What Are You Eating?

That looks amazing!

I have been eating comfort food and quick easy meals, tonight I took put frozen meatballs in the oven, then made minute rice and gravy. I know I should have had some sort of vegetable, but I didn't make it that far. I have a ton of leftover food from Christmas. It has been nice.

My brother and I spent a couple of days in Chicago over Christmas. We stayed downtown (technically Streeterville), so there were lots of good restaurants within walking distance.

The first night, we had dinner at Pinched on the River. Good Mediterranean food, with pita that tasted like it was probably made on site (but, at a minimum, at least didn't come from Gordon's). It's in the basement of a building along Illinois Street, a few blocks from Navy Pier, with a casual atmosphere and a good music mix playing (but just the standard adult contemporary fare, and also not a bunch of pop Christmas crap). Got an appetizer whose main ingredient is a fuckton of whole cloves of roasted garlic, then a pita roll with falafel, greens, feta, cabbage slaw, olives, and garlic sauce. I don't usually go for the "build your own" type things — I like the idea that the dish has been planned by somebody who really knows what they're doing, which is not me — but it was good.

Lunch on Christmas Eve at Niu Japanese Fusion, about half a block from our hotel. My brother is vegetarian and I don't like fish, so Japanese restaurants can be hit-and-miss, but this one had plenty of good options. We got the vegetarian spring rolls and scallion pancakes (I love scallion pancakes and hardly ever find them on a menu) and a couple of maki rolls (an avocado roll and a sweet potato tempura, I think). They also have a good cocktail menu.

Dinner was Indian Garden on Ontario. I usually go for a couple of standards at Indian restaurants (bhindi masala and something with eggplant, in this case baingan bharta), and of course pakoras for an appetizer, and then some other appetizer that's outside of the "things that every Indian restaurant in the U.S. has" box — in this case dahi bhalla, lentil puffs served in yogurt. Tried out the khurmi naan, which is stuffed with tomato, chili and garlic, and which probably would have been good by itself — but in the context of an entire meal, the plain naan was a better fit. I think naan with a meal is probably better when it doesn't provide its own strong flavor profile and just backs up the flavor of the entrees.

On Christmas we walked over to the other side of the river, checked out the Museum of Illusion, and didn't plan anything — probably would have tried the Armenian place we passed on the way back if they'd been open, but ended up at Star of Siam because they had a bunch of big "Open" signs lit up. Pretty much your standard Thai restaurant, not bad at all, but also nothing out of the ordinary.

I had to work later than planned today so I stopped at dog park/icehouse/outdoor volleyball place where food trailers congregate and picked up dinner. I've been wanting to try the Brazilian one since it opened but haven't had a chance until now.



I fucking love Brazilian steakhouses and while this wasn't quite as good, it was still really tasty.



They even had the little cheese-stuffed breads that you get a a steakhouse.



At the far end of the trailers is the place where I usually go. It's called The Pita Chick and one of the sexiest girls I've ever seen owns it and serves excellent shawarma.

I made toast w/ avacado, bacon, spinach and cucumber for dinner. Oh and thin slices of caramelized goat cheese.

Picked up some cheap ribeyes while grocery shopping.









Overcooked a little because they were pretty thin.

A friend made a breakfast burrito for me this morning and it was really tasty. Sausage egg onion and lots of melty cheese. Later I had a smoothie and tonight is soup at a friends, not sure what kind yet.

I had a PBJ with coffee for breakfast.

Carne con chili for dinner.

I had an extra ribeye from the weekend that I didn't feel like freezing, so I cooked it in a skillet.



Turned out perfect. Much more to the rare side of medium rare, which is how I like most steaks.

Served with Bob Evans pre-made mashed potatoes and store-brand broccoli and rice.

I had a brief window for lunch today and went to the new place down the street for the first time in several weeks.



Still not bad, but it's main selling point is its convenience.

Their menu is annoying for someone like me. They don't offer just a regular cheeseburger. All of the burgers on their menu are tarted up with other ingredients and I'm just a simple man who enjoys a simple burger with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, and pickles. The closest thing they have comes with bacon (which I love, but not on a hamburger) and I have to tell them to use mustard, not mayo and ketchup.

There used to be a brewery in my town that loved to make beers like "Blueberry Maple Marshmallow Jalapeño IPA." I'm exaggerating, but just barely. Their business model seemed to be "let's make a lot of beers that people will order once just to say they tried it, but will probably never order again." I'm pretty sure they thought that if they just loaded up on enough unusual-sounding flavors, it would cover up the fact that the beer wasn't actually all that good.

I think burgers are similar. If the burger is only average, then go ahead and load it up with olives and crispy onion straws and peperoncinis and lemon-garlic aioli. Knock yourself out. But if the burger is GOOD, then not only do you not need all that stuff, it will actually detract.

Damn, frickin burger sounds good.
I didn't get to eat my spinach salad at lunch today
so when I got home I threw some red peppers in the pan with some bacon I cooked earlier in the week and onion and then tossed my spinach salad on top of it. It was fucking delicious. But now I want ice cream and I have nothing like that to enjoy for dessert.

When I want a really good burger, I'll make my version of blue cheese burgers. It doesn't take much longer than making regular burgers. The patty is a mix of Angus, bison, and pork with the blue cheese mixed in, on a toasted bun with bacon, prosciutto, BBQ sauce, lettuce, tomato, mayo, mustard and more blue cheese on the patty.

There's four breweries around here that I'll go to, usually once a week to one of them. Only one serves food, all their food is really good too. They all have several beers that they keep on tap for a while, and will rotate them in and out. But also do unique beers, without over doing it. They keep 6-8 "regular" beers that get rotated and will have 2-4 unique ones. Between those four breweries, I've had around 150 or so different beers, and only 2 or 3 that weren't that good, only one I didn't really care for. It's a gluten free IPA.

But on the subject of burgers.

Back for more brisket tacos. I freaking love that place.



I should've chosen another angle because normally the brisket slices are roughly as long as the tortillas are wide, but today they gave me extra long slices that stuck out a good two inches past the edge of the tortillas.

Lots of roasted vegetables today and some birthday cake (not my bday)

Stopped at a new location of a local burger place for lunch yesterday. It was good.



The building started out a few years ago as a grown up bar and grill kind of place but since it's close to a university, eventually it became a college kid hangout and police were always getting called for fights, vehicle break-ins, etc.

The hamburger was just as good as the ones at their other locations. What I really like is that they'll cook the patty to order instead of defaulting to "well done". Too many places are scared to do that.

I don't know where they source the buns, but it was very good. Nice and soft (which is why it looks a little smooshed) without falling apart.

I had to go to work to cover the potential ice storm, so I brought doughnuts for the staff.



This place is within walking distance of my house and all of their baked goods are excellent, which is what I expect from an Asian-owned doughnut place.

Homemade chili crisp with dumplings and boiled eggs. Mmm!

Dinner last night:
Poulet Sauté aux Ducs de Bourgogne
With mashed potatoes

Am I the only one eating anymore?

Jajangmyeon with ground pork

I'm planning a Detroit weekend in my head. As in, getting a hotel room and staying there for the weekend even though it's a perfectly reasonable day trip from where I live, just because I know I'll go more places and do more things if I'm actually staying there. So if I make that happen, I hope to have some good food to post...

My sous chef son-in-law came to town and stayed with us because he was catering a bachelorette party so I took him to my favorite burger place.



I hadn't been in several months because it's not convenient to drive there quickly on a lunch break.

Still fucking delicious, though.

I am in the big city.
We went to a poke place tonight. It was so frickin good. I think I could eat there every day. Yum.