Chicago 2015: Day 3

Our last few days in Chicago didn't include a lot of sightseeing. I was at the convention center from nine to five and Howard chilled at the hotel and ventured out to walk the city. Sure, I had booth snacks like Garrett's popcorn to munch on, but my lunch that day included a small bowl of soup and a salad (trying to be healthy, especially when we're eating out so much!) from the McCormick Place food court. Pretty sad compared to Howard's lunch at Portillo's. He was actually on his way to Slurping Turtle for lunch when he saw a traffic jam and realized it was a line up for the drive-through! Curious, he went inside and decided to line up among the crowds to try the hot dog (with mustard, relish, freshly chopped onions, sliced red ripe tomatoes, kosher pickle, and sport peppers piled onto a steamed poppy seed bun) and sample their famous Italian beef sandwich. Mmm Mmm good was his mockery because he obviously won in lunch that day.

For dinner, we put our name down at the Purple Pig and went back to our hotel to wait for the call. It was roughly at an hour and a half wait, which was an accurate estimate giving to us by the hostess. We were seated at the banquet table by the bar among many other couples and groups having their dinner. The place is loud and crowded, the aisles are narrow and there are others waiting for their name to be called standing anywhere there's space.

This cheese, swine, and wine place has a large menu and our server helped us navigate with her favourites and recommendations.

To begin, we tried the roasted bone marrow with herbs. It also comes with toast for you to smear the bone marrow on and garnish with herbs yourself. I found the herbs the star of the dish, helping balance the buttery and oily bone marrow.

Next up, recommended by Howard's sister-in-law, the pig's ear with crispy kale, pickled cherry peppers, and fried egg.

We give it a good toss and mix. The pig ears are crunchy and addictive and the kale add another layer of crispiness. It's a bit salty overall but as a shared dish, it's manageable to finish with a glass of water.

Squid stuffed with prosciutto and bread crumbs with a santorini fava purée and charmoula. I found this dish tasty, but Howard did not like it one bit, which surprised me because he loves proscuitto!

The Wagyu sirloin tip with fingerling potatoes, cippolini onions, olives, and a bone marrow vinaigrette. Now this was a dish I found nothing special with (compared to the squid above), but Howard enjoyed it. Just goes to show, you can't please everyone.

While our meal was good, I can't say I would recommend friends to eat here. My experience was also  dampened because of how crowded it was. I was sitting in one of the aisle seats and every time a server, waiting staff, busser, hostess, or guest walked by, I would be jolted in my seat. Not the best way to eat a meal when you're getting jostled every few minutes. This is a high-traffic area or I should just say the entire restaurant has high traffic but not everyone was getting bumped into. Curious, I tucked my seat in some more and looked behind to see if there was enough space. There was, except a couple was standing by the bar waiting for their table, making the aisle even more narrow. We informed our server who noted our discomfort, but then proceeded to do nothing. She didn't kindly ask the man to not stand in the aisle or wait elsewhere by the entrance. Shrug. Since no one cared enough, I didn't feel like staying for dessert even though I intended to try the bread pudding.

That night, it snowed and snowed in Chicago . . .