As good as a bowl of arroz caldo

Dinner in photos: Wasabi in Logan Square 5/30/12. And my quick thoughts:

+Wasabi is much more than its standard name. It’s a Japanese restaurant but the items are not your typical fare.

+The place comes off as a sushi spot for sure, with its long sushi bar taking up the back right wall of the restaurant. I actually couldn’t care much for the ambience. Dark sushi bars are just so, well, common.

+The food here is comforting and hearty. Just what I like. But the atmosphere to me just doesn’t exude that. If it were up to me, I would re-do Wasabi with a more original name and a homey/lodgy feel and soft room lighting. A Japanese den perhaps. The outside is great with its earthy feel but the inside just doesn’t do it justice.

+The food, however, does not mess around. I loved the ramen, which you’ll see below. And they had some great appetizer offerings as well. The above photo is the ArtMex maki of tuna, avocado, yellowtail, jalapeños & etc. It’s their most popular roll and now one of my most favorite rolls of all time. I am definitely coming back! If you go: make sure you get a taste of the garlic miso ramen. It’s extremely delicious and unique!

The dangerously addicting Chicken Lollipops!

The chicken took on more of a meatball shape, which only made it easier to devour these babies in one bite. The sauce was great, too. Some kind of aioli. The dash of lemon on top made all the difference. You know I love something when I say, “You know what this would be good with? Rice!!!”

Finally, the main event: The famed Tonkatsu Ramen with berkshire pork cheek, a delicious boiled egg and shitake mushrooms. This was the highly recommended ramen on the menu. It was more than just delicious ramen but the broth was like nothing I have had before. It was like a mushroom soup without the extreme creaminess. The slices of mushroom were the perfect texture.

Chocolate Molten Lava Cake with vanilla ice cream and raspberry drizzle. Normally I am not big on ordering molten lava-type desserts, but our server gave this to us on the house after we waited 20 minutes for service. Yes, service is a little questionable, but I’d still go back!

First attempt making a poached egg… Didn’t go so well. Still delicious. (Taken with instagram)

Chicago Restaurant Week 2012

* Restaurant 1: Roka Akor

* Restaurant 2: Piccolo Sogno

—Best tasting: Roka Akor

—Best deal: Piccolo Sogno

I try to go to at least one or two restaurants during Restaurant Week. I enjoy the fun of trying a menu and figuring out what appetizer would compliment which entree, and with what dessert to top everything off. I don’t have the urge to dine out every night, but I do try to make a point of trying a new place and eating with good company.

This year, I dined at two places - one (fairly) new, Roka Akor, and one (a bit) older - Piccolo Sogno. Both were good in their own respects and represented what each restaurant aims to do best.

For Roka Akor, it was grilled Japanese/Asian dishes. And as expected, everything that came off the grill was succulent, savory and aromatic. The pork belly (bottom photo in collage) was not on the Restaurant Week menu but it was my favorite item we ate at Roka.

We had: grilled mushrooms, edemame, white miso soup*, crispy fried squid, rock shrimp tempura, the beef filet and glazed pork ribs*. The non-RW menu item was the delectable pork belly.*

The items I marked with an asterisk were my favorites. I didn’t really enjoy the beef fillet, unfortunately. But I’ve also limited my red meat intake since January, so that probably had a lot to do with it. I didn’t feel well after all that meat. The pork ribs were great - salty, crispy on the edges and tender with each bite.

Besides the delicious food, the menu was a bit confusing because for $44, you shared the first and last course and had your own entree. I’m used to just knowing that I get three square courses, at least, for myself at usually $33 but sometimes $44 at some establishments.

Oddly enough, myself and three others dined on the first night of Restaurant Week and a few servers kept bringing us dish after dish. Instead of sharing our appetizers, we were getting doubles of everything and even a few items we had not ordered!

Restaurant Week is always an experience and that was definitely a meal to remember since we tried nearly everything on the RW menu! (Albeit, by accident most likely.)

The second and last restaurant I dined at was Piccolo Sogno. My colleagues had been talking up this place for months and I was dying to try it. I love authentic, good old home-style Italian food. Piccolo Sogno is that old-school, yet modern and upscale Italian restaurant where the waiters are actually Italian, and English is not their first language.

In short, I enjoyed the atmosphere, service and smells of being in a classic Italian restaurant. I think I will have to go back, however, to try some more dishes because I wasn’t completely blown away by anything — except the panna cotta (fantastic!).

It was a great deal, however. This dish above was a braised oxtail (don’t ask me how it was Italian) as an APPETIZER. Yep, this was just the beginning. It was good, but I know my oxtail coming from a Filipino family that eats oxtail on the regular, and it tasted more like a pot roast. You should be able to distinctly taste a difference between oxtail and regular beef. But in this dish, it just didn’t deliver.

Of note, was my friend’s dish of cod with spinach, but it’s not on the regular menu, it appears. Not worth sharing a picture was my pasta entree, unfortunately. The paglia e fieno con vitello was a “straw and hay” green and white ribbon noodle pasta with veal ragu. The veal was delicious but the green and white ribbon noodles were too flavorful and didn’t seem to compliment the veal ragu as well as it should have.

