debil in a white wrapper
gross and wrong.
gross and EVIL!!
I can’t even bring myself to try one in the name of research. Why, Hershey?
Her name is Rioja
I had a pleasantly surprising dining experience recently, right in my neighborhood. Rioja is a tapas restaurant that popped up in Andersonville about a year and half ago. Much more affordable than its high-end seafood predecessor Atlantique, Rioja delicately sizzles and sparkles. Draped in dark red hues, Rioja has a large bar area where we were seated, and there’s also an adjacent dining room. Salsa music softly played in the background.
We began with a pitcher of Sangria which seems bottomless, serving 4 or 5 people. Bread and roasted garlic is whisked to your table shortly after you are seated. There’s endless tapas to choose from on the menu. The seafood dishes here are the highlight. My favorites were the scallops, a little crisp on the outside, and buttery on the inside, and served with a risotto. Also the grilled garlic-lemon shrimp wrapped in serrano ham, drizzled with a melon-fig relish
was a burst of citrus goodness in your mouth.
If meat and potatoes are your thing, you’ll enjoy the pork tenderloin with mashed potatoes and sauteed green apples. There’s also a roasted red pepper and goat cheese hot spread that’s delightful. All of the portions are enough to share, and honestly every single one of them won me over.
Our waiter gave a little frown when I said I didn’t want coffee (I was still working on my Sangria!) and for some reason we were seated at an “unfinished” table, literally a slab of rough wood covered with a sheet of brown paper, which oddly enough we didn’t notice until the end of the meal. But that won’t stop me from re-visiting this joint.
Rioja is a great date place. A place to gather with friends. A place to grab a lite meal, or have a full-on smorgasboard.
I will be returning to this secret Spanish jewel.
Rioja is located at 5101 N. Clark St. 773-275-9191
Snickeriphyllis
Have you seen Snickers new ad campaign? I almost hit the bumper in front of me on Assland Ave. when I read a giant billboard which I thought said “Hungerection”. When I got closer I realized it said “Hungerectomy”. It still didn’t want to make me eat a Snickers. It made me want to take care of my body so I don’t wind up in the hospital have to get something removed.
Peanutopolis?…yes, this headline was draped across the length of a CTA bus. Reminds me of a Greek candy bar.
Satisfectellent?…this candy bar is okay, but not great.
Substantialicious?…a tongue-twister…try and say it, 3 times…NOW…at your desk…in your cube…people will think you are crazy…no go get a Milky Way!
Convenience at its best
Gone are the days of eating on the go with your #2 meal in your lap.
That’s right. There’s a much more civilized way of enjoying the drive-thru (it pains me by the way to type the word “thru”).
Tell me you don’t want one of these for Christmas. And if you do, let me know. It can totally be arranged. This one has been sitting in our office for oh, at least a year.
In other news, WE MADE THE MACKEREL this weekend. Some of us even ate it. Witness the horrors yourself here. The good news is, our efforts were not made in vain. Even though we were technically late with our entry, Wendy has decided we rocked the inedible WW haus. woohoo! Congrats fellow scarred ones!
sliced meat
Every time I go to New York I come back shaking my fists at the fact there are no delis in Chicago. Sure there’s Subway or the Wall Street Deli with it’s chain of stores, trying to create some kind of sandwich niche, but I’m talking about your run-of-the-mill deli that you find on hundreds of street corners in NY. Maybe it’s called “45th Street Deli” or maybe it’s just called “deli” or “fresh produce”.
These were the kinds of places where the same two old guys for 10 years would take your order, add up what you owe and write it down on the paper bag containing your sandwich and send you on your way. You could get a cup a coffee, fresh donuts, fresh cole slaw, a tray of chicken parm and the NY Post all in one place.
I’m not going to rant and rave (okay, maybe a little) about how New York is superior to Chicago. I love both cities equally, each for their own special reasons…I’m just hungry….hungry for an ITALIAN COMBO WEDGE.
What is this wedge I speak of? It’s not a trivial pursuit piece…it’s not the yanking of your schoolmate’s undies, it’s a term used for a sandwich that I have only heard of from the area I grew up in…burbs of NY. Wedge refers to the type of bread. You can walk into any deli and order whatever you want on a wedge, which is about a 6 in. sub roll that is cut slightly on an angle or a hard roll (hard, meaning slightly crisp on the outside, slightly chewy on the inside–not as chewy as a bagel, but somewhere in between–and I’ll save my issue with bagels for another post). We used to walk uptown to Weldon’s deli in my town and my favorite sandwich was the italian combo or a turkey on a roll with russian dressing, lettuce and tomato, salt and pepper, with a bag of Wise potato chips and …you got it…I washed in down with a Welch’s grape soda. Pure heaven for a 10 year old. Grab a pack of Topps baseball cards on the way out and I’m set for the day. I was a little tomboy…go figure.
Delis kind of run in my family. My grandfather came to NY from Ireland and opened a small grocery store called the Royal Scarlet which was actually a chain of grocery stores in the 1930s, until my uncle bought it in the 70s and turned it into a deli. If you ever go to White Plains, NY stop and and ask for uncle Ray…you’ll get the biggest sandwich you’ve ever seen.
If anyone spots a deli in Chicago, let me know!
