Resident Foodies say: To celebrate President’s Day, we treated ourselves to brunch at our favorite neighborhood breakfast place, Esencia Urban Kitchen. Today, we had the salmon sandwich, made with salmon, jalapeno spread, red onions, tomatoes, capers, ciabatta bread. The combination is oh so tasty. Yum yum.
Resident Foodies say: We went back to Esencia Urban Kitchen on this amazing spring-like day. We tried the pesto chicken grilled cheese sandwich. It’s delicious. Grilled chicken breast, house pesto, red peppers, red onions, white cheddar on sourdough, what more can you ask for?
Resident Foodies say: It’s a true delight to eat at Beatrix, which serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday. Beatrix also has a bakery. Today, we’re featuring their croissants, both traditional and almond.
Resident Foodies say: Somedays, you discover something so good that you ask yourself, “How did I not know about this place?” Well, today, to take a break (or escape) from the Inauguration, we went to The Chicago Diner on Halsted, a cozy diner serving only vegetarian since 1983. Remarkable.
The veggie-only menu is very creative. Today, we had the Buddha’s Karma Burger, consisting of: curried sweet potato-tofu patty, grilled pineapple, lettuce, onion & chimichurri sauce, plus avocado. This dish is out of this world! An amazing combination of ingredients–especially the curried sweet potato tofu patty with chimichurri sauce–that will make you not ever want to eat a meat hamburger again.
Resident Foodies say: MLK Jr. Holiday was a good day for us to treat ourselves to brunch. We went to Esencia Urban Kitchen, located at a street corner in Lakeview. We tried the signature breakfast sandwich: it’s an egg and pesto sandwich with
sunny side eggs, house pesto, bacon, manchego cheese, arugula, on toasted sourdough bread.
Put simply, this sandwich is the best breakfast sandwich we’ve tasted. The toasted sourdough bread, along with pesto spread, gives this sandwich an unmatched flair. If you have this sandwich, you will leave very, very satisfied.
Veggie shuyu ramen
Resident Foodies say: We finally made it over to Four Belly, which touts itself as selling Asian street food. Today, we had the veggie shuyu ramen, with veggie broth | soy sauce | spinach | menma bamboo | cabbage | scallion | nitamago egg | red pickled ginger. It was tasty! What we loved most was how many ramen noodles were served in the bowl. It was practically the entire bowl! Very thin ramen strands, but a ton of them. It’s the most filling and satisfying bowl of ramen we’ve had in Chicago.
We also had the grilled sweet corn served in house coconut milk. It was yummy, though probably not as good as the one at Sunda restaurant. That’s more of a fine dining place, though, while Four Belly is at a much cheaper price point.
