Making Sushi!

For years I thought sushi was too complicated to make at home. The seaweed, the perfectly-cooked sticky rice, the sushi-grade quality fish. It's all so precise, which is why I've happily paid $15 per roll to have an expert hand-craft it for me.

But a sushi-making class with I Wish Lessons taught me that making sushi doesn't need to be a sticky situation.

Sushi roll ingredient spread

At the class, my friend Vicky and I each made three rolls: a veggie roll with rice on the inside, a California roll and a spicy tuna roll. We started with the simplest (veggie roll) and worked our way up to the spicy tuna roll.

Rice on seaweed for the veggie roll

Our sushi rolling instructor recently got a job at Ra in the Gold Coast and has been rolling sushi for eight years. She's very passionate about her craft and was happy to answer questions. The other I Wish staffers distributed ingredients for our rolls while the bartender (The class was held at The Joynt.) made sure our drinks were never empty.

Cutting bite-sized pieces of the veggie roll

Our I Wish sushi-making lesson didn't use top-of-the-line tools or a beautiful test kitchen, like you might find at The Chopping Block. But it was well-organized, affordable and covered the basics I would want to know before attempting to roll some fish at home. Next up: An Advanced Sushi-Making Class!

Spicy tuna roll

The End of an American Cafe

A few weeks ago, we went to brunch at Erwin for the first time. Erwin has been in Lakeview for years, 18 to be exact. It's a staple in neighborhood and a highly-regarded cafe serving simple but good, quality food. Perhaps this is why I was surprised to read on Eater Chicago that the cafe is closing.

Our brunch wasn't fancy. I had a salmon scramble, Z had a salmon omelette and Adi, Z's friend, had a salmon benedict. (You can guess our word of the day.) But it was good. Erwin seems like the kind of restaurant that isn't trying to chase the latest trend, but rather focuses on consistency and quality. Unfortunately, you won't have much longer to try the food. Erwin closes Sunday, July 1st.

Making Crepes

To keep ourselves out of trouble during the NATO summit a couple of weekends ago, Z and I made a bunch of fun plans, most of which involved avoiding the immediate downtown area.

Flip Crepe's crepe-making classes in the company's training facility certainly fit that criteria. The training facility is located in an stretch of old warehouse buildings on Fulton Market Street not far from Intelligentsia's coffee roasting tour. The classes fit other criteria too--interactive, fun and satiating.

Z carefully measuring ingredients

We arrived at our brunch-making class and were immediately welcomed with a mimosa. Our instructor had also prepared a beautiful buffet for our brunch, complete with savory and sweet ingredients. Think caviar, eggs, bacon, Nutella, raspberries and bananas. Yum! Our instructor assured us we could sample the buffet as soon as our crepes were prepared.

While making crepes from scratch may sound intimidating, the staff at FliP Crepes breaks them down the process into bite-sized steps. Finding the right balance and proportion of the ingredients is important. Once you've figured that out, you're on your way.

Keeping a watchful eye on my crepe

Z and I learned something new about each other through the process. It turns out we're both star crepe flippers!

Z flipping a crepe

My turn

FliP Crepes offers its brunch-making classes on Saturdays and Sundays. Be sure to book your class in advance. 

This Horse Knows How to Cook!

Back in March, during an unseasonably warm stretch of weather in Chicago, I went to Au Cheval twice in one week. I was inspired to be out-of-doors exploring the new haunts in the West Loop, but realized I didn't need to go farther than the corner of Randolph and Halsted streets.

Occupying a long, narrow, dimly lit space, Au Cheval didn't look like much when I first stepped inside. The long bar and open kitchen give it the ambiance of a 1950s diner. It's charming and approachable. The staff is friendly and the patrons range from hipsters, to neighborhood yuppies, to hard-core foodies, to all of the above.

Salad at Au Cheval

On my first visit to Au Cheval, I went with my friend Vicky. She resisted the temptation of rich food and stuck with a salad (herbes and sherry vinaigrette). I, on the other hand, caved and indulged in the toasted open-faced ham and cheese fondue with fried egg. Oh, was it rich! But also delicious. I balanced out my meat and cheese with a side of bread and butter pickles, similar to my mom's recipe. I washed everything down with a pint of wheat beer. Vicky opted for a cocktail.

Open-faced sandwich

Bread and butter pickles

On my second visit to Au Cheval with Z and friends Andrea and Javier, Andrea and I split the foie gras terrine with tart cherry jam. This particular preparation of foie gras was better than the preparation I had Maude's a couple of months ago. I'm salivating just thinking about it.

