I hate not free food. even more, I hate when you go into a restaurant fully expecting free food from, say, a gift certificate, and then that gift certificate not being honored after you just pigged out, thinking the safety of the gift certificate would help you out. We decided to use a gift certificate for a nice and trendy Japanese restaurant called Usagiya in Wicker Park. Invited some fellow chunky pals along, and for the most part, it was a pretty good night. Super cute place done up in brown with shades of light aqua and green, very modern but fun with some good art. We had a really good beef tataki appetizer that was sort of like beef tartare, seared tender beef that was still rare in the middle and thinly sliced sitting in a house ponzu sauce. Nice and spicy with a ton of garlic and a vinegary sauce, my sort of dish. The pork shumai were huge and equally delicious, but the sushi and my shrimp fried rice left something to be desired. One friend (my food twin) had a honeymoon chicken, which was sort of like their version of general tso’s chicken, just with a thicker and sweeter sauce. Then the check came. The waitress made a comment that the card was expired and they could not accept it, because several people had called in the day before asking for an extension on the same gift card…which led me to believe that it was given out as some sort of promotional gift, because we were only given it 3 months ago, and what gift card expires in three months? Well, I was still able to eat, which wasn’t a huge loss, but there were several places I would have liked to spend that money before I went to that place. Like on one of the top 100 best foods in Chicago!!! My man and I decided to attack the challenge as best we could on our tiny budgets before we leave, and the food twin is going to tag along on as many tasks as possible. First, I would like to point out proudly that my man and I have consumed not one but FOUR of the top 100 best things to eat in Chicago (found in the December 28th Timeout Chicago magazine). They are: the toasted ham sandwich at Hopleaf (AMAZING!!!), Squab at Alinea (okay, can I just say what an amazing experience eating there was? THANK YOU MATT AND AMY!), Margherita pizza at Spacca Napoli (pretty good, but I like my crust thinner and crispier, especially if cooked in a wood-burning oven.), and Mysore masala dosai at Udupi place (the biggest, longest and BEST ever). We start tonight, with Pequod’s caramelized crust pizza. Technically, the listing was for Sausage Pizza at Burt’s place, but this Burt guy created Pequod’s caramelized crust pizza, and opened a new joint in the burbs that serves the same stuff, so since we are in the city tonight, that is what we will try. Or maybe we’ll do Hopleaf again 
~LTG
Not free food and top 25 race
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kstud
