Winter Weekend Trip Chicago: Summary

I finished my family medicine rotation few weeks back, and man oh man did it have the most awesome schedule ever (9 to 5 schedule with occasional half days thrown in). And at the end of my rotation, my attending went on a trip for a conference, so I had 4 whole days off to myself during which I managed to fit in a weekend trip to Chicago. Here are some highlights:

The most unique view of downtown Chicago. My friend brought us to The Chicago Athletic Association Hotel, and we hung out at their rooftop bar overlooking Millennium Park. It just so happened to be the prettiest warm winter day, lucky us. 

We also visited Maggie Daley Park, which was recently constructed. Apparently it gets super crowded on warm days, but it was chilly for us and nowhere nearly as crowded as it would've been, so we were able to play around without being embarrassed to be the oldest people on the swing sets. 

At night, one of the restaurants we tried was Fat Rice and it was quite amazing. It's has a Michelin Bib Gourmand and it's also the most popular Asian restaurant on Foursquare, and they served the most delicious shrimp I've ever had in my life. They are chili-stuffed prawns, swimming in a broth of fermented black bean and butter. Next time, I definitely want to come back and would just order this as my main because I could never get tired of this dish. 

Just down the street from Fat Rice is a relatively new tiki bar called Lost Lake, opened by the same people as Three Dots and a Dash but now in a more hipster part of town. All of the drinks were delicious, but the banana daiquiri was phenomenal (and even came with a banana dolphin!)

For lunch on a separate day, we headed to Lawrence Fish Market for some takeout. This place is super popular but extremely cheap, mainly because it is takeout only and cash only. People can call in orders, and it usually takes about 30 minutes to an hour before pickup.  Among 4 people, we spent $100 on 8 rolls, 6 sashimi, 4 tofu thingys, and 8 uni, and it was all fantastic. 

On my last night, we went to the Hearts and Hounds Valentine's Ball, organized by Greyhounds Only, which is a nonprofit greyhound rescue and adoption agency through which my friend adopted her adorable greyhound named Simba. We basically ate yummy food and played with some dashing greyhounds all night before I headed back to Cbus. 

Summer Chicago Trip: Little Goat and the Girl

Girl and the Goat and Little Goat are among my favorite restaurants in Chicago. GATG is fancier while LG is more diner-style, but both have presented some amazing dishes. I stopped by both restaurants for dinner and dessert as a final indulgence on my last night before heading back to Columbus.

First stop: Little Goat

Goat chili cheese fries. So good! It's gamey so it may not be for everyone, but I really like gamey dishes actually.

Fat Elvis waffles with banana, peanut butter-butter, and bacon maple syrup.  It's good, if you can't tell by the half-eaten pic. We dug in as soon as it landed on the table, and I forgot to take the pic at first because I was too busy fighting for a bite. I really dig the peanut butter-butter, which is pretty much peanut-infused butter. Really unique.

Springy shrimp and pork belly, with pea shoots, white asparagus, and springy noodles. The flavors in this weren't unique, but I really liked all the fresh ingredients. The pork belly pieces were succulent and the shrimp were so plump.

Moving on to Girl and the Goat...

Forest Gump bread with pea butter and carrot butter. I wasn't a huge fan but that might've been because I was too full at this point to enjoy bread. Also it tasted very... rustic is how I would describe it.

Miso-butterscotch budino with bacon toffee, glazed pineapples, and candied cashews. I ordered this dessert during my last visit too... ya it's that good.

Little Goat

820 W Randolph St

Chicago, IL 60607

(312) 888-3455

Girl and the Goat

809 W. Randolph St.

Chicago IL, 60607

(312) 492-6262

Summer Chicago Trip: GT Fish & Oyster

I hinted in my previous post that I visited Chicago recently and had exciting food pics to share. I went to meet up with some close college friends, but also my god the food. When I'm in Columbus and eat out, the food is generally decent. But when I'm in Chicago, it's a whole different playing field. I go crazy and eat all the things because everything is amazing, so that by the time I'm back, it's hard to enjoy Columbus places for awhile :( One of my standout meals during this trip was GT Fish & Oyster, and this is what we had:

Green tea soba noodles with shrimp, tofu, bok choy, and thai chili soy vinaigrette. This dish was really great -- the shrimp were perfect and the vinaigrette had the best kick. It was a great light course to start the meal.

House-made clam chowder. I believe this is one of their most popular. Something about it was different and I can't put my finger on it (maybe it had a touch of alcohol?), but this is the best clam chowder that I've had.

