Piggin' Out

Have you been to The Purple Pig yet? The restaurant on Michigan Avenue that's been nearly impossible to get into since it was named one of the 10 Best Restaurants on 2010 by Bon Appetite Magazine. It's pretty awesome and totally worth the wait.

I've been a few times with different friends and it has never disappointed. The wine list is superb, but even that pales in comparison to the small plates.

It helps to be an adventurous eater when visiting to The Pig. One of my favorite things on the menu is the Pork Neck Bone Rillette & Mostrada. It's flavorful and creamy and very, very rich. A little goes a long way. Also try the Pork Fried Almonds; the Shaved Brussels Sprouts, Percorino Noce & Parmigiano Reggiano; the Braised Baby Artichokes; the Tuscan Kale & Romaine Cesar Salad with Hard Boiled Quail Egg; and don't forget the Deviled Egg with Arugula & Caper Berries!

The Purple Pig does not take reservations, but going for lunch or earlier in the evening helps with the wait. Stop by before a 7 p.m. movie, especially on a week night, and you should be seated in no time.

If you're too hungry to wait, enology, just across the street at the Hotel Intercontinental, offers a compelling wine list, yummy cheeses and some delicious chocolates.

Valentine Lights

My favorite lights on State Street are back just in time for Valentine's Day! Dedicate a love song to your sweetie for a chance to win a romantic prize. Visit Lightscape before February 11, 2012 to submit your song. What song will you submit??

Tapas in the South Loop

Just after the Chicago Flight restaurant tour a couple of weeks ago, after our afternoon of feasting, Z and I hopped on a train to head down to Tapas Valencia in the South Loop. Z's dad was in town and had not spent most of the day eating, so he was ready for a more substantial dinner.

We've tried the well-known tapas places in the city--Cafe Ba Ba Reeba, Cafe Iberio, Mercat a la Planxa, and Emilio's. Of those Cafe Iberico is my favorite and had been for some time. I've spent a few weeks here and there in Spain and Iberico feels the most authentic to me. But in the spirit of treating an out-of-town visitor and finding a place that wasn't too far from his hotel, we decided to try a new spot.

Tapas Valencia has a huge space. Unfortunately, it never filled up on the Saturday night we were there. The tapas were good, not amazing, but we didn't have a bad dish and the garlic potato salad was quite delicious. Tapas Valencia is a solid option, but it may be worth venturing up to Mercat a la Planxa if you're in the Loop/South Loop area.

Taking Flight

The BF's birthday is in early January. It's a bit of a double whammy for me. Just after Christmas/Chanukah I have to come up with a birthday gift. What's a girlfriend to do??

One thing I can bank on: something food-related will always score big points. The man loves food. All kinds of food. In all shapes and sizes. A while back, my friend Christina recommended Flight Chicago, a walking tour of three-to-four restaurants in one of Chicago's neighborhoods. She gave the flight as a gift to her parents, who are also adventurous foodies.

I chose Flight #004 for Z and me. The restaurants looked yummy and I knew Z hadn't been to any of them. We started at the Butcher and Larder at 1026 N. Milwaukee. A delicious charceuterie plate greeted us, complete with head cheese and chicken liver pate, Z's favorite!

Next, we walked just up Milwaukee to Frontier for an amazing oyster cooked like Oysters Rockefeller, a tasty dark beer, and a delicious rabbit-with-dumpling dish. Rabbit is a guilty pleasure of mine. Bunnies are so cute, but they are also tender and flavorful.


From the street, Frontier could pass for a sports bar. But don't let the TVs on the walls fool you. The food is a deliciously unique twist on comfort food. One of Frontier's hallmarks is its whole animal service. Order a pig for a table of friends and the fine chefs at Frontier will slow roast it to perfection. Super Bowl party, anyone??

After Frontier, we continued up Milwaukee, turning left on Division to The Bedford, a new restaurant in an old bank building. Check out the vault while you sip on cocktails concocted by the in-house mixologist. At The Bedford, we started with a pisco sour cocktail. Next came a deviled egg. My favorite dish of the day, and one of the best things I've eat at a restaurant in a while was the strip steak complete with celery root and fig gratin, trumpet mushrooms, roasted shallot marmalade, topped with blue cheese. I love blue cheese. Really love blue cheese. And this blue cheese had a way of bringing out all of the other flavors in the dish.


Before we moved on to Prasino, our final stop on the tour, we made a quick detour to Rite Liquors. Truthfully, I've been going to Rite Liquors for years as part of my friend Adam's "Slashie" birthday tour. (A slashie deserves its own blog post, so I'll save the explanation for another day.) Long story short, Rite is a dive bar of the ultimate form. It closes around 5 a.m., only to open again around 8 a.m. Regulars sit at the bar at all hours of the day and nite and can choose from a wide variety of Hostess confections to keep them sated while they sip on Coors Light and strawberry schnapps.

Just down Division from Rite Liquors, we made our final stop at Prasino. Prasino first opened in LaGrange and opened a second location in Wicker Park in August 2011. I love Prasino's commitment to environmentally friendly food and design. And that it serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. The dessert that concluded the tour was delicious; I can't wait to see what they do for breakfast!

Winter Wonderland in Whistler

Chicago has some great views, but snow-covered mountains isn't one of them. I spent most of the time around Christmas and the New Year holiday out of Chicago. First in Michigan visiting my family and then in Whistler skiing with Z and some friends. Although this photo has nothing to do with Chicago, I thought it was too beautiful not to share.

Whistler is a super-cute town with lots of great shopping and some amazing r estaurants. One of my favorites was Alta Bistro. It's an small, unassuming place on the southern end of Whistler Village. The reasonably-priced menu features locally grown and produced ingredients --charceuterie from the other side of the village, local oysters, fish caught in nearby rivers--and some delicious wines from other parts of British Columbia. Yum! Check out the wall at the back of the restaurant.

Holiday lights?

Just before Christmas, I was walking down State Street to do some shopping and stopped dead in my tracks. You can't make out the music very well above the roar of the traffic, but you can't miss the changing colors of the lights. Love them or leave them, these are LED lights and the City of Chicago plans to leave them up as a year-round decoration. The Christmas music will be swapped for season-appropriate tunes, but the lights will remain.

I thought they were hilarious. My boyfriend thought they were phallic. What do you think?