Tasty Chicago

Tamales

Posted on August 7, 2007 by John

Yeah, it’s a huge burrito, and it was good. When you think huge burritos, Highland Park probably doesn’t pop into your head. Well, that’s your problem, because Tamales in downtown Highland Park makes a killer burrito and this place will also wow you with an impressive, all-around great dining experience.

Just so you’re not confused, you may have known this place by it’s former name. It used to be Hot Tamales, but it just changed ownership, so now it’s Tamales – A Mexican Joint. I know this because we had the new owner spend about 10 minutes at our table talking about the restaurant and Highland Park in general. He’s a cool guy and I think the future of great Mexican food on the North Shore is in good hands.

Before we go any further, let me digress into my rankings of “top suburban downtowns,” here they are.

Geneva
Highland Park
Oak Park
Wheaton
Evanston

More on that another day, but be sure that the Highland Park downtown is a keeper.

So, pictured is the steak burrito. It’s got beef and beans and a great salsa. It’s large, but it only took me about 12 minutes to get it all into my stomach. It felt like the bean to steak ratio was about one to one. That’s the balance we shoot for here at Tasty Chicago. I don’t want one major item overpowering the other and you get that at a lot of other places. Not here, this burrito is well-made.

There are a bunch of other reasons to go here. My wife had the skirt steak and liked it. Just for the heck of it, the owner brought out some special mushroom sauce for the skirt steak and it was darn good. Also, check out the bread pudding with ice cream and caramel sauce below. Mmmm, tasty.

It was about a 30 minute wait, but what do you expect on a Friday night. We dined outside on that main east-west drag through downtown. What a great atmosphere. The service was extremely friendly and I will be back.

Posted in Mexican, suburbs | Comments Off

Fiddlehead Cafe

Posted on July 27, 2007 by John

Hold on, don’t go! This is Tasty Chicago…yeah, I’m serious.

I know, you don’t often see me eat things that are green. But I do. Really.

This is the Asparagus and Goat Cheese Strudel from Fiddlehead Cafe at 4600 North Lincoln (a whopping $15). It has some grilled green garlic, spring onions, and sorrel puree. This was my entree a few weeks ago for my wife’s birthday celebration and it was surprisingly good.

As I’ve said before, I love cheese made from a goat. I talked about it after a trip to Scoozi a few months ago. I’ve never entertained the idea of wrapping it in a pastry, baking it, and tossing some veggies on top, but it was extremely appetizing. The pastry was light and crispy and the goat cheese was warm and smooth. And much to my surprise, the combination of cheese and vegetables in each bite was very good. I cleaned my plate and used other carbs from the table to soak up the sorrel puree.

Fiddlehead is a cool place right along the strip of bars and restaurants in Lincoln Square. It’s a wine bar with an eclectic American cafe style menu. Lincoln Square, it’s nutty I tell ya’. We ate outside, but it’s a lot different from the grittier West Town type of outdoor dining that I usually partake in. There are just so many more people walking up and down Lincoln Avenue (versus Chicago Ave) and the outdoor dining options are all out on the street. It’s quite a scene.

I want to add a story about the service. The crew at Fiddlehead struggled this evening a little. We had a fine waitress who busted her tail, but she was new and one bartender called in sick. Needless to say, it took forever to get drinks and food. Now my wife and I are very patient and we take it slow, so we hardly ever complain. And we didn’t this time, but there were two moments when I was just about ready to get up and ask “what’s going on?” But alas, each time I was pleasantly greeted with our order, so no problems. We ended up staying a few hours and in return for our patience, the host brought our table a complimentary after-dinner drink. It was a dessert wine that we all loved (all four of us). Awesome, awesome gesture, and we will be back. I appreciate stuff like that and it tells me this place is in it for the long haul. Way to go. The reviews at Yelp for Fiddlehead are mixed, but generally positive. Check them out.

