I dined at Eleven Madison Park (NYC) for the first time last week - and I think the place is vastly overrated (it's definitely above average, but they must be paying someone for their position as top 5 in the world. Haven't been to Alinea yet but I have friends who have been to both who say Alinea is much superior).

There's nothing really super memorable that we had except for two things at the very end of the meal
1) Some sort of half pureed butternut squash with some white cheddar sauce served with pretzel bread. Pretty much better tasting than anything else in the entire meal.

2) Some sort of pear ice cream that might have had some white chocolate in it. I've been craving pear ice cream lately.

Great Sea Chicken Wings. Holy cow. Nearly 40 years on this planet and finally, a reason for the existence of chicken wings. And only a mile from home. By the next picnic, I will have gained 20 pounds.

The pork taco at Invicto in Naperville.

Spicy basil chicken salad from herb during the International Women’s Day Edgewater Crawl on Friday night. This is was an off menu item and it was fantastic. Pleasantly spicy, bright with assorted herbs. We chatted a bit with Chef Patty Neumson, who is delightful. We need to get back to the restaurant for a meal.

herb restaurant
5424 N Broadway
Chicago, 60640

The 'happy hour' (M-F 4-6 pm) $4.00 crispy chicken slider from the bar at Remington's; 20 N. Michigan Ave.; Chicago, IL. 60602
I ordered two. I should have ordered four.

Grits.
In Mississippi.
At...a Waffle House. At 8:30pm.

We Spring Breaked in the family truckster, drove from here to Pensacola, ate our way there and back, had grits at several different places, and I will dream of these Waffle House grits. You know that gamey pork flavor? Juuust enough to KNOW that there was lard in these grits. Coarse grind, but creamy, lardy, and the perfect amount of salt. I ordered them as a side just to see if by chance they would be homemade, or cheap, trash. Best grits I've ever had (but I'm a northerner, that doesn't encounter much in the way of grits.) On this trip, we had several trials of regular, regular cheese, fancy cheese, smoked gouda, even had a "ball of fried" cheese grits as part of a fancy-ass shrimp and grits dish down in Fla, but, these plain ol, down home ass, Waffle House ass, lard laden grits. I will dream of these grits. And also, just shut up. I swear they were that good.

Waffle House
1310 Highway 35 S, Forest, MS 39074

Unbelievably, the Grilled Castroville Artichoke with lemon aioli and drawn butter at Summerhouse Santa Monica is the best artichoke I have ever eaten.

Ridiculously delicious, grilled to tender perfection and seasoned like a dream. Earnestly, I barely touched the aioli or drawn butter. The artichoke didn't need anything except my attention.

Summer House Santa Monica
1954 N Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60614
(773) 634-4100

I had a plate of Lomo (ribeye and onions) in chile de arbol sauce from Chavas Original on Grand over the weekend. Super on point. I'll be hitting them up more regularly now.

Chilaquiles verdes with a side of blanquillos con chorizo at La Lagartija.

After a recent week of eating riffs on the same dish every day in the Yucatan (including a mole version, a searing habanero cream rendition, and a rojos take with shrimp), this was still the best - piping hot, still crisp, acid and fresh herbal / vegetal flavors in balance. The table salsas and juicy limes at LLT constitute one of my favorite caddies around.

Santander wrote:Chilaquiles verdes with a side of blanquillos con chorizo at La Lagartija.

After a recent week of eating riffs on the same dish every day in the Yucatan (including a mole version, a searing habanero cream rendition, and a rojos take with shrimp), this was still the best - piping hot, still crisp, acid and fresh herbal / vegetal flavors in balance. The table salsas and juicy limes at LLT constitute one of my favorite caddies around.

The only reason I'm sad to no longer be a Bulls season ticket holder is that we don't get to La Lagartija as regularly.

Well now I have to hit La Lagatija up soon.

The first plate of Chilaquiles I ever had was in Tulum on my first morning in Mexico. It was the first time I'd ever left the US. This was in 2009, a little while before the elite eco-yoga-techno-boutique shit had completely strangled out the beach and the town. My friend took us to a little cafe off the main drag across the narrow street from the back door to the jail (they've rebuilt this municipal building I think), where incidentally they'd let people out in the morning after a night in the clink.

I had my mind blown over a plate of chilaquiles verdes with eggs, shredded chicken, pickled red onions and a little crema on top and watched a haggard and ostensibly American bro and presumably local dude with a giant cowboy hat get let out of jail and into the blinding sun. They hugged each other, high fived and were on their separate ways.

Chilaquiles fall into the pizza category with me ("even when it's bad it's good") in that the execution has to be really incompetent before I turn my nose up at it. Even the steam table version at Beatrix is a decent option for breakfast. Tweet in Uptown has a very good, non-traditional version and on a recent trip to CDMX I encountered a chilaquiles bar with every component offered singly to be combined to your taste. Again, even when it's not my ideal version there's comfort to be found.

Santander wrote:Chilaquiles verdes with a side of blanquillos con chorizo at La Lagartija.

Does La Lagarita serve Chilaquiles all day? Or is just offered in the morning?

Chiming in with a Yucatán experience, on a recent visit to Tulum I was very impressed with the rendition of Chilaquiles Rojos offered at Ki' Bok. Highly recommended, along with their excellent coffee. https://www.yelp.com/biz/ki-bok-tulum

Lerdawg wrote:

Santander wrote:Chilaquiles verdes with a side of blanquillos con chorizo at La Lagartija.

Does La Lagarita serve Chilaquiles all day? Or is just offered in the morning?

Chiming in with a Yucatán experience, on a recent visit to Tulum I was very impressed with the rendition of Chilaquiles Rojos offered at Ki' Bok. Highly recommended, along with their excellent coffee. https://www.yelp.com/biz/ki-bok-tulum

I've seen the breakfast menu inserted there as late as 11:45 AM - YMMV. I will seek out Ki' Bok on the next trip down!

