Nerds and food together at last
Unlike San Fran and Paris, there just don't seem to be many food blogs based in Chicago. This is odd cause Chicago is one of the best food cities I know. There are plenty of people here who are obsessed with eating (a quick perusal of the LTH Forum proves this), but perhaps they just don't feel the need to blather on about it like I do. Even my blog barely qualifies, since I haven't spent much time in Chicago lately and don't eat at many interesting places cause I'm stuck in the suburbs. Out of some strange sense of Midwestern loyalty, I'm currently compiling a list, so if you know of any, post them in the comments below.
FoodNerd maintains a genuine Chicago food blog, so I was excited to receive this swell party invitation from her last month while I was still mistily munching on Pierre Herme's pastries in Paris:
"We're deep frying anything we can get our hands on, next Saturday night."
Clearly we had much in common, and showing up at a stranger's house with a six-pack and something that might benefit from an oil-soaked swim - pickles, Twinkies, whatever - seemed like a perfect way to dive right back into the Chicago food scene.
As I packed up my apartment I fantasized about the possibilities. Mostly I dreamt of deep-frying candy: Whoppers, York Peppermint Patties, marshmallows. I could coat the marshmallows in panko - but would they just dissolve into nothing? Would the center of the Whoppers retain their crunch?
Sadly, a conflict arose and I couldn't attend the fryer festivities. But we still managed to meet up for dinner last week at Moon Palace, a Shanghainese place that FN had scoped out. It's located in Chinatown, an area of the city that I want to love, but which inevitably leaves me feeling depressed. It's dreary down there; grim and glum and sort of forgotten, while the skyscrapers of the city skyline twinkle off in the distance.
But Moon Palace is cheery on the inside, so I promptly forgot about the empty streets and started studying the menu. I had written out a list of recommendations but of course had forgotten it the car.
"Crap. I forgot my list," I muttered.
"That's okay. I have an agenda," FN replied.
Anybody that enters a restaurant with an agenda is somebody that I want to know. She knows her way around Shaghainese cuisine, and before you could say "baby eels" we had five dishes in front of us.
Do you know about soup dumplings? I'd never had one, but people always swoon and rave about them, so they comprised my agenda for the evening. [Insert swooning and raving here.] So, so good. Moon Palace's version are stuffed with ginger and scallions and I don't know what else. Maybe crack. That's the only way to explain why I couldn't stuff them in my mouth fast enough.
We also tried the pork shank, which was served on a giant bone and rested in a pool of rich, caramelly sauce; rice noodles with Chinese pickles, pork and bamboo; shrimp in clear sauce, and bite-sized spare ribs that had a whiff of five spice about them.
It was a great night of food and converation that produced a hefty amount of leftovers for both of us. Can't argue with that.
FoodNerd maintains a genuine Chicago food blog, so I was excited to receive this swell party invitation from her last month while I was still mistily munching on Pierre Herme's pastries in Paris:
"We're deep frying anything we can get our hands on, next Saturday night."
Clearly we had much in common, and showing up at a stranger's house with a six-pack and something that might benefit from an oil-soaked swim - pickles, Twinkies, whatever - seemed like a perfect way to dive right back into the Chicago food scene.
As I packed up my apartment I fantasized about the possibilities. Mostly I dreamt of deep-frying candy: Whoppers, York Peppermint Patties, marshmallows. I could coat the marshmallows in panko - but would they just dissolve into nothing? Would the center of the Whoppers retain their crunch?
Sadly, a conflict arose and I couldn't attend the fryer festivities. But we still managed to meet up for dinner last week at Moon Palace, a Shanghainese place that FN had scoped out. It's located in Chinatown, an area of the city that I want to love, but which inevitably leaves me feeling depressed. It's dreary down there; grim and glum and sort of forgotten, while the skyscrapers of the city skyline twinkle off in the distance.
But Moon Palace is cheery on the inside, so I promptly forgot about the empty streets and started studying the menu. I had written out a list of recommendations but of course had forgotten it the car.
"Crap. I forgot my list," I muttered.
"That's okay. I have an agenda," FN replied.
Anybody that enters a restaurant with an agenda is somebody that I want to know. She knows her way around Shaghainese cuisine, and before you could say "baby eels" we had five dishes in front of us.
Do you know about soup dumplings? I'd never had one, but people always swoon and rave about them, so they comprised my agenda for the evening. [Insert swooning and raving here.] So, so good. Moon Palace's version are stuffed with ginger and scallions and I don't know what else. Maybe crack. That's the only way to explain why I couldn't stuff them in my mouth fast enough.
We also tried the pork shank, which was served on a giant bone and rested in a pool of rich, caramelly sauce; rice noodles with Chinese pickles, pork and bamboo; shrimp in clear sauce, and bite-sized spare ribs that had a whiff of five spice about them.
It was a great night of food and converation that produced a hefty amount of leftovers for both of us. Can't argue with that.
posted by cindym at 10:43 AM
1 Comments:
I highly recommend deep fried snickers. :)
Brian
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