Posted in Lincoln Square, eclectic, wine bar | Comments Off

Village Links of Glen Ellyn

Posted on July 23, 2007 by John

Have you ever seen such a thing of beauty? It’s a bratwurst next to a sleeve of Callaway HX Tour 56 golf balls. It’s becoming abundantly clear that I’m an artist. We’ll talk about the bratwurst in a few moments, but I want to talk about something else first. Lately so many of my fans have asked, “John, how do you stage your beautiful pictures of food? Your composition and balance are always so perfect, bringing in elements of the surroundings that make the food look even more flavorful.”

Hey, thanks a lot.

Well, my theory is that the setting in which you consume food is very important to the enjoyment of said food. Sure, I could eat a cold bratwurst while standing alone next to my car in a barren parking lot during a freezing cold day and still enjoy it. But let me paint a different picture for you. I pull up to one of my favorite golf courses in the world on a beautiful summer day and I’m really hungry – with about 45 minutes to kill. Enter a fresh sleeve of Callaway golf balls and a nice blue mini Sharpie, perfect for putting my personal mark on each ball. Throw in the comfortable cushion of a golf cart, a Gatorade, and two Advil. That, my friends, is called relaxation. Doesn’t this picture just scream the “perfect atmosphere for eating brats?” Isn’t your mouth watering for the taste of a fine encased meat?

I’m with you. Good call.

Notice the lightness of color in this brat. Growing up, brats were always the “white hotdog.” I was sort of afraid of them. But then I tried one and I was smitten. My dad owned a grocery store for most of my developmental years and I remember when the guys in the meat department would wrap the brats in foil and warm them up on the heated meat-wrapper contraption. Wow, memories.

The multi-meat aspect of the brat is probably what gives it the color. It seems that they often have some veal and/or pork in them, so that differentiates them color-wise from the standard all beef hotdog that Chicagoans find so delectable. But I think the sausage-like texture and the spicier flavor make the brat a more enjoyable tubular meat for me.

Unfortunately, Village Links kicked me in the teeth this day and I barely survived. It’s a great golf course though, I still love it and still had a great day.

Posted in golf course food | Comments Off

D'Amato's Bakery

Posted on July 20, 2007 by John

Sometimes, a savvy restaurateur will fill a starchy thing with something oddly delectable. Take, for example, the Buffao Chicken Spring Roll from Carmichael’s; a fine but unexpected combination. Well, let me follow that up with this little treat. I’m not sure what it’s called exactly, but it’s basically a standard sandwich bun filled with chocolate chip cannoli filling and a little powdered sugar on top.

Yeah, they just pumped a burger bun full of dense, sweet, creamy, chocolate chip cannoli filling and made my friggin’ day. They, is D’Amato’s, at 1124 West Grand. Which is not to be confused with the D’Amato’s at 1322 West Grand. I don’t know if they’re related or not (read the reviews at the links for some takes on this).

D’Amato’s is not the kind of bakery I grew up with. In my hometown, a bakery meant donuts and cinnamon rolls. Sure, you could get a fresh loaf of white bread and maybe some cookies, but for the most part, BAKERY = DONUT.

But there aren’t really any donuts here at D’Amato’s. There are all sorts of fresh breads, buns, rolls, and tons of cookies. I walked in and was prepared to get some sort of mini-loaf of bread for breakfast, then I spied these bun-type things setting on the counter. If you’re a bakery owner and you want to lure John Steffen into purchasing your goods, just set them on the counter in an open-air type of situation. That says FRESH to me. It says, “Hey John, we just took these out of the oven and they’re so damn hot they will fog up the windows in the display case so we just set them on the counter for now. Do you want one?”

Ahh, yes, thanks (suckerrrrrr).

I enjoyed this treat with a cup of coffee from the Jupiter Outpost. I would suggest using a knife to spread the filling around a little as you eat it; like any stuffed pastry, it’s never uniformly spread throughout. Not a problem though. Some day, I’m going to stop by D’Amato’s and get some bread for a sandwich, then run down to Bari and grab some meet and cheese to fill it with.

