Category: travel

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that’s right, hot doug‘s. It isn’t hot dog although we are in Chicago and there is an encased meat emporium on virtually every block. We had the breakfast of champions today – hot dog’s. We had read about this place and seen it on tv. Anthony Bourdain even has it on his bucket list of 13 places to eat before you die. They have a practice of cooking their french fries in duck fat on Friday and Saturday so we braved the cold, skipped a dry muffin at the hotel and stood in line to get in the door.

he ate: Spicy beef sausage with coke cola bbq sauce and munster cheese
she ate: Uber garlic pork sausage with bacon-garlic mayo, smoked gouda and roasted garlic cloves
we ate: a chargrilled chicago dog and duck fat fries

Then we walked it off for three or four hours at the museum of science and industry. Saw everything from the only surviving german sub, the U-505 to an exhibit on legos and architecture. delightful.

last night we celebrated and ate. We are visiting Chicago for a couple of days en route to Grand Rapids for a 60th anniversary celebration of Z’s grandparents and we celebrated our own 2nd anniversary with dinner at Frontera Grill, whose chef/owner is Rick Bayless of recent Top Chef Masters Fame (he won last summer.) Frontera is a tour of authentic Mexico. He has been a long time and avid cheerleader for real Mexican cuisine with shows on PBS. We were delighted to have a taste of his cooking. The flavors and textures. I could go on. I need to look into the chile and salsas, moles and fire roasting meat. Lovely.

Here is what we ate, small plates.
emelas de Pollo en Mole Amarillo: crispy pinched-rim gorditas topped with coarse shreds of grilled chicken, roasted fennel and Oaxacan yellow mole (scented with hoja santa).
Flautas de Carnitas: crispy rolled tacos filled with Maple Creek pork carnitas and caramelized onions. Roasted tomatillo salsa, avocado-infused crema, “shoots” salad.

and dinner.
he: Especialidad: Braised Lamb Shanks with Oaxacan mole wrapped as a tamale in a banana leaf with densely mashed potatoes and lightly citrus bitter greens.
she: Torta de Elote: savory field corn torta filled with huitlacoche (inky corn mushroom), roasted butternut, poblano chile. Tomatillo-corn sauce, seared corn esquites, sunflower “shoot” salad.

Oh, huitlacoche… A fungus that grows on corn. Very bizarre. I tried it because I know this would be my best shot. Very good. Earthy and creamy and baked in a torta (cake). It is best to be aware but unafraid.

trying to be obscure and take photos without a flash in a busy restaurant even had fairly good results. The picture of my torta is the one in this post. I will post two other photos following.