Anyway, after spending a few days with Dustin’s family, we set off for a trio of culinary delights in Chicago. On Wednesday, we ate dinner at Topolobampo, a Rick Bayless restaurant (we actually saw him eating on our way in, which was cool). We each got a set 5-course tasting menu with wine pairings. For Dustin, it was the menu served at the recent White House State Dinner, which Chef Bayless was invited to prepare, including a delicious ahi ceviche (Mexican chimichurri, fennel, avocado), a lobster & scallop dish, and a ribeye with “mole negro.” I got the “Veracruz” menu, featuring a tasty mushroom dish and pork with “mole de xico.” We didn’t take any pictures here – we enjoyed the restaurant overall, although the service was not super-friendly.
On Thursday morning, we set off for the Lincoln Park Zoo. No trip with Dustin is complete without visiting a zoo, and we’ve been here a few times. Dustin was especially a fan of the cows, which moo-ed quite a bit. After a couple of zoo-er-ific hours, we went to our bed & breakfast to rest up for the dinner ahead.
Dinner at Alinea. Alinea is currently ranked as the #1 restaurant in the US and #7 in the world. We’ve wanted to eat here for some time, and it did not disappoint. We met my aunt and uncle (who have taken us to eat at French Laundry in Napa, and who had eaten at Alinea once a few years ago) and arrived at our 6:00 reservation. 5 ½ hours, 24 courses, and 11 wines later, we had been delighted and satisfied and intrigued. Dinner at Alinea is hard to explain, so I don’t think I’ll really try… it’s not really like going other places – there’s a lot of unusual techniques, a lot of “what was that and how did they do it?” I will say that we were worried about being too full, but everything was so nicely portioned, paced, etc. that were were surprised – we were certainly much MORE full leaving Topolobampo after five courses the previous evening… it was a memorable experience and a wonderful and humbling meal. We only took a couple of pictures (without flash, of course), so they are rather poor quality but we’ll include them anyway.
This is a dessert. The yellow is lemon curd, not egg yolk... also, it's on a pillow that smells like Earl Grey tea...
On Friday, we had lunch at Frontera Grill (again with my aunt and uncle). This is the more casual sister restaurant to Topolobampo, so it was somewhat similar but a very different overall experience. We enjoyed several types of ceviche, Dustin had pork, I had lamb shoulder… it was all very delicious and unique and tasty.We are now staying with our friends Ed and Susie from Valpo, and we’re looking forward to catching up with several of our college friends and hitting the Cubs game tomorrow. Go Cubs go!
No comments:
Post a Comment