Batter & Berries

I recently had breakfast at Batter & Berries on N Lincoln Ave between Kenmore Ave and Diversey Pky in Lincoln Park with some friends. It was a Wednesday morning, and our wait was very short on some picnic-like benches in the middle of the restaurant, which was hopping.

I had the Crab Cakes Benedict, which was one of their specials. The dish consisted of 2 crab cakes (which contain lots of crab), each topped with a poached egg and hollandaise sauce, and served with a side of cheesy hashbrowns. I also ordered a side of sausage.



A friend who frequents the restaurant ordered the Cluck 'n Gaufre, which is a chicken-stuffed sweet potato waffle topped with a piece of fried chicken with nutmeg hot sauce and maple butter. I generally love chicken and waffles; however, I'm not often a fan of sweet potatoes. I tried a taste off of her plate, and I thought I could stand the sweet potatoes. It was delicious.

It's a fun breakfast place in the heart of Lincoln Park.

Fat Rice

Tonight, I dined with a friend and her almost 3 year-old daughter at Fat Rice in Logan Square at W Diversey Ave and Sacramento Ave. We had been planning to come to this place together for a few months, and were finally able to work out our different schedules to make it happen.

We showed up at 5:30 PM (opening time) on a Tuesday, and we were seated immediately without a reservation. They brought us a high chair for the little one. The restaurant is very small (40 seats), and though it's dimly lit, the lighting is pretty with multi-colored candle vases on each table and white rope lights. The restaurant completely filled up and had formed a line out the door before we had finished dining.

The hostesses and servers were very kind, and repeatedly complimented us on having a well-behaved, adorable kid with us. Now don't get me wrong, she is well-behaved and adorable, but a 2 year-old is still a 2 year-old. I thought everyone on the staff was very warm and inviting to all 3 of us. Even though I don't have a child of my own, nice dining establishments that are so warm and welcoming to children get extra stars in my book.

At each table, you get a fork, spoon, and chopsticks (plus a knife with certain menu orders). We used a combination of all of these. I didn't really know anything about the food of Macau, and took instructions from our servers on how to properly eat everything. The food from Macau is a mix of Portuguese, Chinese, Goan, African, and Malaysian influences. If you're not an adventurous eater, you'll surely be outside of your comfort zone, but if you're willing to give anything a try, there's some incredible cooking happening here. I also didn't totally know what everything on the menu was, but we came here to have an ambitious culinary experience and speak our best Portuguese, and indeed, we did.

First, we were brought a small complimentary bowl of Sichuan peppercorn pickled cabbage. We all liked it. I was a little surprised by that.



We came for the namesake dish, the Arroz Gordo (Fat Rice), so we ordered that straight away. It takes 30 minutes to cook. So in the meantime, we chose some 3 for $10 "bites". Our selections included boiled peanuts, eggplant, and a pig ear salad. The pig ear salad was probably my favorite. The pig ear was surprisingly soft, almost in noodle-like form, but surrounded by crunchy onions, peppers, and greens to balance out the texture of the bite. The kid was all about the boiled peanuts, which were served cold and topped with mushrooms. The eggplant was tasty, and I don't even like eggplant, but we all decided it was too spicy for us, so I brought the rest home for my partner to enjoy later. Somehow, spicy food doesn't make her nose run like crazy, like it does mine. She must be an alien. I've always half suspected that.



Then came the famous Arroz Gordo, a celebratory dish of Macau. Reminiscent of paella, it's a bountiful, home-style, layered rice dish that is usually prepared for family and friends on special occasions. It's a Jasmine rice laced with sofrito, delicious Chinese sausage, and salted duck. It's topped with Portuguese chicken thighs, char sui (barbeque) pork, linguiça sausage, fatty prawns, littleneck clams, hard-boiled tea eggs, and croutons. Then it's scattered with assorted pickles, olives, and sauces. It came with a mushroom soy sauce and Diablo ghost pepper sauce on the side. The rice is crispy on the bottom. That was one of my friend's favorite parts.



Our server's advice to us, and advice that I would pass on about this epic dish, is to dig to the bottom of the clay pot that the recipe is cooked and served in (it will still be hot to the touch, so be careful), and pull out the rice onto your plate immediately with the other stuff you want. Don't get totally focused on working top to bottom or side to middle. It's meant to be eaten as a whole, with each bite combining different flavors and textures. Be careful that the olives still have pits, and the prawns are still shelled with heads-on, and must be peeled.

I particularly liked the chicken thighs, which were boneless and more fatty than I'd usually have them. They were cooked to perfection, and still incredibly tender. Also, the linguiça sausage, which I can only compare to a chorizo, was enjoyed all around.

This is an unforgettable dining experience, and it's very unique as far as I've ever known. I've been called "a garbage disposal" by my partner because of my willingness to try to eat anything. My younger self would've never expected this. But for the adventurous foodie, and those interested in food cultures they don't know about, try this place out. It's probably unlike anything you've ever had.

Slow cooker chicken burritos

I went with this recipe tonight for slow cooker chicken burritos.

I put 2 trimmed chicken breasts, 1/2 a can of Rotel with green chiles, our homemade taco seasoning, and chicken broth in the crock pot, then added shredded cheddar and sour cream on a warm flour tortilla. It was a delicious dinner.

When I left for work, I kept the slow cooker set on "warm" for my partner who arrived home an hour after I left. She thought the dinner was excellent as well.

We'll add this one to our repertoire. It's very easy, and it's very good.

Southwest chicken pinwheels

I made this recipe for a fantasy football draft party. I partly made it because we had flour tortillas to use up before they went bad. Pinwheels seemed to be the easy and obvious answer for that.

Southwest chicken pinwheels

Ingredients (serves about 30 pieces):

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 oz cream cheese
1 1/2 tbsp sour cream
1/2 can Rotel tomatoes with green chiles (drained)
2 garlic cloves (minced)
Dash of seasoning salt
Dash of ground pepper
1/2 cup shredded cheddar
2 green onion stalks (sliced)
5 small flour tortillas

1. Cook the chicken through, then shred it. (I usually use 2 forks to shred chicken, and like to shred it after it's cooked.)
2. Mix the cream cheese, sour cream, Rotel, garlic and spices, cheddar, and green onions in a bowl. Mix in the chicken, too.
3. Spread the mixture onto each tortilla, then tightly roll them up.
4. Wrap each tortilla in plastic wrap, then cool them in the fridge for at least an hour.
5. Once cold, cut the logs into bite-sized portions, and serve cold.

(We had an artisan southwest spice that we added on top, too.)



It's not a spicy dish, regardless of some of the spicy ingredients. The cheese pulls it back to be very mild. It wasn't a grand slam as far as party recipes go, but everyone liked it and had seconds. I got to use up ingredients that would waste away in my fridge otherwise. I'll call it a stand up double.