chicago!

last weekend we took a long weekend to Chicago for a much-needed little getaway. purpose was to check out the city, and EAT. we had 3 days, and 5 goals: deep dish pizza, Chicago dog, Italian beef sandwich, David Burke steakhouse, and mmmmmburger. it was a very fat weekend, but one of the better once i've had in sometime. to avoid a long, blabbering post, here is the top line of the pit stops:




1) Chicago dog: Honestly, this sounded disgusting to me -- not going to lie. definition of a C-dog consists of: all beef hot dog on poppy seed bun with yellow mustard, chopped onion, dill pickle, tomato, relish, celery salt (pretty much... every item i hate). that was Kyle's must-have try though (when in Rome...) ... he was happy as a clam to have one at the Cubs game, tho verdict was "too weird" tasting and not something he would order again. i had a modified version: dog with poppy seed bun, but only with a heaping pile of  caramelized onion on top. DAMN that was good.

2) Deep dish pizza: After experiencing this MASSIVE brick of pizza, i realize that we have been misusing the term "pie" for pizza here in NY for a long time. it is exactly that - a colossal heavy crust of inches of cheese, sauce, toppings, cheese sauce, holy jesus. we got it from the original Gino's East which was next door to our hotel. it was an amazing mouth party, but... if i was going to do the inevitable NY vs. Chicago pizza hands-down i gotta go thin crust NY. deep dish pizza is not something you casually order on a Friday night and expect to move afterwards... we walked a few miles that night, and i felt like a fat piece of garbage. not sexy.

3) Italian beef sandwich: We had seen these bad boys on a few travel shows (Adam Richmond, Anthony Bourdain...); i wanted to try the Bourdain reco of Johnnie's Beef, but it was a bit out of our stomping ground, and Al's Beef (Richmond reco) kinda had a spot niched out in every little neighborhood. it was messy as hell, and a tasty sloppy treat. the hot pepper topping was a little weird (it had celery in it -- what is with the celery everywhere?), but it was still a well received meat treat on a hot summer afternoon.

4) David Burke's: Here's where things get serious. If you're not familiar with David Burke's, beyond having the title of the best steakhouse in Chicago, it has a Himalayan sea-salt tiled room where they dry-age their beef. after going through this process for anywhere from 30 to 75 days, the result is an uber-concentrated meat flavor. i ordered the 35-day aged rib eye (K the 55-day aged), and we split truffled mashed potatoes and asparagus served with poached egg, citrus, and parmesan. everything was as amazing as expected, with the surprise delight being the truffled mashed potatoes... i've never had my socks blown off by mashed potatoes (they are an amazing comfort food, but can only be "so good" on the scale of "yes I want that" foods").... these were effing ridiculous. i've had straight truffles before, but this... aah i don't even know. they have a touch of magic in everything here. including the bread, which looked like a gigantic loaf of hearty bread but turned out to be a light fluffy bread puff. served with pure extra fatty butter. F. i want to go back.

5) burger! This city is a city of 592380810983092834 amazing burger options. selecting one location was so stressful. we ended up going with Butcher & Burger. all the ingredients are the finest quality, local, etc as a base. they love cows. they love cows that eat delicious things. which leads to the happy result of them loving to eat delicious cows. the menu is a pick & play of patty types, patty spice blends, roll selections, toppings, cheeses, sauces. it's stressful to say the LEAST. i think i came out with the most fantastic combination of all time - 1) natural & local house blend beef patty; 2) salt & pepper spice blend; 3) swiss cheese; 4) griddled mushroom & caramelized onion; 5) black truffle aioli & 6) pretzel bun (which notably was pillow soft, not firm like most pretzel buns... over the top pleasant surprise). AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH one of the best i've ever had. amazing meat, amazing juicy patty, amazing every other ingredient added that made the most perfect flavor combo ever. STRONGLY RECOMMEND. if you are in Chi-town, GO. i went halfsies with K who did a bison burger with traditional toppings (cheddar, thick-cut bacon, fried egg)... also amazing. unread.

pretzel dawgz

this week was a terrible week. like trrrrrble trrrible. i was working in CT on Wednesday, and after a long day the prospect of my 2 hour drive home to Albany seemed pretty unsurmountable. whatever is a girl to do? 1) go to Forever 21 and treat yourself to a lil something something. because you deserve it. 2) say F to what is supposed to be a week (M-F only) of eating well, and get yourself a dang pretzel dog. oh hell yes.

(pic note: my nails were perfect before the day started. ho-hum)

it had been a while since i let myself indulge in one of these tasty devils from Pretzel Maker (formerly known as Pretzel Time), so after wiener was in hand (hehe!), i was actually PUMPED for my drive home (also... they are quite a convenient car food...why don't they have tiny pretzel stand drive-thrus? cha-ching$!). first things first tho... had to take a pic. i was shaking so much from hunger i had quite a photoshoot in my car before i got a clear shot. if you ever need to feel like you're doing something completely criminal, sit alone in your car in a parking lot, and take pictures of your wiener. when a car pulled in next to me, i actually threw my phone across the car and booked out of there... apparently my intincts knew before i did that i was being a complete creeper.

first bite. WOW, this is one salty dog! yar matey! and not from the pretzel salt, it was the meat (meat?) jacked UPPP on a sodium party. yamma hamma. this is not your average hotdog. 2 other things i noticed: 1) they wrapped the hotdog in a thin ribbon of pretzel, which is nice b/c it's like a perforated line spaced out just enough for each bite... you'll never bite into solid pretzel and risk not breaking through the pretzel shell, whereby popping the dog out the other end and leaving a hollow pretzel tube. 2) the pretzel is THIN... not as puffy as it used to be... with such a strong salty dog, i actually have a hard time tasting the pretzelly goodness. seemed like they might have worked their ribbon too hard here... we're making a pretzel dog, dawg, not a mummy. i paired this with day-old water from my car, which had slight notes of aged chapstick. it complimented my meal nicely, helping to balance out the large sodium uptake i was experiencing.

all in all, the p-dawg wasn't AS GOOD as i remember it, but these things are still SUCH a freaking delight that i will forever continue to indulge in. even with a proportion flaw which i seemed to focus on here, this little treat did turn my frown upside down. for a snack rating, p-dawgz in general are a 7 *******. need to visit Auntie Annes soon to do a comparision. drive home was definitely plagued with naughty-dinner guilt, accompanied by 2 hours straight of listening to the radio on scan to clutter my thoughts from the day. drive-on sociopath mode, drive-on.