Next week: detox

Posted: March 14th, 2011 | Author: mindy. | Filed under: Blog | Tags: Big Jones, Blokes & Birds, Cheryl, chicago, Chico, el_diablo Matt, food, Gaztro-Wagon, holy woah, Julie, luke, mary, noodles, patterson, pone, Takashi, The Southern | No Comments »

It’s been a long & hard week. Pity me.

Tuesday

The Southern — Fat Tuesday crawfish boil : Joined by Patterson & Mary

My first crawfish boil. I may or may not have been singing The Radiators — Suck the Head the entire time. I enjoyed myself enormously, even if they shouldn’t have mixed Old Bay w/the Zatarain’s. Or so I’m told.

Thursday

Blokes & Birds — dinner & drinks : Joined by Patterson, Mary & Matt

Blokes & Birds has amazing craft cocktails. Out of the 13 or so on the list, Mary & I have made it through about 10 of them. Churchill Downs is a far & away favorite. We had burgers, sausage platter (which had a great kishka type thing on it) , mac & cheese, and other assorted things. The apps were good but I didn’t love my burger. It was stacked 4 feet high & fell apart while eating it. I’d much prefer to go to DMK Burger Bar. But I do enjoy the Blokes & Birds cocktails. It’s super-dark in there and none of my pictures of the food came out. Sometimes the iPhone isn’t perfect. Speaking of photos, check out Mary’s.

Unwilling to let the good times stop, the four of us headed to Town Hall Pub. They’re infusing their own liquor now. Apricot tequila & orange juice isn’t the best drink in the world. Especially after the drinks we had at Blokes & Birds. However I bet their jalapeno vodka would make for a great bloody mary.

Friday

The Southern Mac Truck — buffalo chicken mac & cheese : Just me!

Fates collided & I got the  chance to hit up The Southern Mac Truck for lunch on Friday. Even better, my friend Tatiana was working on the truck for the day.

 

Isn’t that just lovely? Massive portion. I ate half of it & brought the other half home to share with Patterson. I actually enjoyed it more during dinner (the flavors got the chance to mesh) than I did during lunch. Also: I got to eat lunch outside! Sure it was only 42º, but it was sunny & warm enough.

I had some time to kill before heading to the White Sox tweetup down at Bull & Bear. So I walked over to Macy’s. Not for any particular reason other than it was nice out & I had time to kill. Later, walking towards Bull & Bear I found this:

Spotted on Randolph near State

Love it.

White Sox Tweetup — Bull & Bear : Joined by Julie

Julie & I went to Bull & Bear to watch White Sox/Cubs & get a baseball fix. I love having female friends who like sports. Love. Since the tweetup was sponsored by the White Sox, I got to meet Southpaw, aka, one of the greatest mascots ever. He gave me a tshirt w/his face on it & we took a picture together. Then I won tickets to Opening Day. It’s hard to say which I’m most excited about. There was some food (the Go Fish) & some beer (Goose Island Green Line), but I’d rather use the picture space for Southpaw & our next mayor. Rockin’.

Saturday

Gaztro-Wagon — dinner & drinks : Joined by Patterson

Have I discussed my love of Gaztro-Wagon? No? Well let’s pretend I have so I can just summarize. Naan-wiches, duck gumbo, plantain chips, byob, and a fun counter to sit at with great company. Patterson & I were heading up to Mayne Stage for the celebration of Mike DeStefano‘s life. Naturally, anytime we’re heading that far north Gaztro-Wagon is en route. Even if it’s not, it is. Funny how that happens. Spent some time sitting at the counter with our dinner & brown liquor. Thanks for the hospitality Matt.

Then things got weird…

After Mayne Stage & some more brown liquor, we wound up in a car with some stand up comedians heading to another bar.  You’d think it was easy to find a bar to go to on a Saturday night in Chicago. Nope. Not on fake St. Pat’s where every place is over-run with barely legal, barely standing, screaming kids wearing green. We wound up at a German bierhouse drinking $2 mystery beers. I got Milwaukee’s Best. Twice. *shudder*

What the hell? And then we lost an hour because of Daylight Savings. And then it was 4am.

Sunday

Big Jones — brunch & coffee : Joined by Patterson, Cheryl & Denise

Once upon a time (20+ years ago. Eep.) I went to sleepaway camp & knew a girl named Cheryl. Finding her on facebook was about the only worthwhile thing ever to happen to me on that site.  After trying to get together in NY or Chicago for the past 2 years we finally made it happen this morning. I’ve had this on my calendar since January. HOORAY! It was wonderful to catch up. Good stuff. And what better place to do it than a Michelin (recommended) brunch place?

Complementary beignets.

Shrimp & grits with appetizers of crawfish boudin balls & fried cauliflower in molten pimento cheese & coffee. Almost every word in that last sentence was delicious. We’ve been to Big Jones quite a few times & never had a bad dish.

Takashi — NOODLE DINNER : Joined by Patterson, Pone, Luke, & Chico

This is what we call ending the week with a bang. For our second Michelin restaurant (one star) in one day (!!!) we went for Takashi’s homemade noodle  Sunday Noodle Dinner. Sitting down with good friends to a great meal is one of the best ways you could end your weekend. Parts of this meal were what dreams were made of, and the next time I eat something awful I’m going to close my eyes and pretend I’m eating this beef tartare.

In the ever comparing contest of pork belly buns these rank below Momofuku (Noodle or Milk) Bar but way above Saigon Sisters & Sunda. Seriously folks; don’t get the pork belly buns at Sunda. Just… don’t. The duck fat fried chicken was tasty, but my least favorite thing of the night. When duck fat fried chicken is your least favorite thing on the table I’d say you have a pretty great table. The small plates were shared amongst all of us. Patterson got the udon, I got the ramen & we shared, the udon being the clear winner to both of us. I prefer Arami’s ramen over this, but am currently undecided on which udon I prefer. I guess I’ll have to go back to both time & time again until I figure it out. It’s a rough job, but I’ll volunteer.

I can see the future, and the next week will consist of vegetables. Lots & lots of vegetables. Good thing I like vegetables, and the delicious new lemon vinaigrette I made the other day. Yay for salad. Bart was totally wrong.

---