Good Food Festival

The Good Food Festival and conference is a yearly, three day, event that brings together businesses, policy drivers, and pretty much anyone else who is interested in the "locally-driven Good Food Movement." Me, me me!! Sean bought tickets for us to attend the party portion of the event called localicious and I honestly had no idea what to expect. Out of ignorance, I expected the farms to each have a booth where they served rabbit food and honestly, I expected to leave hungry. Um, excuse me localicious, how rude am I?!

The participating RESTAURANTS, who served the food at localicious, actually partner with family farmers and served up the freshest ingredients of the season. There was lamb, there was chocolate, there was whiskey and of course tons of yummy veggies. My favorites dishes were the Longman and Eagle pork belly dish, Province's Pork Cubano and Revolution Brewery's sausages. I also snuck in a little tastes of sake, vodka, rye and beer....tastes, key word, tastes people.

I even sheepishly asked Ted Brunson, the host of Chicago's Best, for a picture and whom I blogged about just last week! I was like a little school girl when I got the picture and realized that it was an "ok to post" situation.

Definitely a yearly repeated event in my calendar!

<3

Pigalle

I've been going back and forth for quite some time now, trying to figure out which Christian Louboutin style would be the best first pair to purchase. Do I do the open toe, which virtually goes with anything, but is limited to warm weather occasions; or do I do the Hyper heel, and draw a ton of attention to myself; or do I stick to the non-platform, pointy-toe classic? Black, patent leather, embellished or colored? I decided on the timeless Pigalle style in a flat black, which really can be worn with any outfit to class it up. Just think, I can wear it to work with a suit, as a guest to a wedding with a dress, a dinner date night out, or even for a brunch date with a dressed down outfit. This style was available at ONE store in the US in my size, a 35, so really, I thought it was just meant to be. I was literally a little fat kid opening up a king size candy bar when I ripped open the box that came in the mail. I am in LOVE.

I googled "Pigalle" during my search for this shoe and I thought it was funny what Wikipedia has written as a part of the definition of the area in Paris:

"Pigalle is famous for being a tourist district, with many sex shops on Place Pigalle and the main boulevards and prostitutes operating in the side streets."

Chicago's Best

Trying new restaurants and cuisines absolutely tops my favorite things to do and I'll have to say, I am doing a pretty darn good job at it so far in 2012. Of course yelp, urbandaddy, tastingtable, refinery29 and daily candy etc etc do a great job of blasting me with you-have-to-try-this-new-spot emails, but lately my favorite resource for finding new eats in the city is the show Chicago's Best on a little channel we call WGN. Most of the main stream media outlets seem to over look the smaller, non-scenester ish, non ambient music playing, non-River North/Old Town/LP/Wicker town spots...you get the drift...but Chicago's Best does not discriminate. The show is hosted by Brittany Payton, the legendary Walter Payton's kin who is as energetic and cute as can be, and Ted Brunson and I love starting my Sunday mornings watching their suggestions for good eats in and around the city. Some recent themes have been Chicago's Best Late Night, Best Chocolate, Best Comfort Food and even West Suburbs. My yelp "to try" bookmark list keeps expanding and duh, I'm pretty excited about it. Me and Sean have been trying one new place a week, which is completely reasonable and I reeeaaally hope to not let my schedule get in the way of this good streak. Check out our recent visits.

Estrella Negra keywords: BYOB, easy parking, takes reservations, reasonably priced, supports local art, mangoes, shrimp, goat cheese, tamales. I was OFFENDED when I heard a patron sitting next to us asking the waitress "What is a tamale?", but hey, I can appreciate when people go outside their comfort zone, especially to eat at places at delicious as Estrella Negra. And there is something for everyone here from burritos to burgers to tacos to Chocolate chip Tamales. According to the Chicago's Best episode, the owner uses his mama's recipes, and tweaks them to his liking. And I like it. We ordered the traditional Pork Tamales, Shrimp and Goat cheese enchiladas with Mango salsa, a goat cheese salad, and side of bean dip.

Aloha Eats brought me right back to the Hawaii that I love to visit. I first saw an ad in a Japanese newspaper, that I picked up from a Japanese grocery store, and I've been meaning to try this place for months now. I got a reminder when they were part of the "Tropical" episode of Chicago's Best and one day, when I had a spam craving, I got my little butt in the car to get that salty goodness in my belly. Reasonably priced, authentically flavored and the portions are GINORMOUS, so alot of sharing can definitely go on. We ordered the spam musubi, naturally, and chicken katsu, which came with a heaping service of rice and macaroni salad. This was plenty for two people and plenty to satisfy my need for Hawaiian/Asian/Japanese fare. The only downside is that this location is right smack dab in the middle of Lincoln Park, so if you're driving, bring your patience with you. They also take the BellyCard!

