CHI-TOWN, USA

Loving all things food, Paula and I decided to visit the city of Chicago for the first time and we ate…and ate…and ate. Chicago turned out to be a tremendous food mecca. Everyone we spoke to were passionate about their cuisine. We loved the fact that someone would tell us the “only” place to get pizza and if you mentioned any other place they would rage and call it a dump. Chicagoans have true food convictions and love to share them. We took plenty of photos, some of which were good, so I thought I would share some of our trip with you all.

Tom

Moto Restaurant

First up was a 5:30 reservation at Moto Restaurant, where Chef Homaro Cantu pushes the envelope with his cuisine. The first dish you receive is an edible menu with the 10 course menu written on one side and the 20 course grand tasting menu written on the other. Very cool and quite tasty as well.

Edible Menu

Next up was French onion soup with smeared gruyere cheese and house made funyun.

French onion soup with Funyun

The following dish started with an edible picture of what was to come. The picture was also flavoured like the following dish!? It was roasted breast of Capon with shredded confit leg of capon, blue cheese emulsion, celery leaves and pequin chili sauce. In short, it was supposed to taste like buffalo wings and it really did.

Edible, flavoured Picture

"Buffalo Wings"

The next dish was known as the daily pasta and it was actually a Reuben Lasagna. Layers of sauerkraut, corned beef, swiss cheese and caraway seeds. On the plate is house-made 1000 island dressing and a dehydrated dill pickle chip. While very interesting, the dish tasted exactly like a Big Mac, which was kind of creepy. When we told the server of our discovery, she was less than impressed. Oh well.

"Reuben Lasagna"

Our first dessert followed, which was supposed to be a Passion Fruit and Black Currant Ice Cram Happy Face but I think maybe their freezer was broken as the resulting dish was a bit of a mongoloid face.

Happy Face?!

Then came a second dessert with a pound cake on one side and a “Hamburger Macaroon” on the other side. There was also a “S’mores Bomb” along with an authentic marshmallow wick which they lit on fire and it burned down. Pretty imaginative.

Burger Macaroon and S'mores Bomb

Right next door to Moto is their sister restaurant Otom. After our first meal of the night we ventured next door for some casual cuisine. I enjoyed an interesting cocktail there comprised of Honeydew Melon, Watermelon Foam, gin and Prosciutto powder on the rim of the glass. We had 4 more dishes at Otom.

Morning Dew Cocktail

Cast Iron Mac'n'Cheese

"Potato Chip" Gnocchi with Pinenuts and Champagne Grapes

This was an interesting dish as they used crushed potato chips instead of potato for the gnocchi and the texture was like nothing I had experienced before.

Roasted Octopus with Fennel and Cherry Tomatoes

"Falafel Waffle"

This dish was a waffle shaped falafel with tahini yoghurt and roasted peach. Savoury and sweet. Different. We then took our leave from Otom and moved on to our third dinner of the night. L2O is the latest offering from acclaimed chef Laurent Gras (who also has an excellent blog, by the way) It is a seafood restaurant located in the Belden-Stratford Hotel near Lake Michigan.

L2O Front Door

This was one of the most beautiful restaurants I had seen and even though we were getting pretty full, I wanted to get the full experience.

Lobster Amuse Bouche

Olive Oil Poached Cod with Onion Flower

Santa Barbara Prawns

This was a phenomenal dish. It had the prawns prepared 3 ways. Grilled, Tempura and Sashimi (with the roe being deep-fried also) Then the head and brains were deep fried and served on a dish with a dipping sauce made from the shells; almost like a bisque mayonnaise.

Prawn head and dipping sauce

Next up was another amazing dish. So simple and textural. Fluke Sashimi with Ume Plum, Garlic Chips and Black Shiso leaf. Truly delicious.

Fluke Sashimi

 Following that dish was some piece of art. I was told it was Foie Gras, but had to do some serious hunting to find that tasty liver!

Foie Gras with Cotton Candy, Bee Pollen and edible Flowers

A little digging revealed the prize within!

The Gem Within - Foie Gras!

This dish was good but was definitely more art than substance. I guess that is the whole point of cotton candy though? I was anticipating “smoked” ribeye next but the server was a little overzealous and “accidentally” ordered the Wagyu Beef supplement for me (for a $105.00 supplement for that single dish!) I could tell by the look in his eye that he would probably be fired if I kicked up a stink so I gladly tucked into the dish.

Wagyu Beef with Lobster

This dish was great,adorned tableside with sauce americain. Potato Croquettes and Lobster mushroom. Paula’s Foie is in the way so the following picture is the completed dish.

Tasty Beef #2

This Beef was something special. The intramuscular fat was unbelievable and I may have well been eating meat flavoured butter!

Intramuscular Fat - the 2 sexiest words in the English Language

Next up was a mindblowing dessert. Chocolate, of course!

Chocolate Box

To the unasuming eye, a box of chocolate, but voila, never judge a book by its cover.

Layered Goodness

The interior consisted of Praline, Caramel, Chocolate Mousse, Chocolate Cake and Frangiapane. Possibly the best chocolate dessert I have ever had. Mignardise were up next.

Grapefruit Macaroons

Hibiscus Marshmallow

That was the end of the evening except for a tour of the amazing kitchen which I will post at another time. We ate a lot on that first day and were more than ready for a good sleep. Next up, Chicago-Blog day two. Get ready for Deep dish Pizza and Alinea. Two very different spectrums.

Tom

~ by refuel restaurant & bar on October 8, 2009.