recent exploits (or lack thereof)

as i am still somewhat recovering from the food exploits of the week after finals, i have not really done anything culinarily interesting lately; i suppose there are only a few interesting points. i also have just settled into my apartment and internship in chicago.

the second night diana (my roommate) was here, we went out to dinner at a local place about a block away. i forget what it's called, but i think the name has "noodle" in it. basically, it's a mix of chinese and thai food. i had the pad thai (someone keep reminding me that i don't like fried wontons, so i stop ordering them because they're cheaper than the dumplings), and it was really fantastic. the noodles were sauced more heavily than i'm used to, but it didn't detract from them, and of course the magic ingredient (as thai basil is with drunken noodles) was the lime wedge squeezed over the noodles. pad thai is not pad thai without the lime wedge. anyway, the chicken was perfectly cooked, and now i'm hungry just thinking about it... i adore thai food, cold, for breakfast the next day.

last wednesday we went to the press preview of taste of chicago. i must say, i'm not particularly impressed with the food. it's a little like the new york times article on restaurant week, where chefs use lower-grade ingredients. i mean, at the taste of chicago you're not getting really high-end cuisine, but i was hoping it would be a bit more varied than it was. i don't really see pizza as a food i want to have that often, but it seems to be popular here. the cheesecake was frozen, which is always a bad sign, and even the cheesecake factory makes better cheesecake. in other cost-cutting measures, the people who had the chocolate-covered strawberries used milk chocolate, not dark chocolate, which is just an insult to the strawberry. i'm not even arguing really about the quality, which isn't something you're expecting from the taste of chicago. what i was hoping for was more variety - more ethnic foods, more things i'd never tried. very few people have never had pizza.

this past week i discovered (a) tokyo lunch box and (b) jamba juice. we don't have jamba juice in cambridge, though i believe BU has one. well, diana and i walked around a block just to take a walk, and discovered the "hidden" lunch corridor, with jamba juice at the closer corner. "lunch corridor" even seems like it's slightly hidden because it's on a street (wells, i believe) with el tracks in the middle of it, so the space to walk in seems really narrow - el tracks on one side of the sidewalk, buildings on the other. there are a bunch of places, from falafel to a regular deli, to tokyo lunch box. tokyo lunch box is basically fast food, but japanese. it's a little expensive - my teriyaki chicken bowl was $6 (hey, when you can get a six-inch sub at subway for $2.49, life is good) - but it was really, really, really good. i'm not sure how it hit the spot so well. but the chicken was perfectly cooked, the teriyaki sauce was phenomenal, and the rice was wonderful - i really like japanese rice. maybe i was just really hungry. ok, the vegetables that came with it were a little crunchy and there weren't enough of them (though i wasn't expecting them anyway). but the two large pieces of fried tofu that came with them were a pleasant surprise. i think it was also a vague memory of bento boxes - ie, lunch for anal people.

as for jamba juice, the first day i went in, i encountered the most perky person i have ever met in my life. this guy could have been a cartoon character, that was how over-the-top perky he was. it was a little frightening. i'm not a fan of the smell in jamba juice - the combination of the smells of all of the smoothies is a little off-kilter - but the peach pleasure i got was great. and, it had nothing in it that i'm allergic to, so no itchy throat for me! i am also jealous of the industrial blenders they have. diana and i had a bit of a grass drink (wheatgrass and orange juice, i think) and it was the consistency of water. that is a darn good blender they've got there.

at the beginning of the past week (or actually, it was the saturday before this past saturday), diana and i went grocery shopping. i had bought some chicken, and seeing as the chicken at the co-op generally looks really scary, and oddly dark/bright, i wanted to cook it as soon as possible. this wasn't even the supermarket brand - it was bell and evans. i didn't get around to cooking it until wednesday night, and even then the chicken smelled just a tad off. i cooked it anyway - for over an hour. i started by browning the chicken, then taking it out (it was drumsticks) and cooking some onions. i added some tomatoes, then added broth and the chicken back in. the liquid, 45 minutes later, still wasn't quite cooking off enough, so i added some japanese rice. it promptly turned into risotto, and i added the mushrooms and asparagus that i had as well. i'm happy to say that this combination is a great one. and the chicken is fantastic - just the way bell and evans should be. ha! this proves i'm slowly getting back into my cooking groove. cooking is always slow to start up in a new place, especially when you're living in someone else's furnishings. you're never quite sure what they have, and what they don't have. oh, also, i made pancakes on saturday morning. nothing better than pancakes with your cold maple syrup.

and finally, last night we went to the signature lounge. we didn't get anything to eat there - we had a quick bite at navy pier, which was quite satisfying (chicken burger with onions, pickles, and lots of mustard and ketchup). i did, however, have an outstanding martini - the michigan avenue: belvedere vodka, vermouth, and olives. mmmm...that was really, really good. unsurprisingly, much better than the one i had at crossroads on betsy's birthday. the signature lounge is basically top of the hub, but higher - they're even similar in decor. there is a dining room downstairs on the 95th floor, which jan (another intern) tells me has a fantastic buffet.

oh, and yesterday afternoon diana and i stopped by the puerto rican festival. for the food, naturally. it was really good - i wouldn't have thought before the past couple of years that rice and beans could be so wonderful. our next question (maybe for this week) is to find really good indian food.