Garifuana Flava: Easily one of the best places that I have eaten in recent memory. For real real. This spot is located a tid far from where we live in that there is no easy way to get there as it's not close to a major expressway, but it was well worth the drive. This Carribean Cuisine gem, only three years young, serves food from Belize and not only is the food flavorful like you wouldn't believe hehe or Belize, but the service just makes you feel right at home. We chatted with the head chef's son and he was nice enough to give us a run down of the most popular dishes. We ordered the little meat pie panadas, conch fritters and jerk chicken, which came with some extra yummy fixins' of mixed rice and steamed cabbage. The fritters were deep fried seafood heaven, jerk chicken MOIST (excuse my language) like crazy and even the most simplest of dishes, rice, was flavored with seasonings to make your mouth reach a nirvana. Top this off with a cake with HOT thin layer of carmel. Happy tummy.

Park City Waldorf Astoria

So a funny thing happened to me the night before we left for our trip to Park City, Utah. I decided to check out the details on my three night Hampton Inn reservation, as the cut off time for cancellation is generally 6pm the night before you check-in. And then I thought, why don't I just go ahead and see if the Waldorf Astoria is available? So what do you think happened??? It WAS available and after two hours on the phone with an agent from the Hilton Diamond membership line, who pulled some MAJ strings, (my friends made fun of me all weekend for throwing around "...but I'm a diamond member" line) I was able to transfer my reservation. At NO cost. Again, this is an unpaid advertisement for the Hilton Honors program, that just makes my travel life oh, so exciting! I surprised the couple that Sean and me were staying with and told them as we arrived at the airport and they were eeeeeecstatic.

Just a little backstory on The Waldorf-The original 5 star wonder is located in NYC and was actually the very first hotel to offer room service. Who would've thought....a world without room service?! The brand started out as two hotels in NYC, one built in 1893 and one in 1897, and after much family feuding by the cousins who built the structures decided to join them as one to become the largest hotel in the world, at the time. Fastforward to 2012 and we are at 25 total locations from the Grand Wailea in Maui to the Waldorf Astoria Maldives. The Waldorf-Astoria in Chicago (see below) also just opened this month, replacing the former luxury Elysian hotel.


As for the Waldorf-Astoria, Park City-Can I say favorite new hotel? Not only was the property on the base of the mountain with transportation directly to the Canyons Resort via the "Waldorf Gondola", after a full day of snowboarding and of course, hot tubbing outside to mend our little baby muscles, we were welcomed with a basket of smore-making goodness.

Be Mine

This Valentine's day was me and my Sean's 4th or 5th (eeek should probably remember that), celebration together and really to me, the best way to celebrate, especially on a week day, is to celebrate in the own comfort of your home.

He came home with a pretty bouquet of orchids and a little snack from Terry's Toffee, the local Chicago Toffee Shop that has been providing the treats for the Academy Awards since 2005. And for good reason-this shop is my go to for gifts for out of town friends as #1 There are free samples galore when you walk in the store and #2 Terry the owner plays with flavors such as chai spices, French lavender, Madagascar vanilla, Australian ginger and crushed wasabi peas. And it's right down the street from us!

For dinner I thought that I made a restaurant quality dinner with a pizza baked from scratch with mozarella, asiago, goat's cheese and proscuitto and chocolate covered strawberries. Yum! How was your Valentine's day?

Instagram Weekend

Had another fantastic weekend in the city....It was one of those situations where a friend texts you last minute to tell you that they have to come to the city for work. So even though it's usually a quick dinner or coffee break from work, it's still so great to see a familiar face and at least show them a peek of the city. So on Friday we went to Revolution Brewery.....aaaand of course I got the bacon popcorn! I just love how unpretentious some spots in the city are and I am always so happy with the inexpensive, but good eats, and the vibe of the restauarant.

Saturday I fell in love with Molletes at my new favorite neighborhood spot Gaudi Cafe. I literally drive by it every day and keep telling myself that I need to try it. So I did. And I am SO happy that I did. With only 80 reviews on Yelp, you'd think a place this good would have more. Mexican Fusion, with a touch of American....you can order anything from a Mollete to French toast for brunch or a Burger and Tapas for dinner.

Ended the weekend with Superbowl Sunday with the girls. $30 All-you-can-eat and drink should be ILLEGAL. Especially on a Sunday.