Beer cheese bratwurst

For Super Bowl Sunday, I made some Beer Cheese Brats. It was very simple with just a few ingredients. I used a pale ale, and made them on a stove top instead of a grill, and I toasted the buns with butter on a skillet. Make sure to keep the cheese sauce smooth and runny, and add as much as you want.

Blue Water Seafood Market & Grill

We went for dinner on a Saturday night to Blue Water Seafood Market & Grill on International Restaurant Row in San Diego. The line was out the door, and the wait was long. Once seated, the wait for food was long, too, but the food was good!

We ordered the Crab & Artichoke Dip appetizer, which is huge and comes in a bread bowl. Definitely get this to share. It's huge and delicious.



I ordered the Maryland Soft Shell Crab Sandwich, added Pepper Jack to it, and had it toasted. It was a big sandwich, and also delicious.



My mother ordered Sauteed Mussels and Clams that come prepared in a white wine, caper, onion, and tomato reduction served with toasted sourdough bread. She shared some mussels with me, and they were very good!



On the side, her order came with rice, veggies, and avocado. It was definitely a complete meal, and we had leftovers.

Hodad's

While in San Diego, I grabbed dinner at Hodad's in Ocean Beach, which a friend strongly recommended. The line was out the door, and I got the feeling that it's always like that. Everyone was friendly. The decor on the walls is vanity license plates from all over, and the vibe is fun, busy, laid back, surfer-ish.

I ordered a Double Bacon Cheeseburger with fries, which are more like crispy potato wedges, and I couldn't finish it all, so I had leftovers later. It was a classic burger, and the fries were great. I liked this place a lot, and when I'm back in California, I'll come back.

Eggslut

Eggslut at Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles is where I grabbed breakfast before a visit to The Broad. There are many other restaurants in the market, and the line here was pretty long, but moved quickly and the service was really friendly.

I ordered the Fairfax, which is soft scrambled eggs cooked to perfection, and chives, cheddar, caramelized onions, and sriracha mayo in a warm brioche bun. I added turkey sausage and bacon to it. It was a very good breakfast sandwich.

The Crack Shack

The Crack Shack in San Diego opened last fall. The atmosphere and location are laid back with a fun chicken theme throughout almost all of the decor. I really liked the vibe of this place.

I ordered the Senor Croque, which is crispy, thick, juicy chicken, with bacon, fried egg, cheddar, and miso-maple butter on a brioche bun. It's a fabulous blend of flavors, and very filling.

In-N-Out Burger

While in California, I couldn't resist a trip (or two) to In-N-Out Burger. In-N-Out is a regional fast food chain with quality food and famously good business practices.

I got a Double-Double, which is 2 patties with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, and pickles, and I ordered animal-style fries. Animal-style isn't on the menu, but In-N-Out's secret menu isn't really a secret at all. Animal-style is melted cheese, bacon, and Thousand Island dressing on top. In-N-Out never disappoints.

They will customize your food however you want it. My vegan friend got a "burger" with only veggies and 4 different kinds of onions and loved it. Pretty impressive.

Tru Nature Juice Bar

After a long hiatus, I'm back!

A few weeks ago, I was in Long Beach, CA, and my friend that I was staying with took me to her favorite breakfast place, Tru Nature Juice Bar. They have juices, smoothies, and acai bowls. An acai bowl is like a really thick smoothie. I ordered the Berry Bowl, which was topped with banana, strawberry, hemp granola, and agave. It was amazing! Weeks later, I'm still craving this place. It's also reasonably priced with great service.

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.

Manee Thai

Last night, we had dinner at Manee Thai on N Pulaski Rd between Addison St and Eddy St in Irving Park. They have a huge menu offering Thai and Japanese cuisine.

It's BYOB, and we brought a bottle of wine. There is no corkage fee, which is nice.

We ordered the Crab Rangoon to start, which is crab meat, cream cheese, and celery wrapped in a thin pastry shell and fried to golden brown. It was good, and the portion was generous.



