~ Taste Buds: Chicago Food Tour ~

Did you know you have over 10,000 taste buds?  I didn't know either, but I found that out when I went on a food tour in Chicago through Taste Buds.  I love food tours!  You can to learn about the city and eat!!!  My friends and I went on the Gold Coast food tour.  Now, some of us are locals.  You don't need to be a tourist to enjoy these tours.  The Gold Coast tour has 6 stops:

• Pizano’s A family tradition, serving “World famous gourmet deep dish pizza” for over 60 years.
• Heaven on Seven The best Louisiana Cookin’ outside of New Orleans, serving Chicago for 30 years
• Purple Pig Cheese, Swine and Wine.  Featuring house made Charcuterie, cheeses and classic Mediterranean fare plus extensive yet accessible wine list.
• Downtown Dogs Chicago Style Hot dogs served 1 block off the Magnificent Mile.
• Billy Goat Tavern Grill World famous tavern is a historic Chicago landmark with the famous “Cheezeborger, Cheezeborger. Cheezeborger.,  Est 1934
• Sarah’s Pastries and candies.  Sarah’s Wedding cakes were featured in March 2010 Brides Magazine

Sarah's

My favorite was Sarah's Pastries... they have the best brownie I have ever had!  My husband who doesn't eat much sweets loved it too!  We even purchased other items for after dinner desserts.

Check out this brownie... it's a little bit crunchy on the outside and super moist and gooey on the issue. Tasted awesome and not too sweet!  I took so many pictures there that I am going to write a separate post about this place.

Pizano

Now I will go over the restaurants in the order that we visited.  First, yummy pizza at Pizano.  We had a slice of deep dish and a slice of thin crust, which was supposedly Oprah's favorite.  According to the tour guide, Pizano's pizza has the same origins as the famous Uno's pizza.  The crust is specially made unlike Uno though.  It was great pizza!!! The sausage was so good!!  I actually had an extra slice too 'cause they had extra.

Downtown Dogs

Next stop....Downtown Dogs for the famous Chicago hot dog.  I was so full by this point that I couldn't even eat my hot dog and just took it to go.  It looked good though.

Heaven on Seven

After walking for a lil bit to get some appetite back, we went to Heaven on Seven.  I took a lot of pictures here too because they have so many different kinds of hot sauces.  Just for that I need a separate post too.  Here's a picture of the food.  We got small portions of Jambalaya and gumbo , which was great.  Not spectacular though.  I expected more.... flavor from Cajun food I think.

Billy Goat's Tavern

Next, it was Billy Goat's Tavern.  Great history and stories for this place.  The burger was yummy too.  No fries though.  How can they not serve fries?  I love fries!

They gave me a hat to wear though so that's a bonus too I guess. :)

The Purple Pig

For our last stop, we headed over to the Purple Pig, named one of the best 10 new restaurants in America.   

We had the strawberry ice cream drizzled with balsamic vinegar.  What?  That sounds weird right?  But it was not bad.  The first bite was shocking.  Then, it just tasted like....refreshingly tarte and fresh strawberry ice cream.

The Purple Pig was a tiny little place, but looks very cozy.  They have outdoor seating too.  And...some interesting dishes like pig ears and pig tails. 

Tourists Stops

We stopped by Drake's hotel to use their bathroom and checked out the famous powder room. We got a piece of chocolate from Drake and a coupon for high tea. The chocolate was very good! It was a little bonus in the tour.

It is a Chicago tour after all so we got to stop by the John Hancock building and the Water Tower.

Overall, it was a great experience!  Most of the food was excellent and only some are mediocre.  The tour guide was great too.  He had many entertaining stories.  For a 3 hour tour and all that food, $44 was not bad at all.  We were all very full, even the big boys.  We were also allowed to buy products at every stop, which we weren't able to do on other tours.  Ordering the tickets online was very convenient too.  Just thinking about the tour is making me hungry!

~ Awesome Happy Hour at Cafe Chi in Chicago ~

I am sitting here, thinking about an upcoming trip to Chicago and I realized I never wrote about Cafe Chi from my last trip! Cafe Chi is located in the Chinatown Bazaar, on the Walgreen side. It's pretty hip looking and has a lot of Hong Kong Cafe style food. What I absolutely love about that place is its "Happy Hour"

Happy Hour is really more like "afternoon tea".  They have a few dishes with a drink for $3.95 from 2:30 - 6:00pm!  $3.95!!!  That's less than a Big Mac meal from McDonald's and I would much rather eat this.  By the way, cold drink is extra.  I forgot how much, but I am sure it's less than $1.

This is the Satay Beef Noodle Soup.  I like it.  I am a fan of noodle soups.

This is the Beef Brisket Flat Noodle Soup. It was good too. I just personally don't care for brisket.  But the noodles were good.

One thing I love about this place is that their tables has drawers for utensils and napkins!  How many times do you have to wait for the waiter to bring you a fork or a napkin?  Wait no more!  It's all here for you.  Great design!

Here's a picture of the menu so you know can see the Chinese name and the address.  Great little place for a quick meal!  They even have fried chicken wings with fries for their happy hour so you are not stuck with just Chinese food!  Yumm.... hungry now!

~ I Ate Momo at Ma & I Thai Restaurant ~

Yes, that's right. I ate Momo. It was yummy!


I don't know why that sushi roll is called Momo. It doesn't even have peach in it (momo means peach in Japanese). But, I saw it and I just had to have it. I never had asparagus in sushi before It was pretty good!


If you want to try Momo too, then head over to Ma & I in the South Loop of Chicago. It's a cute little place on Michigan between 13th and Roosevelt. The food was good. The staff was polite and service was quick. What I love the most is the layout though. They have these huge windows that were open when we were there. It was a nice, quiet Chicago evening and it just felt great to eat in that relaxing, urban environment.


