My LTHForum Weekend, or: All Of Life Is A Thon

As I sat here, eating a leftover Mario's Italian ice which I defrosted moments ago (reconstituted pretty well, actually), I got to thinking about how many things I had in the last couple of days had come from LTHForum suggestions. So here is an account of how deeply I have been absorbed into the LTHForum cult; here's what I've had to eat since, oh, Thursday dinner (not counting breakfast cereal-- at home, not at Cereality):

Mixed grill and fries with garlic sauce and sumac at Semiramis.
Sushi at Midori.
Vito & Nick's, with dessert from Mario's.
Potbelly's (okay, look, the wife and kids like it, and anyway, we were in Glenview, trust me, we could have done worse*), preceded by a pressert of Bernard Callebaut ice cream bars.
Grilled Paulina Market brats and Minelli Bros. hot Italian sausage, with a side of Old-Fashioned Donuts Apple Fritter and a couple of pies for dessert. Oh, and a Limonata too.
Took a look at the line at Johnnie's, factored it against the 170-degree heat, and decided this was the day to try the panini and gelato at Massa a few doors over.
Leftover pizza from Vito & Nick's, with defrosted Italian ice from Mario's. M-mm good!

*Although it is a little scary how quickly a massive development sprouted from the earth in Glenview on the site of the former air station (where streets are still charmingly named things like Patriot Drive and Nimitz Way), on the whole they really did an admirable job of creating instant suburbs with enough variation in design, layout of open spaces, etc. that they suggest older suburbs; you could quibble that the small houses all look a bit fussy because they each have enough ornamentation for a house half again as big, but that's the real estate market these days, if you buy a mock-Federal house by God you want it to look like Mount Vernon with a two-car garage! But once the trees are actually taller than I am, it will all be quite pleasing, and the little mall built around the old tower building is quite handsome and Europeanish. The only thing I didn't care for about it is that the food options carry the aviation theme too far-- with outposts of urban spots like Potbelly's, Gold Coast Dogs and El Jardin up there, it can't help feeling like the Chicago-food food courts at Midway and O'Hare's international terminal. The moving walkway is now ending, please grab your Gold Coast dog and proceed directly to your gate....

Since I too managed to eat this weekend at Semiramis, tried the apple fritter from Old Fashioned Donuts for the first time, and also plan on shamlessly stealing the Annals of the Overlooked in a forthcoming post, I shall add on my own weekend report:

Thursday night it was pizza from Grand Slam. This pizza stands as the best thin cut Chicago pizza I have had in ages, and surely one better than any on the recent thin cut pizza athon. Plus, you can get an extra large pizza and a small pizza for less than twenty if you mention the "coupon" when ordering!

Friday it was beating MikeG to Semiramis where our table shared a whole roast chicken, shredded lamb over lamb rice and lotsa mezes (and lotsa garlic sauce). Probably my favorite place to open in 2005 (so far). Dessert was Toot's, which may not have great dogs, but I love their sof-serve.

Saturday as usual we visited the farmer's market (to be blogged) and finally made it to a very interesting butcher shop on the Oak Park-Chicago boarder (more info to come). We also sampled that fritter. It surely is a great as portrayed all these years. And we at terrific Chinese food at a place that I hope soon will not be so over-looked.

Sunday we had the ideal dinner for 100 degrees, three "eat fire" dishes from Thai Avenue. We got the bamboo salad, the Northern style laab (with chicken) and the nam tok with beef. Each was similiar in some ways, but each very different in the end. My favorite dish at Thai Avenue remains the wet Northern laab*. It is wonderfully complex in flavorings, with spicing only Erik M would know but with endorphin producing heat at the end of each mouthful. And it is always nice to spritz up your ground chicken with strings of pork skin and ultra thin slices of liver (how do they slice the liver so thin?).

On Sunday, we also got around to trying Bobtail Soda Factory for the first time. I liked their Spy influenced** decor perhaps a little better than the ice cream, but it was still good enough ice cream (if no where in the league of Cupid, Gayety, etc.).

Finally, on Sunday night, I picked up some Czech bread at the recently re-modeled and re-named Czeck AND Slovak store. I was very worried when I saw the for sale sign on the Czeck Bakery near Central and Belmont as without the crucial inclusion of a sixth cuisine to the Greek, Arabic, Polish, Bulgarian, and Mexican, people would no longer believe me that the 3100 block of Central was the city's premier Chow Block. The new version of the store seems about the same with perhaps a bit more in the deli case.

Since my athoning took me across two of my favorite streets, Lawrence and Montross, I passed manny a place for next time.

Rob

*Note, the Northern Style laab is not on the English menu at Thai Avenue, but if you make clear, Northern, it is easy to get. Also, if you tell Thai Avenue hot, they will accomodate.

