Afternoon Tea at the Seasons Lounge at Four Seasons - Chicago, IL

My friend Yeena took me out for afternoon tea for my birthday a few months ago.  How can you not love little sandwiches and plates of scrumptious desserts?  

The Gage - Chicago, IL

I went to the Gage awhile back for Chef's Week.  A couple friends and I went there for lunch.  They didn't have their Chef's Week menu up so we didn't really know what to expect.  Here was what our choices were.  

Hopleaf Bar - Chicago, IL

I actually first heard of Hopleaf from my cousin Jung when he came to visit me this past summer.  He was looking online for some good bars that we could try and Hopleaf was on his list.  It's up in Uptown so it was a bit far out of the way for us, but Gook found out about a monthly storytelling event that they have on the second floor.  On the 2nd Tuesday of every month at 7:30 pm on the second floor of Hopleaf, featured writers and performers share intimate, personal stories from their every day lives.  We thought it sounded like a fun thing to check out so we all made the drive up there after work one week.  

Del Seoul - Chicago, IL

Del Seoul opened a few months ago in Lincoln Park and they serve Korean-style tacos.  Kogi truck in LA has spurned many similar restaurants or food trucks and it's about time, it's come to Chicago.  

I've since been to the actual store, but my first taste of Del Seoul came courtesy of our friend Gook.  He picked up some food for us to try since he had tried it a few nights before and loved it.  

Here are three of the Korean BBQ Tacos.  Gook got us one of each: spicy bbq chicken, kalbi, spicy bbq pork and sesame-chili shrimp tacos.  They each come with cilantro-onion relish, chili-garlic "salsa" and secret slaw.  Each taco is $2.50 or $2.95, which is a great deal for the size of these tacos.   

Gastro-Wagon - Chicago, IL

In cities like LA and NYC, food trucks are all the rage, but in Chicago, there's a law prohibiting food trucks to cook on the road.  Trucks are only permitted to sell prepackaged foods.  The city is considering legislation to change all of this, but for now, some food trucks like Gastro-Wagon or various cupcake perveyors have been driving around town selling their premade goodies to the hungry masses.

I've heard about Gastro-Wagon but wasn't really motivated to chase them down, but one of my coworkers alerted me to their ascendance in the Loop for lunch one day so we decided to check it out.  We headed out around 12:15 and there was already a long line of people waiting.  Because all of the sandwiches, soups and desserts are already prepared and packaged, the line moves pretty fast.  

Lure Fishbar - New York, NY (Soho)

I went to go visit Pete in New York last month and I always face a conundrum when I am there.  I have limited time and there's too many places to eat.  So when Pete asked what I wanted to eat for lunch on Saturday, I had no clue.  Luckily Pete suggested lobster rolls.  It's hard to say no to lobster rolls, so off we went to Soho to Lure Fishbar.

Joe Boston's Italian Beef - Chicago, IL

I was watching an episode of The Best Thing I Ever Ate on the Food Network and saw an episode called "Meat-Fest."  Ray Lampe, aka Dr. BBQ, featured the Italian Beef and Sausage Sandwich from Joe Boston's. From the show, the place looked like it would be in the middle of nowhere, like a random truck stop in the booneys, middle of nowhere. Turns out, I live less than a mile away from it. lol. Joe Boston's is in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, where Grand Ave and Chicago Ave intersect. Yup, those two streets actually intersect.

Since Jung's arrived, he's been on an Italian Beef kick. He took a quick liking to it and set out to try as many as he could. I've been in Chicago for a few months now and I'll be honest, this was my first time trying an Italian Beef sandwich. I think I had Al's Beef on my list of places to try, but clearly I was in no hurry. Well, it took a little nudge from Jung and we were off on our very own Meat-Fest quest.

Here's what it looks like from across the street.

Hoagie Hut - Chicago, IL

Hoagie Hut is a little sandwich shop in Lincoln Park. My friends and I were really hungry one night and were looking for a quick place to grab a bite, so we stopped by here.  I've never heard of Hoagie Hut, it just happened to be open and we were hungry, a perfect storm of sorts, I guess.  

The Silver Palm - Chicago, IL

So after day 1 of Lollapalooza, where do we go for dinner? In keeping with the Meat-fest theme, we decide to hit up The Silver Palm for the Three Little Piggy sandwich.

Now why does that sound so familiar you ask? It's because Anthony Bourdain called it the "greatest sandwich in America" on the Chicago segment of his No Reservations show last year.

The Silver Palm is basically a retired railway dining car-turned-restaurant, docked near the intersection of Milwaukee and Chicago Avenue. This restaurant serves up one mean sandwich, enough to make any wolf jealous.  Good thing the Silver Palm is made of brick.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Grilled Tuna Rolls

I had the Food Network on in the background while I was cleaning up my room a few weekends ago and I heard snippets of Ina Garten create this lunch on the go. She made grilled tuna rolls with some homemade granola bars. I thought I'd make a mental note to keep this in mind for a picnic menu for the summer.