BR wrote:Easy -the Japanese vegetable pancake with sunny side up egg, soy bbq sauce, nori and bonito at Interurban Boathouse Restaurant, 1438 W. Cortland. This was their take on the okonomiyaki and it was one of the best breakfast items I've ever had.

I can't second Interurban's Japanese vegetable pancake as a best-thing-I've-eaten-lately enough. I had it for lunch for the first time on Friday. I loved it so much I went back yesterday. My Friday companion had the turkey meatball sub, inhaled it, and sang its praises. The cupcake and homemade pop-tarts were also excellent. But the vegetable pancake is definitely one of the best things I've eaten in 2019.

I already know this is going into my top 10 things I tasted.

I was at Plum Market today and as I went down the aisles I spied Van Leeuwen vegan ice creams in the flavors of salted caramel, pistachio, and mint chocolate chip.

I remember an article about them running in the NY Times and I bookmarked the recipe. It was expensive and time-consuming. I never made it.

I decided to try a pint of the pistachio. It cost $11.29 cents or something like that I don't know.


The mouthfeel was downright buttery, like the fattiest ice creams I have ever had. I am picky about coconut. I swear I tasted it but it worked with this flavor for sure.

The link has a video discussion with Ben Van Leeuwen and Melissa Clarke mixing it up.
https://www.facebook.com/nytcooking/vid ... 431591118/

seebee wrote:Grits.
In Mississippi.
At...a Waffle House. At 8:30pm.

We Spring Breaked in the family truckster, drove from here to Pensacola, ate our way there and back, had grits at several different places, and I will dream of these Waffle House grits. You know that gamey pork flavor? Juuust enough to KNOW that there was lard in these grits. Coarse grind, but creamy, lardy, and the perfect amount of salt. I ordered them as a side just to see if by chance they would be homemade, or cheap, trash. Best grits I've ever had (but I'm a northerner, that doesn't encounter much in the way of grits.) On this trip, we had several trials of regular, regular cheese, fancy cheese, smoked gouda, even had a "ball of fried" cheese grits as part of a fancy-ass shrimp and grits dish down in Fla, but, these plain ol, down home ass, Waffle House ass, lard laden grits. I will dream of these grits. And also, just shut up. I swear they were that good.

Waffle House
1310 Highway 35 S, Forest, MS 39074

i love grits and make them often: usually a big batch as i cook them at least an hour-i like them really creamy. my current fave is from baker miller in lincoln square. it never occurred to me to use lard instead of butter, but i happen to have some beautiful leaf lard from carnivore in oak park, so i'll be making these soon...can't be sure i can bring myself to use a ton of lard(or butter) as i like to think i'm eating something healthy. so i'm not convinced the taste of the lard with be obvious, but i'll give it a try. thanks

The ricotta dumplings with grilled fava leaves, fresh chickpeas and black truffle at Boka were amazing last night. I'd love to figure out the dumplings themselves. They were the perfect combination of light and firm, with wonderful flavor and richness cut by the fava leaves. When I have tried to make them, they always end up too soft and lack bite. They seem to be rolled in a fashion and sliced into sections rather than formed individually as in quenelles. Really an impressive dish. The braised short rib cake, a passed hors d'oeuvre before dinner, and the porcelet could probably be contenders for this thread as well, but the dumplings stole the show.

The cornbread at Gilt Bar. Oh my

Also, their steak, with one caveat: it was oversalted. But that crust! And so tender!

The fried chicken at Luella's Southern Kitchen. Finally, a decent place on the north side. Can I get an 'amen'?

Beans side dish at Smoque BBQ. Meaty, smoky goodness!

Pie Lady wrote:The fried chicken at Luella's Southern Kitchen. Finally, a decent place on the north side. Can I get an 'amen'?

Though I wouldn't count myself a fan, the fried chicken was the best thing I had there, even though it wasn't particularly memorable.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:The fried chicken at Luella's Southern Kitchen. Finally, a decent place on the north side. Can I get an 'amen'?

Though I wouldn't count myself a fan, the fried chicken was the best thing I had there, even though it wasn't particularly memorable.

=R=

Boo, that's a shame. I admit I haven't tried anything else. And the collards didn't have the flavor you describe, but they were a little bland. Sorry to see you weren't a fan of the biscuits! I didn't notice what you mentioned with those either...maybe they've improved.

Pie Lady wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:The fried chicken at Luella's Southern Kitchen. Finally, a decent place on the north side. Can I get an 'amen'?

Though I wouldn't count myself a fan, the fried chicken was the best thing I had there, even though it wasn't particularly memorable.

=R=

Boo, that's a shame. I admit I haven't tried anything else. And the collards didn't have the flavor you describe, but they were a little bland. Sorry to see you weren't a fan of the biscuits! I didn't notice what you mentioned with those either...maybe they've improved.

Didn't mean to rain on your parade. I guess I was just feeling sorry for myself that I had a crappy meal there. Maybe that was just a bad day.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Didn't mean to rain on your parade. I guess I was just feeling sorry for myself that I had a crappy meal there. Maybe that was just a bad day.

=R=

No rain! No worries! Crappy meals are no fun.

The elote style corn at Bavette's

lodasi wrote:The elote style corn at Bavette's

Gilt Bar's cousin, if I'm not mistaken. Apparently I need to eat my way through their family.

Falafel scotch egg - and- smoked trout brandade at Longman & Eagle. Deeeleeeshous!

Recently had the breaded steak sandwich at Ricobene's and also had the steak sandwich at Mr. D's. First time trying either. Loved.

The chocolate cream pie from Defloured. Yowza, that's rich.