Oyster Po' Boy Sliders with kimchi and peanuts. The bread was so pillowy, the oysters were wonderfully crisp, and the kimchi paired surprisingly well with everything. This was my favorite thing of the night, and we considered getting a second batch but decided to refrain for dessert instead.

Lemon panna cotta with strawberries, madeleines, and some kind of sorbet (rhubarb?). This is the most interesting presentation of panna cotta that I've tried, and I pretty much like most desserts that are creamy yet refreshing/fruity so I had to like this.

I was sho excites for my clam chowder. Even the crackers were above par...

GT Fish & Oyster

531 N. Wells St.

Chicago, IL 60654

(312) 929-3501

June Updates/ Recent Eats

I'm doing this June one a bit early because although the month hasn't ended yet, I'm currently doing a meat-and-veg only stint. I figured that there won't be many other appetizing photos to add for the rest of the month, ergo this post.

Chorizo hash - so good. I followed this Serious Eats article for the best potato hash ever, and the key tricks are: 1) parcook potatoes in vinegar water and then fry for a long time, and 2) spray eggs with oil before baking so that they don't dry out. The difference is in the details, and the effect is very noticeable.

Vietnamese lemongrass wings. Khoi made some at one point and they were amazing, so I tried following the same recipe here. They look fine but didn't taste nearly as good :(

Korean spicy BBQ pork belly. It's so good, crazy fatty but so gooood.

Steak! A friend is doing keto and had a bunch of us over for steak >:D The cauliflower mash with bacon on top was the best part, I'm gonna make a whole bowl of it soon and eat it all.

More Pistacia Vera -- strawberry pistachio dacquoise and matcha yuzu macaron! I look for any excuse to stop by here...

Tea sandwiches, fruit salad, and broccoli cheese soup from Biddy's Coach House. A friend suggested it because her grandma used to take her out to tea here, so a group of us stopped by. We were the youngest people there by at least 30 years but it was super cute ^^

Lamb burger and smoked portabella poutine at Till Dynamic Fare. This burger was voted best in the city, and I definitely concur. 

Tilapia patacon at El Arepazo Latin Grill. I've been meaning to come here for the longest time but have been unable to make it out due to the hours (11am - 3pm on most days...weird). It was totally worth it to finally come here for food. This dish is a ripe whole fried plantain, covered with a big filet of tilapia and dressed with fresh veggies and cheese, and paired with their incredible cilantro sauce.

Rhubarb strawberry cocktail, with edamame hummus and caprese salad (among numerous other tapas) at Sidebar 122. They have one of the best happy hours in the city.

Veal cheeks ravioli at La Tavola. I wish I had a better picture, since this one doesn't do it justice. I also wish the dish came with more than only eight ravioli :(

Spicy miso ramen at Wasabi in Chicago. This was among the best that I've had -- much better than Slurping Turtle and quite comparable to Takashi when they still served ramen. I visited Chicago recently and have a few pending posts regarding the food there, so stay tuned.

Meet Frogger. I had to end the post with a cat pic, yes. 

Spring Break Chicago: Girl and the Goat

Girl and the Goat has been one of my favorite restaurants in Chicago for a long time, and it's also crazy popular. I went once during senior year of college with some friends (after weeks of waiting on reservations), and it was so amazing that we went back the next day at 11pm and still had to wait an hour to get seated. I really wanted to return here during our trip, and was lucky enough to snipe a spot at a decent time for our large group :) 

Cool ass decor. Photo cred goes to my friend Mimi who snapped this with her phone. I was too preoccupied by the food to notice the wall art.

Bread - we ordered two but only one is pictured here. The bread is not complimentary, but I always order it since it's not just plain bread. The variety is interesting and it's accompanied by great spreads, plus it's one of the more affordable items on the menu.

Duck tongues with tuna and black bean poke, crispy wontons, and piri piri. I really liked this dish, despite having no idea what black bean poke and piri piri are...

The famous wood-oven roasted pig face with sunny-side egg, tamarind, cilantro, red wine-maple, and potato stix. This was a crowd pleaser.

Roasted cauliflower with pickled peppers, pine nuts, and mint. This was my favorite -- since while a lot of the other dishes were delicious, they were pretty heavy. This was perfect. Pine nuts and mint go so well with cauliflower, who knew.

Sugo and pappardelle with rosemary and cape gooseberries. During my last visit, this was my favorite, and it was just as I remembered. The ribbon-y pasta is just incredible.

Lamb ribs with marcona almond, chopped salad, and yogurt jus. The lamb meat was falling off the bone tender.

Confit goat belly with bourbon butter, lobster, crab, and fennel. Goat and lobster are a crazy combo, and the bourbon butter brought this dish over the top.