When I heard Ina say Grilled Tuna Rolls, I thought she was going to make sushi rolls, but turns out it's more like a grilled tuna salad on a hot dog bun. hahaha. I wasn't planning on making this for awhile, but when I was at the market and they had tuna steaks on sale, I couldn't resist! I didn't write down the recipe, but I vaguely remembered the ingredients. I improvised with what I had at home and it turned out pretty well. It's a bit messy to eat so not sure this is good picnic food, but at least I was able to test it out. The original recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of salt to the marinade, but I thought it was way too salty, especially since you are also adding soy sauce and the tuna is seasoned as well. I'd start with 1/2 teaspoon and add more to taste. I had to add an additional avocado to this since it was way too salty.

Grilled Tuna Rolls

Barefoot Contessa

Good olive oil

1 pound very fresh tuna steak, 1-inch thick

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 lime, zest grated

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (2 limes) (I only had 1 lemon so I squeezed the heck out of that sucker, probably amounted to 2 tablespoons worth)

1/2 teaspoon wasabi powder

1 teaspoon soy sauce

5 dashes hot sauce (recommended: Tabasco)

1 firm, ripe Hass avocado, medium-diced

1/4 small red onion, chopped

1 tablespoon minced scallion, white and green parts (I substituted with cilantro)

1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds (optional)

9 hot dog rolls, grilled or toasted

1 bunch baby arugula, washed and spun dry

Heat a charcoal grill with hot coals. Brush the grill with oil. Brush both sides of the tuna with olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Cook the tuna over the hot coals for about 2 1/2 minutes on each side.

(If you don't want to heat a grill, you can sear the tuna in a dry saute pan over high heat. Heat the pan for 2 minutes, add the tuna steaks and cook for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes on each side until seared on the outside and still raw inside.)

Remove to a plate. The tuna should be seared on the outside and raw inside. Allow to cool and cut into cubes.

For the dressing, whisk together 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the lime zest, lime juice, wasabi powder, soy sauce, hot sauce, 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt and 1 teaspoon pepper in a small bowl.

Toss the avocado in the dressing and then add the tuna, red onion, scallion and sesame seeds. Toast the rolls and line them with arugula leaves, fill with the tuna mixture and serve.

Quite messy to eat, but quite delicious. The peppery arugula is perfect for this sandwich. It needs that bitterness to balance out the creaminess a bit and it brings out the nuttiness of the avocados as well.

Just beware, this makes a lot of sandwiches. I should have cut down on the recipe, but I didn't think it through so I was eating this for lunch and dinner for days. I am going on a Grilled Tuna Roll fast for awhile.

Gorbals - Los Angeles, CA (Downtown)

Wanda and I met up for dinner last month and she had suggested that we try Scottish tapas. Scottish tapas? I've never heard of such a thing, but it sounded weird enough, so of course I said yes.

The Gorbals' chef and owner is Ilan Hall, the winner of Season Two of Top Chef. I didn't watch that season, but I had high expectations and maybe that was my mistake going into this. The Gorbals is in the old Alexandria Hotel in downtown LA. The only thing that hints of a restaurant here is a chalkboard sign outside and a small black sign above the doorway inside. It's quite an interesting set up.

Inside is a small cozy space filled with wooden tables and an open kitchen. Despite being open for now almost 6 months, the place still felt really bare to me and even barer, when there are empty tables and chairs nearby. Maybe it was a slow night, we were there on a weeknight after all, but I hope they are a bit livelier on the weekends.

The menu is composed of small, savory plates that reflect Hall's Scottish and Jewish upbringing. We ordered a couple dishes to share. We got the Crispy Broccoli with soy, chilies & vinegar ($7). I could probably venture a guess that this is not a Scottish or Jewish dish, but it was still pretty good. It was flash fried, causing the broccoli florets to almost crumble in your mouth. It's a sure fire way to get anyone to like eating broccoli, but I must warn you, eat this fast, because if you let it sit, all you end up tasting later on is the oil.

This is the Gribenes, Lettuce and Tomato (GLT) sandwich ($7). Chef Hall uses gribenes - crisp chicken skin - as a replacement for bacon in this classic sandwich. It's one of those dishes that is nice in theory, but you soon realize that there's a reason why the B in BLT stuck and not the G. There was an odd poultry smell to it that just wasn't that pleasant and the skin wasn't quite crispy enough and not as satisfying as eating into a thick slice of crisp bacon. The gribenes doesn't quite hold its own here.

The potato latkes ($7), on the other hand, were a classic done well. They came out crispy and warm with a delicious homemade apple sauce.

