Macku Sushi

I’ve been in the city for a few years and I’ve been on a never ending quest to find the best sushi place!  When people ask me what my favorite sushi place is, I’ve realized…I don’t have one!  It is usually whichever place is the closest to my work/home.  But as far as delicious, fresh and tongue-dancing sushi?  I don’t know!

Tonight, a couple friends and I decided to try Macku in Lincoln Park.  4 and a half stars on Yelp?  So far, so good.  On a quiet strip off of Clybourn, we find Macku.  It’s typical sushi decor, which means the place is pretty minimum.  The menu looks impressive….lots of categories and atypical of what you find in most sushi places.  There’s bison, truffle, venison…etc.  Then you have your traditional rolls.  We order two rolls each, very basic rolls as we did not feel like going all out.  I had the Hamachi Ebi Tempura which was yellowtail, crispy shrimp, cilantro, jalapenos, scallions, avocado, and roe.  And the Spicy Tuna Eel….

What I thought?  First, they were the jumbo wide rolls…which i hate!  It’s always a crap shoot to me whether I get those or the one bite sushi pieces…no these were two-biters.  Second, it just didn’t taste…fresh.  Eating my two rolls side by side, I couldn’t distinguish which was which.  They tasted sort of like…generic sushi?  None of the ingredients stood out.  It was fine, but not the 4 and a half stars I was expecting.  Perhaps my mistake was getting basic rolls instead of specialties (I wanted to order the sashimi, but just didn’t want to pay $15 for a few pieces at that time).  But I figure even their basics should at least be above average.  Above average it was not. I didn’t feel the price justified the taste or atmosphere of the place.   Lesson learned…sometimes Yelp is WRONG!

My quest continues…..

Credit: Zagat

The Purple Pig

Many apologies for my lack of posts lately.  Don’t worry, doesn’t mean I’ve been starving at home eating Ramen!   Here we go, hold on to your plates!

I’ve been meaning to go to the Purple Pig for over a year!  Smack dab in the heart of the Magnificent Mile, it’s not hard to get to.   How would I describe Purple Pig….well it’s motto is Swine,  Cheese and Wine.   Much like Girl and the Goat, you order small tasty plates to share with your party.  The interior is cramped and there’s a lot of emphasis on communal seating.  I for one am not a fan of this trend.  I don’t like to hear other people’s conversation and to be eating close enough to a stranger for them to breathe on my food.  No offense to strangers!  Anyway, the wait was long as expected (you cannot make reservations here) but thankfully, some bar seats opened up and I was happy again.  When given the choice between communal or bar seats…bar seats for the win!

Anyway, not being a wine person (I know, what a bad bad foodie), let’s go straight to the dishes.  Along with the Milk Braised Pork Shoulder with Mashed Potatoes and Calamari with Fregola, Radishes, Cucumbers & Pistachios, the dishes I want to highlight are as follows…

Chanterelles, Apple & Celery Root With Truffle Vinaigrette – OMG, truffle salad dressing?  Super refreshing although I am not a huge fan of fruit in my food, this worked well together with the truffle.  What am I saying, truffle works well with anything!

Pig’s Ear with Crispy Kale, Pickled Cherry Peppers & Fried Egg – One of the more popular dishes there.  The pig’s ear was thin and crispy but packed full of salty goodness and breaking the egg over all the yummy crispies and blending it together was perfecto!

Roasted Bone Marrow with Herbs – This is a MUST  ORDER!  I can confidently say this was one of my favorite dishes at any restaurant…ever!  Three huge bones filled with rich succulent bone marrow.  Pared with crispy toast, some sort of veggie, and some sea salt to sprinkle on top.  Yum, yum, yum!  Salty and rich!  My two faves!

I would closely compare this restaurant to Girl and the Goat.  But Purple Pig is way more accessible and though less hyped, just as good I think!  The environment leaves much to be desired, it’s not bad, but there wasn’t any set theme going on where someone can walk in and know exactly what to expect.  Maybe that’s what they are going for, as I did not expect how yummy this place was!  Bravo Pig!

Slurping Turtle

Love the name, love the decor, love the FOOD!  Yes, I know Ramen noodles sells for $1.89 a pack at Walgreens, but this is like the gourmet version of Ramen (yes it exists).

On a cold winter night, this is the place to be on a Tuesday night.  At 8:00 pm, it was packed!!!  I find a seat at the bar thankfully.  The whole middle of the restaurant consists of a long communal table.  Something I am not a fan of.  I just don’t like hearing other people’s conversations while I eat.  I start with a Shojito.  Mojito with Shochu, a Japanese distilled spirit sort of like vodka.   I found it to be strong tasting but not in a cringe worthy way.  It was gooooood.

