Knit & Nosh

The past two Fridays have found me at the same couple of places. Mainly because I love them so much. It's hard to become a regular at any one place in Chicago. Eating out in this city has many variables. Price, cuisine, neighborhood, laziness of diner and of course the new factor. So many new eateries and bars open that it's difficult to be true. Everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and say they were the first. I was not the first to discover how delicious Pleasant House Bakery's pies are. I was not the first to drink at Maria's Packaged Goods. I am not the first to blog about it either. But I may be the first to play with Legos at Maria's while eating Pleasant House pie. 

The best symbiotic relationship in the city

Friday before last found me devouring the Friday night fish and chips that Pleasant House offers. A big thick piece of cod with meyer lemon tartar sauce. YUM! Paired with a prickly pear saison and a good book, I was in foodie heaven. 

Prickly Pear Saison brewed by New Belgium

Ravenous when I arrived I ended up snarfing down my food and beer before my friends arrived. By then I had time for another beer and some knitting on my superhero raccoon's body.

Finished the body while drinking Kujo Coffee Stout

He was finished later in the week during a cooking escapade that involved roasted butternut squash pizza and crispy fried sage. I am still happily munching leftovers.

The Raccoon keeps the world safe from dangerous monster chunks

Last Friday was a busy day of nothing but food food food and not too much knitting. Even the busiest of hands need a break. I power lunched at The Gage with my sister-in-law, took a tour of new aqua building and Radisson Blu Hotel. Then a quick visit to the water tower Lego store and the pick a brick wall. Afterwards I made my way down to Farmhouse. I still have not had their burger much to my chagrin as the gentleman next to me at the bar had one and it smelled delicious! Still full from lunch and close enough to dinner I settled for my book and one of the best gin and tonics to date. They had Barrel aged Bols Genever and no guns for them, tonic is served from a bottle. (Q tonic to be exact.) And of course I couldn't just sit and drink, I had to have dessert. A spiced fig and toffee bread pudding was a good complement to spice and juniper of my drink. I liked Farmhouse before but now they have been cemented in my brain as one of my regular places. After finishing I hopped a bus down to Bridgeport where chicken balti pie with coriander chutney awaited. My friends and I dumped out the Legos I brought and built towers and flying contraptions. Too bad the light was a little low to capture the creations properly. I've you with a Lego-ised mosaic of that evening.

Knit n' Nosh

Two of my favorite things: eating and knitting. One of my favorite things to do: go somewhere for food and knit. I went to lunch today with one of my favorite personages (who recently moved back to the Chicago land area) and he being the one man think tank suggested I blog about my eating and knitting. Fine, I said, I will. And that's just what I'm doing.
This chilly afternoon found me biking down to the south loop to visit one of my favorite diners I do not get to go to enough, Eleven City Diner. It's a Jewish American diner, a little piece of New York with a fierce love for Chicago and all things retro. Green River soda anyone? Cause that's what I have. Very few places carry this home town treat (and official soda of the Boice Wedding in '08), which sports a vibrant shade of green and tastes vaguely of limes and mostly of sugar. I don't drink a lot of soda but when a place has Green River I just can't resist. Eleven has cozy booths and tables and a full bar and lunch counter. For maximum retro effect my friend and I relaxed at the lunch counter. Immediately I pulled out my Warriston sweater. I hadn't seen Aaron since the honeymoon in Portland in said year of 2008. We've spoken and texted each other in that time but seeing someone is quite different and I wanted a project I didn't have to pay attention to. Therefore the stockinette bit of a heavy weight jumper fit the bill.

We sat, him with a cherry phosphate and I with my Green River straight from the bottle and chatted and caught up. He was amazed that I could not have to look at what I was doing and mused about blind knitters which segued into anecdotes about knitters I've met and friends of his who crochet and then beer regulations in Portland vs Kenosha. Our food was set down and I set down my knitting and snarfed up the SCHWARTZY; piles of smoked beef brisket sandwiched in fluffy challah bread. Aaron had a Rueben and fries. Mine was delicious but his looked so good with the melted cheese on top. I snuck some of his fries since mine came with coleslaw (blech.) I'm sure Eleven's coleslaw is delicious. I just don't care for it. Lunch over we still had time to kill before he had to get to his appointment and there was still much more conversation to be had. Plus I couldn't leave without getting an egg cream. Also a commodity in short supply in the Chicago area these are delicious.

Chocolaty and creamy without the heavy brick feeling of finishing a shake and a little fizzy, egg creams are not made with eggs but contain chocolate syrup, milk and soda water. A beautiful amount of head came on mine and all too soon it was gone and time to go. I packed up my knitting which was laid aside in favor of egg cream and conversation and we headed out the door of Eleven and back onto the streets of Chicago.