It wasn't necessarily a cream soup, but it was creamy.  My only complaint about it was the garnish they used. 

Most of the time the garnish is a perfect complement to the soup, like a paprika-scented creme fraiche atop a velvety butternut squash soup.  But the garnish for the mushroom soup was a few pieces of fresh wild mushroom and croutons.  The wild mushroom was entirely raw and completely unseasoned.  It was begging for salt, or maybe even garlic.  And the poor, pitiful little croutons (also painfully underseasoned) were not quite crispy enough, and they became extremely soggy when the soup was poured over them.

Now that the soup is out of the way, I digress.  Let us proceed to dessert!

French desserts are, to put it quite simply, exceptional.  My aunt, my sister, and I tried desserts that weren't necessarily French, but they were rather exceptional.

When it comes to food, we first eat with our eyes.  Presentation is paramount.  The white chocolate bread pudding (below) that my aunt and I shared was plated beautifully, topped with ice cream and caramel sauce.  And the chocolate-pecan tart my sister ate (at right) featured a cannelle of fresh whipped cream and a decorative smear of caramel.

I'll speak first about that tart.  My oh-so-generous sister let me try it, and it was delicious.  The crust was sweet, more like a graham cracker crust, and the pecans were like pralines, embedded in chocolate.  If you have a sweet tooth, then this is the dessert for you, and it's always on the menu.

The bread pudding...OMG.  It's really all I can say.  It was custardy and warm...if it weren't so rich I could have eaten three.  I'm pretty sure it was on special that day, but if you ever see it featured, get it.  You will not have any regrets (just don't ask to see the calorie count).