Besides Momo, I also tried their curry. It was decent. Not too spicy. Overall it's a great little place to go to. If I live in the South Loop, I would probably walk over there for a relaxed dinner a few times a month. Sometimes, I do envy the urban life.

~ Sweet and Tangy Chicken from Take Me Out ~

Today, my friend took me to get "wings" at a little place in Pilsen of Chicago called Take Me Out. He said it's the exact same recipe as the famous hot wings of the Great Seas on Lawrence. From what I read on Yelp, it sounds like Take Me Out is owned by the daughter of the Great Seas owners. So, the recipe should be the same.


These yummy wings are called Hotties. There are different kinds and I got the Buffalo Hotties with purple rice. I love purple rice because it tastes just as good as regular rice and it's good for you! The wings were yummy! It's sweet, sticky and spicy. The wings are plump and juicy, not like some wings place that overfry the wings. I ordered it to be "spicy" but it wasn't too bad. It was a decent burn.


This is the healthy hotties. It's basically the sweet and spicy sauce stir fried with chunks of chicken breasts and broccoli. It was really good!!! It's all about the sauce and the sauce was so good with the rice! I ate all the rice and left a few pieces of wings for my brother.


The decor of the place is simple and modern. It looks like a small fast food joint and that's what it is. It's like a modern take of a Chinese chop suey take out joint.


If your tongue is burning from the hotties, head over to Tienda Mini-Mart across the little street for some Italian ice or ice cream.


I don't care for Italian ice, but my friend loves it. He got the strawberry lemonade flavor. There's a little sign there that says to try it with chili powder. Really?? The nice owner said that a lot of people ask for it. Let me know if you try it. What's the big deal?


So, this is the first of a few food posts from my Chicago trip. Are you excited? I gained 2 lbs over 1 weekend here. Too much food!!!

~ Instant Ice Cream with Liquid Nitrogen at iCream Cafe ~

One thing I love about my friends is that they take me out to eat whenever I am in Chicago. They know some great places to eat. Maybe that's why I gained 2 lbs since I arrived a few days ago. It was really hot yesterday and they brought me to this special ice cream place called iCream Cafe in Wicker Park.


What's so special? Well, they make the ice cream/frozen yogurt on the spot. Like from liquid to yummy ice cold creamy goodness after you order. They use these machines and liquid nitrogen to quickly freeze the ice cream right there for you! They can make ice cream, yogurt and pudding, all with low fat options. You get to pick the flavor and toppings. You can even pick the color except for the chocolate flavor. It's very fun!


I got raspberry and hazenut with oreo crumbs. And yes, I asked them to make it yellow. Unfortunately, there was no raspberry taste at all. It wasn't bad. It was just bland. And it melted really quickly too.


My friend got a mixture that was recommended on the wall. They have some good suggestions on the wall that you can pick from if designing your own ice cream is too much for you. Please excuse the horrible picture. I was having a hard time not shaking the camera for some reason.


Overall, the ice cream was ok. It's very cool to watch them make it. The line was not very long, but it took a good amount of time for them to make everyone's ice cream. I do like how it's very close to the park so it was easy to just walk over there and hang out. Perfect activity for a nice summer day. Here's a random picture taken a couple doors down from iCream. It's kind of candid. I like it :) My friend is a good photographer and he gave me some good tips. I am officialy addicted to photography. I want a Nikon. :)

~ The Famous Fish Tacos at Carbon ~

My brother said, "We are taking you to eat fish tacos." I hate fish. I have only started to eat some fish in the last couple of years. He knows that. But, he insisted that it's good. I gave him the blank stare. His wife said, "It's an orgasm within an orgasm." Ok, that's all I needed to hear. I want to see what this O within an O is all about.

So, we drove around and parked under this bridge. Everything looked so gray and industrial and then there's this big red sign. "Carbon". It's pronounced "Car-bone", by the way.


According to their menu, they are all about "Authentic Mexicn Food"...."Burritos and Tacos with emphasis on protein versus filler"...."Live fire cooking"..."Signature Elote" and more. Inside is nice and cozy, except that I noticed two holes that look like bullet holes in the glass where my head was when I sat down. Oh well, that's not going to keep me away from good food :)


So, first up, the Elote. It tastes like spicy mayo with corn. I love mayo. I love a little spice. I love corn. I love it!!!


Then, it was the Fire Grilled Steak and Tequila-Lime Marinated Grilled Chicken Breast tacos.


There's medium and pineapple salsa if you want some too. They were ok. Nothing spectacular to me.


The steak taco was good! I could taste the live fire! Or whatever makes it taste very ... grilled. It was juicy and not too salty.


The chicken one was a little bland.


I had to put some hot salsa on it. That hot salsa had a pretty good kick. Good thing I had a big cup of authentic horchata. It definitely cooled the burn.


Ok, the famous fish taco. It's Tortilla Encrusted Tilapia with creamy tequila lime sauce and cabbage.


I can deal with fried fish usually. So, I was pretty excited.


It's a pretty big taco. I had to hold it with both hands. The fish was crispy and the sauce was tangy. With the cabbage and the flour tortilla, it didn't feel too oily at all. I like it a lot even though I usually don't like tilapia.


Next time I go, I am definitely getting more elote, steak and fish taco. Price is not bad at all. $2.5 for each taco. $2.75 with cheese. The elote is $1.75 for a small and $2.75 for a large. They also have burritos for about $6. Chicago's 10% tax sucks though.

I don't think they have a website, so here's the address:
300 W 26 Street, Chicago.