Dinner at Frontera Grill Chicago

For our dinner in the Windy City, we decided to go to our tried-and-true favorite, Frontera Grill. We are big fans of the cooking style of Chef Rick Bayless. We have been to his three restaurants, Xoco, Frontera Grill and Topolobampo. The first one is for casual dining, where you can come and order a bowl of soup or torta with a cup of spicy hot chocolate. The wait time on Saturday is about 30-40 minutes. The last one requires a reservation 3 months in advance. You can't just decide to go there at the last minute. It has 3 different tasting menu. The whole experience takes anywhere between 1.5 - 3 hours. When we went there, it took us 3 hours. Yeah, it was crazy long for a dinner, but we really enjoyed it and time flies when you are having fun.

Back to our Food Tour 2012, we chose to have a late dinner at Frontera Grill. We got there around 6.30 pm. The wait time was one and half hour. We did not even get a buzzer or pager, so we went back to our hotel to play game and chat in our comfort zone. We went back to Frontera around 7.20 pm, and lo and behold, we waited for 15-20 minutes for our table. The wait time was tolerable, as we were not too hungry so it did not bother us that much.

When we have dinner here, we always start with guacamole and tortilla chips. This time is no exception, except that we ordered a different kind which is called the Pure Green Guacamole. It has green chile de agua, grilled green onions, roasted tomatillo, anejo cheese, and heart radish. It tastes different from the usual guacamole that we enjoy with serrano pepper, onion, garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes. Nonetheless, this guacamole was very good and we really enjoyed every bit of it. My husband ordered a glass of Jamaica Sangria and I ordered a glass of Fernet Pear Mojito to accompany our excellent starters.

We also love Frontera Grill's ceviche that is always fresh and has complex flavors. This time we came across a new ceviche that we have never tried before. It is called Jurel and it has fresh yellowtail, some coconut slivers, lime, and chile. This ceviche tastes amazing. It has so many layers of flavors that all work together, from the freshness of the fish, the acidity of the lime, the coconut, and the spiciness of the chile. They create a wonderful balance in my mouth.

After wonderful starters, we are excited for our entrees. My husband decided on sopes rancheros, one of the street food with four crispy corn masa boats filled with savory shredded beef, roasted tomato, avocado, homemade fresh cheese. They had the authentic Mexican flavorings that we craved for, and the different textures add depth to this entree. The crunchiness of the corn masa, the creaminess of the cheese, and the tender beef created a perfect balance.

I ordered mahi-mahi in Apricot Mole for myself. The fish was marinated in Adobo spices and it was served with red chile-roasted white sweet potatoes, Snug Haven spinach, and jicama-apricot mole. The sweet potatoes were so tender I could barely recognize them. The texture was more like butter and it just melt in my mouth. The apricot mole is really unique, it is close to red chile mole, but with some sweetness. I really love it.

After polishing both of our entrees, we were full and satisfied, but again, we did not want to miss the opportunity to taste a very unique flan. We ordered a duo of flan, the old-style caramel flan as well as a dark chocolate flan infused with ancho chile and served with bacon brittle. The classic caramel flan did not disappoint. The dark chocolate flan was interesting. The combination of chile and dark chocolate was simply wonderful, especially with the creamy texture and the addition of the texture of the bacon brittle. 

Simply put, this is a very memorable meal. Every single component of this meal was astounding and we would definitely come back, given a chance. In the meantime, we will keep cooking dishes from his cookbook, Mexican Everyday.

Lunch at Slurping Turtle Chicago

This post is the second portion of the Food Tour 2012 for us. After an excellent dinner at Bacchus, we took a trip to Chicago for the weekend. My husband and I are big fans of various food-related TV shows, including Master Top Chef. In this show, we were very intrigued of Chef Takashi Yagihashi's cooking style on TV, combining eastern and western elements. We were so thrilled to find out that he has 2 restaurants in Chicago and one of the restaurants is open for public and it does not need a reservation 3 months in advance. My heart was set on having lunch here, and we were so happy with our choice.

This is our first time here. Fortunately, this restaurant is within walking distance to the hotel we stayed at. We arrived around 12.30 pm. The decor is minimalistic and modern. The restaurant itself is narrow in front, but it goes all the way to the back. It has one main floor and half a second floor that is built like a deck. There is a long table in the middle of the first floor, where a lot of people are sharing this table while slurping their noodle dishes. We were waiting for around 20 minutes, which was acceptable since it was during lunch hour on a weekday. Our patience paid off. We got seated by the window on the second floor.

