Chicago, Day 2

(August 12th, 2012) Chica-Go! 

That thought flashed through my head, and probably came out loud, a few dozen times that morning.  I was doing my long run along the lake and happened to stumble through two races.  The first was a 5k that was just finishing up...nothing special...the second was a Women's Race Against Breast Cancer.  Thus the Chica-Go! shouts of encouragement from me.  Seemed fitting, but perhaps I'm getting too corny in my old age...luckily, no one objected.

That long run was probably the first sign that I was getting sick again (God only knows with what, but I'm going to call it a cold and leave it at that).  I don't think that I've ever been quite so miserable at the end of a run as I was that day.  I even had to stop a few times to build up energy to finish...the last half of that run I'd like to block out of my memory now.

The saving grace for the morning, though, was the Little Branch Cafe.  After I showered, scarfed down a first brunch from the hotel restaurant, and stumbled back out onto the street, I made my way to a locally well rated cafe.  If I was 15 years younger, I'd be saying "ZOMG that was SOOOO good!!! =)".  That smiley face is important.  Perhaps my memory was colored by the contrast between the cafe and the run, but I managed to send two other colleagues there during our trip, and they had the same reaction. 

The Little Branch Cafe was a pretty simple, small place, but definitely a hidden neighborhood gem worth checking out if you're ever in the middle of Chicago by the museums and all.

Brunch at the Little Branch Cafe

Brunch for me was the prosciutto and fig jam sandwich (prosciutto + fig jam = heaven for future reference), that was served with arugula and shaved Parmesan on a ciabatta bun, home fries (I was famished afterall, even though this was second brunch) made from red potatoes with garlic and seasonings, and the Bluebird smoothie, which is a mix of peaches, apple juice, bananas and blueberries.  I often wonder if I'm becoming the gastronomical equivalent of a hobbit...the concept of breakfast, first brunch, second brunch, afternoon tea, lupper and dinner doesn't sound so bad...provided that the meals are all the right sizes of course...

I can't begin to describe how good everything was that day, nor could I possibly describe quite how hungry I was after that run that we won't mention again (save for maybe a later post about running in Chicago).  But, just like when I was there, I shall not dwell on the Little Branch Cafe for long...

After eating, I had to quickly make my way over to meet my intern/mentee Robert Flicek, who I was taking out to a Cubs game.  By some stroke of negligence on my part (confusing the time zones that is), we managed to arrive an hour later than we had planned...consequently, the game itself, for a baseball game, went by *really* quickly.

Wrigley Field

Wrigley field, in and of itself, is an experience that I often think Dad would've loved.  He used to keep a long mental list of all the classic stadiums that he'd been to, taking extra pride in telling us about the ones that aren't around anymore such as Old Ebbet Field.  Every time I wonder if he'd made it to this relic of baseball lore, I naturally leap to the conclusion that I could find out: he probably saved all of his baseball tickets in a box that Elizabeth had shipped to Albuquerque for me.  Until this moment I had forgotten that I have an entire room filled with antiques and boxes waiting for me to sort through them.  

After the game, Rob and I headed south to the next James Beard Award winning restaurant: Hot Chocolate.  This was a treat.  Young Rob had much to learn about fine dining, but I think he learned by the end of the night not to order a burger when you can get a dish like below (plus I shared, so he was well fed).

Mushrooms and Pork Belly

First up: Wild King Mushrooms sauteed with lardons and fois gras butter as a starter, followed by the pork belly - a composed salad of local arugula, Gunthorp Farms pork belly, peaches and shaved parmesan.  The wild king mushrooms were phenomenal.  Slightly chewy, but just melted in your mouth along with the fois gras butter.  And the pork belly...after farro, pork belly is my second favorite ingredient that I've learned to work with this summer...and the peaches accenting the flavors?  Perfect.

Steamed Mussels

Main course: steamed mussles - old Milwaukee and Kilgus cream broth, red onion, jalapeno and grilled sourdough baguette.  I'm not sure about the rest of you, but mussels are a dish that are either good, or not.  I have a hard time differentiating between good and very good, as the broths usually depend on what exactly you're in the mood for.  That being said, these fell in the good category...I suppose a quantifiable measure would be how much broth is left at the end compared to the start...did I soak up every last drop with the bread?  Or did I even just throw etiquette to the wind and slurp down the few last drops?  Not here, but I'm sure it happened once or twice earlier this summer...

Rob's dessert, a skillet souffle

And that naturally brings us to the specialty of Hot Chocolate...desserts.  First up, Rob's skillet souffle.  This looked and smelled deliscous...I almost ordered it too after reading it's description as a "goeey, chocolate skillet souffle, salted caramel ice cream, pretzels."  But I held out for the Beautiful Berries...

Beautiful Berries, part 1: the cocktail

Beautiful Berries is a dessert that comes in five parts.  First was the cocktail, shown above: ron pampero aniversario rum, madeira, citrus, muddled berries.  Good - light and refreshing, but not nearly as decadent as the other drink I ordered (below a bit...but I bet you can guess what it is!)

Beautiful Berries, parts 2-5.

Parts 2-5 were the bulk of the dessert, with the following descriptions (left to right in the photo above): 2. blueberry: sour cream sherbet, warm blueberries, brown sugar, 3. raspberry: frambois, red velvet cake, raspberry cream, cheese butter cream. 4. blackberry: brown butter galette, sweet corn cream. 5. strawberry: chocolate wafer and strawberry preserve ice cream sandwich.  Each mini-dessert was fantastic in its own way.  I had a hard time identifying the sweet corn taste in the fourth dessert, but everything else did a fantastic job of embodying its description.  Favorite one of them?  I'm partial to blueberries, but the raspberry cream was really good...

Hot Chocolate...how could I not?

Last, but not least, the restaurant's name sake, Hot Chocolate.  This was a rich, decadent drink that I couldn't even finish.  That marshmallow you see...that's about 1.5 inches on the long side and an inch on the other two for some perspective.  We're not talking an 8 oz cup here folks!  They had a half dozen different varieties of hot chocolate.  The New Mexican in me insisted on the Mexican style for a little bit of spice.

Feeling pleasantly full and warm inside, this is how day 2 ended (with a few more bus rides thrown in for good measure to get back to the hotel).

After this the actual work began for this trip, so the next few posts, with an exception or two, should be a bit more condensed...