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 . . .

The Feasting Room

The Feasting Room

580a College Street

Toronto, ON M6G 1B1

(647) 785-3557

Since this is a pop-up restaurant, I was hesitant to include the address above. But then thought, this is where our dinner was held, so I'm going to provide you with all the information!

The Feasting Room has a temporary home at the Orbit Room, but is ending their run this week. We jumped to it when we heard that they were closing shop since we very much like their philosophy - serve dishes using a whole animal so that there is less waste. Each week, they create a tasting menu focusing on one animal (for instance: cow, rabbit, duck, lamb). You can check on their website or if you're in the area, the silhouette of the animal is hung under their sign (see the little pig in the photo above). We went for the last Pig tasting menu:

Loved the attention to detail. The menus are wrapped up like a pork tenderloin!

There is a drink menu and a "map" for the night. The numbers correspond to the order of dishes and they let you know which part of the animal the food is made from.

Small and intimate tables for two. There are more tables in the back if you have a larger group.

Immediately after being seated, we were presented with our first amuse-bouche. Mmm pork cracklings. Nice and crispy, but the best surprise was the pear purée dip. I think the dip could seriously be used as cake frosting.

Foreground: The Sarah - Collingwood Craft Rye with Kensington Market ginger beer and orange zest.
Background: The Nigel - Maker's Mark Bourbon Whisky with Crème de Menthe, house lemonade, and lemon wheel.

At first taste, Howard and I both enjoyed the Sarah, nice and zingy with quite a kick to it. Definitely one to sip. But after awhile, we rather enjoyed the Nigel more. But by that time, we had told our server that we preferred the Sarah. It turned out that Sarah and Nigel were our servers and Nigel had heard what we told Sarah about her drink. Oops!

Another nice treat was that a couple of times during the meal, Chef Noah Goldberg and GM Mathieu Dutan served our dishes. It's always nice to see the people behind the project.

Our second amuse-bouche were the Devils on Horseback. Howard ate them both and preferred them to the ones we had at The Spotted Pig.

First up, the soup! Delicious and hearty. I wanted more of this. The crispy pig ears are so good when they have soaked up a little bit of the soup.

Frisee salad with fried onion rings, pork terrines, and capers.

Shoot, we can't remember which part of the pig this came from! According to the map, the third dish is from the snout, chin, and foreleg. It was served with a carrot purée and shallot. Busted. We were paying attention, but I guess our hunger overrode everything. We politely nodded and dug in. There were a couple of times during the dinner when I asked Howard if we were eating too fast. But the food was so good! And it's meant to be enjoyed, right?

Blood sausage on peppers and topped with a quail egg.

Am I a fan of blood sausage? No. But was this a well composed dish? Yes, the flavours worked well together and I hate the whole thing.

The main part, which is also the best part of the animal - the cheek! The pig cheek and bread were served on top of kale and accompanied with two slices of apple that were amazingly delicious.

The crust of the bread soaked up so much of the fat and flavour. Yummy!

For dessert, something quite different! Powdered pig fat and diced quince.

They could be used to garnish the chocolate pudding. The bottom layer was milk chocolate and the top was white chocolate. Candied bacon in between. Can we say divine? I want the recipe for this so badly!

Thank you to the team at The Feasting Room for the fantastic dinner. We wish you the best of luck and hope that there is a permanent location in the future!

Agatha's Birthday Sets

Anita is an editor extraordinaire and caring daughter! Anita's mom, Agatha, is a golf fanatic, so a golfing set was natural. I heard that she had actually achieved getting a hole in one before. That is quite an amazing feat, in fact, they had a party for it too. So, I made a set showing Agatha from tee-off to the green.

Notice the yellow tee and all the divot holes (from previous golfers). The fairway passes a pond with the inattentive duck. Then, extends past some trees...

Finally, passes the sand trap and into the hole!
By the way, click here to see the whole album of photos. I went snap happy...

"What else? What else?" you ask. Well, Agatha is born in the Year of the Pig. She's very proud of her zodiac animal. I hope it brings her lots of good fortune.

Pig tail!

"More, more!" you scream. Okay, Agatha has recently been travelling - she loves cruises! Notice all the correct steps. You need to pack your luggage. Hop on a plane. Relax on the cruise as you past by islands (that have turtles sunbathing).

Have a wonderful birthday Agatha!
Fun fact: Agatha and my dad have the same birthday!

Invader Zim Cupcakes

We made Invader Zim cupcakes! Now, we must admit that we had no idea what Invader Zim was before this request. I did once accidentally come across one of the characters before (was looking for "cupcake wallpapers") only because he was holding a cupcake. If you use Google Image and search for "Gir + Cupcake," a bunch of cute images will come up. Including an awesome pink wallpaper that's currently on my computer. So let us introduce our Invader Zim cupcakes:

Zim is a member of the Irken military. This is him in his natural alien form without his Earth boy disguise.

GIR is a dysfunctional robot that is suppose to help Zim, but often causes trouble!

GIR wears a dog disguise to blend in with us Earthlings.

Totally random, but GIR likes Giant Pigs!

This is Zim's house. Notice that he has a gnome in his yard to blend in with us on Earth.

Moose! Too cute! Found that Anna the Red has these funny Moose and Piggy & GIR bentos!

Have a happy Invader Zim birthday and a fantastic sleepover party!