Resident Foodies say: If you like vegan food, you will absolutely love the vegan fare at Native Foods in Chicago. It tastes so good, you can’t even tell it is vegan food.
Our favorite dish is the vegan portobello, sausage burger. You can select the side, and tonight we chose the irresistible sweet potato fries with chipotle dipping sauce. Chef Tanya describes the dish on the menu: “Juicy grilled portobellos, our homemade Native Sausage Seitan, caramelized onions, pomodoro, sweet roasted garlic, creamy pumpkin seed pesto and mayo.” The portobello is the star of the sandwich. And the sweet potato fries are sweet and savory, a delectable combination.
This weekend, Native Foods will have a special item–drunken tofu banh mi sandwiches! Can’t wait.
Resident Foodies say: We tried out the new restaurant Balena (meaning whale), the next in the line of Boka group restaurants. The restaurant has a rustic, but chic decor, with open beams and modern lighting in a spacious room that combines a bar and dining area with a very open feeling.
Chef Chris Pandel has put together an impressive menu of homemade Italian pastas and pizza, which are meant to be shared. We tried the black squid ink pasta (Tagliolini Nero), with crab and sea urchin. Gotta love black pasta, especially when homemade! The crab and sea urchin were delicious, too. The dish was a winner, although didn’t need the basil.
Perhaps even more yummy was the Heritage Polenta with butter, Dante cheese, and tomato sauce. Putting tomato sauce on polenta is a match made in heaven–providing a tasty comfort food that is downright irresistible. The arugula salad to start the meal was also pretty amazing. Our only other quibble is that the basket of “Peter’s bread” (Walnut Bread, Ramp Crostini, Roast Garlic Semolina, Lemon Pepper Challah) that is homemade and heavily touted by the server was not complimentary. What other Italian restaurant charges $5.00 for bread?
Bottom line: Balena is even better than the hype. We loved it.
Resident Foodies say: It’s the two year anniversary of our first pilgrimage to Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry in Yountville, California, currently one of only two 3-Michelin starred restaurants in the Bay Area. To our chagrin, we found the food to be mediocre that weekend and the service even worse–after waiting for 1 hour after being seated to receiving one morsel of food or bread. C’mon, kitchen, it’s not that difficult. Click here for our 2010 review of French Laundry.
Later, someone on the inside advised us that the reason The French Laundry may have been so bad on that July 4th weekend was that Chef Corey Lee had left to start his new restaurant Benu. Lee was the former Chef de Cuisine at French Laundry, and his departure left the kitchen at The French Laundry in transition–read: utter disarray-at the time.
Well, this past weekend we decided to try out Chef Lee’s Benu in San Francisco on the 2 year anniversary of our dismal food weekend at French Laundry. Happily, the experience we had at Benu was fantastic. We all were blown away by the creativity and taste of the 18 plates in the food tasting. There’s no surprise that Food and Wine Magazine named Lee (35 years old) one of the best new chefs of the year.
Each plating was visually beautiful. And the flavors were amazing, with an unbelievable crescendo building up all the way through the dessert. After several wonderful dishes, we did not think Chef Lee could top the last dish, but Lee kept proving us wrong. Each dish in the 18 courses kept amazing us with the creativity and distinctive flavors. Based on a head to head comparison, we believe that the young upstart Benu is already better–in terms of plating, creativity, and taste–than the old vanguard The French Laundry. It will only be a matter of time before Benu claims its third Michelin star, and The French Laundry quite possibly loses one. Benu is on the cutting edge of culinary creativity. Chef Lee deserves all the accolades he is now receiving. Bravo, Benu!
Resident Foodies say: We hit up Chef Tony Mantuano‘s new Bar Toma, a hop, skip, and a jump away from his renowned Spiaggia restaurant on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago. Bar Toma is known for its small Italian fare, plus wood oven pizzas.
Yesterday, we ordered the Smoke and Cure pizza–Vermont artisan pepperoni, mozzarella, and smoked garlic. The crust is thick at the edge, but thin inside. The wood burning oven gives the crust a great texture and nice char. We really enjoyed it and would definitely come back again.
The atmosphere at Bar Toma is warm and inviting–and the layout is pretty spacious for a bar in this area. We had no trouble getting seats at the bar on Thursday night, and, although we had reservations for a table, there did not appear to be a long wait.
Resident Foodies say: March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day, the occasion when everyone is Irish for a day. In Chicago, the City dyes the river green and holds its annual parade at noon, probably the biggest in the country. This year the Chicago river will be dyed green at 10 a.m. and the parade will start at noon.
Although green beer is usually the beverage of choice, we are opting for a tall glass of milk and this decadent chocolate cupcake, with buttery frosting, topped with chocolate and green-dyed sprinkles and, of course, a shamrock. The cake is mouth-watering moist, with just the right amount of chocolate to savor. Partaking of this delectable creation is not for the faint of heart. It’s gooey, chocolatey, and so unbelievably good. Erin go bragh!
Vegan portobello sausage burger
