I’m heading up to Chicago for the long weekend on Thursday and was wondering if you have a restaurant recommendation to add to my fairly long list of restaurants to go check out. Keep in mind that it’s Taste of Chicago weekend, so any restaurant that’ll already be at taste will probably not merit a visit from me. Assuming room for only lunch and dinner (ha!), I’ll have 7 meals in Chicago. I have blocked off all Saturday for Taste so there goes 2 slots and also have made plans for 3 other slots. So that leaves a grand total of 2 slots open, I’m pretty sure I’m going to spend one of them on a nice Chicago Style deep dish place. So really that only leaves one spot open (lol). Fortunately, I’ll have fellow foodies Carol & Tiem showing me around as my accomplices, so I’m sure they’ll have good suggestions if all else fails.
Here’s what I got lined up so far:
avec
Hot Doug’s
Alinea
Here’re some ideas I have for the 1 (or possibly 2, if someone has awesome suggestions) that I want to do with the openings:
Chicago Style Pizza
Ramen
Dim Sum
Oh and as far as I know breakfast is all open too, if I’m crazy.
Either way, there’re only so much time and so much I can eat. I’d appreicate it if you leave me some suggestions in the comments section. Thanks in advance and fire away!!
I started to blog on my trip to Phoenix for the Fiesta Bowl (way back in Jan. ‘09), funny thing is, spring ball is over now and the new football season is not too far away – and it’s still sitting in my draft box. I have this habit of starting blogs and never finishing the entry (I choose to call it writer’s block, but most people call it laziness), I think that’s why I’m on twitter so much – 140 characters is not too much and I don’t have to worry about continuity. Anyways, I figured I’d blog about my trip to Barcelona before it gets awkward (if it’s not already at or past that point?)
We got into BCN from ATL around 9am, after going through customs and running a few errands, we took the Aerobus A1 from the airport straight to Plaça de Catalunya. Being a little bit of a foodie myself, one of the awesome things about this trip is that we are all food lovers so naturally, we stopped for some tapas (with all our luggage in tow) as soon as we got to Plaça de Catalunya.
The First Bite
The first place we ate at was “Txapela”. Like one of the reviews Mian found while we were doing research for the trip said, this place is not necessarily the best place for tapas, but it is a good place to start. I really appreciated the fact that there’s ample outdoor seating so you can soak in the streets of Barcelona and while it’s not too far away from Plaça de Catalunya and Las Ramblas. One of the things I liked the most (besides a really strong Sangria) was that the tapas menu had pictures even though the wait staff didn’t speak much English. Check out some of the goodies we ate:
Txapela
Paseo Gràcia 8
08007 Barcelona, Spain
934 120 289
Continue reading 'Barcelona – Day 1'»
I kind of always knew that it was only a matter of time before I move my blog back to my domain after I moved it to wordpress.com a few weeks ago. Due to the limitations to the embeded materials over at wordpress.com, I decided to migrate the blog back to my own domain. So please check update your bookmarks/RSS feeds accordingly… Thanks!!!
I’ve had June 10th circled on my calender for about a month now. On June 10th, 24 very accomplished chefs will compete on behalf of a charity on a new “Top Chef” spin off called “Top Chef: Masters“. It’ll be a brand new cast, new host (Sorry Kelly Choi, but no one can replace Padma), new judges, everything. There’re a few very well known chefs (some have also made Top Chef appearances) – Hubert Keller, Wylie Dufresne, Roy Yamaguchi, Rick Bayless, Rick Moonen, & John Besh just to name the few that I know off the top of my head. Here are a few things I’m looking for on the show:
1. Since they are all very well known chefs (at least amongst foodies), it’ll be interesting to see what the chefs can do without their supporting cast (sous chefs, pastry chefs, etc.) While I don’t think they’ll throw everyone in a knife skills competition right away, I think that those who aren’t in a restaurant everyday would have a significant disadvantage.
2. Some of these chefs are specialists in a particular type of cuisine, it’ll be interesting to see how they’ll handle the curve balls that TC like to throw at the contestants.
3. It’ll be interesting to see how some of these very successful chefs handle the criticisms of the judges. Generally, chefs (especially the highly successful ones) have a certain type of personality and for the most part, I don’t think they’ll handle the criticisms well (no matter how credible the judges are).
