Hash House A Go Go

One of my best friends celebrated her birthday a couple weeks ago with a Saturday brunch at the newly opened Hash House A Go Go in the Gold Coast. This restaurant has been around for about a decade in San Diego and has expanded only to Las Vegas and Chicago. Its forte is "twisted farm food," except nowhere in the restaurant or on the menu is it explained exactly which farms this food comes from. In a city teeming with farm to table restaurants detailing exactly where each component to a dish is sourced, it's hard to believe the people who run this restaurant are anything but poseurs. But, I digress. I arrived at this place before anyone else did, so I did what any normal person would do, settled in at the bar and asked for this:

A meal in itself, this is the BLT Bloody Mary (that set me back 13 bucks), and comes with a slice of bacon, tomato, lettuce, and a piece of bread. But, as amazing as this looks, I've had better Bloody Marys (hello, Joe's Stone Crab). The bacon was obviously made ahead of time, the bread also toasted ahead of time, and the Mary itself? Bland, watered down, one dimensional flavor. Looks can be deceiving.

They are famous for their sage fried chicken so I knew I had to get that. I ended up ordering the fried chicken with maple reduction, 2 eggs, bacon mashed potatoes, and biscuit.

And this is what arrived. Glutton! Party of one! An explosion of food on a plate - portions that could easily feed a family of four. I will admit the flavor of maple syrup over chicken is kind of awesome but I couldn't taste any sage in the chicken itself and the "bacon" mashed potatoes were merely mashed potatoes with two strips of bacon laid on top. The biscuit was overworked and too floury and I'm still not quite sure what the watery tomatoes (in peak tomato season no less) were supposed to add. The flavors of the dish just weren't quite there - no zing.

The birthday girl, Becky, ordered the S'more Mocha, which came with grilled marshmallows and a shot of espresso. She loved it.

Nina ordered the smoked salmon hash, which literally came in one of those Lodge cast iron skillets - yes this is for one person!

This place is also known for their fried chicken and waffles, which comes with frizzled leeks and is piled as high as it can be without tipping over. Every dish is impaled with a tall stalk of rosemary. Yes, this place is twisted.

Exploring Chicago: The Museum of Contemporary Art

Yesterday, I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art. It's open until 8 on Tuesdays and admission is free so basically you have no reason not to go. I love this museum for its accessibility because it is small and easy to navigate (unlike its bigger sister down the street). The current exhibitions include a series called Phantom Limb: An Approach to Painting Today, which consists of works created using something other than a paintbrush; and Rashid Johnson, a photographer who began his career at Columbia College and who produces what can be described as "conceptual post-black art." Unfortunately, the fourth floor was under construction so I did not get to see the Martin Creed exhibition.

Isa Genzken, a German artist, created this piece by covering it in paint and then dragging it face down across the floor of her apartment. Before I even read the method of this painting, I thought it looked remarkably like dust on a floor! It's a little hard to tell in this picture, but it's pretty awesome.

Sympathy for the Devil, Adam Pendleton

This work was commissioned for the MCA's 2007 exhibition entitled, Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll since 1967. Pendleton uses the same techniques in silk-screening that Andy Warhol did.

Trophy, brown, Aaron Curry and Richard Hawkins

This is painted on cardboard! And that blob in the middle of the framed painting on the left side is a scalped Halloween mask.

What I really liked about this blurb was the line, "the artists represented in this gallery have welcomed the messy reality of the modern world into their paintings." Oh what a messy reality it is, too.

Bad Dog, Christopher Wool

Why wouldn't I take a picture of a painting that says Bad Dog?

Love in Outer Space, Rashid Johnson

I love this one because the title refers to a Sun Ra song and the painting is created using beans placed on the canvas, then spray painted over, and removed. What a cool method to get that celestial effect.

Rashid Johnson (that is him in the third pic from the left middle row)

Study for Frank, Chuck Close

This is part of the First 50 exhibit, which has the first 50 objects that entered the museum's collection. Of course I had to take a picture of the Chuck Close one, I can't deny my hipster tendencies.

I also cannot deny my affinity for Lego. Who knew it could get you into the MCA? I have no idea who the artist is or what the title is, but it's great.