Chicago Fare

February 14th 2010 was quite a memorable day, mainly because I had walked down Michigan Avenue with part of my dress tucked into my underwear on the way to the Symphony, but by the time we arrived at Takashi for dinner I had nearly forgotten my minor faux-pas.

We had been meaning to try Takashi for sometime, so when I finally realized we were dining at this intimate establishment, I was quite excited to finally sample some of Chef Takashi’s Japanese influenced French-American style dishes.

The Atmosphere:

Nestled on Damen in what appears to be a small house Takashi is a contemporary dining experience in a neighborhood setting.   As you enter the front door, you are immediately greeted by a steep staircase which leads to the second floor dining area. We were placed here for the evening amongst other lovebirds of sorts.  The space feels very inviting and has a good karma from the last restaurant that resided at this location. It just happens to be the same space as Scylla the restaurant Stephanie Izard closed prior to her Top Chef win.

Yellow Tail and Pork Belly

The Menu:
The menu has a large selection of small plates, both hot and cold, with several larger dishes at end to close the meal. We opted for the a la carte menu, though they offered a prixe fixe menu for Valentine’s Day.

We began our meal with a cold plate. We started with Japanese Yellowtail Hamachi with spicy Napa Cabbage slaw and daikon pickled califlower and an aromatic vineagarette. It was a unique raw preparation with blasts of heat from the slaw that was prepared kimchee style. The spiciness nearly overwhelmed me at first but fortunately I had a delicious glass of wine that put out the fires raging in my mouth.

For our next course, we had the Soy-Ginger Carmel Pork Belly with Pickled Daikon Salad, Steamed Buns. Now I have to say, I had my reservations when George ordered this dish. Despite what the majority of the culinary world seems to think, I have always found pork belly to be… well… a giant slab of fat that just never seems appetizing. So when our pork belly arrived, I must say I took my first bite with trepidation. The dish was fantastic! It was basically a deconstructed chinese steamed bun. I assembled my bite by first placing a sliced of steamed bun down, next a small spread of wasabi mustard, then comes the perfectly cooked, melt in your mouth pork belly, and finally topped with pickled daikon salad. The combination of flavors was outstanding. It was blend of classic Korean and Chinese flavors.

Soba Gnocchi

We stayed with the hot small plates for our next course and had the Sauteed Main Scallops and Soba Gnocchi Trumpet Royale, Celery Root-Parmesan Foam. This dish was the perfect fusion of East and West. Now, I am very skeptical of the overplayed “fusion” concept that dominates the food scene, but if there ever was an example of true fusion of flavors, this would be it. The soba gnocchi was delicate and the scallops perfectly cooked. The sauce was so good that I caught George lapping up the last drops with a silly grin on his face.

For our final course we had the Roasted Indiana Duck Breast and Confit of Leg with a Compote of Quince, Ginger-Orange Glaze. The duck was well cooked and married well with ginger orange glaze. It was the right balance of sweet and savory. I was in love with the confit of leg, but a little unhappy with skin on duck breast. I was hoping it would be a little more crispy, but I know that would have sacrificed the perfect level of doneness when it arrived at our table.

Duck Breast and Leg Confit

The second main dish we had was the Mackarel with a napa cabbage roll and eggplant. This fish had a nice crispy skin but reminded me of the sea a little too much.

This may be because George could not stop saying how he has always found mackarel to be a little fishy in taste since the minute we ordered the dish. The eggplant was well prepared and complimented the fish well, but the delicious wrapped napa cabbage with the sauce was the real treat to me.

Our Thoughts:

We were quite impressed with the elegance of each dish presented to us, and even more impressed with the seamless fusion of cultures. Takashi is the ultimate example of what true fusion cuisine is suppose to be and now joins the short list of gourmet restaurants that we dub worthy of taking our out of town guests

Japanese Mackeral and Eggplant

Takashi | 1952 N Damen Street Chicago IL 60647 | (773) 772-6170 |

On a cold and snowy evening I find myself in the heart of Chicago’s China Town.  It’s not by chance, I know where I am going… I know what I am ordering and so does our waitress before I even say a word.  It’s been a long day and I’m pretty sure the world hates me.  I need some comfort food and I know I can find it here.

