Chicago 2015: Day 4

Remember how it snowed and snowed on our previous day? Turns out Chicago was was hit by the fifth largest blizzard. My day at the convention center was slow as flights were cancelled and attendance dipped. It was difficult to travel anywhere in the city. Taxis were scarce and those that were available were charging exorbitant fees. By the luck of the blizzard, we were able to get reservations at Girl and the Goat for dinner. We had been trying all week to secure a table at this restaurant, Little Goat Diner, and other places in Chicago. This blizzard wasn't going to stop us, we went out as planned and I'm so glad we did!

There were so many items on the menu that sounded intriguing and it was difficult to narrow it down - which shared plates were we going to try? To start, we had the hamachi crudo with crisp pork belly, chili aioli, and caperberries (photo above). Beautiful and light, I only wished there were more. Next, the roasted cauliflower with pickled peppers, pine nuts, and mint. I love roasted cauliflower but Howard does not - until he tried this dish!

I ordered this because I was curious about the brown butter kimchi. These are celery root and cheddar pierogies with brown butter kimchi and cara cara orange. My two dinner mates weren't loving this dish, so I got to finish it. The pierogies didn't stand out, but I enjoyed the sauce and oranges that were garnished on top.

Another mix-reviewed dish was the grilled marinated pork belly with castelfranco, sauce green, and blood orange. This one went to Howard as my boss and I didn't care for it.

Now for the group favourites: the crispy beef short ribs with avocado, ruby red grapefruit, and chermoula. I could eat this every day. It was so delicious and the pairing was perfect. The short ribs were truly crispy and the sauce in this bowl was absolutely drinkable. I mean, I would drink it because it was that good.

We also couldn't eat here without trying a goat dish! We decided on the goat shoulder with goat​ xo,  root vegetable caponata, hazelnuts, and spaghetti squash. The table beside us had ham frites and after eyeing them all night, we ordered one. They're served with smoked tomato aioli and a cheddar beer sauce. Without the dipping sauces the frites were amazing because they were dusted with ham.

Now to the grand finale! Were we full? Yes! Should we try a dessert anyways? Yes! The citrus pavlova blood orange-vanilla semifreddo with yuzu curd and kumquats was a good choice to end the night. Chewy, crunchy, sour, and tart, this frozen treat had it all.

Time to find a taxi and brave the ride back. Tomorrow will be a better day . . .

Minamoto Kitchoan

Minamoto Kitchoan

509 Madison Avenue

New York City, NY 10022

1-212-489-3747

During my research stage before our trip, I was looking for places with dessert (no surprise here) and came across Minamoto Kitchoan. I'm so glad I pinned it to our map because it was such a surprising treat!

The store looks like a museum or a jewelry store, bright lights and edible jewels on display.

We believe that everything in the display cases are non perishable replicas. A lot of detail went into these inedible pieces and they sometimes show you a cross section of the dessert.

Look! A baumkuchen! I only know what that is because it was once featured in an episode of Yumeiro Patissiere (see episode summary here). Look at all the layers in the ring, I've never seen one for sale before and was tempted to get one. But to buy a whole cake (no slices), I just couldn't do it.

Howard's not a fan of red bean paste, but I adore it. Red bean ice cream, red bean pudding, and now look at all of these red bean fillings!

Gasp! Bunnies! Way too cute to ignore. We bought a box to bring home as a gift. It came nicely gift wrapped and the bunnies were individually wrapped inside the box to ensure freshness. As it was described to us, these "rabbit cakes" are baked "manjyu" (buns filled with bean paste) with Yuzu flavour.

These were quite beautiful. The Kingyo is a Japanese style jelly using natural fruit flavours.

We bought the Peach Sherbet to try. One of the neat features of this treat is that it can be eaten as a jelly or if you freeze it, it becomes a sherbet! They have the jelly ones in baskets for purchases, but if you're like us and wanted to try the sherbet, let them know and they'll grab one from the freezer for you and provide you with spoon and napkin too!

This was one of the highlights from all of the desserts I made Howard tried. Probably his favourite as it was refreshing and delicious.

We also tried the Ayashirabe, as we were told it was their most popular item. It's a condensed milk and sweet white bean paste with yolk wrapped in Japanese crepe. After eating it, we can see why it's one of their bestsellers. The filling isn't overly sweet and that crepe has the best flavour and aroma to it!

There was also this exquisitely wrapped white peach jelly that Howard coveted. But the price point was a bit too high for us to justify. Although, it does look lovely and the whole peach surrounded by jelly sounds like it would be another fun treat.