For the first appetizer, we ordered a ceviche of baby octopus, Hokkaido scallops, shrimps, squid and some vegetables in Yuzu-ceviche dressing. It tasted wonderful and perfectly balanced. There were several layers of flavor that work wonderfully. The acid cut through the seafood wonderfully. We enjoyed this dish very much.

We were contemplating several choices for the second appetizer. Our helpful server told us that the Duck Fat Fried Chicken was a very popular appetizer, so we decided to give it a try. It was very good, but I think we should've tried something else. The portion was decent and it came with a mini salad to cleanse the pallet. The chicken skin was very crispy and the inside was still moist.

Since we don't usually get sushi or sashimi out of Milwaukee, we wanted to try the sashimi platter. The fish was all fresh, from salmon, tuna, and yellowtail. We both are big fans of yellowtail usually and this yellowfish sashimi did not disappoint.

For the main dish, which I had been excited for weeks, we shared a tonkatsu, a bowl of ramen with thick and rich pork broth. It has braised pork shoulder, mushroom, and some pickled green mustard. This is hands down the best ramen in Chicago. It was just so rich and comforting, especially in such cold winter days in the midwest.

After tasting such a high variety of lunch, we were pondering whether we should get some dessert or not. We were very full at that point, but we did not want to miss the opportunity to try unique dessert (American / French dessert with Japanese flavors). So we ordered a sampler set of macarons to go: yuzu, chocolate-sesame, oba, caramel-soy, and raspberry-wasabi. We had the macarons in the hotel, in between this amazing lunch and yet another amazing dinner. We really enjoyed these unique macarons, especially the raspberry-wasabi. We will definitely come back and maybe try the other Takashi's restaurant.

Dinner at Bacchus Milwaukee

This is the first part of the dining series in the last week of 2012. This is a treat that my husband and I are giving each other for Christmas. I had been working long hours for the last half of the 2012 that my husband and I could not spend a lot of time together. So for Christmas, we decided to give each other the experience of dining and Chicago weekend getaway as a present to each other. We were in Green Bay for Christmas family extravaganza. My husband's family hosted tons of relatives that we rarely see in regular basis. We were happy to see them but we were glad when the hosting duty was over for the year. We went back to Milwaukee and recovered for one and half day, getting excited for our fabulous dining experience awaiting for us.

For the first portion of this dining fiesta, we selected a restaurant in Milwaukee that we had never set our foot into. We chose Bacchus, an upscale restaurant in the Bartolota's group. There are several Bartolota's restaurants in our area and they are known for the exceptional dining experience - excellent food and service.   We had a rather early reservation, around 6.30 pm.We arrived at a half full parking lot, which was good, considering that it could be tricky to find a parking space in downtown Milwaukee. We walked in and were greeted by a friendly host. The decor is minimalist and modern, which is aligned to our decor taste. There are many mirrors hanging by the wall. The color scheme is neutral and elegant.

For starters, we selected a tasting platter of 3 different kinds of cheese: Pleasant Ridge River of Uplands, Mont Amore of Sartori, and Capriko of Nordic Creamery. My husband ordered Winter Wind for his opening cocktail and I ordered a glass of Tempranillo wine from Spain, which I never had before. We were both very pleased with our choices. Bacchus is unique in a way that we don't have a series of appetizer, main entree and dessert. We wanted to try more appetizers (or small plates, as they call them), so we decided to order 2 small plates and share an entree. We ordered seared foie gras for the first small plate. We never had a whole piece of foie gras before. I know, I know, there are a lot of controversy surrounding foie gras. However, this is a treat and it's not like we plan to eat foie gras every month, or even every year. So as Julia Child said, "Moderation. Small portions. Sample a little bit of everything. These are the secrets of happiness and good health. You need to enjoy the good things in life.", we enjoyed every bit of it. All components worked together harmoniously, from the honey crisp apple compote, brioche French toast, bacon, topped with a quail egg and some maple syrup.

For our second appetizer, we had veal ravioli. It was excellent. The pasta tasted fresh and the brown butter sauce gave it a perfect balance. I personally am not a huge fan of ravioli, but my husband really loves ravioli, so I decided to give it another try. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised.

For main course, we split a braised beef short rib with cubed butternut squash, braised savoy cabbage, cranberries, and red wine sauce. We were very impressed with the dish. The tartness of the cranberries balances the richness of the beef and the sweetness of the squash. Again, all components work together and create a wonderful balance in your mouth. To accompany such rich main course, my husband ordered a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon from Hayes Ranch. He enjoyed this one as well. Since I am a lightweight, I only took a few sips of his wine and continued working on my glass of wine. Sorry for the "after" picture. We were too eager to take a bite before taking the beautiful picture beforehand.