For our meal, we went with sushi, and split 3 rolls between the 2 of us. We had the Spicy Tuna, which is tuna, scallion, and spicy mayo, Crunchy Salmon Lover, which is salmon, avocado, cream cheese, oba, and spicy mayo deep fried, and Tarantula, which is softshell crab, shrimp tempura, cream cheese, scallions, avocado, and tempura crumbs topped with black tobiko and unagi sauce. The sushi was just okay. We were very full when we left.







The food was served quickly, and in the order in which it was ready rather than all at once. There's salt, pepper, soy sauce, and sweet chili sauce on the table.

We may return and try out some Thai dishes next time.

The Brat Stop

On our way home from Milwaukee to Chicago, we grabbed lunch in Kenosha at The Brat Stop.

It's a classic Wisconsin restaurant. It's not exactly an easy drive-thru between the state lines of Wisconsin and Illinois, or particularly easy off of the highway, but it's very close, and very popular. They have a shop with Wisconsin cheeses and Usinger sausages for sale in addition to their dine-in restaurant.

My partner and I enjoyed a bowl of Wisconsin Cheddar Soup together. It was what you'd expect: Better cheese than average, a little too thin, but satisfying.



I ordered the Cheddar Wurst with fries. I loved the Cheddar Wurst. The fries were microwavable junk.

Miller Park

We recently went to a baseball game at Miller Park in Milwaukee, WI. It was my first time in that ballpark. I'd love to go to every ballpark! As far as Miller Park food goes, I only know a tiny bit. Around the 3rd inning, I went and got some Bratchos. Bratchos are kettle chips loaded with local brand Klement's triple-grind sausage, nacho cheese, pico de gallo, sauerkraut, jalapeños, and sour cream. They're available for $10 in sections 117, 124, 210, 221, 228, and 408. I ordered some, and nursed the dish for the whole game. I couldn't even finish it myself. It was fantastic ballpark food, but didn't leave room for anything else. Next time, I intend to go after some nachos on a stick.

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Sobelman's Pub and Grill

We went to Milwaukee, WI recently. The city is famous for their burgers, brats, and cheese, and I looked to my friends for recommendations. I was led to Sobelman's Pub and Grill for a burger for lunch.

I ordered The Hangover, which is a burger with Colby-Jack cheese, smoked bacon, buttery fried onions, and a fried egg. I added ketchup.



The burger was a burger. It didn't wow me, or upset me. It was good.

The weirdest thing about Sobelman's is that that whole restaurant is on a slant. I wondered if anyone in there even realized that the whole restaurant tilted downhill. It's a little weird. Nonetheless, I was told it's local culture, and I'm glad we partook.

Au Cheval and Small Cheval

Recently, we had an early dinner at Au Cheval on W Randolph St between Green St and Halsted St in the West Loop. The restaurant is famous for their notoriously long waits (no reservations accepted), but when we showed up at 4:30pm on a Tuesday, our group of 4 was seated immediately in a comfy booth, which was a pleasant surprise. The kitchen is closed from 3pm-5pm every day, so maybe that helped in making our timing good. We enjoyed some drinks before our meal to fill the time, but it didn't feel like we were ever waiting at all. Our server began taking food orders prior to 5pm, and the kitchen was fully ready to accommodate everyone there. Even as we were finishing up and a line had formed out the door, we never felt like we were being rushed out of the restaurant to make more tables available. The staff remained warm and kind.

I love the vibe at Au Cheval. It's a kind of dark, sexy, hipster vibe. Au Cheval recreates traditional comfort foods in modern and inventive ways in a relaxed and cool environment.

I ordered the Fried House-made Bologna Sandwich. It's a massive sandwich featuring thinly sliced mortadella with some black pepper and lots of salt piled high on a brioche bun. It's smothered in what I suspect is a creamy gruyere cheese as well as a mayonnaise and Dijon sauce. It takes the classic all-American fried bologna sandwich to another level. It takes a lot of smushing down to fit a bite into your mouth, but it can be done.



Simply put, I love this place. The wait can be stupid, but sometimes you can get lucky.