Posted in West Town, dessert | Comments Off

Amelia's

Posted on July 17, 2007 by John

I love Mexican food, but I haven’t really reviewed any basic Mexican items. I have posts on Tex-Mex and Nuevo Latino cuisine, but this is the first on standard Mexican fare. Very few things comfort me as much as a plate full of enchiladas, beans, rice, and some greens. My range of satisfaction on this type of meal is huge. And if you throw in a nice outdoor patio and relatively uniform application of sour cream, you can’t go wrong.

Amelia’s is located at 1235 W. Grand, right at the corner of Grand and Ogden. If the continuum of Mexican food in Chicago ranged from Taco Bell on the low end to Topolobampo on the high end, Amelia’s would be closer to Taco Bell. In fact, these enchiladas are closer to Taco Bell’s then they are to Uncle Julio’s, which is disappointing for a neighborhood place. So yes, I’m grouping Amelia’s in with the chains.

But the pictured enchilada plate was still darn good. And for some reason, despite the fact that the outdoor patio is at the confluence of two very busy streets, I still like it. I’m not going to go off on this place like the crew at Yelp. Check out some of these reviews. I think they’re a little harsh. I tune out people that say, “Oh, that’s not real Mexican, it sucks.” Well, what do you expect, Mexico is like 1,500 miles away. Much of that culinary knowledge gets lost along the way. It’s part of living in the USA, you have to accept the fact that we’re going to mess up ethnic foods about 74% of the time.

Sure, there are many authentic places in Chicago, like the aforementioned Topolobampo and, my favorite, Maiz. Go to them. Enjoy them. I will, do, am, is, are… But don’t tell me you haven’t enjoyed crappy Mexican food for most of your life. I dare you. Look me in the eye and say “I’ve never had a burrito from Taco Bell that I liked.” You can’t do it. Because when you combine spicy beef, beans, cheese, onions, and red sauce with a flour tortilla, it’s all good my friends.

Posted in Mexican, West Town | Comments Off

Homemade – Snapper in bouillabaisse-like stew

Posted on July 9, 2007 by John

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.

Posted in French, homemade | Comments Off

Goldyburgers

Posted on July 2, 2007 by John

I’ve been anticipating Goldyburgers for a long time. There are a few reasons for this.

My bro-in-law, a savvy eater and keen appreciator of the finest cuisine, says it’s great.
It usually ranks high on burger lists. In fact, it gets ranked numero uno (Spanish for #1) by AOL City Guide.
It gets generally good reviews. Check out Centerstage and Yelp. I couldn’t find it on Metromix though. If it’s there, let me know.

So one fine Saturday night, I head out to the Western ‘burbs with my wife and mother-in-law to visit the aforementioned bro-in-law. He suggests heading over to Forest Park and dining at Goldyburgers (7316 Circle Avenue) and gets no argument from me.

It’s all neighborhood pub, make no bones about it. When we walked in, I was a little concerned that my wife and mother-in-law weren’t going to like the atmosphere, but they loved it. And the burgers, well, they rocked.

Pictured above is the patty melt, done medium. It was exceptional. If someone asked me to put together a list, it would be second only Tavish. The best feature of the Goldyburger is probably the burger-to-bun ratio. Look at that picture again, you are witnessing a ratio of probably one to one. They achieve this despite only using a half pound of beef. That’s an impressive feat. Remember, Tavish did it by pushing the size of the burger well past a half pound. Goldyburgers does it by decreasing the circumference of the half-pound of beef and fitting it on to a slightly smaller than average bun (or slice of dark rye).

They executed it just about perfectly. I say “just about” because I don’t think they dropped the patty melt into a buttered skillet. I thought that was standard for a patty pelt, but maybe I’m wr…wro..wrong, although I doubt it. But this did not detract much from my enjoyment. It was a fine conglomeration of beef. I’m guessing it was a combo of ground chuck and ground round. It was juicy and full o’ flavor.