Now according to Merriam-Webster I should be seeking a traditional food preparation, one that evokes sentiment and nostalgia, but what is a “traditional food preparation” to an american mutt such as myself.  I suppose it could be the meals of my childhood, my mother’s beef stew perhaps.  Unfortunately, her recipe can not be found south of Milwaukee and I seek another family’s recipe to warm me up tonight.

Pork and Napa Cabbage Dumpling

Our waitress at Lao Shanghai knows our faces and as we sit down she asks, “steamed pot sticker?”  I shake my head yes and add an order of xiao long bao(soup dumplings).  There is something inherently comforting about meat wrapped delicately in dough.  I prefer the pork and napa cabbage steamed dumplings, but Lao Shanghai has a variety to choose from including veggie and shrimp.

The xiao long bao is the epitome of comfort food to me.  As the bamboo steamer arrives I prepare my chopsticks so that I can delve into these tasty morsels.  I am careful not to break the dough as I lift the miniature dumpling onto my  soup spoon.  The dumplings have come with the xiao long bao dipping sauce, the pot sticker dipping sauce, and a chinese chili oil.  I prefer the pot sticker sauce(soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and sugar) so I drizzle some into the soup spoon with my steaming dumpling.

Lao Xiao Bao(aka Soup Dumplings)

As I lift the spoon to my mouth I slowly bite into the dumpling hoping I have let it cool just enough.  The soup spills from the dumpling into the spoon and my mouth mixing with the sauce and burning my tongue.  I usually underestimate the heat, but I prefer them scaldingly hot to luke warm.  I’m starting to feel warmer as our waitress returns for our next order.

We request the Shanghai Style Fish Filet.  It took us three trips before we mustered up the guts to order the Shanghai Fish Filet.  At each visit I would scan the regular customers’ tables.  It appeared every table had either the fish filet or the braised pork belly in bean curd sauce.  And although I still have not been brave enough to order the pork belly, the fish filet has gone into our permanent meal shuffle and is perfect for this cold and snowy evening. The white fish is cooked perfectly in a thickened salty sweet broth of Shao Xing(chinese cooking wine) and rehydrated WoodEar mushrooms.

Shanghai Style Fish Filet

I glance outside at the snow as we settle our small bill.  The waitress says goodbye, but knows we will be back soon, on another cold and stormy evening.  I feel slightly warmer as I zip up my jacket and pull up my hood. Perhaps only part of the world hates me tonight.

Lao Shanghai | 2163 S China Pl Chicago, IL 60616 | (312) 808-0830 |

Last Friday we basically had dinner with Rick Bayless… OK, maybe it wasn’t exactly dinner with him, but if we ignore the table of three sitting beside us, pushed our table right next to his, and then pretended that he actually knew who we were… one might stretch to say we had dinner with Chicago’s ultimate celebrity chef.   We figured the excitement from his Top Chef Masters win may have died downed so we secured an evening reservation at arguably the most famous Mexican restaurant in the country, Topolobampo.

The Atmosphere:

The restaurant is a separate dining area decorated with large Mexican paintings and connected to his more casual restaurant Frontera Grill.  Rick Bayless, the chef/owner has become famous for his use of regional Mexican flavors, highlighting the sophistication and complexity of a cuisine that is best known for its late night burritos as big as your head.  Now, as a regular diner in Chicago’s version of Gudalajara, Mexico, Pilsen, I must say I was a little skeptical how well Chef Bayless’ contempory interpretation of regional Mexican fare would compare with the more rustic family versions I’ve had at Nuevo Leon or Abuelo’s in Pilsen.

