OhMyGosh!: Friday Night Lights and Happy Mother's Day!!!

Last night, TGD and I had our nightly Friday Night Lights viewing session. It takes a lot for me to actually sit through a show, let alone a series, butI'm trying. As I blankly stared at the TV, the tension between Julie  (daughter) and Tami (Mom)  grabbed my attention, and I verbally uttered "Gosh, moms are awesome." 

 Watch the tension starting at around minute 22

To summarize the scene, Julie quickly brought her teenage angst to level 11 over her mom making a suggestion to Julie's outfit. As Julie started rambling , screaming, and having the gall to say " Do you know  how many things I've done for you?! A thank you would be nice. ".... TO HER MOTHER!!! I Gasped, waiting for Tami to temporarily maime her, but no...Mother Tami validates Julie's teenage rant. (Watch starting around minute 23) 

Many of us have gone through that bratty, irrational, the world is mine, teenage years...and yes I am one of the the lucky ones whose mother gave words of validation to my hormone induced irrationality. My mom never failed to tell me the things that make me awesome...even after a nowhere near awesome flub.

Courtesy of To Make You Laugh

Mom...THANK YOU!!! Thank you for not beating the hair out of me when 

I was a looney teenager...and adult. Thank you for all the strength and sacrifice you have gifted me with before I was even born. Fun fact is that, I started my little rebellion as early as when I was  a slimy unborn baby by refusing to let go of the chord. I'm sure that was not fun for anyone, but maybe slimy baby me did? Mom, a bugillion thank yous can't tell you how much I appreciate being born to you. Again, thank you, thank you, thank you!... and I'm sorry for being responsible for speeding up some of your cell degeneration.

Courtesy of Google Images

Happy Mother's Day!!!

                                   

Seattle: Post Faith No More Noshing @ Radiator Whiskey

 "Boredom is your own fault!" One can always eat, drink, dance, (insert other verbs here) until it's fun! The Great Dane (TGD) was ever so excited that Faith No More is coming to Seattle. They may not be in  my usual musical genre, but my mantra said that  I was down to have fun!

A little piece of the concert @ the Paramount Theater.

Yes, the concert was actually fun, I jumped and "danced" and screamed. I especially liked the contrast between the mosh-pit inducing tunes and the flower laden stage. 

Pardon the crappy sound...and the "commentary"

Oh, and they covered  Herb Albert's This Guy's in Love With You. This guy can actually sing and not just scream and call it metal. Bravo Mr. Faith No More. How does one mosh to this? Ha!

All the jumping around has me hankering for some nosh. Trying to keep the metal on, we decided to check out Radiator Whiskey, sounds metal right? After going through the the random stairs at Pike Market, we found ourselves in a not so metal, but more quaint restaurant. Honestly, it felt like a Potbelly's, with cocktails. Not so metal, but they have food.

Speaking of cocktails....

How fun are those names?! Since the spring weather put me in the lemon mood, I opted for The Piledriver. What a name! This could be dangerous, as I could not even taste the bourbon. It's lemonade!

Time to eat! Instead of giving you bar nuts, they serve you warm popcorn! That was a fun twist! 

Fried Beef Lip Terrine with Dijonaise. It was like breaded braised beef nuggets, with mayonnaise dip. The outer breading was perfectly crispy without being greasy. 

Debris Sandwich:It was stuffed with house pulled pork, smoked cheddar, and fritos. Not really sure if by fritos, they meant Frito Lays...I don't remember biting into any. Since it was basically bedtime, TGD and I split the sandwich. TGD got most of the yolk part. Boo. This was not your typical pulled pork sandwich, as it was not covered in bbq sauce. It was just seasoned right, and melded with the cheese. I could only finish 1/4 of this hearty and meaty sandwich; maybe because I inhaled the popcorn and the tots. Oh I nearly forgot, this sandwich came with Rainier Beer. I like that they keep it local.

 No room for dessert! The world is ending!

 If you are in the mood for whiskey, this place is your jam. They have a wide variety of whiskeys, which stays true to their name.I thought it was a little too quiet to have a name like Radiator Whiskey. Nonetheless, they quelled my late night hunger...and if I had more room for dessert, I would've gotten the warm chocolate chip cookies with a shot of whiskey. Who needs milk when there's whiskey.

I'm willing to gain 2.5lbs out of 5lbs for Radiator Whiskey

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Seattle: Pinch Me, Am I In Gay Paree? @ Cafe Campagne

  For your listening pleasure:

La Vie en Rose

                               

Seattle has summoned me once again! I am always happy to oblige, specially during spring time when Pike Place Market is just blooming with my favorite tulips and peonies at $10 a bunch...while Chicago is still holding on to the last icicle of winter.