They have a lot of burger options on the menu. Besides the patty melt, our table had the mushroom and Swiss burger and the bleu cheese burger. Everybody at the table was extremely satisfied. They have plenty of beer choices and several wines. It’s a great, friendly neighborhood pub and an absolute must if you consider yourself a burger connoisseur.

Posted in burgers, suburbs | Comments Off

Jerry's Sandwiches

Posted on June 26, 2007 by John

They don’t mess around at Jerry’s Sandwiches. This is the blackened chicken with pepperjack cheese, giardiniera, and lettuce, on white. It was my own “create your own” sandwich.

It’s great food. Stellar sandwiches. I ate this one outside at the 1045 W. Madison location. That’s West Loop, where the cool people hang out. But you don’t have to come all the way to the West Loop because they’re opening one in Wicker Park, where, if you can imagine, even cooler people hang out. There’s probably going to be one of those velvet rope lines and a bouncer out front. I can’t believe what’s happened to that street.

I love blackened anything. They slice the chicken breast in huge, meaty slices and pile it on generously. It was good. The bread was fresh, the lettuce crispy, and the chicken juicy.

Generally, I don’t do the “create your own” option. My theory is that the person who made the menu knows a heck of a lot more about making a sandwich than me, so I usually just order off the menu. But my love for blackened chicken with spicy cheeses and hot veggies overcame my better judgement. If I may say, my own concoction was very good and it wouldn’t surprise me if they put it on the menu permanently and call it the Chicken Fire Mouth Sammy.

Posted in West Loop, sandwiches | Comments Off

Vinnie's Subs – Roast Beef

Posted on June 24, 2007 by John

We keep plugging away at Vinnie’s to see if anything can topple the Prosciutto and Mozz from the top spot. Nothing so far. This roast beef sandwich was good, but I just can’t get behind the cold, roast beef submarine as a regular part of my diet.

It’s quality, lean roast beef and the bread is fresh. But I wouldn’t order it when something as original as their homemade Tuna or the Prosciutto and Mozz are hanging around.

Here is the current Vinnie’s ranking:

I think I’m trying the ham next, with double spicy giardiniera.

Posted in Vinnie's, West Town | Comments Off

Meiers Tavern

Posted on June 14, 2007 by John

Yes, that’s a styrofoam plate. What, are you surprised that someone with my taste and style would eat from anything but fine china? I didn’t think so. I can’t fool you intelligent reader people. You know that fine china doesn’t matter to me. I care about taste, texture, atmosphere, fast cars, and fast wom…wait, just kidding about those last two things. Let’s talk about this burger.

My wife and I had just walked 18 holes so we were running a calorie deficit the size of Texas. We needed food, and we needed it fast. So we headed to the Hackney’s on Harms on this beautiful summer evening, figuring that they would have no problem fitting two people in with that massive outdoor patio they have. Wow, I was wrong. It was packed, I’m talking jam-packed. No parking spots, people milling around all over the place, cars parked on the street, dogs and cats living together. ‘Twas a nuthouse. So we left.

We hit Meiers Tavern at 235 West Lake in Glenview. We were a little nervous as we pulled up because the tavern was dead. We figured it would have pulled in some of the Hackney’s overflow, but there were only about 10 cars in the lot. However, I didn’t let this discourage me, I had heard good things about the place so I convinced my wife to accompany me. It was that, or she could wait in the car. Ha, just kidding.

The burger was great. A little small, but done right and with good flavor. They put plenty of American cheese on it and the grilled onions were buttery and flavorful. The bun was toasted nicely, I think they actually stuck it in the oven for a little because even the top was toasty. Nice touch.

The atmosphere is all bar. I get the feeling that people come here primarily to drink beer. The good burger is just a bonus. This suits me just fine. My wife was not quite as impressed and she struggled a little with the atmosphere, but she enjoyed her chicken sandwich. It helped that I was really nice to her for being such a trooper. I even offered to stop at Dairy Queen on the way home for a malt but she declined.

Great place, just know that it is a bar and you’re not going to get ceramic plates.