Vegetarian for the week, and a recipe for scalloped potato gratin

Scalloped potato gratin - recipe at the end

Vegetarianism blows. There’s no two ways around it. I know more than my fair share of them, and to me they fall pretty neatly into two camps – sensible vegetarians who, for dietary, religious, or other reasons, don’t eat meat, and fucking crazy vegetarians (all vegans fall in this category), who, for mostly moral reasons, refuse to eat meat and take perverse pleasure in telling you that you’re ruining the world by consuming animal flesh.

The vegan argument: who the fuck is out there eating dogs, cats, and parrots, anyways? And that's not just any pig, it's Babe. A talking pig who herds sheep is in no way representative of the pigs that people eat.

It’s not that eating vegetarian has to be synonymous with eating shit – I enjoy having a salad for a meal, pasta with simple tomato sauce, stir-fried vegetables, breakfast for dinner (sans bacon). But it’s much harder to eat well when an integral part of your diet – protein – sees its options slashed by about 92%. You’re left with tofu and whatever disgusting synthetic meat-imitating garbage it is that Whole Foods sells, even though we both know you just eat grilled cheese and frozen French fries four days a week anyway.

This, incidentally, is what strikes me as most annoying about voluntary vegetarians – claims that they are living healthier or cutting the fat out of their lives are almost entirely false. They eat half-meals at 7 PM so that after going out they can come home at 1 AM and order a whole Papa John’s Cheese Pizza, and let’s throw some cheesy bread in there with that order, and hey while we’re waiting for the pizza why not pop some popcorn and make some mac n’ cheese to pass time?

Meat is an integral part of a balanced diet – though of course, a shocking number of Americans overindulge and ignore the “balanced” part of that statement, opting instead for three griddled patties at Edzo’s or two-dozen wings at Buffalo Wild Wings. So integral, in fact, that I don’t think I could live without meat for an extended period of time.

Ode to Rollin'

Worship-worthy homemade potato chips.

Cuisine: Italian/ Sandwiches

Location: 910 Noyes St., Evanston, IL

Price: $

Food: So amazing, you'll cry tears of joy.

Service: The guy behind the counter who always greets me as "bro" is positively awesome.

Overall: God, I really want to go and get a sandwich from there RIGHT NOW.

Website: http://rollin2go.com

It took me a whole year of being at Northwestern to make my way out to Noyes St. for food. Armed with a meal plan bequeathing me a never-ending supply of grilled chicken, sandwiches incorrectly made to order, and whatever the disgusting vegan option of the day was (Quinoa! Seitan! Tempeh!), I ate most of my meals in the dining hall¹. This was made easier by the fact that I lived in a dorm where the dining hall was in the basement, so dinner consisted of knocking on everyone’s door at 5:30² and traipsing down the one flight of stairs to the lovely Elder dining hall.

So, in retrospect, it was entirely reasonable that I would never bother to make the 10-minute walk west³ for an entire school year. Which is a shame, because on Noyes St., one can find the greatest sandwich establishment known to mankind – Rollin’ to Go.

I wouldn’t formulate that opinion until sometime during my junior year, when, finally weaned off of dining plans, I ate out significantly more often, and it was the closest option to where I lived. The very first time I went, it wasn’t exactly a memorable experience – at about 4 PM on Dillo Day, having eaten a few pancakes but having also drunk approximately my body weight in shitty tasteless rum or whatever the alcohol du jour was, I was not only completely inebriated but also so exhausted from waking up at 8 AM and going to three concerts in a row that I passed out at the table waiting for my sandwich.

A girl, a goat, an amazing meal.

Cuisine: Goat (for lack of a better descriptor)

Location: 809 W Randolph St., Chicago, IL

Price: $$$

Food: 4.5*

Service: ****

Overall: 4.5*

Website: http://www.girlandthegoat.com/

Three months. That’s how long the wait is for a reservation at Girl & The Goat. And that’s only if you’re dining at off hours (Sunday night, first and last seating, etc.). Otherwise the very instant seats are released on OpenTable, there’s a long list of people waiting to try the food at Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard’s restaurant who will snatch them up in a heartbeat.

In June, on an impulse, I decided the time was right to make a reservation at Girl & The Goat, for some far off date that might never come about, at least not before the Mayans predicted the end of the world or the rapture befell us yet again. For the duration of summer the thought of dining there was constantly in the back of my mind, a subtle reminder that the days were ticking off before I would be seated at one of the most talked-about, well-hyped, and adoringly-reviewed restaurants in all of Chicago.

Sustainable fine dining in Lakeview: Browntrout, Labor Day Weekend Part I

Cuisine: Contemporary American/ Seafood

Location: 4111 N Lincoln Ave., Chicago, IL

Price: $$ - $$$

Food: ****

Service: 3.5*

Overall: ****

Website: http://www.browntroutchicago.com

The father was in town recently to help me move into my new digs in Lakeview (conveniently located within walking distance of DMK Burger Bar!), and as per the norm I was given the task of planning all our meals for the weekend. The full weekend lineup was as follows:

Friday Dinner: Browntrout in Lakeview

Saturday Dinner: Fogo de Chao in River North (Brazilian steakhouse for my inner glutton)

Sunday Brunch: Publican in Fulton Market (Paul Kahan’s casual-dining locale known best for its pork, shellfish, and beer selection)

Sunday Dinner: Riccardo Trattoria in Lincoln Park (Italian, a must for my dad’s Chicago visits every time)

Let’s just say I finished the weekend very full and sated, with a promise to myself to eat a steady diet of greens for the next few weeks to compensate for the gastronomic whirlwind I had just been through.

