Maison

Brandade

Mussels w/ Frites

Scallops

Lula Cafe

Sunchoke Agnolotti

Braised Veal Cheek

Pork Shoulder

Cookie Plate

Joong Boo Market / Korean Cooking

Joong Boo Market

Wall Menu

Ra Bok Kee

Chung Gook Jang

Rice Beveridge

Gochujang

Bindaetteok

Assorted Hitichino

Spicy Pork Belly

Spicy Pork Belly

City Tavern

Brussel Sprouts w. Pork Belly

Lamb Meatballs w/ Tomatillo Sauce

Pickled Vegetable Plate

Stuffed Trout

La Sirena Clandestina

For the latest meeting of the GFC, Nick and I decided to check out La Sirena Clandenista on Fulton Market in the West Loop. I'd read a lot about John Manion's new South American hot spot and was excited to check it out. With Next, Aviary,  Moto, iNG,  and Publican right down the block, LSC was going to have to be pretty exceptional to fit in with its fine dining neighbors,

From what I've been hearing, the cocktaills are suppossed to be just as good as the food. I started our with a pisco sour. Pisco, a type of brandy, is the national liquor of Peru. I've never seen this on a menu before so I had to try it.  It was a real treat just to watch the bartender make the drink. She clearly knew what she was doing. I noticed she was using some unfamiliar ingredients, I've never had a cocktail prepared with egg whites. The drink was one of the best cocktails I've ever had. The egg whites created a tasty foam at the top of the drink. This was definitely the best cocktail I've had in a long time.

Pisco Sour

Having been blown away by the pisco sour, I decided to continue my tour of South America with a stopover in Brazil. I ordered a caipirinha, Brazil's national cocktail. Caipirinhas are actually a really simple drink to make. Its only ingredients are cachaça, simple sugar, and lime juice. Side note: cachaça is the most popular liquor in Brazil, very similar to rum, The main difference is that rum is distilled from molasses while cachaça is distilled from raw sugar cane. I've only had a few caipirinhas in my life but this one was my favorite. A very refreshing drink.

Caipirinha

With a couple fantastic cocktails under my belt, it was time for the food. We started out with a charred baby octopus salad. The salad was pleasant and light but not particularly memorable. I could have used a little more octopus and a stronger char flavor.


Octopus Salad

Next came out two empanadas, one meat and one vegetarian. The chicken empanada was great but the gorgonzola vegetarian version was out of this world. I've only had fried empanadas in the past so I was a little skeptical about a baked version. I actually prefer the baked version having tried both. The outside was light and flaky without being greasy. Served with chimichurri sauce, these empanadas were the highlight of the meal.


Empanadas

I've heard really good things about their fries. Supposedly they are among the best in the city, up there with the likes of Publican and Hopleaf. The fries themselves were very good but the the aioli was really amazing. It looked like a pretty standard aioli but it had a surprising amount of heat. I ended up using it on everything.

Frites w/ Aioli

We decided to split the pork loin Milanese as an entree. This was a very good dish. The pork itself was juicy and tender. The crust was fried to perfection. The meat came covered with a mushroom sauce and a fried egg. My only complaint was that such a large piece of meat could have used another egg. There just wasn't enough yolk to go around.

Pork Loin Milanesa

We also ordered a few side dishes. One turned out to be great and the other turned out to be downright offensive. The pao de queijo was really good. These are smalls balls of brazilian cheese bread. I immediately recognized these as something I've had at Brazilian steakhouses like Fogo de Chao. These were much better. They are light and airy with a great texture. The other side we got was farofa. Farofa, ground cassava root, is normally used as a stuffing in Brazilian cuisine. While it might be a great stuffing, eating it on its own is like eating sand. With a truly dreadful texture and very little flavor of its own, I'm not entirely sure why this is even on the menu.

