The homemade meal of the month is back, and Gail has outdone herself this time.

I don’t recall it happening, but Gail developed a love for bouillabaisse. She just started liking it right under my nose, before I even figured out what the heck it was. She didn’t even make a big deal out of it, thereby highlighting a fundamental difference between us. I get excited about meaningless things, but Gail takes them in stride. When I discover a new food item that I love, I talk about it all the time. I beat it to death by telling people about it; ranting and raving like some lunatic who just discovered air. I use it as a conversation starter. I call friends and family and talk about it (eventually they just quit answering the phone). I have issues, I know this.

On the other hand, Gail acts like she discovers exotic new dishes all the time. She’s like the football player who scores a touchdown and hands the ball to the ref without any celebration, because he’s been there, done that. She tries something new, likes how it tastes, and starts ordering it whenever she gets a chance. She never talks much about it, her actions speak louder than words. Then, she starts making it. Then, she starts making derivations of it, like this dish. It’s a bouillabaisse type of stew poured over a baked snapper filet with brown rice.

Like I said, Gail has outdone herself on this dish. She takes vegetable stock and tosses in some onions, leeks, tomatoes, fennel, saffron, other spices, and lots of Pernod. It’s simple, but special. She usually serves bouillabaisse with some crusty bread for dipping, but that’s not necessary here because she has thrown in the brown rice as the starch. The anise flavored Pernod and the saffron make this a distinctive combination. It’s so complicated, I can’t even explain it.

Although I’m not a big fan of black liquorice, I do love anise flavored stuff. I get my anise from two places, from Gail’s bouillabaisse-type dishes and from my mom’s Christmas cookies. Yeah, my mom adds anise to her Christmas cutout cookies. Wow, those are good. Don’t worry mom, I’ve already reserved the December 2007 homemade meal feature for your Christmas cookies.

I remember when my wife went through her “food enlightenment” about a decade ago. The first manifestation of her enlightenment was a desire to eat French food. That was kind of shocking to a burgers and pizza guy like myself. What the hell was French food anyhow? But what was I going to do? Disobey, complain? Nope, neither. I adapted…yes I did.

So I order steak frites the first time we go Franco, and I was hooked. It’s just a fair-to-middlin’ hunk of beef, usually with a butter and wine sauce concoction, and a few handfuls of fries tossed on top. You call that gourmet, Pierre? I call that meat and potatoes baby, and it rocks. It didn’t take me long to develop a keen appreciation for steak frites, onion tartes, and Audrey Tautou.

That brings us to the fine Lettuce Entertain You restaurant Mon Ami Gabi, at 2300 North Lincoln Park West. I like it a lot and the Steak Bearnaise (pictured, $19.95) is my usual. Yes, paying just south of $20 for an okay piece of meat with potatoes may not seem to jive with the intent of Tasty Chicago, especially when you can get about 3 times that much beef at Tango Sur for about the same price. But it’s the sauce in combination with the fries that makes it worth the money. Actually, it’s a tarragon shallot butter sauce you see on top of that steak. The sauce has a lot of flavor and the wide fry really does a fine job of collecting it all. It’s tough to beat a few fries saturated with tarragon shallot butter on the same forkful as a piece of beef. My love for burgers and pizza has taught me the import of having a protein and a starch in the same bite, and steak frites fits that bill perfectly.

Yes, there’s probably better French in town, but my taste buds can’t really differentiate. The steak frites here are great, the coffee damn good, and they probably have the number one dessert in the history of confections, the Banana Foster Crepe. That dessert is a whole separate post, I don’t want to get into it now.

I know in my last post I said we were moving to Italy. Well, I was just kidding. Why aren’t you moving to Italy, you ask? Well, because I’m committed to trying everything on the Vinnie’s menu and also working my way through the restaurants in downtown Wheaton. Downtown Wheaton rules.

I’m not one of those city-dwellers that makes fun of the burbs. I have no tolerance for idiots that say things like “oh, I never go to the suburbs unless it’s to see friends or win a bar fight.” I embrace the burbs and constantly seek quality downtown experiences all around Chicagoland. And let me tell you, Wheaton is one of those special downtowns and home to Suzette’s Creperie, at 211 West Front Street. Suzette’s is a French dining experience that would impress any Francophile.

This is a picture of my fine entree. It’s called the Spicy Coconut Shrimp Crepe ($13). It’s a crepe with shrimp, red, yellow, and poblano peppers, garlic, cream, then topped with coconut and lime. It’s served with a side of salad and the house vinaigrette. A little pricey you ask? Yes. It’s not a lot of food for $13 but that’s why the French aren’t fat I guess. It was really good though, so I felt the price was justified. Plus, it was a special day out for my wife and mother-in-law. I surprised them with this place and they loved it. I am probably the top husband/son-in-law on the face of the earth.

They really have a diverse menu. As you would expect, there are a bunch of French standards like traditional French onion soup and a croque monsieur sandwich. But they also have things like crab cakes with habanero lime sauce and the crepe I had above. We went at lunch and it was packed by 12:15, so call ahead and make a reservation. I have a feeling that dinner is just as crowded.