tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4352836248137505502026-10-14T03:37:25.473-05:00What's Cooking at Soomeenshee'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14423941156309382847noreply@blogger.comBlogger280125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435283624813750550.post-91980888286386181212012-04-29T23:07:00.001-05:002012-04-29T23:07:47.362-05:00

I brought Jeanie and Mary to Bristol for dinner when they visited me last summer.  I had heard great things about it but it's one of those places that was on my radar for a bit but never became realized.  Thankfully I used their visit as an excuse to come. We were a bit early for our reservations so we went up to the bar and had some drinks.  I'd like to point out that they

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I visited Lure Izakaya with my cousin when I was in Chicago.  I had heard of a new izakaya opening in Chinatown and it sounded like it could be promising.   I was expecting a more low key, Japanese pub like environment but I think they were going for a more trendy, lounge feel.  It's reflected in the menu as well.  Their menu consists of mostly small plates of Asian fusion

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I am so behind on my posts, but here's a quick shot of one of my last dessert stops in Chicago.  When I asked my foodie friends what was a must eat before I leave Chicago, they raved about the butterscotch bread pudding at Zed451, which I thought was a brazillian bbq spot so I would have never guessed they have excellent desserts.     I would have never ventured here had it not

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One of my favorite favorite restaurants in Chicago is Longman & Eagle in Logan Square.  It's a gastropub and I know what you are thinking Chicago is full of gastropub so what's so special about this one.  The difference is that they actually fulfill on both fronts - great drinks and great food.  Maybe it was also that we came during a warm autumn night and got to sit outside

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When I heard a Quad City style pizza place was opening near my old neighborhood in Chicago I knew I had to go.  For those unfamiliar, Quad Cities refers to the five cities on the Mississippi River—Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in Illinois, and Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa.  A particular style of pizza is home to that area and it's known for their hand-tossed malt crust pizzas

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Sniffle sniffle, this is one of my meals that I had with Aleen when I was still in Chicago.  It feels so long ago now.   In case you guys didn't know, I made the move out west to San Francisco a few months ago.  I had such an amazing time in Chicago and have such fond memories, especially of food.  I feel like I literally ate my way through Chicago in the short time I was

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Burger is Chicago's answer to In-N-Out.  Their first location on Huron Street shares a kitchen with its higher-end sister restaurant Tru.  You can peek into Tru's kitchen and see the chefs work their magic on creating multi-course dishes, all the while chomping on some great burgers and fries that will have you in and out in 15 mins.   Unfortunately M Burger doesn't hold a

What's Cooking at Soomeenshee'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14423941156309382847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435283624813750550.post-51922480982847129432011-11-23T07:02:00.000-06:002011-11-23T07:03:30.091-06:00

According to my friend Becky, Yeowoosai has the best kimchi fried rice in Chicago.  I've been a few times before with other friends but didn't try the fried rice so we took Mary and Jeanie before they left.  After a long weekend of midwestern treats, I think they were all craving some spicy, Korean eats.  We ordered stew and this kimchi fried rice to share amongst the four of

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If you haven't been watching Season 9 of Top Chef, you will notice several Chicago chefs competing for the grand prize.  One of the chefs, Heather Terhune, is executive chef of Sable Kitchen & Bar, which is in the Palomar Hotel in the River North area of Chicago.  We've wanted to try Sable previously, but it's been pretty difficult to get reservations last minute.  A few

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Andrew has been telling us about the industry discount at Sunda that he gets for some time but we never managed to go.  I realized if I plan it, they will come, so I made reservations for us for Sunday evening.  Here's a sampling of the yummy things we ate.   For appetizers we ordered the “toast and jam” which consisted of crispy shrimp “toast” and spicy tuna “jam.” &

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I was warned that you would have to wait if you want to get your hands on a Kuma's burger, so my cousins and I made sure we made it in time exactly when Kuma's opened at 11:30 am on a Saturday.  Unfortunately we weren't the only ones who were warned, because by the time we arrived, the place was packed and several groups of people were ahead of us in line for the next tables to open up. &

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In August, my cousins came to Chicago for Lollapalooza and to visit me of course.  :)  I think they were here for about 2 weeks and I think I gained 5 pounds after they left.  We ate a ton and not surprisingly I had a long list of places for us to try.  I don't think Chicago is necessarily known for BBQ, but Jung and Julie wanted to try it while they were here.  

