I apologize already for not making this post as good as it probably deserves, but if we can remember all the way back to the middle of January, Drew came to visit me. Despite the weather being downright balmy with the windchill into the negatives, we did venture out a few times:
The Bourgeois Pig Cafe
738 W. Fullerton Pkwy.
Down the street from campus is the place where the who's who in pretentious faculty, staff, students, and Lincoln Park moms without Jamaican nannies to take care of their kids get together to enjoy oversized lattes, organic vegan brownies, and (this is why I go there) just really tasty sandwiches. And OF COURSE the sandwiches have to be named with literary themes.
I had the Walden, and thank goodness I remember the name because otherwise I wouldn't be able to refer back to the menu on their website to see what was in it: honey walnut curry chicken salad, tomatoes, romaine, alfalfa sprouts, and red onion on focaccia.
Sadly, I was superbly disappointed in my choice. Normally I get a vegetarian sandwich, and those feature their homemade hummus or pesto usually, but I felt like something different, and the walnut curry chicken sounded good to me. It was a pretty one-note taste, though, and it needed something else like cheese or a dressing to give it another flavor. The bread was pretty dry on this occasion also, which was a real shame. Drew's sandwich, on the other hand, was good, and I'm used to him making better choices in ordering. Unfortunately though, we can't remember the name or what was on it besides "bacon and turkey maybe." The best part was that it was hot, and all you get is a picture:
Boston Blackie's
1962 N. Halsted
So this was also a place I had been before with my parents and I thought it was delicious. It was actually after I ate here with them that I got the idea that Drew and I should do a burger blog, which immediately transformed into a food blog. We went here on a Saturday afternoon with my roommate Abby and her boyfriend Adam, and, as you can see, we ate a lot:
And again, this was a place that was just better when I went before. Drew got some burger that had chili on it. He said the burger meat itself wasn't good. I completely forget what I got (and now you can understand why I already knew before I started writing that this would be a bad post). Let's move on.
Tank Noodle
4953 N. Broadway St.
Let's look past how scary I look. Viet House is BY FAR better. Better broth, better ingredients, better service. But Tank has good bubble tea. We didn't get any this time, but the plum smoothie is delicious, and if you're a fan of tapioca, they give an ample supply.
Tiztal Cafe
4631 N. Clark St.
This was a spur of the moment decision, and the day was sunny and nice enough for us to walk there, which is always a plus to me. We have no pictures, and while the original plan was to only blog with pictures, I just need to at least mention this place. I had eggs florentine, which has completely changed my opinion of poached eggs. The garlic rosemary potatoes were good, and Drew had a chorizo scramble that he wasn't a giant fan of. Or maybe he just thought it wasn't worth the wait? We were waiting a kind of long time, which was a shame, but we did get a little extra oatmeal milkshake for compensation, which was really good and tasty.
Bar on Buena
910 W. Buena Ave.
I also just want to quickly mention this. This bar is down the block from my building, and they had a giant beer list and a very helpful waitress
So I guess that trip was kind of a culinary failure. Nothing really stood out, and the best places were the places we kind of just felt like going to randomly. I guess that's a good lesson for next time though. I don't know how to end this. THE END.
I got Masa mix from Wegman's and found a recipe online. I've always wanted to make these and they turned out awesome. I slow roasted some left over pork shoulder and some dark meat chicken and did two different kinds. Slow cooking the meat took about 3 hours, and steaming the tamales took about 2, so it was a long process. When you consider how many i ended up with though, and how i've been eating them for a week and barely made a dent in the supply, it was worth it.