The bacon-wrapped matzo balls ($5) were highly recommended by the waitress. They came stacked high with a weird pink sauce on the bottom, which was supposed to be horseradish mayonnaise. Why it's pink, I have no idea. I could barely taste the horseradish in this. There is no way this can be kosher, but it was still quite tasty. But frankly, you can wrap anything around bacon and it'll taste good, no?

For dessert, we shared the sticky toffee pudding with ice cream and maldon salt ($7). The ice cream was a tangy yogurt that paired well with the sweet and salty aspects of the toffee pudding.

Overall, I didn't love it like I had hoped and perhaps we ordered wrong, but everything ended up being fried and a bit too greasy. Nothing really stuck out as particularly memorable either. Jonathan Gold, however, recently declared The Gorbals' Dill Fries as one of 99 Things to Eat in L.A Before You Die. I didn't see dill fries on the menu for dinner, so maybe they only serve it for lunch. Perhaps the fries alone are worth a revisit.

The Gorbals

501 S Spring St

Los Angeles, CA 90013

XOCO - Chicago, IL

Greetings friends. I am in Chicago apartment hunting and how fitting is it that I get to share with you a meal I had last time with my cousin Deb. It was a hard decision. How do I decide what to eat for lunch? Deep dish pizza, Great Seas or even Potbelly's? We decided to try something new and check out XOCO, which I had read about awhile back. They serve Mexican street food and churros, Rick Bayless-style.

Chicago’s culinary scene ranges from dishes served on lavender-scented pillows (so the scent wafts up as you are eating) at Alinea to Italian Beef sandwiches from Portillo’s, but there seems to be not much in between. To fill this apparent void, some prominent Chicago chefs have been opening up more affordable, sister restaurants. XOCO apparently is the Mexican slang for “little sister” and I suppose it’s perfect term of endearment for the charming, precocious sibling of Bayless’s Topolobampo and Frontera Grill, which also happens to be right next door.

XOCO has an interesting schedule. XOCO usually opens around 7 or 8 am and serves breakfast until 10 am. From 10:30 to 11 am only pastries and beverages are sold. [I'm not sure what happens during 10 am to 10:30 am]. Tortas are served after 11am. Caldos (soups) are served after 3 pm and churros are served all day. Oh and they’re closed Sunday and Monday. Got that? Deb and I happened to get there around 3pm, so we were able to try the caldos as well.

You order at the counter, grab an open table and they bring the food, made-to-order for you. I took a picture of this sign that they had off to the side, listing the various farms where they get their ingredients from. Bayless has a separate foundation that is committed to promoting small, sustainable farms serving the Chicago area by providing them with capital development grants. It's not hard to see that the quality of the ingredients plays a significant role here.

In typical Deb + Soomeenshee fashion, we ordered way too much food. We ended up ordering two sandwiches and a caldos, which turned out to be a meal in it of itself and some churros and chocolate for dessert. Deb also ordered the Jamaica, a hibiscus and lemongrass drink. It was very tasty and not too sweet.

We asked the person at the counter what the most popular dishes were and they suggested the Pepito and the Ahodaga. The Pepito torta had braised tallgrass shortribs, caramelized onion, artisan Jack cheese, black beans and pickled jalapenos ($12). Doesn’t that sound so good?

It lived up to the hype. The meat was so juicy and tender and the rich, bold flavors of the short ribs permeated through the whole sandwich while the pickled jalapenos added an unexpected bite to the dish that kept me wanting more. The toasted bread was awesome too. I just doused on the salsa and took a bite and repeated over and over again until I looked down at the empty plate of crumbs in front of me.

I think Deb and I were so distracted by the Pepito, that we kind of neglected the Ahodaga while it lounged in a pool of spicy tomato broth. By the time I was ready to eat it, the otherwise crusty, hearty bread looked like it had suffered a nasty sun burn and became a languid and lifeless sponge. The Ahodaga torta had golden pork carnitas, black beans, spicy arbol chile sauce and pickled onions in it ($9.50). In retrospect, we should have eaten this first. The bread looked like the same bread that was used in the Pepito and it was outstanding, so we made a good piece of artisan bread go to waste. Shame on us. I was expecting a tomato soup, but I totally forgot that they asked us how spicy we wanted it and we said we were fine with spicy. The soup tasted a bit vinegary and the vinegar combined with the spiciness reminded me of kimchi. I know ... it's odd. I thought the pork didn’t have as much flavor as the short-ribs and the vinegary soup was a bit distracting to the overall sandwich. I will point out, however, that both parties that sat on either side both ordered the Ahogado torta, so it seems quite popular.

