A few months ago, the lovely people at Chicago Food Planet contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in one of their food tours of Chicago neighborhoods. (Yes. You know. For free. Because I’m maybe a little bit awesome?) I was traveling pretty heavily at the time but the stars finally aligned earlier this month when my cousin was in town, so I kicked his butt into gear for an 11 am showing at the Near North Food Tour.

I immediately wished I had done one of these a year ago when I first arrived back in Chicago. Because our first stop was Ashkenaz, the Jewish deli on Cedar Street in the Gold Coast. We helped ourselves to pastrami on MARBLE RYE — I can’t tell you how excited I was about that rye — along with some sauerkraut. Pretty damn fantastic.  (They use Vienna Beef products, just FYI. I don’t hold this against them, but apparently some do because they should be making their own, etc. etc. I say I don’t care as long as it tastes good.)

Anyhow…I’ve missed a good Jewish deli. I’ll be back here.

Next up was Tea Geschwender, another place I’ve been wanting to try. Iced peach Green tea to go, and a generous serving at that. Tea Geschwender had a whole wall of tea kettles at the back of the store, oddly reminicent of the episode of Design Star on HGTV that my cousin and I had watched the night before, where each contestant was given a tea kettle and had to design a room around the kettle. Luckily, there was no such challenge at Tea Geschwender that day, although I was challenged enough by my hangover from the night before. We did learn about the different types of teas and how to brew a proper cup though, which was nice. I’ve promptly forgotten everything, but it all made sense at the time.

Then we did a quick skip up to Old Town, where you could smell The Spice House from a block away. The proprietor gave a great talk on cinnamon — who knew there where so many varieties and that each could taste so different — and my cousin pretended to smoke all the herbs in the back of the shop. (Always classy, that George.) Guests on the tour get coupons to all of the spots visited, so I returned later in the week to pick up a pack of barbecue rubs for my friends Ben & Antonia in London, proud parents of a Big Green Egg. 15% off. Natch.

While we were in Old Town Oil, my cousin made the quickest and most stealth-like purchase of olive oil I’ve ever witnessed. (Tour guests are politely asked not to make any purchases during the tour, as it can slow things down. But as my cousin was only in town for a few days, there wasn’t any time to come back.) He got really excited about all sorts of olive oil here. Kinda crazy to watch. It was like he was doing shots.

You might know I’m not a huge sweets person, but butter toffee — think Skor bars, if you remember them — is one of my weaknesses. This is the tray that greeted us upon entrance to The Fudge Pot, which sources all of its chocolate locally from Chicago’s own Blommer Chocolate Factory, one of the best parts about my bike ride to and from work every day. I only wish that they had given us just one piece each because if they had, well, I wouldn’t have had, um, five.

We made a stop at Delightful Pastries next, but sadly none of my photos turned out. I’ve been chowing on their pierogies non-stop since I found them at the Polish Market on Thursday evenings at the Division Blue Line. Fan-f*cking-tastic. Really. You should try them too.

Our last stop — just before the torrential rain began — was at Bacino’s in Lincoln Park, where we stuffed ourselves silly with spinach stuffed-crust pizza. My cousin sat there morosely at the end of the meal, staring at his empty plate. “I didn’t like that at all,” he said. “I really didn’t like that at all.” I knew how he felt. This was my first slice of Chicago-style pizza in something like seven years, and it was pretty darn good. We left happy. Very very happy.

The Verdict: Chicago Food Planet Tours are an AWESOME way to see Chicago. You get to try a lot of stuff, and you get a bit of history mixed in. For example, on the Near North Tour, you learn all about The Playboy Mansion. In all seriousness though, this was really a great afternoon, for locals and tourists alike. (For the first time ever, thanks to Chicago Food Planet, I walked through the Old Town Triangle. Why the heck haven’t I been through here before??)

The Fine Print: My cousin and I were guests of Chicago Food Planet. As of August 2011, the tour we were on retailed for $45 a person. I accepted this tour because my alternative was to spend all day looking at paint chips at Home Depot, and I had already spent the better portion of Friday at Home Depot, so I needed a break. 

The post Chicago Food Tour with Chicago Food Planet first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Date of Last Visit: Monday, November 8, 2010

The Victims: Many. All from Grubwithus.com, a very fun and Web 2.0 way of going out to dinner with like-minded strangers, singles and couples alike.

The Damage: $25ish? Maybe $30. I forget.

