Eat Real

It's our annual visit (starting last year) and thankfully, this year it was less crowded and the weather was a lot cooler. I love this festival. It's filled with workshops, performances, cooking shows and so much delicious food. Today, I tried everything from chicken masala filled naan wraps to Numi jasmine popsicles. Here's what today looked like.

NY Eats

As with every visit to New York, there's never enough time to rest. Between wedding festivities for the bride & groom and hanging out with NY'er friends, we tried to squeeze in as many food spots as possible. This city never disappoints on the food front so I have a few places to share for next time you're in the Big Apple.

Ippudo

This place deserved it's own post, so you'll find that by clicking here.

Grimaldi's Pizza

 Thankful that there is now a 2nd location (the first being at the Brooklyn Bridge) because the wait at their famous original location can sometimes take 2 hours. Here, we didn't have to wait at all. I actually wanted to try Lucali in Brooklyn instead (all of my NY'er buddies say this is actually the best pizza), but they're only open for dinner each night which didn't work out with our schedule. The pizza here has such tasty cuts of meat and perfectly thin with a slight crisp. Definitely a must-try.

Shakeshack

Basically the In-N-Out Burger of NY. My Cali folks may hate me for saying this, but I would take a Shake Burger over In-N-Out any day. To me, the bun and meat here is far better than that of my hometown joint. Plus, they serve frozen custard. Yum.

I didn't go during this visit, but I have to give some love to Peter Luger. If you are a steak lover, this is a must-try.

SF Street Food Festival

It's festival season in San Francisco! Today, we headed out to the Eat Real festival in Oakland but, that's not what I'm going to talk about. Instead, here's a snapshot of our time at the SF Street Food festival that happened a few weeks ago. It's a great food festival, but not my favorite. MANY vendors were not equipped to feed the masses all day. The best places sold out super quick so I wasn't a happy camper getting there hours after it began. Highlights of the day, watching the Mr. eat Don Bugito's moth larvae tacos and food from the Kasa truck (twice).

Chairman Bao: Steamed Bao with Pork Belly & Pickled Daikon

#32 Steamed Bao with Pork Belly & Pickled Daikon at the Chairman Bao truck
7x7 The Big Eat SF: 100 Things to Try Before You Die in SF 2011

Due to all of the hype, I have been following Chairman Bao on Twitter even before I tried their famous buns. At all of the food festivals, they always have the longest line. Just recently they made it onto the Zagat. I was pleased to find out that they were making an appearance at the Truck Stop (an area by my work that features about 3 food trucks per day). The line was long, but not as long and unbearable as the festival lines. So, I waited patiently and am so glad I did. Definitely the BEST food truck vendor at least in the Bay Area. I had the pork belly bun as well as the sesame chicken and they both met and exceeded my expectations. I could eat 20 of these in one sitting - that's how good they are.

Soul Train's 40th Anniversary

While spending some time at Millenium Park taking pictures at the Cloud Gate (aka The Bean), we couldn't help but notice an enormous crowd of people in one area equipped with a DJ blasting jams from earlier time periods. Our initial thought was that crowds were likely surrounding street performers, but when we walked through the crowd it was actually a massive dance party in celebration of Soul Train's 40th anniversary.

I spent a few minutes as a spectator and the music put me right into my happy place - so much that I had to join the diverse crowd which, btw, was filled with people of all ages. Not only did we join forces to create the biggest Soul Train line in history, we even danced the electric slide as a group also. This is probably the closest I'll ever get to my dream of being part of a flash mob so I had a blast and enjoyed every single moment. 

Later that evening, we attended a free concert at Jay Pritzker Pavillion for the same celebration. We stood among the people of Chicago, visitors, performers like the Chi-Lites and Impressions - even Don Cornelius made an appearance and said a few words. We really just stumbled on both of these events and it was such a nice surprise.

I Love Ramen

I am a soup fanatic who doesn't discriminate any type of soup. Plain old broth, hearty, Mexican caldos, pho, ramen, the list goes on. I can eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner days in a row and never get sick of it. So, that brings me to the best ramen I've ever had at Ippudo. Weeks prior to my NYC departure, I asked around and read a few articles and thought Momofuku was the one to try. It wasn't until I was in Manhattan chatting with friends until I realized I had been looking at the wrong place. Turns out, Ippudo is actually considered the best. So, I followed the advice of my favorite NY'ers and headed for that restaurant and made sure we were there right before they opened. I'm glad we did because unlike many Yelpers, we only had to wait 5 minutes before we were seated. I ordered the Akamaru Modern and the pork belly buns and I wasn't disappointed one bit. He had the same with the braised pork belly and soft boiled egg add-on (highly recommend it!). The BEST ramen I've ever had. I've never been to Japan so I can't compare, but this will definitely do for now. If you're a ramen/ soup lover like me, don't go to NYC without stopping by.

The Rick Bayless Experience

When you're from California, you don't think about eating Mexican food anywhere else because well, we have the best Mexican food outside of Mexico. Since it was recommended by friends and since Rick Bayless has quite the reputation (and we couldn't get reservations at Girl & the Goat or Sprout - both Top Chef restaurants), we figured we'd give his restaurants a try. So, we tried both XOCO and Frontera Grill while in Chicago. XOCO was his "fast food" type spot and Frontera was more of a nice sit-down spot. They were both delicious, but XOCO really blew me away. The tortas and caldo were so ridiculously tasty that we went back the next day to order food to bring home with us. It's a MUST TRY when you're there!

XOCO

 

 FRONTERA GRILL

 

Chi-Town Eats

There's so much to be said about the food here! We didn't eat a bad meal during our visit. Everything from the Chicago style hot dogs, deep dish pizza & italian beef sandwiches - everything was so satisfying. Here are a few places to try that are special to Chi-Town:

 Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza

 Al's Italian Beef

 Portillo's Chicago style hot dog

Portillo's chocolate cake shake

A Windy City Visit

10 years ago, I came to Chicago for the first time to celebrate my good friend's birthday and you can also say it was a bit of a graduation gift to myself. With one of those same friends, we came back to reconnect with a city we remember loving so much. It was just as we remembered (maybe even better than we remembered). The architecture, food and love for music this city has is unbelievable. If it weren't for the nasty winters, I would consider living here. Thanks for treating me well Chi-Town!