Sauteed green beans with fish sauce vinaigrette and cashews. This was very solid and I liked this way more than expected, considering how simple it is.

Plantain cake with cream cheese-chocolate chip gelato, passion fruit, and left hand milk stout. I couldn't taste the plantain, but I'm a passion fruit fiend and this was incredible. Passion fruit anything is good.

Miso-butterscotch budino with bacon toffee, glazed pineapple, and candied cashews. I learned that budino is a type of pudding. I couldn't detect any miso flavor, but still tasty.

I'm smiling in here, but deep down I'm sad to leave :(

Girl and the Goat

809 W. Randolph St.

Chicago IL, 60607

(312) 492-6262

Spring Break Chicago: Four Belly

Takoyaki are fried octopus balls that are a common Japanese street food snack. They're relatively rare to come across, and while I've tried them twice before, the craving for more always comes back. I convinced our group to stop by for a quick meal at Four Belly during our trip since it's one of the few restaurants that carries this stuff. They carry a wide assortment of Asian street food (including fried catepillars if you're feeling adventurous...I wasn't) and it's all pretty yums. The restaurant was pretty empty when we went, which is a shame because I believe they deserve more business.

 The takoyaki that I've been craving for years really hit the spot

Skewers: octopus, yakitori, and beef rib eye. The octopus was my favorite, but the meat ones were still flavorful and tender.

Korean corn ice cream with unsweetened condensed milk and lychee gelee, crazy good. I ordered this on a whim since it's hard for me to skip an interesting-sounding dessert and I'm so glad that I tried it. After getting back, I made a batch of sweet corn ice cream and it's crazy addictive.

Four Belly: Asian Street Food

3227 N Clark St

Chicago, IL 60657

(773) 661-6182

Spring Break Chicago: Slurping Turtle

I love Takashi in Chicago. Unfortunately, I can't afford to eat at Takashi whenever I'm in Chicago (or I could, but then I'd have to starve during other portions of the trip). Ergo compromise. One of our first food stops during our trip was at Slurping Turtle, which is also one of Takashi Yagihashi's more affordable restaurants. It's not quite the same, but still delish.

Fried brussel sprouts, these were pretty good for brussels sprouts (blargh) but on par with other fried veggies. It's hard to dislike anything fried really.

Duck fat fried chicken ermahgerd, so tasties. They served these at Takashi when I went previously, and they were just as I recalled them in my dreams.

Tonkotsu ramen with pork chashu, bok choy, pickled mustard greens, and braised woodear mushrooms. Noodles were a little different than normal, like more soup noodle-y than ramen-y. Wished there was more protein but I always wish for such things. Would return for another bowl.

Slurping Turtle

116 W Hubbard St

Chicago, IL 60654

(312) 464-0466

Spring Break Chicago: Summary

Just got back from spring break, refreshed and ready to tackle school again (somewhat). A group of us spent the last week in Chicago and it was more of a foodie trip than anything else. We traveled via Megabus and crashed in an apartment that we found via Airbnb, and I definitely spent more money on food/drinks than all the other trip expenses combined. Overall, it was a lovely time and I got to show friends around one of my favorite cities.

Peking duck feast at Sun Wah BBQ on our first night

We got to do some touristy things

Museum shenanigans at The Art Institute

I managed to get out of a few touristy things >:D Some of them wanted to go up SkyDeck but others didn't...here are the party poopers, myself included.

Got to meet up with some of my favorite people! Bff reunion with Cathy at Three Dots and a Dash


Another favorite person -- reunion lunch with Will at Quartino

Had some amazing sweets during the trip :) Namely the white chocolate and pretzel pancakes at The Bongo Room, they were too crazy...

Bread pudding at Sweet Mandy B's, also quite tasty

Panino al Gelato Limone at Quartino...basically lemon gelato sandwiches

The sweets display at Eataly, holy moley

Obligatory photo in front of Eataly's nutella bar :) I didn't get anything from here though since the other sweets options were too crazy and I didn't wanna binge on everything.

Pequod's...I was a tad disappointed about this since I had heard that it's the best Chicago pizza. It was still good, but I liked Lou Malnati's more.

Sashimi bibimbap at En Hakkore, I'd like to meet the person who envisioned such brilliance...

What a beautiful city :) If only it had been a tad warmer...would've made our trip even better.

Those were only a handful of the places that we ate at. I have a couple of pending posts at restaurants that were highlights of the trip, there were some eats that weren't notable, and I had fun at some amazing lounges that were too dark for quality photos :( But stay tuned...