Girl and the Goat

           This post is a bit delayed as I have put off writing about my experience at Girl and the Goat, one of the most talked about new restaurants in Chicago. Started by Stephanie Izard, winner of Top Chef, the restaurant was nominated for the 2011 James Beard best new restaurant award. Despite its three-month waiting list, the unassuming restaurant welcomes walk-ins at its communal tables. Naturally, the night we had planned to go was the night of a massive blizzard in Chicago. As a reward for making our way through the blizzard, there was no wait for a table once we arrived. Seated at one of the long tables in the dimly lit, cavernous restaurant that somehow maintained a cozy feel, we immediately felt part of a communal dining experience. The menu featured a variety of small plates, all for sharing. Unsurprisingly, from the name of the restaurant, the vegetarian options were not abundant. While I don usually mention the bread at a restaurant, the bread was a part of the culinary experience. The beet bread accompanied by a spread of goat cheese spiked our excitement of the meal to come. 

             For our first course, we settled on the roasted cauliflower with pickled peppers, pine nuts and mint. The combination of textures and subtle and spicy tastes made for an complex but fresh taste.

            The second course, grilled sepia with hazelnut-parsnip puree and smoked tomato bonito, combined the toughness and simplicity of the sepia with the soft but sharp taste of the tomato.

            The third course, steamed mussels with goat sausage croutons, cilantro and a bit of Caesar, allowed the fresh taste of the fish to stand on its own, the seasoning simply accentuating this taste.

            However, the pinnacle of the meal without question was the chocolate cake combined with pomegranate seeds, left milk compote and chocolate ice cream. It was one of those dessert experiences that you just don’t want to end. This dessert is on my top ten desserts in all of Chicago, of which I have tried quite a few. Overall, the meal was surprisingly affordable for a restaurant which has generated such hype and such a long waiting list. Each of the dishes ranges from $10 to around $20 and it is suggested that each person gets around two. Although if splitting the dishes, that can even be too much food.

While the meal at Girl and the Goat can be classified as a culinary experience necessary to try at least once, it is not a place that I will become a regular. The tastes were delicious but left a heavy feeling due to the richness of the ingredients. 

            Even if I do not make it back to Girl and the Goat, I definitely plan on trying Little Goat, Izard’s new restaurant that is planned to open this summer. Little Goat will be a spin-off on the traditional diner replete with a bar, shuffleboard table, photo booth and of course delicious food.

Girl and the Goat: 809 W. Randolph Street, Chicago, IL 60607

(312) 492-6262

http://www.girlandthegoat.com/

Sun.-Thurs.: 4:30 p.m.-11 p.m., Fri.-Sat.: 4:30 p.m.-12 a.m.

Chilam Balam: Small Plates

Living without a car in a suburb of Chicago, getting into the city takes a little extra motivation. The celebration of the opening of the Boystown branch of Forever Yogurt with the distribution of free frozen yogurt for a year to the first fifty people in line, provided just the push. Forever Yogurt, a self-serve frozen yogurt place where the price is determined by the weight of your ice cream and toppings, is any frozen yogurt lovers’ dream. While I consider myself one of the top frozen yogurt fans, to my dismay we found a line of people who are a bit more loyal and had been there since hours before opening time. After watching a somewhat anticlimactic distribution of envelopes, we decided to walk to a Mexican restaurant we had wanted to try, Chilam Balam.

 Prepared for a long wait, we were unsurprised that the tiny yet boisterous restaurant located down a small flight of stairs was packed at 7 p.m. on a Friday night. After a 45-minute wait, we were seated at one of the small tables and confronted with a small menu that we soon discovered is changed monthly. The menu features a variety of small dishes all for table sharing. The likable and honest waitress informed us that the shitake mushroom empanadas we had planned to order were not the best the restaurant had to offer. Confronted with dishes with names from “memelas” to “flautas” to “succotash gorditas” we decided to rely mainly on the waitress’ selections.

Roasted cauliflower with chimichurri, jicama, pineapple, cucumber and mango. 

The first two dishes were the corn masa memelas and the roasted cauliflower with jicama, pineapple, cucumber and mango. The memelas were a delicious start to the meal, the savory black beans topped with goat cheese was a perfect complement to the simple but tasteful corn exterior of the memela. Yet the cauliflower dish, although a beautiful presentation, did not quite compete. The combination of mango and cauliflower was inventive and served for a fresh side but the spiciness of the sauce took away from the otherwise clean flavor of the dish. We followed these dishes with the grilled vegetable succotash gorditas and the grilled salmon. The grilled vegetable succotash, although not quite as good as the memela, was also delicious in its bean and veggie interior and corn exterior. The quintessential salmon complemented with wild rice, was similarly light yet filling, but less original than the other dishes on the menu.
Upon looking at the website later in the night we found our surprisingly honest waitress was actually the owner of the restaurant, Soraya Rendon. According to the website Soraya had moved to the U.S. at the age of 18 and only a few years later had learned English and played an integral role in the creation of the restaurant. The down to earth feel of the owner serving her own dishes only adds to the charm of the restaurant.

Overall this Mexican restaurant stands out from its competition due to its evident dedication to  obtaining its ingredients from local farms. The freshness of its ingredients in confluence with its inventive combinations create simultaneously rich yet clean feeling meal. The fun atmosphere is enhanced by the encouragement to BYOB in addition to the many small dishes that make for a fun experience. 

Chilam Balam: 3023 N. Broadway Street, Chicago, IL 60657

(773) 296 - 6901

http://www.chilambalamchicago.com/

Tues - Thurs: 5 p.m. - 10 p.m., Fri - Sat.: 5 p.m. - 11 p.m.

