Slurping Turtle

Last weekend, Jessie and I went to Slurping Turtle in River North for dinner, which has been open for less than a year. It's Japanese comfort food and I'd heard recently that they have good ramen. We decided to go early because I had also heard there can be long waits on the weekend, but we arrived at around 5:15, right after work, and the place had basically just opened. However, the service was incredible and our servers gave awesome advice on what to order so we mostly stuck with that and they did not disappoint. In fact, I got to talking to one of our servers about our recent trip to Big Star and he highly recommended Antique Taco in Wicker Park, which just opened this summer, and which I've been dying to try. Hopefully, that will be an upcoming blog post!

Turtles are a symbol of longevity in Japan and slurping is encouraged when eating ramen because you are supposed to get both broth and noodle with each bite.

This drink, whose name fails me, has an egg white in it and grapefruit and rosemary, but the rosemary cannot be detected. It tastes mostly like grapefruit juice, strongly spiked grapefruit juice.

This drink, whose name also escapes me, is much like the aforementioned drink in that it tastes like pure lemon juice, strongly spiked lemon juice. Stick with beer or wine if you eat here.

This is hamachi tuna tartare in taro root taco shells with hamachi roe. These are incredible and I cannot wait to go back to have them again. The crunchiness of the taco shell with the softness of the tuna and the salty soy sauce marinade really works well together.

I'd read that their duck fat fried chicken was a star on the menu and it does not disappoint. It is very rich and, thankfully, a very small dish for that reason.

This is the pork belly snack, which is really tender pork belly on top of a steamed bun with a pickle on top. Texture in Japanese cooking is just as important as flavor and this dish is texturally off. The steamed bun and the soft pork belly just scream for something crisp and the pickle does not deliver.

These Brussels sprouts are so salty and meaty and crispy and the addition of the frizzled shallots is heavenly. This is another dish I will be going back for.

The tonkotsu ramen is a pork broth with braised pork shoulder, mustard greens, wood ear mushrooms, egg noodles, and those oval things, which are fish cakes, and happen to taste more like nothing than like fish. This is another winner. The mushrooms are cut in similar shape to the noodles so they take on the same texture and mouthfeel.

The an mitsu is a Japanese sundae of green tea ice cream, red bean paste, fruit, and agar agar cubes. The agar agar cubes (basically flavorless Jello) overwhelmed the dish. I get that they are there for texture but they detract from the dish for me.

We also split three macaroons: yuzu, which is a citrus fruit, caramel soy, and red bean. The yuzu is by far the best macaroon I've ever tasted. The others just made me long for the yuzu!

Mars Cheese Castle

Dear readers, please forgive me for my lengthy absence. I've been spending a lot of my free time decorating and improving things in my apartment and that has led to not getting out much over the past couple of weeks. I've been sitting on this Mars Cheese Castle post for nearly two weeks now and it's time to share with you this awesome cheese shop that has become a tradition among my group of friends. 

I was probably in junior high or high school the first time I stopped at the Mars Cheese Castle - 15 years ago it was a divey time warp that didn't look all that much like a castle but within it was contained a cornucopia of cheese that would cause any average cheese-loving American to swoon. Now, it is a legitimate brick castle complete with faux moat and pointy roof thanks to a complete rebuild of the shop a couple of years ago. Don't be fooled, dear reader, because cheese is not the only treasure you will find here. There are a myriad of other Wisconsin made treats ranging from whole apple pies (baked in a brown bag by Wisconsin's own Elegant Farmer), New Glarus beer, Door County wine, to jellies, local honeys and a whole wall of hot sauce. The store is ginormous and really exciting for food lovers - I was able to find white truffle honey, which I've been looking for for years (and which tastes amazing drizzled over goat cheese flatbread).

Somehow, day tripping to the castle has become an annual (sometimes biannual) tradition for me and my gal pals. Located about an hour north of Chicago in Kenosha, Wisconsin, it is something most Chicagoans visiting Wisconsin have seen driving up the 94 expressway. Our personal tradition dictates that breakfast must be had at the Cracker Barrel down the road from the castle and cheese drenched apple pie (brown bag) must be devoured after procuring our cheese and other miscellaneous comestibles.

If you like the combination of sweet and salty flavors you
have got to try putting sharp cheddar cheese on your pie.

You can get many combinations including chocolate cheddar and blue cheese cheddar.

When you see this sign you have got to stop for some cheese and pie.

Exploring Chicago: Lincoln Square

Last night I met up with Becky and Nina for some dinner in Lincoln Square, which is one of my favorite neighborhoods in Chicago and also really close to where I live. It's heavily influenced by its German roots and features a lot German bars, restaurants, and shops and has a couple German festivals a year, which are a lot of fun. We went to one of my favorite restaurants in the city, Cafe Selmarie, which is located right on Giddings Square, which is the center of the Lincoln Square business district.

When we arrived the band, The Stingers, was already playing.

Cafe Selmarie has great dinner but serves the best brunch in the city on the weekends. If you ever go there for brunch I highly recommend ordering their chilaquiles (which is a Mexican egg and tortilla casserole) or their corned beef hash. You really can't go wrong no matter what.

There's a bakery at the front of the restaurant packed with goodies. My favorite treat is their cherry streusel pie, which, unfortunately, they didn't have last night.

Every Thursday night they feature a prix fixe three course menu for $22.

   

We started with the goat cheese, which was different from how I've normally had it there. It had sundried tomatoes, caramelized red onion, mushroom, red pepper, and goat cheese in it. My friends and I are huge fans of goat cheese so we were a little underwhelmed by the amount of goat cheese but the flavors were still really good.

I ordered the mixed green salad to start.

Nina and Becky ordered the special - Salmon Oscar - which came with crab, asparagus, and mashed potatoes, with a dill cream sauce on top. I tasted it and the salmon was a little overcooked but the dill sauce was not overtly dilly and the mashed potatoes were heavenly - I am pretty sure they use Yukon golds.

I ordered the chicken pot pie, which I pretty much always order for dinner when I am there. It comes with this giant pastry crust on top that flakes into a million pieces when you crush it.

The anchor of the neighborhood, Chicago Brauhaus, which is an old German restaurant, sets up a food booth on Thursday nights. You can order their freshly made Bavarian pretzels, brats and sausages, and German beer like Hofbrauhaus. I came to the Brauhaus for my 28th birthday with my family and my friends and we had a blast. They have a dance floor and a polka band that plays every single night of the week. It's like a time warp in there.

Since Cafe Selmarie didn't have the desserts we wanted we decided to walk across the square to have gelato at Paciugo.

They have so many different flavors but are eager to let you try however many you want. I tried the olive oil and black pepper because it sounded intriguing, but it didn't really taste like olive oil or black pepper! I also tried the chocolate jalapeno and I could definitely taste the jalapeno.

Their coffee gelato is very strong, almost espresso like, but it is the closest thing to coffee I've ever had in an ice cream or gelato.

There's seating outside Paciugo, so we relaxed for a little bit and enjoyed the band, which played covers of rock and roll classics. Kids were running amok everywhere.

At the edge of the square next to Lincoln is the Giddings Plaza Fountain - dedicated in 1999 by Mayor Daley.