I'm sure Chicago has many interesting and engaging cultural attractions. Museums. Art galleries.
I didn't quite have enough time to set foot into them when I visited the windy city over the weekend, however.
Vanessa and I had other priorities on our minds, you see. Namely: food.
I'm not sure we ever actually felt hungry during our four days in Chicago, but that didn't stop us from seeking out new and exciting menu options the city had to offer us.
So click inside, and join me on a tour of our gastronomic adventures in Chi-town.
Okay, so my binge eating began before we even left Toronto. I had never flown Porter before, and was just delighted with the complementary latte and cookies in its lounge. Yes, I stocked up and ate those cookies throughout the day. My only regret is that I didn't stuff enough in my bag to last the whole weekend.
We stopped at Wow Bao on Michigan Ave. for our first lunch in Chicago. The quick serve eatery specializes in steamed "hot Asian buns," and other Asian dishes. I had no idea what to order, and opted for one of their combos. So I had two chicken teriyaki baos with spicy peanut noodles. The noodles were served cold, which was a bit disappointing. The baos were hot tho, and made for a fun alternative to typical fast food.
On Saturday night we searched for a reputable establishment to serve us deep dish pizza, not knowing Chicagoans and visitors to Chicago come out in hordes on Saturday night to do the very same thing. We approached two Giardanos and a Pizza Uno, all of which had crowds of people waiting outside and lineups just to get on the wait list. We decided we'd wait . . . until another day to get our deep dish.
We had better luck on Sunday, hitting up Giardanos at lunch time. Vanessa and I split a small cheese deep dish pizza. And let me tell you -- it's a good thing I like cheese and lots of it, because we definitely downed a couple pounds of melted mozzarella that afternoon. The crust was more like an actual pie crust than most pizzas you eat. It was filling, but I still crave it.
Lucky's was recommended by Howard Jamieson, and when we walked by and saw a sign on the outside that said "As Seen on Man vs. Food," we were sold on the idea.
All of Lucky's sandwiches are topped with tomato, french fries, and coleslaw. I had the turkey and cheese, Vanessa ordered fried fish. I can't even say whether I liked it or not. I definitely didn't dislike it. But I'm still wondering if I need french fries on my sandwich. I might prefer them as a side. Still, worth a visit for the experience.
Halfway through our segway tour (more on that later), we stopped in front of the Chicago Aquarium, where Vanessa and I indulged in Chicago-style hot dogs.
Chicago-style is topped with mustard, relish, pickle, hot pepper, onion, tomato and celery salt. No ketchup, and the hot dog is boiled instead of grilled. This would normally bother me, except that I mostly tasted mustard, pickle and hot pepper, so the boiled hot dog was really an after thought. Still, I think Toronto has it right with grilled street meat.
Garrett Popcorn's Chicago Mix was another Howard Jamieson recommendation. It consists of caramel corn and cheese popcorn mixed up in the same bag. Caramel was the dominant flavour, with cheese sneaking up as the aftertaste. Vanessa wished the cheese popcorn tasted more like Smartfood. I enjoyed the snack, which was super greasy and left our hands yellow all over.
Vijaya recommended Rick Baylis' Frontera Grill for some authentic Mexican, so we ventured there on Tuesday for our last lunch. I ordered catfish tacos, which came with roasted pepper rajas, two salsas, frijoles charros, guacamole and homemade tortillas.
Vanessa tested a tortilla to ensure they were fresh and homemade. I focused on all the other ingredients, which were delish. My only complaint is that the tortillas were small, requiring me to put a lot of work into assembling a new taco every two minutes. But the quality of food was great.
We finished it all off with ice cream from Frontera - blueberry-lime with tequila and Mexican vanilla bean with brandy, with bittersweet hot fudge. The blueberry-lime-tequila scoop was to die. I repeat, to die. I wasn't sure how it would go with chocolate, but it made for a delightful combination.
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