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

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. We started off her first night at my favorite Korean restaurant, Cho Sun Ok on the corner of Lincoln and Berteau. It has the best bulgogi around, and it is byob with no corkage fee!!Holla! But go early or prepare to wait FOREVER.

Bulgogi during the beginning stages of cooking.

Bulgogi cooking away on our table!

We love bulgogi! Alot!

The next day, I took Cari on a quick and dirty tour of Chicago, aka, we rode the Brown Line El Train downtown and back north again. It’s a great way to see a lot of Chicago landmarks, like the Merchandise Mart, The Sears Tower, The Harold Washington Library, and even Millenium Park. And yes. We were poor and lazy.

This adorable shot was three seconds before I left a super cute new pair of jeans on the el train. A moment of silence, please, for the skinny jeans that never were.

Cari complained about Florida’s lack of ethnic grocery stores, so we hopped in the car and headed north to Devon Avenue (near Western Avenue) for some proper Indian and ethnic food shopping in Chicago’s Little India.

The yummy spicy snack bins @ The Patels Bros.

Most Indian stores carry high quality Indian ingredients, but also bulk spices for super cheap, which is great for your spice cabinet. Cari stocked up!

Cari and her armload of goodies! I know asefetida is in that mix!

A close-up of The Patel Bros. fresh pickle and chutney bar. Freaking LOVE this!

Biscuits. Many, many biscuits.

The Patel Bros. sweet case. Ingredients: 30 pounds of sugar, 30 pounds of ghee, bit of vegetable, and 2 pounds of cardamom. Yum.

My dad’s favorite brand of mango pickle.

We stopped off at my favorite snack shop for some samosas. This is Sukhadia’s Snack Shop.

Cari’s Little India haul: several varieties of papard, tamarind paste, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, garam masala, asefatida, semolina flour, and green cardamom seeds.

Later that night, we dined out at my favorite Chicago restaurant, Blackbird. But no photos from that evening until Cari mails them to me! The next day we hit up my friendly local Asian grocery store to help Cari fill out her pantry at home. This was in Chicago’s Little Vietnam neighborhood, which is a part of the Uptown neighborhood on the city’s north side.

Cari outside of my favorite Asian store in Chicago. I don’t even know how to say the name.

I love this store. They have everything from Chinese soup spoons to kaffir lime leaves, dumpling wrappers to durian.

Damn, Gina!

Cari’s haul, which includes tons of Japanese noodles, bonito flakes and fresh kaffir lime leaves.

Then we met up with a friend around the corner for some delicious pho at Tank Noodle. This was the perfect breakfast. Adam and I were a bit hungover from the night before, Cari had caught a bad cold, and it was a chilly morning. A giant bowl of steaming hot beef pho was all we needed to restore our strength and get our eat on.

A hungry Cari and Josh!

Hungover and hungry Leena and Adam.

Fried spring rolls @ Tank Noodle.

If you’ve never had pho, it can start with beef, chicken or vegetable broth. I prefer beef broth with slices of beef in the bowl, but Cari likes chicken broth with chicken meatballs. Also included in the bowl in a crap ton of noodles. Then you get a plate like this, full of bean sprouts, cilantro, Thai basil, hot peppers and citrus. You mix whatever you like into the soup to make it in a spicy, citrusy flavorful soup. And cheap, too!

Pho fixins!

A giant bowl of beef pho. Warm, steamy citrusy deliciousness of meat.

I decided to cook up a giant Mexican meal for Cari, while the poor girl rested up and tended to her nasty cold (and I say nasty, because the bitch gave it to me and my husband a day later. So I know it was nasty).

You can’t tell, but Cari’s body is having a knife fight with the cold and winning. Bitch is great with a knife.

Chorizo and potato-stuffed enchiladas with a rojo sauce, sour cream and guacamole.

Dan n Claire’s kick-ass citrus slaw.

My kick-ass cranberry upside down cake.

Claire’s pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

Thanks to Cari for visiting and to Chicago for a great year of food and friends. We’re gonna miss you! ~LTG! ************************************** Places we went to in this post: Cho Sun Ok Korean Restaurant 4200 N. Lincoln Avenue Chicago, IL 60618 (773) 549-5555 www.chosunokrestaurant.com/ Chicago’s Little India/Pakistani neigborhood Devon Avenue and Western Avenue Chicago Asian store: Broadway Supermarket 4879 N Broadway St Chicago, IL 60640 (773) 334-3838 Tank Noodle 4953 N Broadway Chicago, IL 60640 (773) 878-2253 www.tanknoodle.com