What's Cooking at Soomeenshee'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14423941156309382847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435283624813750550.post-79818056549867261602011-11-19T23:37:00.000-06:002011-11-20T04:35:01.287-06:00

One of the Sundays when Mary and Jeanie were still in town, we went to Sprout for brunch.  If you are top chef fans, the names Dale Levitski and Sarah Nguyen may ring a bell.  They joined forces after the show ended and opened Sprout in the fall of 2009.  Sprout has a three course prix-fixe dinner menu, which looks really interesting, but sad to say, it never made it to the top of

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Aleen!  This is for you.  I am sooo behind on my posts, but I will try to catch up one post at a time.   When my friends Mary and Jeanie were in town this summer, I wanted to take them to eat Chicago style pizza but knowing they wouldn't be fans of deep dish, we tried Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinder Co.   We came here on a Friday night I think and there were quite a few

What's Cooking at Soomeenshee'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14423941156309382847noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435283624813750550.post-67288360085101820892011-08-30T21:40:00.000-05:002011-08-30T21:40:17.076-05:00

My friend Yeena took me out for afternoon tea for my birthday a few months ago.  How can you not love little sandwiches and plates of scrumptious desserts?   They come by with an assortment of little sandwiches.  I tried one of each.  I think there was a chicken, lobster club, goat cheese with roasted red pepper, smoked salmon and an egg or tuna salad sandwich. Here's a

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I have been eyeing this recipe for awhile, so I made this for one of the random dinner get togethers we had with Aleen and Gook.  Don't these look amazing?  They are quite tasty.  :)  Classic Gougeres Ingredients1 cup water3 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced3/4 teaspoon salt1 cup unbleached all purpose flour4 large eggs, chilled1&

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This summer, Mary and Jeannie came to visit me and so did my cousins.  That meant lots of trips to Hot Doug's for me.  They are only open from 10:30 to 4 pm on Saturdays so that means you have to go right as it opens if you don't want to spend 2.5+ hours in line.  I think we got there around 11 am one time and we ended up waiting exactly 2 hours.  We tried the second time to

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These are unbelievable easy to make, especially if you have a  food processor.   Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics Ingredients2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed1 tablespoon baking powder1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced1/2 cup cold buttermilk, shaken1 cold extra-large egg1 cup grated extra-sharp

What's Cooking at Soomeenshee'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14423941156309382847noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435283624813750550.post-57397690642954288802011-08-14T16:30:00.000-05:002011-08-14T16:30:40.072-05:00

We celebrated our friend Gook's birthday at Graham Elliot months ago.  We happened to go when they were revealing their spring menu, so that just goes to show how long ago this was.  Sorry guys!   I've always wanted to try Graham Elliott, but I had heard some mixed reviews.  I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised and ended up leaving the place a bigger fan of Graham

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I've been eyeing this sushi restaurant since it opened near our neighborhood and was so happy that there was a sushi restaurant near by.  Within the past six months, I've only been there twice now and it's not because I didn't like it, I just keep forgetting that it's there.  I failed to take pictures the first time, but here's what I had for dinner with Aleen awhile back.   Aleen

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A perfect compliment to the cioppinio is roasted garlic bread.  This is pretty fantastic.  All you do it cut off the tops of the garlic, pour some olive oil on top and bake in your oven until the garlic gets soft.  I used 1 garlic bulb and one stick of butter, but you can use more or less depending on your preference.   Let butter come to room temperature and mix with the

What's Cooking at Soomeenshee'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14423941156309382847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435283624813750550.post-31501229333103921282011-07-11T21:48:00.000-05:002011-07-11T21:48:45.890-05:00

Jung introduced me to this recipe and I devoured bowls and bowls of this.  I felt up to the challenge one weekend so I went grocery shopping to only realize that I couldn't find Dungeness Crab anywhere.  Thankfully Whole Foods had frozen crab legs so I improvised.  I'm sure this would be amazing with Dungeness Crab, but this was still unbelievably good.   Judith's Dungeness

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I am so embarrassed that I am months and months behind in my posts.  I can't even remember what I ate.  This was a lovely dinner though that I had with my friend Christina.   We were greeted with an amuse bouche of fried olives.  It took us awhile to figure out what to order so they accidentally brought us two plates of this.  Psst... don't tell anyone, we didn't mind

What's Cooking at Soomeenshee'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14423941156309382847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435283624813750550.post-5668704122530327492011-07-08T00:16:00.004-05:002011-07-08T15:33:51.152-05:00

I went to the Gage awhile back for Chef's Week.  A couple friends and I went there for lunch.  They didn't have their Chef's Week menu up so we didn't really know what to expect.  Here was what our choices were.   While we were looking over the menu, our waiter brought us a loaf of bread and butter with some fleur de sel. For the first course, we had the option of a

What's Cooking at Soomeenshee'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14423941156309382847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435283624813750550.post-6290399012893961312011-06-08T23:40:00.000-05:002011-06-08T23:40:54.827-05:00

So since I was making a mess in the kitchen with the zucchini tea cake, I decided to make a coffee cake for my friend as well.  This was super easy and I happened to have all the recipes on hand.   Heirloom Bakery and Café's sour cream coffeecake Adapted from Heirloom Bakery and Cafe in South Pasadena. Topping 1/2 cup light brown sugar 1 tablespoon cocoa 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 cup

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