Chicago, day three

I started my third day in Chicago with a bike ride.  The day began much cooler than Monday, with a breeze coming in off Lake Michigan and with fog shrouding parts of the downtown area where we are staying.  I rented a bike from the Bike Chicago stand on the Riverwalk by our hotel and, with the help of a map of biking routes supplied by the rental agent, proceeded to bike north on the bike path along Lake Shore Drive toward the Navy Pier.  Crossing the river was an adventure, with bikers, walkers, and runners all vying for space on a fairly narrow path on the bridge across.  But I made it with no incidents to report, and soon found myself in the touristy wonderland of the Pier.  I hopped off the bike, dutifully locked it in place in a bike rack at the entrance, and proceeded to walk down the pier and back.  Not much to say about it.  It reminded me of the Circle at Atlantic Beach back in NC...  just a bunch of touristy shops and junk food places, with touristy types taking boat tours and wandering up and down, like me, taking pictures of the fog and the gulls.  It wasn't long before I became bored with the scene and hopped back on the bike to head north.

An interesting ride along the lakefront north of the pier.  Lots of folks out walking and biking on the lakefront trail, which is an amazing thing which I believe Charleston needs.  I passed nice beaches packed with people trying to keep cool in Chicago's record heat.  But the fog was still around, and the breeze from the lake was refreshing.  I saw what appeared to be an endurance swim event, but may have just been regular Chicagoans doing some distance swimming in the lake, parallelling the bikeway.  By the time I got to Oak Street Beach and took a water break, I figured it was time to head back south...  my map ended there, with pointers north to Northwestern University. 

So I retraced my path back past the Navy Pier and headed south toward the museums that I had visited the day before.  It was a nice ride, and when I got to the Field Museum, I decided to continue on.  What the hell... I had the bike til 2, and it was only 11:30 or so.  So I went further south along the lakefront, past the Shedd Aquarium and Soldier Field, and kept going down to the Hyde Park area.  I needed to stop for a toilet break, and at that point the old legs were starting to feel it, so I turned around and headed back.  Nothing worth mentioning happened on either leg of this round trip, except that I really enjoyed the ride.  By the time I returned to the Riverwalk, it was only 12:30 or so, but my rear end and my legs told me it was time to turn the bike in. 

I met Susan in the room for a bit.  She had brought me up a sandwich from the conference lunch, so after I cooled off and she returned to work, I had lunch and relaxed for a while.  Then Susan came back to finish up her presentation for Wednesday, and we both stayed in the room until time to get ready for dinner.

As I said, we were excited about going to Frontera Grill.  We had watched Rick Balyess on some of his PBS cooking shows, and his food always appealed to us.  So after dressing up, we headed out for the walk down to North Clark Street.  There was a big line at the door, but we had reservations and, after having to worm our way in to the front desk, we were checked in and seated promptly.  We ordered a bottle of wine, and I chose to have a Mexican mojito with tequila instead of rum.  Nice tasty cocktail, and the wine was a good one.  It was fairly dark where we were seated, and there was a fan right above us, so Susan was chilly most of the evening and wrapped her scarf around her to stay warm.

So It came time to order our dinner.  We opted for guacamole and chips as an appetizer.

It was good, as were the chips and the hot and mild salsa.  Our appeties were whetted for more.  Susan, on the recommendation of our server, chose Camarones a la Mexicana, listed in the menu as garlicky grilled fresh Florida shrimp, seared summer tomato salsa, roasted poblano rajas, black beans, peashoots, lime. (Photo from the menu)

I chose, on the recommendation of the diners beside us, Tacos al Carbon, wood-grilled pork sliced & served with roasted pepper rajas, two salsas, frijoles charros, guacamole & homemade tortillas. 

Unfortunately, the shrimp were especially spicy, and Susan didn't enjoy them to their fullest.  I sampled 3 or 4 of them, and they were indeed spicy hot.  My tacos were very good, enhanced by the bottle of Bayless's own hot sauce on the table.  The hot freshly made tortillas (in the little red dish above) were probably the best taste of the night.  You could smell and taste the masa, and I could just imagine the little old Mexican woman in the back patting them out by hand and cooking them on a hot rock by the fire.

