Leena Eats, Gourmet Communication ... Food, Travel, Gastronomy

Bobby, looking pissy his cocktail has yet to arrive, and me blissful with my hot cider.

When I first arrived home from Australia, I had one thing on my mind: brunch at my favorite restaurant in Chicago with my best pal and food twin, Bobby. You might remember it from this post. I recently moved from Chicago to California, and I knew I needed a repeat. Because when you are leaving a town that you grew up in on a quite permanent basis, one needs a great meal with a food twin. Enter Bobby (Bobert, Bobby Magoo, etc.) and Lula Cafe’s Monday night Farm House dinner. Hot damn, some bitches gonna be eating a storm up in HERE! Read the rest of this entry »

Nightwood’s raclette with roasted vegetables. If melted cheese and homemade bread doesn’t get you excited, well, that just makes me cry. And eat your portion.

Being the gastronomic slut that I am, restaurants with unbelievably delicious food in a comfortable atmosphere are the peanut butter to my jelly, the Vegemite to my butter-schmeared toast. If you’ve had the pleasure to dine at Blackbird in Chicago’s West Loop or Lula Cafe in the Logan Square hood, you know what I mean. These restaurants are everything I never knew I needed and more. After eating there, you sort of want to spoon with the restaurant to thank it for such an awesome time. Yeah. THAT good. Read the rest of this entry »

Look! An actual chalkboard at Chalkboard! Yay!

Shortly before I left Chicago, I had the pleasure of dining at Chalkboard, a slightly upscale restaurant focused on local, sustainable comfort food. Fair warning–the photos do not do the food justice. I was en route to a wicked cold during this dinner, and sort of crapped out on good photography. I had been wanting to dine here for a while, especially when I learned that there was literally a chalkboard in the dining room that listed the specials, which change daily. Holla. We started off with their scallops, one of the only mainstays on the menu. It had seared dry pack scallops, sugar cured Kalamata olives, vanilla bean “mayo”, pumpkin oil, sage and roasted walnuts.

Chalkboard’s signature seared scallops with vanilla bean “mayo” and kalamata olives.

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Seasoned beef short ribs @ Cho Sun Ok. Welcome to Chicago, Cari!

One of the best treats towards the end of my time in Chicago was my good friend Cari (who you might remember from this post, this podcast, or her blog) came to visit and wanted a proper food tour of the city. Cari (whom I met in grad school) normally lives in Florida and had never been to Chicago before this trip. It was a great way to say good bye to this city that I love to eat. And also a great excuse to eat my weight in food. Just saying. Read the rest of this entry »

Deep fried spinach pakoras @ Hema’s Kitchen. Sadly, the best part of the meal.

A few of my Indian cousins were in town shortly before I moved to CAlifornia, and we all met to dine on some delicious Indian food and catch up. Sadly, we were all also lazy and forgot to make a reso at our favorite restaurant, which means it was closed. Thus, we found ourself at Hema’s Kitchen, the Indian restaurant that seems to get a lot of press in Chicago. Then it was time to get our eat on. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to Paulina Meat Market, Chicago’s Disneyland of Meat!

Once upon a time in early 2007, I decided to start writing a little food blog. One of the first places I covered? Paulina Meat Market, a true Disneyland of Meat. (It’s a bit rough, but you can read that first post here.) Now, as I am preparing to leave this great cold city of Chicago, I felt it was time to do a proper post of my favorite butcher in the city. And maybe eat a few pounds of smoked meats. You know, in honor.

The carnivore mecca of Chicago. Genuflect now, please, or you will anger the gods of porkdom.

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Pub cheese with ale and a whole lot of deliciousness. Seriously. This dish would make me swing vegan for a bit!

Vegetarians always seem to get the short end of the stick when it comes to dining out. Especially if you happen to live in Central Illinois, where a local Subway is a luxury, and god forbid you find one link of soy-rizo at the local grocery store. Such if the case for my friends Chris and Danielle, proud residents of a cute little town called Henry in Illinois, population 2500. Read the rest of this entry »

Classic shrimp cocktail w/ ginger sauce and cocktail sauce @ David Burke’s Primehouse, $16 USD. Love. Shrimp. COCKTAIL! Especially when the shrimp are the size of small elephants. Mmm. Sea-elephants.

So remember that guy I married? Well, he loves me so much, he took me to eat a whole cow and a cake in a can in celebration of our third wedding anniversary. Some say the third anniversary is the leather anniversary, but my husband knows better: it’s the gluttony anniversary. And really, shouldn’t they ALL be? Read the rest of this entry »

Grilled spicy sausages, one of the good brunch offerings at Chelsea Grill.

So, I’ve been to Chelsea Grill once before for dinner. It was pretty good and moderately priced, so I was pretty happy with the experience. I went again for brunch with some girlfriends, and I have to say…meh. That’s it. Meh. Read the rest of this entry »