Holy my plane flew in all sense of the word! My plane left on time for once, and touched down approximately 20 minutes early; the one time that I wouldn't have minded being delayed because I had 2 hours to kill in the airport, or  in other words, 2 hours to plan my nosh while I'm in Seattle. 2 hours passed, and my day's itinerary is set: go to the hotel, and find food that would recoup the meals I've missed since the day prior.

During my previous market visits, I always walk passed Cafe Campagne with vows to eat there and get my croque madame fix"next time." Well, the time is now! With the rare Seattle sun welcoming me  and The Great Dane (TGD) with open arms, we hugged it back by dining alfresco. Skimming the menu, I spied with my sleepy eyes the words "sipping chocolate." My interest was quickly peaked, but I want booze! Our waitress happily informed me that there is an adult version to this!

CHOCOLAT CHAUD:French Sipping Chocolate. It's served as a pitcher of hot chocolate with a bowl of chantilly cream. Real cream! The Avec Chartreuse Verte was the 21 and over addition to this gastro luxury. As this pompous but necessary presentation was brought to my table, I was quickly transported to the imaginary Paris in my head. With every sip, the bustle of  Pike Market was quickly replaced by the melody of La Vie en Rose. 

The waitress explained that one is supposed to sip the chocolate, then sip the chartreuse. Sip, sip. That's it! This is the only way to have hot chocolate from now on.

Maybe we should eat something, as the Paris in my head is starting to go beyond the normal realm of daydreaming.

TGD got the House-made Pork & Chicken Sausage:  It came as an open faced sandwich with melted Comte de gruyere with dijon mustard. What pray tell is comte? It's basically unpasteurized cow's milk cheese. The more you know! This sandwich may look dainty in carnivore land, but it was very hearty, and would fulfill any meat lover's inner desires.

My Parisian hallucination was quelled with the one thing that attracted me to this place in the first place; The Croque Madame : It had Parisian ham inside with gruyere cheese melted on top, and boom put an egg on it! Now, I was not very satisfied with the madame. Where's the bechamel or the mornay?!...or did America add this on? Whichever country decided on adding that creamy and buttery roux deserves a medal. Cafe Campagne's Madame needs a butter bath! 

Overall, Cafe Campagne needs to be a stop while you're out exploring Pike Place Market; tourist or not! Back when my frequent West Coast (anything west of Chicago is west coast to me) travels brought  me to Las Vegas, it became my tradition to visit Bouchon and get my croque madame fix. It was exclamation point to the fact that I have thawed out from the cold! Now that Seattle is my new west, Cafe Campagne is my new west coast Pacific Northwest tradition, not for the madame, but to sip hot chocolate with chartreuse. There's no better exclamation than chocolate and booze!

Cafe Campagne is worth gaining:

 4.5lbs out of 5 lbs

                                   

Mission Pappardelle

 Mission: perfect the Girl and the Goat's Sugo with Pappardelle, which they have recently changed to cavatelli! Why?! Pappardelle has replaced my lasagna craze ever since Pappardelle and I met way back in college at Osteria via Stato, who also for a limited time, took it off their menu. Quit playing games with my heart! I'm glad they came to their senses, and brought it back. 

Speaking of my once insatiable appetite for lasagna, I used to pride myself in my lasagna baking skills, until The Great Dane and I decided to have a lasagna bake off. The votes swung my way, and I won by one or two votes; all thanks to the hard working sailors of America who miss home cooked meals. But I couldn't accept the victory. After tasting TGD's lasagna, I gave him the victory, and swore to never make my lasagna again. TGD's was just that good.

Now that I've banned myself from ever making lasagna, and the Girl and the Goat has messed with my sugo, I had to learn a new pasta skill... the Girl and the Goat sugo, O.G. style...with pappardelle. I got the recipe here:

INGREDIENTS:

½ pound goat meat

½ pound goat sausage

½ pound goat meat, braised

½ pound onion (¼ pound, diced and ¼ pound, small diced)

½ ounce garlic, minced plus 1 garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

⅛ cup canned crushed tomatoes

1 tablespoon aji amarillo purée

1 apple, cored and sliced

1½ cups dark stock

Looking at the recipe, I knew goat would be hard to come by so I substituted with beef. 