So all in all, I was a bit disappointed.  We had a much better time eating at Publican.  That is a newer, edgier restaurant, more like the food we've grown to love from our association with our daughter-chef Maya.  Frontera offered good, solid Mexican fare in a well-established, old-style restaurant.  The food was good, but not all that remarkable, save the tortillas, which were, as our neighbors at the next table told us, "to die for".  But now we can say that we ate at Frontera in Chicago.  Kinda like saying you've eaten at Tony's Sanitary Fish Market and Restaurant in Morehead City, NC.  If you're a visitor, it's something you do.  But let me say this...  I am NOT trying to dis Frontera... the food at Frontera was good, and if we hadn't had such a great night at Pelican the night before, I probably would have been more satisfied with Frontera.  At any rate, Frontera's food is highly superior to what I remember of the food at the Sanitary!

After dinner, Susan and I walked back to the hotel and tried to get into the Big Bar for an after-dinner drink.  It was jammed, so we just got a couple glasses of wine and headed back up to the room to find something to watch on TV.  That turned out to be a bust, as there was nothing on that we cared to see. We ended up watching Joye Bahar and Nancy Grace discussing Casey Anthony.  And the irony is that it was the best thing on!

So... next is a night of heavy hors d'oeuvres at the Shedd Aquarium.  It's the reception for Susan's conference.  Then we fly out of Chicago and return home on Thursday. 

All in all, it has been a fun visit to Chicago so far.

Night Two, Chicago

Well,  Susan and I arrived in the Windy City yesterday morning after an uneventful flight from Charleston via Charlotte.  And we've been eating, of course!  We are staying at the Hyatt Regency downtown, and we are right across the street from the Chicago River.  So yesterday after check-in we decided to explore the Riverwalk.  We walked out to the marina just off Lake Michigan, and let me tell you, it was HOT!  So after investigating the lake and taking a few photos, we came back along the Riverwalk and stopped at a little outdoor restaurant, Cyrano's Wine Bar.  Decent place to eat, and the atmosphere was wonderful...  right on the river, with folks traveling by on their boats and with the water taxis and river tour boats crusing by.  Susan had a vegetarian omelet and I had a burger.  The food was good, and we were able to relax a little bit.  So a bit later we went exploring and ran across the new statue of Marilyn Monroe outside the Chicago Tribune building. 

And then we discovered a place called The Purple Pig and decided to have dinner there.  I just can't remember everything we got, but the food and wine were excellent.  I had chicken thigh kabobs with fried smashed potatoes and tzatziki sauce.  Excellent.

So today, while Susan was in meetings all day, I walked down the lakefront to the Field Museum of Natural History and spent most of the day there going through the exhibits.  It's a huge place, and well worth a visit if you're in the area.  After walking back to the Riverwalk, I hit Cyrano's again, this time for a Chicago-style hot dog. 

Tasty, but nothing spectacular.  The service on Monday wasn't nearly as good, and that kinda ruined the lunch for me.

So, after Susan got out of her meetings, we decided to hike over to the Fulton Market area, a walk of about a mile and a half, to check out Publican.  Daughter Maya had said we should try Blackbird in Fulton Market, but that was beyond our budget.  Publican is Blackbird's sister restaurant, and we were pleased with the offerings.  The plates are meant to be shared, so we decided to have two vegetable plates and two fish plates, along with a bottle of Picras Negras, an organic Torrontes from Argentina.Very nice wine.   

We started the meal with a Market Salad. 

Nice selection of greens with pecorino cheese, faro, quinoa, and raspberries.  Very tasty.  We then sampled the fried walleye with arugula, fried onions, fried cauliflower, and believe it or not, fried lemon!  All on a coarse mustard sauce.  Wonderful blend of tastes.

Next plate out was soft-shelled crab from Maryland. 

Not the best... there was a bit too much flour taste in on the crab.  The English pea puree was very tasty, and the sauteed onion added a nice zest to the dish.

The last plate we sampled was a salad of trumpet mushrooms from California and summer squash. 

The 'shrooms and veggies were served in thin slices with a vinaigrette which had a little too much freshly ground pepper.  But the blend of flavors was superb, and the fungi were extremely tender and very, very good. 

We were taking pictures all through the meal.  The place was very energetic, and the sound level was sometimes near deafening. 

dining area

kitchen

However, the food was well worth the hike in the record Chicago heat.  Our sever, Matt, comped us with a couple after-dinner "digestifs"...  Susan received a creamy limoncello, and I got something I can only describe as highly complex, delicious, and extremely alcoholic!

Tomorrow night we're off on another hike to Rick Bayless's Frontera Grill.  Can't wait!!

Jeez, I love good food.  And I love sharing it with my favorite dining partner and my partner in life, Susan.  We have such great fun together!