Review: Green Street Smoked Meats

My love for the West Loop may be a little biased, but you can't deny its foodie presence in Chicago. Randolph Street's "Restaurant Row" has been banging out hit after hit, and we can now add Green Street Meats to the list of "must try" in the neighborhood. It also happens to share an ally with one of my favorite spots - RM Champagne. Green Street Meats is unique to the area - it's inexpensive and you can go there for a quick bite or drink while still having a cool atmosphere. It's like the upscale trying to be hipster version of Freddy's (for those with a perplexed look, google "House of Cards", and get with it yo). Basically they have BBQ in common...

This ally is now full of large picnic tables - ready for dining al fresco. Seriously CAN NOT WAIT.

You enter and hit a fork in the road. Do we find a table...do we order...where is the bar...

The answer: divide and conquer. Struan went in line to order our food while I grabbed a spot at the bar to get drinks. Whiskey seemed like the right call for our BBQ dinner.

Or grab a cold one

We sat at the bar and ate, but there are plenty of communal tables around. I just really didn't feel like sitting with other people...

You order by the half pound - we went with pulled pork, brisket and ribs. All were excellent. Pulled pork was probably our favorite (we ordered extra in anticipation of this) and I thought the brisket was really good with the burnt ends. And it's healthy because there are no carbs...right?! There are also a couple of sandwich options, although they do give you slices of white bread with the meat. Real down home. The menu also includes cold sides, your basic picnic fare like coleslaw, potato salad, macaroni salad, etc. We ordered the broccoli salad and it brought me back to childhood. My mom would make that for summer BBQs all of the time.

I have a feeling I will be making quite a few visits to Green Street Meats in the near future. Those outdoor picnic tables are calling my name.

7 Days in Dubai

Before my trip to Dubai was even halfway over, I was already thinking about how difficult it would be to articulate the experience. Even selecting which photos to use for this post was a struggle. The city is full of contradictions - it's old, but it's brand new; it's the Middle East, but Western culture is everywhere; the buildings are massive, yet seemly disproportional to the population. Dubai was such an amazing mix of touring and chillaxing - I think it's the most relaxed I have ever felt after a vacation (like most people, I usually complain about needing a vacation to recover from my vacation).

We were fortunate enough to have Struan's cousin and her boyfriend as our hosts during our trip. They live and work in Dubai (by way of London and Scotland) and are part of the growing expat community in the city. Staying with "locals" is such a great way to experience a new place and their recommendations and help (they set up a lot of what we did on the trip) really made our stay in Dubai the perfect week.

I've been asked to describe this trip by friends, family and coworkers - and it's hard! Here are some quick answers to the most ask questions:
1. Dress code - we were dressed more conservatively than a lot of the European tourists we saw. I erred on the side of caution and covered my shoulders and knees at all times in public. In the hotel restaurants you can pretty much wear whatever you want.
2. Alcohol - it's illegal, but you can drink there (one of the many contradictions I mentioned earlier). For residents you need an actual license to purchase and keep alcohol in your home (it's not difficult to obtain, just tedious). Restaurants are only allowed to serve alcohol if they are on hotel grounds of some sort. And as you can imagine, booze is pretty expensive. We drank every night if that tells you anything about the accessibility of alcohol.
3. Culture - although it's the Middle East, it's extremely Westernized. American chains are everywhere (but we rarely saw an American tourist or expat). I was in a bathroom at a nice restaurant on "ladies night" (woman drink free! contradiction alert) and I swear I could have just as easily been at Underground in Chicago by the way the women were dressed. Dubai is extremely safe, you can leave your purse on a table and no one will steal it. Most everyone we met was nice and friendly. 

Below are a few parts of our trip that are worth sharing. I also tried to provide a photo recap for each day we were in Dubai.  If you are interested in seeing more, my Instagram account actually provides the best play-by-play (@dsonni) with more details.

Day 1: "Dune Bashing" in the desert. The guides let some of the air pressure out of the tires and then drive around like madmen. Buckle up! But seriously, you need to wear your seat belt because you bounce around a ton. I should have worn a sports bra. The SUVs have roll bars in them so I felt pretty safe (even when we were driving horizontal along a dune). The sunset view against the sand was amazing.

After the dune bashing, the guides took all of the groups to a Middle Eastern-style BBQ in the desert. We took a few laps with the camel (you really need to hold on when it gets up/down!) and held a falcon (I was terrified). Apparently the falcon is a sacred bird and you can bring your pet falcon on flights with you (only on intra-Middle Eastern flights), you just put a little hood on its head so it thinks it's nighttime and doesn't bother anyone. WHAT?! I'll take snakes on a plane before birds.

Day 2-3: It ended up working out that we alternated "relax" days with touring days. Day two we spent at his cousin's building pool and hung out around the Marina (part of the city where a lot of expats live). Day three took us to the Burj Kahlifa, the tallest building in the world. It's INCREDIBLE. I expected to be like "oh, cool, a tall building" and that's it - but no, I was thoroughly impressed by its grandeur. It's almost twice as tall as the Willis Tower and you can see it from almost anywhere you go in Dubai. It's also built by a Chicago architect (same as Trump Tower) so of course we loved the hometown pride factor.