When I go back, I’d like to try the saffron pasta — I love saffron. The best pasta of this kind, and the only one I’ve had really, is from the Loring Pasta Bar (http://www.loringcafe.com/) in Minneapolis. It’s also one of my favorite restaurants.

Finally, there were some positives: the panna cotta and my cappuccino — perfect.

I could eat this over and over again. And that would be a serious problem!

I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t enjoy every aspect of Piccolo Sogno, especially when I was so excited for my first visit. But I’ll definitely go in with solid recommendations on items next time. A visit to Piccolo with the same ladies I dined with is already in order for the summer! They have a beautiful outdoor patio that comes highly recommended.

smilingfork:

Homemade Thin Mints

Difficulty:
★☆☆☆☆ (very easy)

Ingredients:

Cookies:

8 ounces butter

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

¾ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

Coating:

10 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate

1 ½ teaspoon peppermint extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter until light and fluffy, then add the powdered sugar and mix until combined. Stir in the salt, vanilla and cocoa powder. Mix until the cocoa powder is integrated and the batter resembles a thick frosting. Add the flour and mix just until the flour is combined, making sure to not over mix.

Form dough into a ball. Knead a few times to bring together, then flatten into a disk between half an inch and one inch thick, cover in plastic wrap then place in freezer for 15 minutes.

Remove dough from the freezer and roll it out really thin on a floured surface, about 1/8-inch. Cut cookies using 1 1/2-inch cutter.

Place cookies on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool completely on a wire rack. While the cookies bake, make the peppermint coating. Chop the baking chocolate into very small, thin pieces. Place in a glass measuring cup or similar container and microwave in short 15-20 second bursts. Stir in the peppermint extract. Feel free to add more peppermint as you see fit.

Gently drop the cookies, one at a time, into the coating. Turn to coat entirely, then lift the cookie out of the chocolate with the fork and bang the fork on the side of the pan until the extra coating drips off. Place on a parchment or plastic wrap-lined baking sheet, and repeat for the rest of the cookies. Place the cookies in the refrigerator or freezer to set.

Food from the weekend: homemade lumpia, stuffed jalapeños, chocolate mousse w/ cinnamon by @atrang26. (Taken with instagram)

Cooking rampage: orzo spinach salad, chicken chili, yellow curry chicken, brussels sprout salad (Taken with instagram)

From Seven Treasures in Chinatown: The 554, bbq pork with eggs and rice.

I never thought I’d say this, but this dish from Seven Treasures is Voltaire and I, on a plate. The first time Voltaire took me to this hole in the wall in Chinatown, his “favorite spot,” I wanted to run out of there. It was grimy and gross and I never wanted to come back. Through the years, and after attempts of trying other dishes other than 554, I realized that he was right—it’s really the best dish on the menu—I caved. And I learned to accept the fact my boyfriend now fiancé, was going to want to eat here frequently. Surprisingly, the place grew on me—a lot apparently.

I realized last night that it never really was about the atmosphere, the cleanliness, the service, or even that much about the food. (Ok fine maybe the 554 really is amazing, so it’s a little about the food) It was the fact that Voltaire and I have had some of the best conversations of our relationship here. I never realized that until last night.

It was just him and I stopping in for cheap eats after a long night of errands. Over comfort food, with no fancy lighting or music, we were as real as it can get: just conversating. Maybe it’s because there’s not much to do but talk there. I felt like I could be my most open there, like it was some safe haven where topics are fair game and a dialogue could begin no matter if it was unexpected.

I realized that I was sitting across from my best friend, someone who never judged me, has always given advice straight to my face, and has known me inside and out for the past 10 years.

I realized that in 8 years as a couple, we have entered adulthood together. He has seen me go from aspiring journalism student to published writer to…whatever I-want-to-do-next-in-my-life-I-will-support-you-in-it. And I have seen him grow from safe corporate ball and chain worker to sales beast to the ever-focused sky-is-the-limit-so-let’s-live-life-how-we-really-want-to man he wants to, and will, be.

*********

When we were out to dinner with friends on Friday, I was retelling the story of how Voltaire proposed to me. Our friend then reminded me about this key detail: how Voltaire made me a breakfast of spam, eggs and rice, and took a picture of the ring on my finger with this breakfast. It became our “money shot” if you will, of obligatory ring pictures to show friends and family.
Like the 554, that breakfast he made me on the day he asked to start our lives together, was as simple as it can get. If pictures alone told the story of our lives, I would want to look back at our photos and think that we were no-frills, down home type people. That we lived life not through fancy dinners, big trips or lavish dates (those are definitely OK some time), but through unexpected little slices of real, simple time together in the most unassuming places and moments.

When Voltaire met me, he told me I was one of the most down to earth people he has ever known. Well, I definitely met my match because under all his layers, he has taught me more about the little things in life than I could ever imagine.

Wow, that was a lot to pour out in a caption. Who ever thought I would write an ode to 554. Seven Treasures, you win. You’ve won my fiance’s heart and now you have mine.

Total side note: my single friends, I have one piece of advice. Be with someone who truly believes in you and you in him/her. You two are a team and if you can’t cheer for each other, you will never win.