Onwards to my review of Browntrout:

Thai Food in Chicago's Meatpacking District: Next Restaurant

Cuisine: Thai (Until the end of September)

Location: 953 W Fulton Market, Chicago, IL

Price: $$$$

Food: ****

Service: *****

Overall: **** (These ratings reflect the Tour of Thailand menu only)

At the James Beard Award ceremony in May 2010, Grant Achatz announced that he would be opening his second restaurant, after the critically acclaimed Alinea – Next, a restaurant that would change cuisines, time periods, and menu every three months, so drastically that he would essentially run four completely different restaurants a year with no common thread between each, except perhaps for the staff and the brick and mortar that housed this radical concept. Over the next few months, the hype built up to unimaginable proportions – before it had even officially opened its doors to the public, Next was preemptively named one of the best dining locales in Chicago by some publications. As soon as the ticketing system was revealed and the tickets released in April for Paris 1906, Next’s inaugural menu, Next immediately shot to the top of the list for places where reservations (or tickets, here) were both coveted and considered unattainable for the mere mortal¹.

If doubters wondered whether Next could meet these wholly unrealistic expectations, they were silenced when Paris 1906 opened. Chicago Tribune food critic Phil Vettel gave it four stars (the highest accolade possible), heaping layers of praise on the restaurant. My taste buds would soon verify the truckloads of positive reviews from diners – each dish left me with a lasting impression, from the simple but elegant Salade Irma to the fatty, buttery, cheesy Gratin de Pommes de Terre a la Dauphinoise paired with the Caneton Rouennais a la Presse². Starting with the hors d’ oeuvres and closing with the mignardises, there wasn’t a single dish or wine pairing that disappointed. Each dish I had opened my eyes to a new level of refinement when it came to French classical cooking, and it instantaneously became one of the best meals I have ever had in my life.

The success of Paris 1906, of course, only caused foodies to clamor for more and expect even greater things for the next menu. When Tour of Thailand was announced, people began to speculate how Achatz would put his own unique spin on Thai food, a culture steeped in the ways of street food and cheap eats now being transformed into $150 haute cuisine.

I have always considered myself to be well versed in Thai food – for a more detailed discussion of Thai food as I saw it growing up, you can read my review of Sukhothai here. So for this menu to impress me, it would have to be far and beyond the best Thai food I had ever set eyes upon in order to match the standard that Paris 1906 had set.

And so it was, armed with an empty stomach and high expectations, I found myself dining at Next once again a few weeks ago.

Fine-dining in a college town; French-American in Evanston: Oceanique

Cuisine: French-American, Seafood

Location: 505 Main Street, Evanston, IL

Price: $$$

Food: ****

Service: 3.5*

Overall: ****
Website: http://www.oceanique.com/

Evanston, for some reason, is home to a litany of fine dining destinations – from the now defunct Trio¹ to the trio of chefs behind Camapgnola², there is no shortage of places to eat, and eat well, when in Evanston. Of course, this hasn’t stopped students from slogging through four years of college at lovely Northwestern subsisting entirely on Rodeo Cheeseburgers and that banana pepper that comes with your weekly Friday 1 am order of Papa John’s large pizza³.

Of course, the budget of your average college student makes it difficult to eat out and eat well on a constant basis. That hasn’t stopped restaurants from making a name for themselves in Evanston, as locations where Evanston locals can get out and have a nice meal or for students to splurge every now and then.

Two of my favorite restaurants in Evanston to date have been Bistro Bordeaux, a traditional French place right off of Church St. that offers amazing French Onion Soup to go with delectable classic entrees⁴,  and Davis Street Fishmarket, which has been serving up fresh seafood of all shapes and forms to doting parents hoping to take their kids out for a nice meal for years now.

Which brings me to my newest find of Evanston – Oceanique, a French-American/ Seafood restaurant down on Main St., a combination of Davis Street Fish Market and Bistro Bordeaux that manages to outdo both by the virtue of being extremely attentive to detail in their dishes and by being creative and inventive with their menu.

This Week in Food Network Star

Quick thoughts on this season: Food Network Star is a totally different animal from Top Chef. For every reason that it is different, I prefer Top Chef way more – its emphasis on cooking, the cutthroat nature of the challenges, the level of difficulty and innovation required, the culinary pedigree of the contestants.

Top Chef is about finding the absolute best chef out of the contestants – Food Network Star is about finding a very good chef who also has an infectious personality and can be relatable to greater America. And since greater America doesn’t emphasize home-cooking like a Michelin three star chef, for practical reasons the food that Food Network Star showcases seems like it’s a cut below what you would expect on Top Chef.