The Pacific Coast

I'm currently sitting in the airport traveling back from one of the best weekends I've had to date. I traveled to Portland which ended up serving as a means of celebrating my very much not-anticipated birthday - I only say that because I basically forgot I was having another one so soon after last year.

Turning a year older has given me some time to reflect on my acomplishments, growth and change that's occured over the past year. The thought hadn't occured to me before that I have experienced a lot of changes this past year and have definately come out stronger and a bit more grounded than I was a year ago. I of course have to atribute a lot of that change to the people that I have interacted with in both my personal and professional life this year - so here's to all of you for putting up with me! :)

I am the type of person that can get bogged down in the day-to-day so I feel incredibly grateful for my trip this weekend. I don't think that I've been as happy as I was gallivanting around Portland in quite some time. I loved getting to hop around to a variety of restaurants and shops but my favorite part of the trip was taking an afternoon to drive out to Pacific Coast. The ocean was so beautiful, vast and surprisingly different from others that I've seen. It reminded me that there is a great deal out there to see/experience and really got me excited for my future rather than being nervous about it like I have been as of late. I'm fairly certain that I could have stayed on the coast, become beach-bum and been pretty darn content for the remainder of my days - I guess that can serve as my backup plan in case this whole living in the real world thing doesn't pan out as I hope it does :)

I HIGHLY recommend a trip out the Northwest/Portland given the opportunity. I'll be sharing pictures of my trip as soon as I get out the incredibly dismal Seattle airport and back to my camera cord. Stay tuned!

Ashkenaz Deli

Chicago has a lot of really great delis to visit - it's one of the things I miss whenever I leave and Ashkenaz Deli is no exception. It's a Jewish-sytle deli nestled in the heart of the Gold Coast that has apparently been around for quite some time although I had never noticed it before my recent visit. From the outside Ashkenaz is quite unassuming from the outside, looking no different than any other old-school Chicago deli, but as soon as I walked in my nose is filled with the aroma of freshly-baked bagels and my eyes panned the display case filled with a plethora of home-made salads. Although it was a slightly pricey item I ordered a bagel and lox with homemade cream cheese, tomatoes and onions. In my opinion, how a deli does a bagel and lox is a true testament to their overall quality as a deli. I must say, the sandwich was delicious and served as a bright spot in an otherwise cold and dismal Chicago winter day.

Homemade Cupcakes

As much as I love cupcake bakeries, (which is a lot) I am equally fond of making cupcakes myself. I haven't baked very much recently so I decided to play it safe and make chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate frosting.

I used this recipe to make the cakes and they turned out really well. The cupcakes themselves were moist, chocolatey and slightly denser than traditional cupcakes. I used a basic white chocolate frosting recipe to top the cakes and found it to be a perfect compliment to the cake without being too sweet. Enjoy!

The Tamale Man!

There is a lot of great food in the city of Chicago but some of the best that I've discovered thus far comes from the Tamale Guy, or the Tamale Man, depending on what you choose to refer to him as - it is a bit confusing considering his Yelp page is "The Tamale Guy" but his MySpace page is listed as "The Tamale Man".

For anyone that doesn't know, Mexican tamales are packets of corn dough with a savory or sweet filling and typically wrapped in corn husks or banana leaves. The packets are then steamed and ready to eat! The traditional fillings include cheese, pork or cheese but there are many other variations out there.

The Tamale Man sticks pretty close to tradition with his tamales but the unique aspect is that he doesn't actually have a restaurant or even a food vendor cart. He travels around to bars in the Ukrainian Village and other Chicago neighborhoods (I've seen him in Bucktown) selling tamales out of a cooler! This may not sound like the ideal dining option to everyone reading but the tamales he serves really are great. If you don't believe me, just check out his Yelp rating and see what other people have been saying. I'll give you a preview:

The most recent Yelp review is from Katherine in Chicago where she writes...

"Some people see heroes as knights in shining armor.  Mine is a guy pulling a red cooler behind him at 1am. God bless you, tamale guy."

Seriously, make a point of hanging out in the Ukrainian Village just to try to get a hold of some of Tamale Man/Guy's tamales. :)

Pork tamales from the Tamale Man 

(Photo courtesy of Yelp)

Hot Doug's

I have a confession to make. Being from Chicago, people have often asked me where to get the best hot dog in the city and I undoubtedly tell them to go to Hot Doug's - they offer an eclectic selection of hot dogs and sausages that have been praised by most all Chicago food critics. The only problem with my recommendation is...gulp...that I'd never actually been to Hot Doug's. I'd planned to go a bunch of times, but getting there was always pretty inconvenient for me. It's only accessible by the blue line or a bus and lets face it...I'm terrible with bus schedules. Every time I tried to take a bus in college I would end up on the opposite side of town which would result in either a 30 minute walk home or excessive, border-line stalking phone calls to my roommates trying to convince them to come pick me up.

But anyway, excuses aside, I finally bit the bullet and made my first trip to Hot Doug's so that I actually had first-hand experience when recommending Hot Doug's to others. A word to the wise, plan on waiting a longgg time if you do decide to trek it out there. I ended up waiting an hour just to order with a majority of that time spent in the cold in a huge line outside of the restaurant (see photo below as a reference for the line). 

Even though the wait was a bit excessive, the food was just as incredible as I had imagined. I ordered a Chicago-Style Dog, the Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Pork Sausage with Vodka-Cream Marinara and Burrata Cheese and the Swedish Potato Sausage with Dill-Garlic Mustard and Caraway Havarti Cheese (pictured below). In addition to my embarrassing display of encased meats, I also added a order of duck fat fries to my platter - yes, those are fries that have been cooked in duck fat and yes, they are delicious. 

I can now confidently say that I would recommend Hot Doug's to anyone that wants to get a taste of the best dogs that the city has to offer - just be prepared to wait awhile, and be surprised by a menu that mixes high-end foods like foie gras with your hot dog or sausage.