Pao de Queijo and Farofa

I really enjoyed my experience at La Sirena Clandestina. Cocktails were phenominal, service was excellent and food was interesting. I would definitely recommend stopping by for a few cocktails and empanadas. LSC is a great addition to the already lively West Loop dining scene.

Ed's Potsticker House

I often stop to think about how lucky I am to have so many wonderful people in my life. One of these people is my sister Lizzie. We have grown much closer in recent years as we’ve started to discover how much we have in common.  One of the things we have in common is an interest in unique ethnic food. While she was in town for Christmas break, we made plans to meet up for something tasty. Katie and I met up with Lizzie and her boyfriend Kevin and headed down to Bridgeport to check out Ed’s Potsticker House.

I originally read about Ed’s Potsticker House on the LTH Forum where it is listed as a Great Neighborhood Restaurant (GNR). The place has been serving authentic Chinese cuisine for many years. EPH focuses heavily on northern Chinese cuisine with a sampling of dishes from other Chinese regions. The area surrounding 31^st and Halsted is starting to become something of a Northern Chinese Chinatown, with Homestyle Taste and Northern City in the immediate vicinity.

We sat down and were immediately greeted with a small plate of spicy sprouts.  I always appreciate a complimentary “amuse bouche” to prepare my palate.  The sprouts had nice flavor with just a bit of spice. I have to say that I prefer the spicy mung beans offered at Northern City. 

Spicy Sprouts

The menu was massive and a bit of challenge to navigate. We started out with an order of the house special dumplings. We were all pretty hungry and these cigar shaped dumplings were pretty satisfying. The dumplings came with the typical spicy and salty dipping sauces.  The spicy sauce was my favorite component of the dish. It had a little bit of a smoky twist to it, almost as it were made with chipotle oil. The dumplings were pan fried and a little too greasy. This is one reason I normally prefer steamed dumplings. The filling was decent but the main selling point of the dumplings is that they served as an excellent vehicle for the chili condiment. 

House Dumplings

At Lizzie’s insistence, we decided to try the jelly fish salad. This consisted of a bunch of shredded jellyfish served atop a bed of finely julienned cucumbers.  It came dressed with a garlic and vinegar dressing. I didn’t taste any particular flavor from the jellyfish. The vinegar dressing was the most dominant flavor. This was a very light, refreshing dish. I could see this really hitting the spot on a hot summer day. It also worked well with our meal because it was the only thing we ordered that could be considered remotely light or healthy.

Jellyfish and Cucumber

I had read good things about the garlic eggplant so we had to give it a try. A very tasty dish, albeit one I’ve had a thousand times. The dish was very tasty and definitely got the job done. It just didn’t have anything unique or special that could differentiate it from all the other Chinese eggplant dishes I’ve tried.

Garlic Eggplant

I decided to try one of their northern-style casserole dishes. I opted for the pork belly casserole with cellophane noodles. The dish was very rich as expected. The pork belly itself was good but not great.  It could have been a bit more tender. Again, I would probably be in love with it had I not had Chairman Mao’s Favorite Pork Belly at Lao Hunan.  The cellophane noodles were satisfying, if a bit difficult to eat with chopsticks. 

Pork Belly Casserole w/ Cellophane Noodles

Lizzie got the mapo tofu. Mapo tofu is probably my favorite Sichuan dish. It’s basically silky soft tofu swimming in a bath of fiery chili sauce. It normally features the famous Sichuan numbing peppercorns which take your taste buds on a ride they won’t forget. This dish was a decent rendition of mapo tofu. I think after having Chef Tony’s version at Lao Szechuan, anything less fails to impress. The dish wasn’t nearly spicy enough and had barely any hint of numbing peppercorns. This is significantly better than what you normally get from a non-Sichuan restaurant but not anywhere near what Chef Tony delivers every night. 

