Michigan restaurants

We recently visited the other side of Lake Michigan, and dined out a few times.

We went to Tabor Hill Winery and Restaurant at their vineyard on Mount Tabor Rd in Buchanan, MI. The restaurant leans on the fancier side, but doesn't turn anyone away, and the servers and hostesses are very nice. There are views of the vineyard through the large windows in the dining room. There are some bird feeders outside of the windows that the kids with us loved watching.

We're big fans of Tabor Hill's Classic Demi Sec, so we each had a glass. It's a sweet white wine with a fruity overtone, and the Midwest's best-selling wine.

We ordered the Sriracha Shrimp to start, which is fried shrimp tossed in Sriracha aioli with wonton chips and crushed peanuts. It was plated beautifully. It was sweet with the right balance of softness and crunch.



I ordered the Duck and Gnocchi, which is thin-sliced duck breast over potato gnocchi with spinach, roasted tomatoes, and Asiago cheese. The duck was perfectly tender, but the gnocchi was overcooked.



The next day for brunch, we ate at The Mason Jar Cafe on Water St in Benton Harbor, MI. They have a diverse and creative menu with high quality fresh, healthy ingredients that are locally-sourced and organic wherever possible.

I ordered the Spicy Egg Sandwich, which is one organic egg over easy with chipotle aioli, avocado, bacon, and Amish cheddar cheese on a plain bagel. It was delicious. It was spicy, but not overwhelming, and filling, but didn't leave me feeling like I'd eaten too much. It comes with breakfast potatoes on the side. It was a very tasty brunch. If I lived in this neighborhood, I'd probably be here all the time.

The Angry Crab

The Angry Crab is a Cajun-style seafood restaurant on N Lincoln Ave in West Rogers Park that opened this March. It's been very hyped, and I've heard there's been long waits. We went around 4:00pm on a Thursday and didn't have to wait at all; however, by the time we left, a line was forming.

It's run by a trio of Vietnamese brothers. This cross-cultural type of restaurant began opening in Vietnamese neighborhoods at the start of the century, and are known as "boiling points". This is Chicago's first one. Everything you order is cooked together in one big pot and served all together.

There is communal seating, tables are covered with paper, and everyone's given a bib. There's a variety of seafood shipped to the restaurant daily from the Gulf and served with your choice of spices in plastic bags. You eat right out of the bag and discard shells and waste right onto the table. There's no plates or utensils except for a shellfish cracker and shell opener.

Seafood options on the menu include live lobsters, live crawfish, clams, head-on shrimp, head-off shrimp, mussels, softshell crab, snow crab legs, king crab legs, Dungeness crab, and blue crab when it's in season. You order by the pound. The concept is that you choose your seafood, then choose your spices. We went for the snow crab legs, mussels, and the Ragin' Bulls spice mix, which was classified as semi-spicy. You can also add meats and vegetables to your boil. We opted to add 2 pieces of corn on the cob, and 2 red potatoes, which were good additions. I also added a side of butter for dipping.



On the side, we had softshell crab over Cajun-garlic fries, which came with ketchup and a spicy sauce. Both the softshell crab and fries seemed overcooked to me, but we scarfed down everything.



There's no other restaurant like this in Chicago. It's worth a trip at least once. Go early to avoid the rush, and BYOB.

Panes Bread Cafe

Panes Bread Cafe is a hidden gem on N Sheffield Ave between Nelson St and Wellington Ave in Lakeview. It's a casual, affordable (cash only), low-key little restaurant. The bread is some of the best bread in the city, and it's always fresh. My favorite sandwich to order to the Turkey Club, which includes roasted turkey, bacon, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. It's always served perfectly warm.

Turkey club sandwich

Lunch!

Turkey club sandwich

Ingredients (serves 2):

4 slices wheat bread
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp honey mustard
4 slices cheddar cheese
6 slices deli turkey
4 slices turkey bacon
2 leaves lettuce

1. Cook bacon on a skillet until desired crispness, turning often. Toast bread slices.
2. Build sandwich from the bottom up: Bread, mustard, lettuce, cheese, turkey, cheese, bacon, mayonnaise, bread.

Paladar

Today, we grabbed food at Paladar. It's a family owned and operated Cuban restaurant with an incredibly impressive rum bar. Photographs of the family don the walls, and it feels very homey. It's near the Regal Cinemas on Western, so it's a nice dinner before a movie for us.

We started with the Croquettas appetizer with cheese. They were delicious, and served with 3 different dipping sauces.



I ordered the Cuban Sandwich, which is slow roasted pork, ham, Swiss cheese, mustard, and pickles, grill pressed between Cuban bread. I'm a huge fan of Caribbean food, mostly because the meat is always so wonderfully falling-apart tender, and this was one of the best Cuban sandwiches I've ever had. That's a huge compliment.



Service is slow for sure, but it's very nice. It's a popular place with lots of regulars, and the food's great.

Lincoln Station

I recently revisited Lincoln Station. Truthfully, I go there a lot.

This time, I was just there for drinks and appetizers. Our server quickly informed us that half of the drink menu wasn't currently available. We found drinks to order anyway, and ordered the nachos with pulled pork.

There was lots of pulled pork and sour cream, but the rest of the toppings were skimpy.

Lincoln Station generally has good food, and it's a great place. At night, it gets loud and typically Lincoln Park frat-like, and I tend to avoid that, but in the day time, Lincoln Station is usually okay.

Quiche with Cotswold, prosciutto, and spinach

A gourmet breakfast!

Quiche with Cotswold, prosciutto, and spinach

Ingredients (serves 4):

1 Pillsbury pie crust
1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup fresh spinach, stems removed
7 eggs
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup Cotswold cheese, shredded
4 slices prosciutto

1. Roll out the Pillsbury pie crust into a round baking dish. Preheat the oven to 400°.
2. In a sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic, then spinach. Heat until the spinach is wilted, then dry with a paper towel to remove moisture.
3. In a large bowl, crack the eggs and add the heavy cream. Whisk together. Shred the Cotswold cheese into the bowl, and whisk it in, too.
4. Spread the garlic and spinach mixture over the pie crust, then pour the egg and cheese mixture over that.
5. Top the quiche with prosciutto slices pushing them into the egg mixture.
6. Heat in the oven for 30 minutes. Let it settle for a couple of minutes, then cut, and serve.

(I only put prosciutto on a bit of this since my other half is a vegetarian of sorts. I happily ate all the prosciutto.)