Food Adventures in the Windy City

Is it possible that summer actually picks up speed toward the end? That the space-time continuum actually contracts just a bit so that we (in Minnesota, at least) get hurdled at 400 mph, clear over fall, straight into the cold depths of winter? It's just a thought I've been having as it is somehow August and the first day of school feels like it will be tomorrow, well, tomorrow, which means Christmas must be like a week from Friday.

This is all really to say that I went to Chicago last weekend - actually, I returned a full week ago today - and yet I am only now getting around to mentioning it. I contemplated not mentioning it at all, except then I wouldn't have been able to tell you about this:
Or this:

Or this:

And really, I couldn't let that happen.

So, yes, Chicago. This trip was a long-awaited girls' weekend...really an elaborate plan to give one of my friends her first baby-free weekend ever. (I feel that it's important to point out here that her "baby" is now 3.)

You might think from those photos up there that all we did on this girls' weekend was eat and you would be almost correct, except you'd be leaving out all of the wine. Ok, and we walked a lot, too. Walk, eat, drink. Repeat. It's a can't lose formula - go ahead and try it on your next getaway.

So yes, three of my friends and I set out for Chicago last Friday morning with the intention of spending some quality time sans children. Now, seeing as I'm already a week late on this and not interested in pouring my heart out about how great it was to have uninterrupted time with my friends, let's stick to the food highlights, shall we?

As with every destination these days, I knew we'd need to hit at least one great foodie locale in Chicago. As soon as I saw Graham Elliot Bowles on Top Chef Masters, I knew it must be his restaurant. (and my fellow Top Chef devotees agreed) The first photo above is what I had for dinner there: miso grilled lobster with yuzu bubbles.

My overall review of the restaurant is that it's awesome. The ambiance is perfect (even the 80's Prince songs sort of work) and the menu is approachable, but surprising. The popcorn they deliver to the table instead of bread is so good that I had to make myself stop eating it before I ran out of room for my meal. And the corn chowder is a masterpiece.

Still, I have to admit that my entree didn't blow me away. It was good. It was inventive. It was pretty, for sure. But I guess when I eat lobster, I expect it to taste decadent, and the flavors here were just too subtle (and I had a lot of trouble wrangling the lobster out of its shell). However, my friends had the seared Alaskan halibut and the wild king salmon and gave them rave reviews.

Plus, the desserts made up for any of the lobster's shortcomings. The dark chocolate cake looked nothing like you would expect, but was every bit as delicious. And the big surprise was the sesame shortbread, which involved prickly pear and something called "homemade halva," which is spun sugar, only instead of being like cotton candy, it's like hardened caramel...it's something you must experience. Love.

That was Friday night. Saturday was spent in Millennium Park, with a pit stop for a perfect macchiato at the Intelligentsia Cafe (which cleared the wine fog from the previous evening), and then a trip to More, the adorable cupcake place we'd stumbled upon the day before, but passed up at that time due to making an ill-advised cupcake trip to Bombon as soon as we'd arrived in the city...

That second picture up above is of More. Have you ever seen such an artful display of cupcakes? I wanted to give them my money just to show my appreciation for their appreciation of cupcakes. Ah, but it turns out the beautiful shop is just the beginning. Once inside, you realize they have what seems like a bazillion flavors, everything from straight up Chocolate Chocolate to some imaginative savory creations, such as Maple Bacon.

I admit that I went into a bit of a trance at this point, but I managed to emerge from the shop with a box of four full-sized cupcakes (just for me!): White Velvet, Salted Caramel, Margarita and Peach BBQ. My plan is to return to the shop until I have sampled every flavor. I think that given the 400 miles between us, it should take me approximately 10 years. Or one really, really sugary trip that ends in my diagnosis with diabetes - you know, whichever.

That Salted Caramel cupcake was to die for. The Margarita, which has tequila frosting, was so much like a margarita, it was weird - in a good way. By this point I was beginning to sweat buttercream, so I thought I'd bring the other two home for my boys...this required me to lug them around for the next 24 hours and home on a plane, only to have the boys declare the White Velvet to be too sweet for their teeth. The Peach BBQ seemed like it was going to be good, but by the time we got to it, was getting crusty and I was too full of sugar to eat it. Lesson learned: Eat all cupcakes immediately.

Somehow we regained our appetites by dinner time, so we ventured out to Frontera Grill/Topolobampo, home of another Top Chef Master, Rick Bayless. (In case you haven't heard, Topolobampo was named something along the lines of best restaurant in the country.) We decided to try our luck at the packed bar and order appetizers. It didn't look promising, but the Top Chef gods were with us and we eventually found a tiny ledge on which to balance our margaritas and order the appetizer platter (see picture three, above). Ceviche, guacamole, taquitos, oh my! It was amazing. I will definitely be making a reservation on my next visit to Chicago.

So, yay for Chicago! And yay for Top Chef! And extra yay for having friends who will indulge and share my reality TV-inspired food adventures! I will now be fasting until my next girls' weekend (with different girls), which is a stupidly soon less-than two weeks away.

But, you gotta squeeze in the summer getaways before the season slips away. Come to think of it, I should probably get started on my Christmas list...