Sustainable Dining at Brown Trout

This weekend my mother came to visit me on one of the coldest weekends in Chicago this winter. As the temperature dropped to a biting zero degrees, the thought of outdoor sightseeing chilled us to our bones. We instead chose to focus her trip on a culinary tour of Chicago. We began our gustatory weekend with Thursday night dinner at Brown Trout. The restaurant is the brainchild of Chef Sean Sanders who decided to create this restaurant while honeymooning with his wife in New Zealand. Hoping to emulate the sustainable lifestyle of New Zealanders in the U.S., Chef Sanders uses sustainable foods with seafood from natural waters, meat from sustainable farms and vegetables and herbs from their own garden. 

Located in the North Center area of Chicago, the restaurant has a natural décor of chestnut colors with a long communal table in the center, creating a warm ambiance. Wanting a filling meal to warm us from the cold, we chose to get two main courses. My mother ordered the seared tuna which was accompanied by grilled lettuce and cauliflower. As my mom loved the dish so much, I only snagged a small bit. From the small bite simplicty I did get of the dish, the fresh flavor of the tuna was apparent.  My trout was equally delicious in its fresh. The trout itself was glazed in a carrot ginger sauce that only served to enhance the flavor. The plate was decorated with grilled brussel sprouts and an assortment of chestnuts and mushrooms, which unexpectedly served as the perfect compliment. We were so satisfied by the meal, we made a decision we rarely make. We decided to forego the dessert, wanting to preserve the clean taste left by the meal. The moderately priced Brown Trout impresses with its simplicity and freshness.

Brown Trout: 4111 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, IL
(773) 472-4111
http://www.browntroutchicago.com/Default.html
Sunday: 11 a.m.-3 p.m., 5 p.m.-10 p.m., Wed.-Thurs. 5 p.m. - 10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 5 p.m.-11 p.m.

Karyn's Raw Café: Vegan Chicago Pizza

The wintertime in Chicago drives the heartiest of souls into the depths of their comforters, ordering take-out from any and every restaurant that offers free delivery. My friend and I fought this common inclination to trek from Evanston to downtown Chicago to try Karyn’s Cooked, a vegan restaurant, started by Karyn Calabrese, a proponent of holistic health. Starving from our brief trek through the cold and sleet and our stint huddling with strangers under the heat lamps waiting for the ever delayed El trains, the cozy café with warm lights was a welcome destination. Passing by the pastry case filled with notoriously good vegan goodies on the way to our table, we resolved to save room for the desserts. We began the meal with the Ron’s Salad, a disappointingly conventional mixture of garden greens. While the salad was complimented by a tasty dressing, it was not enough to salvage the lack of originality of the rest of the salad. For our main meal we split the Jerry’s Pizza. The whole-wheat crust was topped with an subtly sweet but natural tasting tomato sauce topped with bits of vegan cheese, wild mushrooms, olives, broccoli, fresh garlic and basil. The crunchiness of the whole-wheat wrap in addition to the plentiful helping of vegetables created a wholesome and satisfying meal. This vegan concoction may not have been a typical slice of pizza, but it may just have topped my list for best Chicago pizza. After devouring my half of the pizza and feeling more than pleasantly full, we still decided to stick to our pact to split two desserts.

Upon asking our waiter the best option, he guaranteed we would love the carob cake or it would be on him. Although neither of us had ever tried carob cake before, we decided to go along with the waiter’s ringing endorsement and ordered the German Chocolate Carob Cake along with the Carrot Cake. We later found out that carob is a legume from carob trees, flush with vitamins, protein and fiber. Additionally it has three times the amount of calcium as chocolate, one third less calories, seventeen times less fat and none of the caffeine (I definitely hope to use this in desserts at home!). Our table was soon decorated with a massive slice of chocolate cake topped with chocolate icing and coconut shavings in addition to the more understated carrot cake topped with a generous supply of icing. As we took the knife to cut each of the slices in half to ensure that we got equal amounts of the baked goodness, the dryness of the cake was apparent.  Although the icing did not disappoint the cake itself was stale in both the carob and carrot cakes.

Overall, the meal was delicious, despite the disappointment of  the dessert. The waiter stuck to his promise to pay for the carob cake, eliciting our promise to return and give the desserts another try. Although in no hurry to try the carob cake again, we had no problem committing to returning to the restaurant to try the other items on the menu.

Karyn's Raw Café: 1901 North Halstead, Chicago, IL 60614
(312) 225-1590
http://www.karynraw.com/Raw-Cafe
Sun. - Sat. 9 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Holiday Walking

One of the best parts of living in a city is being able to walk everywhere. On Christmas day, I did what any respectable New Yorker would do and took to the streets. Walking around the city, I took my last chance to view the Christmas windows of the department stores on Madison and Fifth avenues. Walking down Madison, the Barney’s windows outshined the other displays with its outlandish homage to Lady Gaga. The product of a collaboration between Lady Gaga, herself, along with numerous creative designers, embodies the flamboyant creativity for which she is known. One window, depicting a bedroom made completely of not only synthetic but also real hair is replete with furniture, a human figure and countless other details. The adjoining window, the “Gaga Constellation” features a video with the famous singer in space. People were using their ability to tweet wishes to #gagastars which would subsequently appear on the screen.

Swerving in and out of the hundreds of tourists surrounding the Barney’s windows and all of Fifth Avenue was exercise in itself. Walking from window to window, we noted we had walked over three miles. 

City Living

Born in New York City, I am truly a lover of cities. I currently live in Chicago, but make frequent trips home to visit my favorite restaurants, shops and New York specialties that can be found no where else. Living in big cities makes being healthy both harder and easier. While the absence of nature makes outdoor sports more difficult, the plethora of healthy restaurants, specialty food stores and difficulty in driving make for a healthy way of life. I want to create a space to share and interact with others about healthy living in the city!