Random food thoughts - Street edition

[Hirsh]



Going to my favourite Italian restaurant for lunch on Sunday, to fuel me for shopping in the afternoon!

Sunday has finally arrived...but do I have 4 cheese pizza or macaroni cheese???

I love both so it's a tough call, but ATM the pizza is calling me..just another few hours to go!

 

[jet]

have you considered a salad or something else with some actual nutritional content?

 

[Find Finn]

Clearly not.

 

[1969]

Upcoming stops in Chicago and Seattle- downtown for both. Need some cheap street food recs please. Food carts, counter service or cheap sit down places are all appreciated. Legit international is preferred over hipster food unless it's completely off the chain can't miss.

 

[Kvc06]

Not really much worth mentioning downtown... We're also not really known for counter service unless you're into Chicago Dogs/Beef - in which case check out Portillos and/or Al's Beef

M Burger is good
Pierogi Heaven
Blackbird does a $25 three course lunch
Xoco is awesome

There's a Pho place in my office building that's always packed - Green Apple

There's some cool stuff in the French Market which is in a train station.

Where specificially are you staying by?

 

[Kvc06]



You're about a week late, but perhaps others can learn from your knowledge.

Alas, I only made one mistake with my dining dollars while in Chicago. I had the donuts from Glazed and Infused. They were fine, but at $3 a pop, not that good.

Loaded my cooler with frozen pizzas from Lou Malnatii's (my personal fave).

Yeah Glazed is crazy overpriced...

Good call on the Lou's

I suppose I'll put in a request as well:

Anything for Charlotte, NC or NYC near central park?

 

[1969]



Yeah Glazed is crazy overpriced...

Good call on the Lou's

I suppose I'll put in a request as well:

Anything for Charlotte, NC or NYC near central park?

KVC thanks. I'm staying at Hotel Lincoln (south end of Lincoln Park) and working around the southeast side of the 290/94 interchange (Harrison and Canal basically). I love pierogies so that's on the list for sure as is Lou Mals.

I'm actually from Charlotte originally. Price's Chicken Coop is still open and it's pretty great. Other than that all the great soul food places and meat and three have closed.and the rest of it's a culinary wasteland.
(EDIT: there are some decent ethnic places along Central Ave like Ben Thanh, Cedarland and probably some mexican and central american places I can't recall)

 

[Kvc06]



KVC thanks. I'm staying at Hotel Lincoln (south end of Lincoln Park) and working around the southeast side of the 290/94 interchange (Harrison and Canal basically). I love pierogies so that's on the list for sure as is Lou Mals.

I'm actually from Charlotte originally. Price's Chicken Coop is still open and it's pretty great. Other than that all the great soul food places and meat and three have closed.and the rest of it's a culinary wasteland.
(EDIT: there are some decent ethnic places along Central Ave like Ben Thanh, Cedarland and probably some mexican and central american places I can't recall)

Awesome - I will check those out.

I love Hotel Lincoln! I've stayed there with the girlfriend for a staycation. You will love the bar there - it's a summer destination with an awesome rooftop and great drinks. The hotel restaurant is quite acclaimed as well but a little pricey.

There are actually quite a few good options near there for cheap food.

Edzo's (famous burger shop)
Crisp (Korean Chicken Wings)
Del Seoul (Korean Tacos)
Kuma's Too (Lincoln Park outpost of our most famous burger shop)
2 Sparrows for breakfast/brunch

I eat out way too much...

 

[steveoffice]



Will be in Chicago this weekend and will probably get some Italian Beef at some point. Do I go Portillio's, Mr. Beef, or other?

i discovered this thread too late... all the donut places in chicago are overpriced and mediocre minus donut vault (good but still overpriced) and old fashioned. at least you had lou mal's

 

[LA Guy]

Thought I'd revive this.

I'm in Lyon right now, and Lyon is one of the food capitals of France. There are 31 Michelin Stars in the city, and there are entire streets of awesome restaurants, every one of which, in most other cities, would be hands down the best restaurant in that city.

Although it has a reputation for being hoity toity, the best French food is essentially peasant fare, and it's mostly all about the sauces. I like to go early to lunch - places are mostly empty for the first 30 minutes after then open at 12, and it's nice to have the place mostly to yourself, and have the best seat. A lot of places, people recommend reservations, but honestly, it's not NYC or San Francisco, where people line up for a ridiculously long time for a mix between a croissant and a donut. Unless it is a place that has been on t.v. a lot, you can walk into even the best restaurants, during an unbusy time, and eat there.

Today's lunch:
The world's best tuna salad (seriously, that is pretty close to what it is

the slightly spicy pickled peppers really make this dish. Oh, and the tuna is probably not from a can.

The second course was, duck! Not much to say about this, except that the meat was cooked perfectly, and the sauce was really tasty. A bit salty, not very sweet. Also, only in France are the accompanying vegetables so good. The sweetness all came from the roasted carrots.



The other thing is that really good cheese, in France, is cheap. I had half of a Saint-Marcelin in lieu of desert, It was included as part of the meal, which was 25 Euros. In the US, that would have been a $10 piece of cheese at some specialty store. At a restaurant, a cheese plate is typically $12 or more. This restaurant, the Brasserie le Sud, is sorta a famous place (thus the non-peasant style of plating). Most places, the menu de jour tops out at $20 Euros or so, and a lot of places have decent menus for about $12-13 Euros at lunch.

 

[cyc wid it]

Bourdain's Lyon episode with Daniel Boulud was pretty entertaining.

 

[RegisDB9]



Bourdain's Lyon episode with Daniel Boulud was pretty entertaining.

Cafe Boulud here in Palm Beach is one of my favorite hangouts. Best lunch in town

 

[cyc wid it]

Shake Shack anniversary. http://www.shakeshack.com/2014/06/03/shake-shack-decade-of-shack-june-9-13/

 

[jet]

croissant and donut had me going fok

 

[LA Guy]

Yesterday, at Paul Bocuse's Brasserie le Sud, which is amazing. As you guys who saw Bourdain's Lyon episode know, the dude is the culinary king here. He has the restaurants in all the prime real estate. The le Sud is at the end of a whole row of really good Brasseries on the Place Anton Poincet, looking directly at the Rhone.

Entree (starter) was salmon, with a sesame seed crust, which I've never seen before. The sauce was an asparagus cream sauce.


The plat was tuna. I forgot to take a picture before I cut into it, since I was ravenous, but you can see that the tuna is cooked, perfectly. As usual, the French do the sides amazingly. That rice pilaf, a mix of white and forbidden rice, with onions and carrots for sweetness, and butter for richness, was killer, and tbh, sorta competed with the protein (not a bad thing, both were delicious.)


The desert de jour was a raspberry tart with a meringue on top. I'm not sure how they preapred this, but as you can see, the raspberries were barely touched, but the meringue has a very light crust? I'm guess that it was put under a salamander very briefly:



These dishes are plated simply, but in a fairly modern way. I ate at the Cafe des Federations, the oldest Bouchon in Lyon, later, and the the preparations are much more traditional (the service is traditionally family style for the salads and the starter dishes, for example/)