Foie gras terrine with tart cherry jam

Balena on a Friday Night

Since Balena opened in the middle of March, critics have given it nothing but rave reviews. (Four stars from TimeOut Chicago, the subsequent posting on Eater Chicago, a write up in Daily Candy Chicago) This combined with the backing of The Bristol and The Boka Group, (Think: GT Fish & Oyster, Girl & the Goat, Perennial Virant and, of course, Boka) gave me high expectations for my meal. Perhaps too high.

On a busy Friday night in early May, we had to wait about 15 minutes after our 9 p.m. reservation. Especially for a new restaurant, I consider that on-time. We got a table for three on the mezzanine floor, near the kitchen. If you didn't know Balena occupies the same space that Landmark Bar & Grill occupied until mid-2011, you'd never guess. The space has been transformed beautifully to look like a rustic Italian farmhouse.

The wine list is exhaustive and almost exclusively Italian, with a couple of bottles from Slovenia, Greece, Lebanon and Israel thrown in. I tried a glass of Sangiovese from Lazio, while Z tried a glass from Tuscany. Neither glass was bad, but I think mine was better.

We started with the Tuscan Kale Salad and a burrata with beets, which seems to have disappeared from the online menu. I liked both. The kale salad had a pleasant citrus flavor and the beets were perfectly cooked. Next came the Tagliolini Nero with Crab, Sea Urchin and Chile. Z and I both love uni (sea urchin), but had never tried it in pasta. The dish was good, just a touch too salty and could have used more sea urchin. I loved the crust on my pizza. It was appropriately salty and crispy and very flavorful. The ingredients on the pizza itself, pancetta with some vegetables (also no longer on the online menu) were just o.k.

Nothing at Balena was disappointing, but only the pizza crust made me want to come back for more. But that's enough to entice me to come back. That and the other delectable-looking dishes that caught my eye--charred quail, short ribs and whole roasted fish. With all of the recent press, getting a table may be another story.

Make Way for Goslings

I'm not a fan of geese. In fact, I think they're some of the nastiest animals on the planet. And may the nastiest in an urban area. But baby animals always make me smile, regardless of their menacing nature as adults.

I've been watching this family for a while. Mom and Dad seem very attentive and protective.

The little family about three weeks ago

The babies

I saw them again last week, stopping car traffic as they crossed the street to go back to their plot of land on the Chicago River near the East Bank Club. Mom and Dad still hover over their little brood. 

Three weeks later their goose-shape has started to fill in.
They look like fluffier versions of their parents.

Friday Night in Little Italy

One Friday night in April, Z and I had the luxury of not having plans and not being so tired from the week that all we could do was sit on the couch with take-out Thai food and Netflix. I had wanted to check out the new Urban Union space in Little Italy for a while, so we used our free time as an opportunity for a field trip.

Little Italy is easy to get to on the Pink Line. Just take it to the Polk stop, walk a few blocks east and a few blocks south to Taylor Street, the heart of little Italy. As Z pointed out, Little Italy doesn't look particularly Italian. If you didn't know you were on Taylor Street, you could be in Bucktown, or Lincoln Park or Lakeview.  It's a lovely tree-lined street with a healthy dose of restaurants and bars.

Before dinner, we grabbed a drink at Beviamo, a cute wine and cocktail bar at the corner of Taylor and Ada streets. On Friday night, the bar features live piano music beginning around 8 p.m. Later in the evening, a DJ spins.

We had a late-ish reservation at Urban Union, around 8:30 p.m., which was the earliest I could get same-day on a Friday. We arrived a few minutes early, checked in and were told we would be seated soon. In the meantime, we grabbed a couple of glasses of wine at the bar. One of Urban Union's claims to fame is the wine on tap. Our wine was o.k. Z's was better and less dry than mine, but neither was worth writing about.

Thirty minutes later, we were still standing at the crowded bar, waiting for our table. After 45 minutes, we started hovering near the hostess stand. Annoying, yes, but by this point we were starving. We had a reservation and were already 45 minutes past the time of our reservation. Finally, after we'd been waiting nearly an hour, we were brought to a table in the back of the restaurant.

We ordered quickly--Spring Fava Beans, Frites, Wood Oven Roasted Marrow Bones, Grilled Stuffed Fresh Squid, Bar Harbor Mussels. Nothing that we ordered was bad. Most items were average to slightly above average, but the Grilled Fresh Stuffed Squid was divine. I would go back to Urban Union just for the squid. Just maybe not on a busy Friday night.

After our meal, we had just enough room to split a dessert. Z isn't a huge fan of desserts, but does seem to have a soft spot for bread pudding-type dishes. We ordered the Sticky Date Pudding, a date cake with butterscotch and vanilla sauce, topped with creme fraiche ice cream. Amazing.