View from the 124th floor observation deck at the Burj. There's an open-air deck you can go out on and it's funny how just having that open component really adds to the intensity of the height. There wasn't a roof (duh, open air) and the side walls made of glass also had openings that you could stick your arms out of (or your head, as Struan did). The water you see in the picture surrounds the mall and restaurants (mall on left side). The mall is huge and there's a lot I could say about it, but the most unusual thing I saw was a Garrett's Chicago Popcorn store...what?! There's also light/water show (Bellagio style) each night in this area.

After spending the day at the Burj and the mall, we had dinner at a Lebanese restaurant (in the group of buildings in the water you can see from the Burj observation deck). Struan's cousin picked this restaurant because of the view (Burj light and water show) and because they served alcohol. Everything we ate during our stay was very, very good. I love Mediterranean food, but Dubai has also every type of cuisine (we had pretty good pizza and Mexican while we were there since Struan and I can only go a day or two without).

If you haven't noticed, we are kind of obsessed with the Burj. This picture looks superimposed (I swear it's not). The light/water show at night was fun to watch - especially since it was set to Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You". Classic.

Day 4-5: Our next relaxation day was spent at Nasimi Beach at the Atlantis. We were waited on hand and foot all day at the beach. Enough said. Day five we ventured to Old Town Dubai for some local culture. We went to the museum and it was better than we expected, I would recommend it. We also stumbled upon the cutest boutique hotel/art gallery/cafe where we had some mint lemonade and dessert.

It costs about $1 to take one of these water taxis down the creek. You get what you pay for.

Day 6-7: For our last full day in Dubai, Struan's cousins took the day off work and we chartered a boat. What's not to love about warm weather and boating?! It actually reminded us a lot of summer in Chicago, the boat goes along the city so you have some great tourist views. The building on the right is the famed Burj Al Arab "7 star" super luxurious hotel. The one on the left is the Radisson Blu "wave" hotel. And those two losers in the middle are Struan and me having an obligatory Titanic moment. 

This is the one of the Sheik's private yachts that we passed by. This boat costs 40 million dollars just to maintain every year. Thought this was a good example of the extreme wealth you hear about in Dubai. 

Let me know if you are planning a trip to Dubai and want any recommendations!

Review: Tanta

It's been a crazy busy year and I have fallen off track with my "one post a week" promise to myself. The good news is, I have lots of backlogged restaurant visits, recipes, and travels to post about. With all of the great experiences I've had over the past couple of months, it's difficult to even know where to start. This overwhelmed feeling (in a good way) is often how I feel about Chicago - there is so much to do and see (and most importantly, eat) that I can't catch up. Isn't it the best though?! There is always a new experience to be had, or in this case at Tanta, a new type of cuisine to explore.

Tanta defines itself as Peruvian cuisine, but until my visit there I didn't realize how broad "Peruvian" was in terms of food. Apparently because of it's geographical location, Peruvian food has Asian and Spanish influences in additional to Latin. You realize this as soon as you look at the diverse (but not vast) menu and see dishes ranging from ceviche to sashimi to traditional Peruvian meals.

I definitely enjoyed our meal but I didn't LOVE the atmosphere. The bar area was cool, but small, and didn't have a real space of it's own. We sat in one of the small booths that lined one side of Tanta and for some reason the booth and bright lighting reminded me of a restaurant chain. I think I'm being a little too nit-picky, but giving my honest option. The food was great and I would go back if someone else wanted to give it a try, especially with a group so we could order more dishes.
 

I do love me a good bar.

One of the most traditional South American drinks - Pisco Sour

Of course I tried it

Now THIS was a good drink. I saw the bartender making it and knew I had to try it, I'm a sucker for cool presentation. That big orange ball you see is condensed and frozen hot peppers - so the drink gets spicier as it melts.

I think part of the reason I love Mexican food so much is for the chips and salsa they bring out (don't even get me started on the "fancy" places that make you order it off the menu and the salsa dish is the size of a thimble). Tanta brings out these crispy plantain chips and this AMAZING spicy ranch type dip (I apologize to the chef for my description, but sorry that's what it tasted like). Thank goodness they did not ask if we wanted a refill because I don't think I would have had the willpower to say "no".

Always with the red meat. Gotta have it. This is the Pobre Nigiris Nikkei with steak and quail egg on top of rice (like sashimi). On the menu it lists "chalaca" as part of the dish, which I learned is a traditional dish/term for food of the Lima coastal region.

Ahi Tuna Ceviche - can't go wrong with this order.

This picture isn't the most appetizing but it was very good. The Adobos de Res is listed under the "Peruvian Family Traditions" section of the menu. The slow cooked beef cheeks in adobo sauce was very rich and flavorful.

The desserts we ordered didn't photograph well either, but this chocolate concoction was delicious. 

I had high expectations for these pumpkin "donuts" and maple syrup sauce, but they were a little heavy/greasy and not as flavorful as I would had liked. With a pretty good dessert menu, I would take your calories elsewhere.

Let me know what you think of your visit to Tanta! It's definitely worth a try, especially with a group so you can taste the variety of regional cuisines on the menu.