Since caldos are only served after 3 pm, which is when we were there, we had to order one. Their caldo of the day was duck. The broth had pieces of duck, roasted potatoes, butternut squash, a chiffonade of spinach leaves and julienned radishes in it. I dug the sprinkle of the thin slivers of radishes and spinach. It added some freshness to the otherwise mellow flavors of the soup.

Now for the piece de resistance. The churros and hot chocolate. We got the classic hot chocolate made with milk. It was a tasty cup of hot chocolate that tasted spicy, not spicy as in hot, but spicy in the sense that you could taste actual roasted cacao pieces in it. I liked that it wasn't overly sweet too. Here's a picture of the chocolate being made on site.

If you can see the menu, you will see that you have various selections on how you want your chocolate. They even have the Barcelona, which is what I had tried in Spain, a super thick cup of chocolate.

Here's the guy pouring the hot chocolate for us. We got the classic which had just milk in it.

The churros were served hot from the fryer. It was a crispy on the outside and chewy in the center, dusted with a sugary cinnamon flurry. It had a bit too much sugar on it for our taste, so we had to take some of the excess sugar off and dipped it in the hot chocolate and ate them. The churros are $1.25 each or 3 for $3. We could not finish them, so I took the rest on the plane with me and probably made my seat mates pretty jealous.

XOCO did not disappoint and I have a feeling I'll be coming here quite a bit. They have a lot of interesting items on the menu and now that I can't get my churro fix from Disneyland anymore, I'll have to come here.

XOCO

449 N Clark St.

Chicago, IL 60654

Nam Do Bakery and Banh My Ilu - Hanoi, Vietnam

I think I discovered banh mi sandwiches pretty late in life, but I've been trying my best to make up for lost time by eating them every chance I get. I remember trying my first banh mi sandwich and being amazed by how the oddly juxtaposed ingredients and flavors could be so good. Hot and cold, sweet and acidic, crunchy and soft, cooked and raw, buttery and zesty. So many contradiction, yet it makes perfect sense when I'm eating it.

The sandwich's humble beginning stem from French colonialism, resulting in a melange of French ingredients, the baguette, pate and mayo with fresh and local Vietnamese ingredients like chili peppers, fish sauce, cilantro and mint. I personally like mine with barbecued pork and lots of pickled daikon and carrots, cilantro and jalapenos for that extra crunch and heat.

Jung and I were really excited to try banh mi in Hanoi. We already love to eat banh mi's in the states, so the banh mi's in Hanoi had to be amazing, right? What we found however was that typical banh mi (note, it's spelled banh my in Hanoi) is a fried egg or pâté sandwich with a few slices of cucumber, tomato and a light smearing of chili sauce that you get along the streets, like below.

We saw this street vendor near our hotel so we stopped by to get a sandwich and see what it was like.

We didn't get to see her make the sandwich because the stove was at the back of the store, but once Jung opened it up for me to take a picture, we noticed that it had some brownish sauce (maybe Maggi sauce), cucumbers, tomatoes and an egg omelet. The bread looked enormous at first, but it's quite airy so once you hold the sandwich down and take a bite, the insides deflate pretty quickly. It was good, but it was not what we were expecting at all. I thought it would have the crunch of a French baguette, but it was a lot more chewy, more like a roll than a baguette.

My guess is that the banh mys that we have in the states have morphed to adapt to more Western tastes, but this is the traditional way it's eaten in Hanoi. It could be totally different in other parts of Vietnam. It's probably really different in Saigon.

I thought it was weird that while I was doing my research on places to eat, I didn't see much on good eateries for banh my. But I did see banh my doner kebabs being mentioned a fair amount. It's just what the name implies, a banh my and a doner kebab that procreated. The sandwich uses doner kebab, the Turkish shaved pork, along with some other vegetables and chili and tzatziki sauce.

We read that Banh My Ilu was one such place serving up these tasty sandwiches. So Jung and I came here for our afternoon snack, part deux. The shop is painted in a cheery bubblegum pink color, it's hard to miss.

We came here after roaming around the city, so around mid-afternoon. We wanted to get two banh my doner kebabs but they ran out of bread or something so they only had enough for one sandwich. We ended up sharing a sandwich, which turned out for the best, because we didn't love it all that much.

It was interesting, but this too didn't have pickled vegetables, rather had lettuce, tomato and cucumbers, chili peppers and cilantro in it. The NYT article mentioned two other eateries for banh my doner kebabs and perhaps those might have been better picks. We didn't have time to investigate and weren't all that impressed by banh my sandwiches to divert our attention away from the other foods we wanted to try. We chose this one because it happened to be along our route for our next eatery. hehe.

Try Banh My Van (306 Ba Trieu Street) and Cafe Goethe (58 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street) for the banh my doner kebabs and let me know what you think.

Nam Do Bakery

71 Hang Bac (in Old Quarter)

Shop Ilu

178 Kim Ma Street (this is west of Old Quarter)