Mapo Tofu

I felt really bad for Katie with her main course selection. We were looking at the menu and saw a seafood soup which looked good. The picture was deceptive to say the least. Unfortunately this dish was extremely bland. It reminded me of a similar soup I made the mistake of ordering at Lao Yunnan this past summer. This truly horrible dish was devoid of any hint of flavor. I don’t understand how with everything else on the menu being so flavorful, this dish had flavor similar to  luke warm pasta water.  

Seafood Soup

Overall, Ed’s Potsticker House was decent. I might have had a better experience had we ordered more dumplings or maybe tried the cumin lamb. I’m glad we tried this place but I will not be rushing back anything soon. There are just too many exceptional authentic regional Chinese restaurants in Chinatown/Bridgeport for me to waste time with anything that isn’t excellent. 

Three Aces

For New Years Eve, Katie and I decided to forgo the bar scene and grab dinner with some of our closest friends. We didn't get around to making a reservation until a few days beforehand, so our options were limited. Luckily, we were able to get a last minute reservations at Three Aces on Taylor Street. I've wanted to try Three Aces for a while now. It is included on the Chicago Eater 38 which is always a good sign. I remember being particularly intrigued when I saw the restaurant featured on Check, Please! The chef and co-owner, Anthony Potenzo is a Taylor Street Native who set out to create a Rock n' Roll bar that also happens to serve unique contemporary Italian cuisine.

We started out with a few apps. Our first app was a simple bowl of chips, duck fat chips! These chips were amazing. This is the first duck fat fried item I've ever had that actually tasted like duck. It seems like every trendy restaurant has "duck fat fried" something on the menu. Most of these dishes have no hint of duck flavor. These chips certaintly did not fit this mold. The chips were perfectly crisp and had a very pleasant duck aroma and flavor.

Duck Fat Chips

 We also ordered a bowl of popcorn for the table. The popcorn was nice, covered with scallions and parmesan cheese, served with a spicy sriracha-like sauce for dipping. The popcorn was very flavorful and tasted even better when dabbed in the hot sauce.

Popcorn

 Next came two of my favorite dishes of the night. First, a bountiful bowl of arancini arrived at our table. Arancini are fried rice balls originally served as street food in Sicily. These little deep fried delights did not disappoint. My first bite took me right back to Rome. Arancini are very similar to suppli, a snack Katie and I enjoyed daily on our Roman holiday this past April. The balls were perfectly fried, a nice crispy outer layer encased a moist flavor explosion on the inside. The arancini balls were served over a bed of black eyed peas cooked with ham hock. This was an interesting juxtaposition of southern US soul food and southern Italian peasant food. The dish was a real winner. Next came a bowl of bolognese fries. The dish consisted of a bed of well done fries covered in a meaty bolognese sauce. I can't believe I've never seen this on a menu before. A truly great concept, executed perfectly. I will certainly be ordering these on my visit.
 

Bolognese Fries

Next we had a baked olive dish that was overly salty. The olives were mixed with tomato sauce and ricotta and served with crusty Italian bread. These olives had that distinctive "out of the can" taste which I can't stand. This was by far the least appealing appetizer for my tastes.

Baked Olives

 I also ordered a salad of roasted beets which I loved. There were two types of beets roasted to perfection, served with arugula and creamy goat cheese, dressed with a bacon vinaigrette.

Roasted Beets

  We ordered a few pizzas for the table, They were served on log slices and had nice crispy crusts. The short rib pizza was nice but not overly flavorful. The pesto pizza was also decent but not particularly memorable.

Short Rib Pizza

Pesto Pizza

 To wrap up our NYE feast, Katie and I split the rye gnocchi. The house-made gnocchis were served in a root vegetable sauce with braised duck neck and pecorino cheese. Other than being extremely salty, this dish was severely lacking in flavor. 

Rye Gnocchi

Overall I enjoyed my Three Aces experience. Most of the dishes were excellent with a couple misses. Great friends and a great dinner made for a great NYE. Three Aces is an interesting concept and a great addition to Taylor Street. I will definitely be returning in the summer to take advantage of their large outdoor patio and extensive beer list.