the foodie life

When: Thursday, September 17 from 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Where:  Fulton’s on the River – 315 N. LaSalle Street, Chicago, IL

Unfortunately for me, I won’t be in town for this event. But for all you Chicagoans, get your tickets to the first annual food-filled event benefiting the nonprofit dedicated to children’s culinary education.

The Common Threads Associate Board will host its 1st annual World Cookout September 17, 2009, at Fulton’s on the River, to benefit Common Threads. For this very special late-summer party, Chicago-area chefs will join wineries, brewers and mixologists to raise money for the disadvantaged children in Common Threads’ after-school cooking programs.

Top Chef’s Stephanie Izard, Urban Belly’s Bill Kim, Sunda’s Rodelio Aglibot, and others dish out specialties. Get your tickets here.

On Friday, I had the opportunity to attend an underground supper club.

Clandestino creates a unique twist on dining by constructing food events in unexpected locations throughout Chicago.  

For this particular dinner, Clandestino collaborated with The Global Lives Project to celebrate food and culture of far away places. The 5 course meal was created to incorporate “A Day in the Life” of a Brazilian. Local ingredients were used including quail egg from Michigan and pork from Illinois. The menu consisted of traditional Brazilian flavors from AM to PM in one meal:

• Pao de Queijo (Brazilian cheese bread), Michigan quail eggs, bacon, herb salad
• Donut peach and summer berry salad w/ honey and coconut
• Smoked Twin Oaks pork Feijoada w/ black beluga lentils
• Plantain-crusted Grouper w/ summer squash and aji amarillo reduction
• Espresso Pot de Creme w/ rum and dulce de leche

Each course was presented beautifully. Not surprisingly, everything tasted even better than it looked! I especially loved the peaches  (best I’ve ever tasted!), the smoked pork, and the Espresso Pot de Creme (wow). The whole experience was amazing. I definitely recommend everyone to check it out!

Egg Harbor Cafe is one of my favorite breakfast spots in Chicago. I’ve only been to the Glenview location, but everything I eat there tastes so great, I don’t think I need to go elsewhere!

Lately, I’ve been ordering the same thing every time I come here: blackberry & banana pancakes with an order of the potato pancakes. You can never go wrong with this! The pancakes are made with whole-wheat flour (healthier!) and I’ve never tasted better potato pancakes (although Walker Bros is a close second).

The chicken chili is also another favorite of mine here – yum! I had a bite of the Santa Fe Roll-Up, but wasn’t a huge fan — it was a little too saucy & creamy for my liking. The jalapeno salad dressing was amazing, though. Next time I order a salad, I’m going to request that dressing!

For our last meal in NYC, we decided to eat at the very popular Grimaldi’s . It was good and we still finished our entire pizza, but overall I wasn’t too impressed… maybe we didn’t choose the right toppings?! I would still pick Artichoke over Grimaldi’s any day.

Afterwards, we walked over to the waterfront to check out the Brooklyn bridge and say our goodbyes to Manhattan. It was another super hot day so I was thrilled when I stumbled across the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. The vanilla chocolate chunk totally hit the spot, but unfortunately, the second I walked outside it started melting like craazy! I don’t think I’ve ever ate ice cream as fast as I did yesterday.

Gotta eat the grilled corn @ Cafe Habana!

Stop by Economy Candy to pick up some of your favorite childhood sweets.

Cooling down with my Dean & Deluca iced coffee in Times Square.

The much hyped Peter Luger’s Steak House turned out to be better than I expected. It is definitely a must when you’re in New York. Here is what we ordered:

1. Luger’s Sizzling Bacon, Extra Thick by the Slice
2. Porterhouse for 4
3. Creamed spinach
4. Luger’s Special “Holy Cow” Hot Fudge Sunday

You just can’t go wrong.

Spending all day at the Met can get pretty tiring. I needed a sweet snack to boost my energy afterwards, so we took a stroll through Central Park and headed over to Levain Bakery in the Upper West Side. It’s a little out of the way from all of the hustle and bustle, but definitely worth the trek. I tried their signature chocolate chip walnut cookie and it was incredible. It’s everything you can ask for in a perfect chocolate chip cookie. Alvin opted to get the blueberry muffin which was just as tasty.

Helpful hint: don’t forget to buy a few cookies to take home! I was so stuffed from my one cookie, I didn’t think I needed to buy any more for later. I figured I can always order them online anyways… big mistake. Shipping costs are insane! I guess I will just have to wait until my next trip back to NY…

I always deemed Eric Schat’s pastrami sandwich to be the best I’ve ever had. But the second I walked into Katz’s Deli and tasted a sample of their pastrami, I was hooked. I swear the meat practically melts in your mouth. If I had to pick one meal to be my favorite during this trip, I would have to pick Katz’s Deli. Go try it for yourself!

I’m a huge Sex and the City fan, so when I heard that the SATC movie filmed at Buddakan, I knew I had to check the place out (lame, I know!). The decor is awesome and the ambience is everything you would expect in a trendy NY restaurant. I’m always a little iffy when it comes to Asian Fusion restaurants because a lot of times it never cuts out to be worth your money! However, Buddakan definitely exceeded my expectations.

We started off with the edamame dumplings, which I had to try since it is the most popular item on their menu. Surprisingly, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped… I just wasn’t feeling the texture. On the other hand, Alvin absolutely loved the dumplings and put in another order to take home! Our main dishes included the lobster fried rice, mao poe tofu, and the sweet & sour chicken. Our server told us beforehand that this might not be enough food for the two of us, but when the food arrived, we decided he was obviously crazy! I barely had enough room to taste the vanilla tea doughnuts, which were amazing btw.

I dragged my good friend Jeff to ChikaLicious for some sweet treats. The tiny dessert bar was packed (it was a Friday night, after all) so we crossed the street to the very convenient ChikaLious To-Go bar. Of course, I had to try the green tea macaroon and after one bite, I made Jeff get back in line so I could buy some more. hehe.

Afterwards, Jeff dragged me to Artichoke so he could grab some dinner (poor guy was starving by then!). I was stuffed from the wedding rehearsal dinner @ Heartland Brewery & Chophouse, so I only had one bite of Jeff’s artichoke pizza. I wasn’t expecting much, so I was very pleasantly surprised to discover just how awesome it tasted!

I went back to Artichoke a total of 4 times during my trip… 3 times in one day. Needless to say, it is now my fav. pizza joint in NYC.