Last weekend I took a trip to visit my brother and his friends in Illinois, and as usual like all vacations planned by our family it revolved predominantly around food. Huzzah!
We started the weekend in Urbana-Champagne, where my brother is working on his PhD, took a bus up to Chicago where we spend Friday and Saturday with our friends Alice and Kevin, then returned back to UC on Saturday evening via train (jebus, Illinois has great transportation!) to attend Ebertfest, visit more people, and naturally eat some more food.
So let’s get this show on the road!
Black Dog Smoke & Ale House
I flew into Illinois Thursday night (AND BOY WERE MY ARMS TIRED!) and was immediately escorted to Black Dog Smoke & Ale House to eat delicious dead pig flesh with my brother and his friend, Chris. Living in Atlanta I was pretty sure I knew BBQ, but clearly I needed to be corrected – this stuff was awesome. I chose a pretty basic brisket sandwich with Georgia peach BBQ sauce and was rewarded with delectabley soft and smokey meat with sweet sauce and crunchy slaw on top…absolutely a winner. Alas, no pictures of the food because I am a noob.
Afterwords we returned to my brother’s apartment where, naturally, he had dessert prepared: some home made(and delicious) pralines and some…interesting?…creme brule The creme brule came from that book I’ve been using a lot, A New Turn in the South. For some reason I thought it was vanilla-flavored, but apparently it’s tea-flavored. It wasn’t bad….just not what I was expecting. It did, however, give my brother the opportunity (or excuse, whatever) to use a blow torch.
Joe burning sugar like a BOSS.
The next morning Joe, classy as always, threw together some huevos rancheros before our 7:15 bus ride. With home made beef filling, salsa, and oil, there is literally no way to go wrong. Where does the man find the strength? Beats the hell outta me.
Ole!
We got into Chicago somewhere around 10, at which point we met up with Alice and Kevin and began meandering our way to Joe’s surprise: we had a reservation at Rick Bayless’ Topolobampo for lunch! Since neither of us are very good and spending money, it was a huge treat to go somewhere with a great reputation and eat some delicious food.
Topolobampo
Among the list of things we ate, what I remember were:
- Duck Flautas
- Chicken Taquitos (or “taquito-henge”)
- Chicken Enchiladas
- Mole Chicken
- Guacamole
- Agua Fresca
Left to right, Taquitos, Agua Fresca, Mole.
I know some of those seem weird. One might ask “why would you go to a super-fancy-awesome restaurant and just order enchiladas?” I’ll tell you why: BECAUSE THEY ARE AMAZING, THAT’S WHY. I’m fairly certain I’ve never had better enchiladas in my life. And the guacamole? FORGET ABOUT IT. Mole? AMAZING – and I don’t even like mole. It was pretty outrageously delicious.
Joe and I both snagged a drink – he a margarita, and I the daily special, “agua fresca”. I was a little confused when our waiter told us about it. He was clearly excited about this drink, but as soon as he said “specialty water” my brain got stuck and I stopped listening. All I could think was “Wait…specialty water? What does that even mean?” A little menu research explained to me that there was actually alcohol in said water (which made a little more sense) so I went for it and was mightily rewarded. This specific agua fresca was decorated with cinnamon and anise and was, without exaggeration, one of the best mixed drinks I’ve ever had. It was sweet and delicious and despite smelling heavily like anise (I’m not that much of a black licorice fan) was sweet and slightly tart without being bitter.
Whilst in Chicago I also insisted that we stop at a bakery we’d passed earlier: Crumbs.
Crumbs Bake Shop
There I coughed up some big money for 4 giant cupcakes: grasshopper, cookie dough, devils food and milkshake. We ate them over the course of the entire day, splitting each into quadrants so we could all get a taste. Pricey, but worth it.
Oddly, though, not all the flavors matched up quite right. The grasshopper one was clearly minty, and the devils food just the right mixture of chocolate cakey-ness and creamy sugary filling, but the cookie dough, for example, didn’t taste much like cookie dough at all. Just tasty yellow cake with sugary frosting.
CUPCAKES.