About a week later, a co-worker and I tried out the new Small Cheval restaurant on N Milwaukee Ave at Wabansia Ave in Wicker Park that's run by the same folks at Au Cheval. It just has a minimalist and faster version of Au Cheval's menu. The same 3pm-5pm kitchen closing applies.

I tried out the simple Cheeseburger. It was a peppery, greasy, perfectly cheesy two-patty burger. It's everything a burger should be without all of the contemporary flair. It's just perfectly right. It's just a simple, good burger.

There's a great outdoor patio to enjoy during our short Chicago summers.

I recommend both places.

Sweet Station

We recently grabbed lunch at Sweet Station on N Lincoln Ave at Lill Ave in Lincoln Park. It's Sweet Station's second location. We rarely go as far south as Chinatown, and since Sweet Station's original location is in Chinatown, we figured this could be the real deal, and it was. The food was obviously made with fresh ingredients, and was truly authentic Cantonese food. It's also amazingly affordable, especially during lunch. We were about an hour late for lunch, and our server still gave us the lunch rates for our meals. We spent about $15 total for fantastic sit-down meals for the two of us.

The menu can be difficult to decipher for an English speaker. We've gotten very good at speaking in Spanish, Italian, French, and Greek while ordering our food at restaurants, but we weren't totally sure about what we were getting this time as we flubbed our way through a language neither of us know at all. Nevertheless, I expect that any sort of language flub would've still yielded good results at this place. I bet everything's great.

We had the Crab Rangoon to start. We always love Crab Rangoon.



I had the Orange Chicken with chicken fried rice on the side. It was so fresh, and it was delicious. It was served with freshly cut orange slices and broccoli.



My partner loved her meal as well. We'll be back again and again. We've been in Chicago for almost 3 years, and this is our favorite Chinese food by miles.

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que

We recently went on a double date (with kids) to Chicago's new Dinosaur Bar-B-Que on W Weed St near the North Side. This is the chain's first Midwest location. All others are on the East coast.

We shared a few appetizers. We had the Creole Deviled Eggs, which I loved. They're Cajun-spiced with chives, and can be ordered in sets of 3, 6, or 12 pieces.



We also shared the Jumbo BBQ Chicken Wings, which can be ordered in sets of 3, 6, or 13. They're spice-rubbed, pit-smoked, then finished on the grill, and served with bleu cheese dressing, celery sticks, and covered in your choice of sauce. We split it up with a mild honey BBQ sauce, and hot wango tango sauce.



I ordered an original BBQ Pork Sandwich platter for myself, which comes with 2 sides. I chose fresh cut fries and mac & cheese as my sides.



We had a great time out with friends. It's family-friendly with lots of room. We had a large feast! The food was good, and fun to share. This place will only gain more popularity as Chicago experiences their legacy.

Twisted Tapas

Tonight, we revisited Twisted Tapas in Rogers Park. They were packed, so we ended up sitting at the bar. We had a few drinks, and shared the Baked Goat Cheese, which comes in a tomato sauce with garlic herb toast. It's a fairly standard tapas dish, and this is one of the better interpretations of it that we've ever tried. Another good time at Twisted Tapas.

Bang Bang Pie & Biscuits

Today, we had a snack/lunch at Bang Bang Pie & Biscuits on N California Ave between McLean Ave and Dickens Ave in Logan Square.

I ordered the Sausage Biscuit, which is a ginger sage sausage patty and cheddar cheese on a biscuit with seasonal jam on the side (currently, it's a raspberry mix). I added an egg to it. The biscuit sandwich was huge, and far too tall to eat as a sandwich, so I cut it into small bites, and tried to squeeze every ingredient into every forkful. I could really taste all of the spices in the obviously homemade sausage patty. The warm, soft biscuit just melted in my mouth.

My partner ordered a Key Lime Pie, which is key lime custard with lime zest and a very thick graham cracker crust.

We dined on their outside patio, which is large with lots of picnic seating and was quite sunny today. It's nice to have a comfortable specialty place like this in our neighborhood. I would definitely try other things on their menu, or just come back for this same thing.