I decided to skip pre-braising the the cubed meat. Julia Child, I am not! I just went ahead and browned it to give it that caramelized flavor.  I used the same pot to brown the onions in. I have great difficulty dicing onions as I could not keep my eyes open, but have no fear my  friends, I discovered as I progressed into the cooking directions that all the onions were going to be placed in the food processor to be turned into mush!!! I wish I knew that before I cried my eyes out!  Now what the deuce is an aji amarillo puree you say? I found out that that it's reminiscent of cayenne pepper. So instead of going aji hunting, I grabbed my trusty cayenne pepper and used that. 

Now that all the components are prepped as logically close to what the instructions said, I dumped all of it in a slow cooker and kicked my feet up! 

And finito! I topped it off with mornay sauce and a pinch of parsley. I'm missing some caper gooseberries to make this look like the perfect pre-cavatelli Girl and the Goat sugo doppleganger; we eat with our eyes first after all. 

Pictured above the is the original Girl and the Goat sugo. What do you think? twinning? Twinning or not, the dish turned out a success for reasons like not burning my place down, not inflicting food poisoning on to the brave TGD, and most importantly TGD's tastes buds liking it so much, the pot was cleaned out!

Now that I've gone through the adventure of this recipe, and found the little shortcuts, I found this beyond easy to make, easier than lasagna! 

If you're wondering where one would find pappardelle noodles, your local Trader Joe's and QFC now carries it. I got mine from Eataly. Based on experience, I prefer the Garofalo brand from Eataly vs TJ, as it was thinner, but wider than the TJ brand. I have two more bags of pappardelle to use, so off to more cooking I go!

                                   

Momentarily @ Momotaro

Hey let's play this nice little game called "no reservations." I would have to admit that at times, I pretend to be Anthony Bourdain, and it has worked 30% of the time, at odd random times like Tuesday @ 5:30pm.    Ready, set, NO! Apparently random times do not exist at Momotaro. I got denied reservations by Opentable. Well, I ain't too proud to wait.  Karla Fantastic and I walked in to a nearly empty Momotaro, and ha! Add this to my 30% success rate, but the hostess forewarned us to eat fast  that they would  need our table by 7pm. Challenge accepted.

Minutes after we were seated, the empty chairs and tables were occupied. Looks like we really got lucky. Ok, we have 1.5 hours to eat, let's get this party started. Being that this was after my jury duty adventure, shaking from the amount of caffeine I ingested is starting to put me in a coma. I spotted a cocktail called Strength and Longevity . I needed just that! The concuction consists of bombay original dry gin, imbue petal and thorn, goji & omija, soda, & lemon. This drink is dangerously refreshing. It was like drinking a pucker worthy lemonade. It would be easy to forget that this is for the 21 and over crowd.

Now let's move on to something from the Robata (basically the grill.)

KF got the Washugyu , it's skirt steak, shishito, and foie gras...on a stick! I expected a spicey bite, but to my surprise, it was very mild; but then again, I'm starting to think that the part of my taste buds that recognizes  spiciness is near death. I put red peppers and cayenne on nearly everything! The overall bite of everything was a nice sweet, salty, buttery, and a pinch of zing. I did not utilize the lime that was provided. Oops. Guess you'll just have to find out for yourselves...then let me know.

Tsukune it's jidori chicken ginger meatball, quail eggs, & bathed in tare (a sauce reminiscent of terriyaki.) Ordering this, I imagined a hard boiled quail egg, grilled, and slathered with tare. As the plate landed in front of me, I had a hint of disappointment, and then I put it in my mouth...I'm ok. I'm very ok with this. The yolk of the egg served as an overlapping sauce to the chicken meatball. Sooooo good! Hey Momotaro, there's still so much room on this plate for a few more sticks you know!

Sushi time!

Wasabi Salmon: marinated salmon, pickled onion, wasabi and Una-Kyu: barbequed eel, cucumber, avocado yuzu kosho. Confession time. I often get my sushi in mass production type places that have happy hour. It's been a success so far as I'm still able to write about it, but the rare occasions that I go to places that their sushi pride is just above the rest, I'm surprised to actually be able to tell the difference (my standards can get a little low. No food poisoning or parasite infestation? I'm good to go!) This sushi falls in to the higher cusp of the sushi pride. I did not get the almost metallic taste that I have come to tolerate with my lower cusp sushi that's usually hiding in spicey mayo and eel sauce. Momotaro's sushi components blended so well that I did not want to kill it with any wasabi. Once again, my only gripe is, why are these rolls so tiny?! I guess more room for dessert.