4. I feel that there’s a wider range as far as the age range of the contestants. It’ll be interesting to see how experience will play in and also how innovation (challenging/redefining old concepts) will play into the contest.
Top Chef Masters airs on Bravo at 10pm EST on Wednesday.
“It’s not as much about the result, as it is about the journey.”
How true is that statement?? What a story that unfolded in France on Sunday!! For those of you who don’t follow tennis, history was made in a rainy afternoon in Paris. Roger Federer was crowned the 2009 French Open Champion while completing the career grand slam and, most importantly, won his record tying 14th career grand slam title. I never watched tennis growing up. In fact, it wasn’t until the Andy Roddick – Roger Federer match at the 2006 US Open that I started watching tennis (while I was waiting for a haircut). I was actually cheering for Roddick that day since I knew he was a fellow Austinite. But Federer was simply too good.
Fast forward a few years and I found myself riding along an emotional roller coaster that had him losing a heart-break at both the 2008 Wimbledon and the 2009 Australian Open to Nada, an up and coming tennis machine that is pretty much the human version of Pong. You can see from the first video (after the jump) that Federer wanted it bad – there was no question about it. And this is what made #14 so sweet (and #15 even sweeter if he redeems himself at Wimbledon against Nadal).
Continue reading 'From heartbreak to GOAT.'»
Roger Federer - Champion of 2009 French Open
Congratulations Roger Federer for winning the 2009 French Open, completing the career slam, and winning your record tying 14th career grand slam!!! This one hasn’t come easy, enjoy it and get ready to capture #15 at Wimbledon!!!
Tonight was apparently the grand finale of “Bistro 2404″ – a little hole-in-the-wall bistro located somewhere in my fantasy that just happened to be a few feet from where I sleep. The grand finale was, ironically, my choice for my “last meal on earth” – paella (and not just any paella, but paella made from lobster stock). If you’re a seafood fan and have never had a good paella before, there are 2 small containers in my fridge that you might be able to claim if you take Matt out.
After I added the last picture to the “Bistro 2404″ set (slideshow) onto my flickr, I decided to take a look back at how this all got started. The first picture was uploaded 11/22/2007 – when we opened up our house to Vox for Thanksgiving. I had agreed to make the turkey and I threw in a corn relish on the side. Then eventually, that led to having neighborhoods at our place (even though it was all guys and Jen). Then somewhere along the way, I joined the volunteer program at Central Market. Then the rest is history. Even though culinarily, I’ve come a long ways since November of 2007, I feel like I should really thank all the friends gracious enough to compliment me on my cooking and, more importantly – at times, brave enough to try ANYTHING I make (the braised beef tongue was a hard sell at first, but eventually all the roommates tried and loved it).
For those of you that have kept up with my blog, you might be wondering why I’ve taken my personally blog off my own domain and moved it here to wordpress.com. This is probably as good a time to tell y’all as any, seeing how I usually start blog posts and never finish it. So here I go… While I haven’t hammered out the details yet, I am excited to share that I’ll be starting a new blog/food project on my domain. Be sure to periodically check up here for when I’ll launch the new site. It’s going to be fun. =)
In all seriousness however, I should probably tell you all now that I’m not a rock star in the kitchen – there’re countless people better in the kitchen than me. I just think food is important. It was really over the course of the last year or so that I got to really see the importance of food. There’re many reason why I do what I do. I love seeing a random group of people get together for a meal, I love seeing friends being made, I love seeing the moment when people are getting introduced to new flavors, I love seeing people agonize over how awesome something taste, I laugh when people pass out after a meal. I abso-freakin’-lutely love all of that. So let me take this opportunity again to thank those that have helped me carry out this little fantasy bistro of mine for this. Here’s to all the memories of “Bistro 2404″ and all the potentials for the new place that still remains nameless.
Mian found this interesting proposal/deal online for a “Go Car” rental for Barcelona.
BLOGGERS SPECIAL OFFER!
If you have a blog the rental is for free; your only have to tell about your experience in your blog.
Offer details:
*One free two hours long tour (the first time you use the service).
* Please mention you’re a blogger when you book your tour with the link to your blog.
*After the tour, when you can, publish in your blog your own experience. Of course you can write what you want either if you liked it or not.
*To book, send us an e-mail with BLOGGER as subject. Offer available ONLY with previous booking by e-mail.
I’ll let you guys know how this offer pans out. =)
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