The menu consists on some different starters of sashimi plates, skewers from the bincho grill, and of course noodle dishes.  I order one from each category.  A ceviche of octopus and squid, a skewer of chicken hearts (!!!) and the Shoyu Ramen (egg noodle, classic Tokyo style soy broth, braised pork shoulder, naruto, bamboo shoots ).

Service is slow but attentive.  The ceviche was light and refreshing,  hearts were iron-y and taste a bit like tough liver.  Sounds gross but I am a huge fan of liver.  Finally after a slight delay, my big steaming bowl of ramen goodness comes out.  This is not your regular ramen, the egg noodles are thick and tougher than your regular store bought ramen.  I call it Japanese pasta.  It is filling and satisfying.  The soy broth is salty and hot…delicious going down.  Warmed my whole body.  The pork shoulder and bamboo shoots made great companions in the soup.  I am a fan.  I would love to come back on another cold winter night or I can see myself enjoying this for lunch.  My dinner companion had the Tan Tan Men which was a spicy miso broth with whole wheat ramen.  The broth was so tasty and delicious but I would recommend getting it with the regular egg noodles.  The whole wheat ramen tasted bland against the flavorful broth.

All in all, this was a good experience.  I had heard mixed reviews about this place, but I think it’s because you have to be in a specific mood to enjoy the food here.  You will not want a big bowl of broth and noodles all the time in a noisy and crowded environment.  But on a cold winter night, there’s nothing better…

Shoyu Ramen

National Chicken Month

Betcha didn’t know that September is National Chicken Month!

To celebrate, the Four Seasons is serving up a all-you-can-eat fried chicken special for its diners in their Seasons Lounge every Thursday in September.  For $35 per person, you get a delicious wedge salad, followed by a basket of unlimited buttermilk fried chicken,  corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits and honey, all served family style.  And if that wasn’t enough, you also get a peach pie with blueberry ice cream for dessert.  Oh my!

Click here for more info!

 

Most Expensive Restaurants in America

 

Check out the 25 most expensive restaurants in America (according to average check size).  The French Laundry in CA tops the list.

Chicago has 5 restaurants in the top 10!  Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing!  So far, I’ve been to two of these (Moto and Charlie Trotter’s),  I would like to check ALL of these restaurants out in my lifetime!  Here’s hoping!

Click to expand

Source: http://money.bundle.com

Burger Bar Chicago

Where in Chicago can you get a great gourmet burger that doesn’t start with Kuma and ends in Corner?  Burger Bar!  Ok that was lame but seriously…let’s give some love to the lesser known places that serve quality, yummy in your tummy burgers.  Quietly nestled inside the tiny triangle of the always busy intersection that is North, Clybourne and Halsted is Burger Bar.  Ok, easier directions…it’s by the Apple Store.  Burger Bar has a nice atmosphere with outdoor seating, like a soft-core version of the biker and metal-chic atmosphere of Kuma’s.  You can definitely bring the kiddies here.

Beer selection here was amazing.  There were specials, thick books, chalkboards…definitely a lot of variety.  As far as burgers, they have what they call “stackers”. Basically gigantic specialty burgers with everything picked out for you.  Example is the Wild Bill burger which is bison with arugula, goat cheese, tomato chutney on a pretzel bun.  Or their gyro burger, which is lamb and beef with tomato-onion feta slaw, pickled cucumber and tzatziki.  Oh yes.  Most of us wussed out and ordered off their “Burger Bar” section.  More like a DIY style of ordering.  You pick the grass fed one pounder or half pounder burger and then put in whatever ingredients you want.  Fried egg, bacon, avocado, mushrooms, etc.  Plus 9 different types of cheeses.  I got the half pounder with crispy onion straws, tomato and lettuce (I was feeling conservative).

Service was great and food came out promptly.  It was GOOD.  I got excited as I finally found a great burger place by my house.  I know if I ever get a burger craving, I can come here, avoid the crowds at some of the other trendy burger places and get a high quality burger.   Meat was perfectly cooked and seasoned and inundated with the crispy onions, which I loved.  My only complaint is that  I paid extra for truffle fries and I didn’t taste an ounce of it.  Come on, don’t be shy with the truffle oil!  Other people got a salad as a side (I know, who does that?), but they said the salad was amazing!  Special sauce?

Anyhoo, Burger Bar deserves to be up there with the best of them.  It’s at a great location, good burgers and fine selection of alcohol.  What else can you ask for?

 

Graham Elliot – Lollapalooza style

I have yet to try the actual restaurant, but man was I loving Graham Eliot, Lolla style.  I went to get the famous Lobster Corn dog at the three day fest, not once, but twice this weekend at the Grahamwich stand.  Delicious corn meal casing over a generous filling of succulent lobster meat….they basically stuffed a lobster tail inside.  Not bad for $9…yes for a corn dog.  YUM!