The Background: There are two things I want to talk about today. Firstly, it’s sushi rolls in America. And how when I was in London, I used to beg and plead for interesting rolls. Fun rolls. Rainbow rolls, where the sushi chef topped any roll coming out of the kitchen with the most colorful things he could get his hands on, regardless of how it all tasted together. Dragon rolls, where that same sushi chef would would shape and dress his sushi rolls into animals. Like dragons. Yes, I’m serious.

In London, the sushi chefs were purists. You rarely saw a Philadelphia roll on the menu. (Yes, that a sushi roll with cream cheese and chives.)

Now that I’m back, I have to ask myself: REALLY? I MEAN REALLY?!? WHAT WAS I THINKING? Because if you give a sushi chef in America–the land of options–a blank check, you end up with this:

That, my friends, is the Volcano Roll.

Yes, the volcano roll: hamachi, escolar, avocado, masago, red tobiko, black tobiko, tempura crumb, unagi sauce and spicy mayo.

Thankfully, the Golden Triangle wasn’t as visually disturbing. In fact, it was quite tame in comparison to the Volcano. But note that each piece of the roll has been shaped into a triangle. Sacrilege!!! Ingredients? shrimp tempura,cream cheese, tobiko, avocado, spicy sauce, masago mayo, green onion, tempura crumb outside topped with unagi sauce and wasabi mayo.

Behold, the Crunchy Spicy Tuna: tuna, masago, spicy mayo, chili oil, cucumber and tempura crumbs. These were very spicy and strangely addictive.

And here, the Shiso Signature Roll: smoked salmon, avocado, jalapeño, cilantro, and cream cheese deep fried. wrapped with rice and black tobiko. served with unagi sauce and spicy mayo on the side.

And then there was the Tiger. Deep fried soft shell crab, cilantro, kaiwardi cucumber, avocado, masago mayo, topped with tamago, and green onion. Note the tiger stripes.

I’ve gone backwards, however, in my telling of the meal.  Because we also had some calamari to start, which was tough and dry. A seaweed salad, which was actually quite delightful. And some spicy miso soup, which was also quite good.

Throughout it all, the staff was sweet and efficient. Perhaps too efficient. I felt a little rushed, with little space to breathe between bites.

The Other Thing I Wanted to Talk About: Since I’ve been back, everyone’s been very kind and asking about my repatriation and how it’s going and what I’ve noticed about life in America after being gone for so long. The list is long and I won’t bore you with all the details, but I do notice that the uniform for  men seems to be khaki trousers and a blue shirt. American football–particularly on Sundays–seems to be much more important than it was when I left. There are way too many commercials on American television, and they’re all SHOUTING at you, desperate to grab your attention. And in the grocery store, there’s hardly any real food. It’s all in boxes and cans.

But what I really wanted to talk about is how life moves on, which was something I was very much aware of as I moved back. My single friends in Chicago are all married. My married friends in Chicago now all have kids. I thought it was timely that as I was pulling together my thoughts on this post, Sasha over at The Happiness Project London wrote this.

Where I am at the moment is why I love a new venture like Grubwithus, a social dining concept. To borrow their own description from their Web site:

Grubwithus connects people in the real, physical world. Every meal presents opportunities to befriend and network with an amazing array of personalities. So the next time you are looking for a place to eat in Chicago, make it social and eat at a Grubwithus meal!

We created Grubwithus Socializing to expand our offline connections and meet new people in Chicago. Being recent transplants to Chicago, we wanted to meet new people, but didn’t want to hang out at the bars and clubs every night. We thought it’d be much more fun to bond at the best restaurants in Chicago over a family-style meal. And so Grubwithus was born.

I’ve dined out twice now with Grubwithus (Korean BBQ post coming up next) and have had a great time on both occasions. While the food at Shiso may have seemed a bit odd at times to a returning expat, it’s rare that I’d go out for sushi with 12 people and be able to try such a variety of dishes. And it’s even rarer still to be able to say to 11 other people, “Hey, let’s go all the way up north to this Korean barbecue place I’ve heard about.” (Or Ethiopian. Ethiopian is up next.) It would take about three months to find a date that worked for everyone. Grubwithus does all the organizing for you. All you have to do is show up. And on both occasions, my meals have been extremely good values. $30ish. Not bad.

The Verdict: Shiso is fun and the staff are sweet. Are they going to win any awards, food-wise? Probably not. But will Grubwithus win any awards? I hope so!

The post Shiso, Old Town first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.