Speaking of dessert, ice cream of course! Don't hate me, but I forgot to document the name of this dessert. It's something of the burnt sugar nature, and crunchy goodness. Just trust me it's good! So good that they need to make this scoop bigger! Are you seeing a pattern? 

At Momotaro, the serving sizes may be small, but it makes up for it in big flavors. The staff knew the menu, and gave good recommendations that hit the spot. We actually left pleasantly full and satisfied, despite my incessant "super size me" complaints...and it's 6:50pm. No one likes to wait, and the 7 o'clock planner that probably made reservations months in advance shouldn't wait. We're courteous like that. Time to make reservations for summer. Who's coming with me?

                                   

A Quick Escape to Atwood

            Alas! They found me! By "they" I meant the government. The government cordially invited me to the Daley Center for jury duty. Yippee! Not! Upon receiving the letter requesting my presence, I quickly went through the list of why I can't. Unless I was diagnosed with something or elderly, the there was no easy way out. My friend, the Honey Badger (HB, this character appeared in my Takito Kitchen adventure) put it into a poop of rainbow type perspective, and made it sound as though it was a privilege that not everyone gets to experience...and I bought it. 

So I find myself anxiously sitting in a court room full of the chosen few, hoping that I don't get the privilege of having to come here for the rest of the week. I heard the case I may be a jury for will take several days. I need to go back to work and make enough money to keep Noshing! As much as I like the view...

No, just NO! 

I decided to quell my anxiety by spending the whole time, skimming through restaurant menus that are a skip away from me. Rumor has it that lunch is one and a half hours long. Tick, tock, it's past 12:30, did they forget about lunch?! The monster in the belly was getting mad. Then finally, at 1pm they called lunch time. I traipsed happily out into the sunshiny 60 something degree Chicago day, towards Acanto for some Duck Egg Spaghetti but then I was distracted by this sight...

The Atwood in Hotel Burnham, or for the Architectural sect, the Reliance Building ( Atwood, Burnham, and Root were the Architects. Get it?) Hotel plus history plus architecture, sold! Hotel dining somehow reels me in. I guess I like being surrounded by the hopeful and adventurous vibe tourists emit. Instant staycation!

What kind of vacation does not include some libation? This one! In the event that I get chosen to decide my fellowmen's fate, I would like my decision to be fueled only with coffee and fatigue. I take civic duty seriously! But here's a list of what I said no to. I deserve a medal!

Speaking of coffee...coffee! Now! Ok no, I asked politely, specially that I had to be all difficult about wanting it iced. My happy waiter was nice enough to fix my caffeine to my liking. Thanks ( ahhh I forgot his name! Sorry!)

That coffee was just what my sleep deprived self needed, but let's get some food in my belly monster. I saw the word boursin cheese in one of the dishes. At that moment I had no idea what it was. Feeding off the adventurous vibe, let's go with it. Lamb Cheesesteak it is.

The lamb was snuggled in with roasted red peppers, caramelized onions, arugula, and boursin cheese. Oh, I nearly forgot that it came with fries, since I was so hungry, I inhaled it. As I worked my way through the sandwich, I remembered what boursin was! It's a soft cheese more commonly seasoned with garlic and herbs. The components of the sandwich, along with the tender lamb, created a nice buttery textured bite. The arugula gave it a refreshing end, just priming my mouth for the next bite. I think I finished this sandwich in record time. I need to spare time for dessert! My staycation would be null if I can't indulge in the best part of the meal!

I was torn between the Citrus Pavlova, which had lemon curd, fresh berries, and mint, vs the Chocolate Espresso Pot De Creme. Since it was such a spring-like day, I was in the mood for something citrusy, but my happy waiter had high praises  for the Pot De Creme. He sold me when he said "candied lemon zest." As if I wasn't anxious enough with my government duty and my 3rd cup of coffee, charge me up to overdrive with this velvety pudding mouse decadence! I wish I had 2 hours to eat this. With every bite, my tastebuds soaked up the coffee infused chocolate. The candied lemon surprised a bite here and there with it's crunch and zing. As I looked down at my clock, it was time to inhale the pot!

           










As I left my impromptu vacation and speed walked back to reality, I had a pep in my step, not from the heart stopping amount of coffee and sugar that I ingested, but the overall meal and service made me believe I was on vacation. Thanks happy waiter! Citrus Pavlova, be ready for my return!

Here's a glimpse of Hotel Burnham's Interior. I could spend all day taking pictures of every tiny detail, but duty calls.

Courtesy of Google