**Special MikeG reference in honor of his thread.

Vital Information wrote:Sunday we had the ideal dinner for 100 degrees, three "eat fire" dishes from Thai Avenue. We got the bamboo salad, the Northern style laab (with chicken) and the nam tok with beef. Each was similiar in some ways, but each very different in the end. My favorite dish at Thai Avenue remains the wet Northern laab. It is wonderfully complex in flavorings, with spicing only Erik M would know but with endorphin producing heat at the end of each mouthful. And it is always nice to spritz up your ground chicken with strings of pork skin and ultra thin slices of liver (how do they slice the liver so thin?).

As you probably know, súp nàw mái, or "pickled bamboo salad," is not a real popular dish with faràng.* Anyway, Thai Avenue's version is fantastically dynamic, and the very best that I have ever had. It includes slivers of fresh lemongrass, mint, red onion, roasted rice powder, and toasted sesame seeds.


súp nàw mái

As for the lâap nẽua, or "Northern-style minced meat salad," I suspect that Thai Avenue uses a premade blend of lâap seasoning. These sorts of things are readily available in the marketplaces in Thailand, and they often contain such exotica as long pepper, cumin, and macquem.

E.M.

* Heck, if my Thai friends are any indication, it is not even that popular with Thais. I hear it often referred to derisively as "old people's food."

Erik M. wrote:As you probably know, súp nàw mái, or "pickled bamboo salad," is not a real popular dish with faràng.* Anyway, Thai Avenue's version is fantastically dynamic, and the very best that I have ever had. It includes slivers of fresh lemongrass, mint, red onion, roasted rice powder, and toasted sesame seeds.

<snip>

* Heck, if my Thai friends are any indication, it is not even that popular with Thais. I hear it often referred to derisively as "old people's food."

I did not know that.

What's interesting is that the bamboo salad is an easy dish to get, written in English in the Thai Avenue Specialities section of the menu--to contrast with dishes written in English transliterations but not translated or dishes written strictly in Thai script, Thai Avenue has them both. Obviously, having Erik's Thai Avenue tranlsation would help things out here.

In the past , I have had dishes from all three aspects of the menu as well as off menu dishes.

Rob

It seems that this was LTH weekend at Semiramis. I stopped in for lunch on Friday. I am happy to report that when I was there all of the tables in the main dining room except for one and one of the tables in the room where the cash register is located were filled with a ethnic mix of people all enjoying their food. This is in contrast to the reports that people have been posting about how they were the only ones there when they went. I'm glad to see that thy are packing them in...at least sometimes.

We actually went to Semiramis on Thursday night but I can happily report that not only was it half full or more, which I think isn't bad for Thursday, but they actually had had a run on the chickens to go and so there was a half hour plus wait on them.

Perhaps more importantly, as at Noon-O-Kebab the crowd looks like folks who are not from the neighborhood, so Semiramis is clearly drawing new visitors to one of the lesser-known primary chow strips in the city.

Boy, am I relieved. I thought this was "Life is a Thong" and, as much as you are a fine fellow, the visual of (almost) any LTH-er in a thong was enough to put me off my feed.

Vital Information wrote:
Saturday as usual we visited the farmer's market (to be blogged) and finally made it to a very interesting butcher shop on the Oak Park-Chicago boarder (more info to come).

Do tell.

*doing my best Emily Litella impersonation*

Oh, never mind.

Marmish wrote:

Vital Information wrote:
Saturday as usual we visited the farmer's market (to be blogged) and finally made it to a very interesting butcher shop on the Oak Park-Chicago boarder (more info to come).

Do tell.

I have not yet made a second visit to Blue Ribbon Meat Market, but a VI coorespondent has, and has raved about their cut to order steaks. I'm still most impressed with the fact that one can buy honest to goodness, salty-salty country ham in ol' Oak Park ( let that one slip). Still, I need a little more data before fully extolling this place.

Blue Ribbon Meat Market
426 N Austin Blvd,
Oak Park, IL 60302
(708) 524-9766

Vital Information wrote:

Marmish wrote:

Vital Information wrote:
Saturday as usual we visited the farmer's market (to be blogged) and finally made it to a very interesting butcher shop on the Oak Park-Chicago boarder (more info to come).

Do tell.

I have not yet made a second visit to Blue Ribbon Meat Market, but a VI coorespondent has, and has raved about their cut to order steaks. I'm still most impressed with the fact that one can buy honest to goodness, salty-salty country ham in ol' Oak Park ( let that one slip). Still, I need a little more data before fully extolling this place.

Blue Ribbon Meat Market
426 N Austin Blvd,
Oak Park, IL 60302
(708) 524-9766

Sounds like a field trip is in order. Thanks for the details.