Later that afternoon and evening we hopped a train into the Chicago suburbs to Alice and Kevin’s apartment where we salved our sugar-drenched bodies with roasted vegetables and some fancy cheese Joe and I picked up at a local shop (for future reference, Fromager d’Affinois is incredible and also, coincidentally, really really bad for you at 60% fat content).
Then we inserted sugar back into our veins with a lovingly crafted chocolate cake with malted frosting. Uber-props and thank-yous to Alice for making this for our visit! MOAR CAKE!
Alice's Chocolate Cake with Malted Frosting
I love malted chocolate frosting. I am an incredible sucker for it. Alice’s cake was similar to my standard chocolate fare, but she used sour cream instead of buttermilk and added real chocolate in with the cocoa powder. The texture was slightly denser, so I’m assuming the sour cream had something to do with that. Sounds like I should do some baking research!
Alice cuttin' cake like a BOSS.
The following morning we nibbled on bagels and sipped coffee while we lounged lazily about, and then eventually pried ourselves off of the couch to hit up Naf Naf Grill, a local pseudo-fast food Middle Eastern restaurant. They’re highly touted for their pitas, and for good reason! There I tried tabbouleh, falafel, and had some delicious hummus. If you find a Naf Naf, you should stop everything you’re doing and go eat there. In fact, I really wish there was a Naf Naf in Atlanta. /stomach rumbles
At that point we said goodbye to Alice and Kevin and took the Amtrak back to Urbana-Champagne, where my brother’s friends Chris and Shara provided us with a wonderfully sugar-free chicken’n’salad meal before we headed off to Ebertfest. For interested parties, we were able to get tickets for Take Shelter, and it was absolutely fabulous. Everything from the acting, to the dialogue to the soundtrack were wonderful, and the Q&A with the director and star were really interesting. If you have a chance to go to Ebertfest, definitely do it!
Ebertfest!
My final culinary experience in Illinois was Radio Maria, a trendy sort of cafe/restaurant in Champagne that I am now completely in love with; Joe and I took a in a lazy brunch with his friends Chris and Shara. Since it was my last day I went whole hog (emphasis on hog) and got a Mexican coffee, 2 plates of beignets (one powdered sugar, one cinnamon sugar), and plate of cajun shrimp and grits. My brother got his favorite, the Torta Maria, roasted vegetables, sweet potato puree, and goat cheese stuffed between layers of tortillas. Amazing. Not even joking- amazing food. Not unlike Naf Naf, I really wish there was a Radio Maria in Atlanta.
Radio Maria (click for original pic)
Afterwards my brother and I snacked on kalamata olives, more Fromager d’Affinois, chocolate and fancy cured meat from Cheese & Crackers, a little deli-type place that my brother frequents. More on the chocolate another time! Bwahahaha.
And those were my culinary travels in Illinois! If for whatever reasons you find yourself in either Chicago or Urbana-Chamapgne, I ate nothing this weekend that I didn’t enjoy – everything here was delicious and worth checking out. And congratulations to both Alice and Joe, who are now internet-famous.
Mary Gezo
Formerly of both n00bcakes and !Blog, the two magically become one on Spatialdrift; expect some lazy baking and serious nerditude. Also, I love semicolons.
uuuugh.. TAKE ME WITH YOU. I died throughout this entire post. I want to eat everything you ate (maybe with the exception of the cupcakes.. but I’ll just eat extra guacamole to make up for the missing calories)
I always plan vacations around food! Best way to travel. My boyfriend insists on working out when we travel because it makes him super hungry so he can eat more (I always say I’ll join him and then *some how* never do)
Ooooooh yeah, way to go Midwest! Looks like Illinois is boss-in about all over the place!
I find tea-flavored creme brûlée exceedingly interesting – I’d like to give it a try, what kind of tea was in it?
@Stephanie – I’m glad you were able to work through my TERRIBLE grammar and typos to enjoy the post (I will have to go back and fix those @.@)! I realize I sound a bit ridiculous in that I’m praising *everything*, but it truly was a delicious vacation. Props for vacations revolving around food! ^_^
@Emma – Yeah; to be honest I was surprised Illinois had so much food-age to offer (living in Atlanta has, perhaps, made me a bit pretentious?)! Because this creme brulee recipe was from a southern cookbook it used traditional sweet tea, not anything like earl gray. Like I said, it was…interesting. >.>