Usually, when we go to restaurants, we are stuffed by the end of the main course and sometimes we have to pack some of the leftover to go. This time, we polished every single morsel on the plate and we were still feeling comfortable. So we decided to check out the dessert menu, to see if anything jumped out at us. We unanimously decided to order a scoop of eggnog ice cream, just because it is so unique, and a praline ganache bar accompanied with passion fruit ice cream and creme fraiche. This sounded an odd combination, but they both worked wonderfully. We truly enjoyed the dessert and the overall dining experience. The food was outstanding and the service was impeccable. We will definitely come back for another special occassion. Good eats!

Chinese New Year Meal(s)

By now, I have not celebrated Chinese New Year with my family for more than a decade. So I am doing what I can, living just with my hubby. For the last 3 years, I made a hot pot (Asian-style fondue) with different flavors of broth. I made the tom yum flavored broth last year and the year before. This year I decided to try something different and simpler, as I was hosting my parents in-law who don't really like spicy food. I made the broth from miso paste and hon-dashi.

As you can see from the pictures below, I had some bok choy, fried tofu, regular fish cakes, lemongrass-flavored fish cakes, beef tendon balls, pork balls, enoki mushrooms, another kind of wild mushroom and some thinly sliced beef tenderloin. Yum!

Dinner at Topolobampo Chicago

We had been dying to try this restaurant. We had been to Frontera Grill three times before and had a very good experience every single time. So we wanted to try Topolobampo.

It took me more than 3 months to get this dinner reservation. Initially I wanted to surprise my new husband for our wedding celebration. Well, just think of this as 4 month anniversary celebration. =P The wait was well worth it as it was the best dinner we both ever had.

This is my appetizer - the sausage and cheese salad with green verde sauce.

And this is my husband's appetizer: muscle soup

This is my soup entree:

And this is my husband's soup entree:

This is my first entree: halibut with sauce and caper

And this is my husband's first entree: seafood mix - this is my second favorite dish of the evening

This is my second entree: braised pork with some kind of polenta - this is our favorite dish of the evening. The flavor was so complex. It was very tasty, it had some smokiness to it, ahh, indescribable.

This is my husband's second entree: steak with amazingly complex flavor

This is my dessert: shortcake with berries, some crumbs and ice cream.

This is totally my kind of dessert, light, fruity and airy. Delectable!

This is my husband's dessert: chocolate cake with caramel sauce and ice cream.

This is totally his kind of dessert: chocolatey, rich, and decadent!

This is not a cheap meal, by any means. However, it is worth the experience. Obviously we cannot afford to go back every year, but this one time was totally worth it.

My First Real Birthday Cake

OK, I am obviously not celebrating my first birthday. I just decorated my first birthday cake for my father-in-law who celebrated his birthday recently. His favorite cake was yellow cake with chocolate frosting. For practice and in class, we always used white frosting. Since I did not want to take a chance, I bought 2 jars of Duncan Hines chocolate frosting. It is tasty by all means (although a little too sweet for my taste), but it is really hard to smooth, unlike the white frosting.

I ran out of ideas and I just got back from traveling for work that night, so here it is. I had to do it that Friday night because his birthday was on Saturday. Here is the picture of my humble cake.



Oh, my husband also gave this to his dad as part of his birthday gift, the new Crown Royal Black. It tastes smooth. If you like whiskey, this is a good one for you. :)

Mexican Fiesta Dinner

My husband is a huge fan of Mexican food. Not just Tex-mex, but also real authentic Mexican food.
I gave him Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless as a Christmas gift last year and we have tried a few recipes out of this book. Last weekend we decided to try new recipes. We tried to make Chicken in Oaxacan Yellow Mole with Green Beans and Potatoes. The recipe recommended using chayote and fresh hoja santa leaves, but we couldn't find it either of them in our regular grocery store. We followed the rest of the recipe. I have to admit that this recipe is not your typical 30-minute meal. The preps took a long time, from chopping the garlic, slicing the guajillo chiles, to cubing the chicken thighs and potatoes. The result was outstanding and well worth the effort. There are so many layers of flavors in the broth and it was really comforting.

We also tried making some corn tortillas from scratch. We used some masa harina (Mexican corn flour), water and salt. We haven't quite mastered how to do it yet. After putting them on the pan, they got crispy so quickly. I guess we just have to practice making this.