Topolobampo Ceviche Trio

The Menu:

Topolo has two dining options: a la carte and the tasting menu.  We elected to create our own tasting menu and figured that between the four of us, we should be able to sample a few different dishes.  I must say the tasting menu did look intriguing with 3 options: A Mole Tasting, A Celebration Menu, and a Jalisco tasting.

We started our meal with a ceviche trio: Ceviche Fronterizo, Ceviche Yucateco, and Ceviche de Atun.  The Fronterizo was the concensus winner of the trio.  It was a more traditional ceviche with lime juice serving as the primary acid that marinated  blue marlin, olives, jicama and cilantro.  The jicama provided a nice crunchy textural balance to the marlin.  The Yucateco was probably the second most popular ceviche.  It featured shirmp and calamari with lime and orange juice as the marinate with a little habenero for heat.  The flavors were well balanced and the calamari provided  unique element to the dish.  Last, but in this case the least, was the Atun in which ahi tuna served as the primary protein with a red chile apricot salsa.  Unfortunately, this dish was just too sweet for us and had a hint of smokiness that just did not work for our palates.

Huitlacoche Tacos

Our entremeses included the Conejo Almedrado which utilized a roasted rack of rabbit as its protein.  The sauce was delicious.   It was a delightful blend of almonds, cinnamon, cloves, and number of other spices.  The rabbit was a little gamey for some at our table and probably in our mind could have been substituted with any other protein as long as the sauce was still there.  The last small plate we tried was the Taco de Huitlacoche in a light tomato sauce.  The huitlacoche is regarded as the truffle of Mexico and is supposed to be the star of the dish.  While the “truffle” was enjoyable, the tomato sauce elicited a “this tastes kind of like… a spaghetti sauce?” comment from our table.  I don’t know if it was because it was late, but it just did not have enough depth of flavor for us and paled in comparison to the sauce on the other plate.

We tried two platillos fuertes.  The Puerco Clemole was basically pork tenderloin served with an amazing mole of dark dried chiles, pecans, pinenuts, and hazelnuts.  This was not your traditional chocolate based mole seen in most Mexican restaurants.  Served along side the mole was a Calabaza en tacha (raw-sugar pumpkin) bread pudding which complemented

Pork Tenderloin and Mole

the mole perfectly.  I knew this dish was a hit when I saw my finacee, who is very skeptical of “gourmet” food in general, scooping up the mole and eating it by itself with a corn torilla.  The last dish we ate was the Pollo Ahogada which is a rock hen in a tomato arbol chile sauce.   The main draw to this dish was its alleged heat.   It was advertised to be the spiciest dish on the menu with aggressive use of arbol chiles.  While the hen was cooked perfectly, the sauce had striking resemblance to the previous tomato sauce that we had earlier in our meal.  The arbol chiles were fairly tame and failed to draw even a single bead of sweat to my forehead as most spicy dishes typically do.

Dessert:

Our last course was Plantanos de Crema with a vanilla sour cream layer cake with golden ripe plantains and banana ice cream.  This dish was outstanding!

Our Thoughts:

So the key question still stands… Does Topolobambo live up to the hype?

Our answer is both yes and no.  The authenicity of the food certainly is indisputable.  Dining at Topolobambo is a true educational tour of regional Mexican cuisine.  The menu and the well informed wait staff serve as your tour guide through the various flavors in each region.  In addition to the passion Chef Bayless exudes for Mexican cuisine, we have to also applaud his commitment to local ingredients and producers.  Topolo has succeeded in making regional Mexican cuisine more accessible to the general population.  However, our experience was certainly mixed as some flavors were quite enjoyable, while others… just didn’t meet our expectations.  The overall inconsistency of our meals was somewhat disappointing, especially considering the steep prices of the platillos fuertes.  And although gourmet Mexican food is interesting… maybe we just prefer the low-key family joints in Pilsen.

Topolobampo | 445 N Clark Street Chicago, IL 60610 | 312-661-1434