Bien Trucha

I've been meaning to do some serious exploring in Geneva, IL, since it's so close to my work, but haven't had much opportunity to since the boss lady's happier when I'm here during lunches (obviously). A couple weeks ago, my brother asked me if I wanted to do lunch out of nowhere, so I figured it'd be a good opportunity to check out Bien Trucha (found 'ravings' online). Located next to a shabby clothing store, this little restaurant is easily miss-able. We arrived for lunch around 12:20, and there was already a line of 2 parties ahead of us. We put our name down and waited approximately 15 minutes before we were seated. The space is one of the smallest I've ever seen, with simple / cute decor and plating, including water served in deep blue bottles instead of pitchers.

Fried chips were given to us immediately with warm bean dip instead of traditional salsa. It's smooth and tasty, but I personally prefer traditional fresh tomatoes salsa.

My brother and I shared their ceviche, chicken-based soup, and Bien Trucha taco. Their ceviche was overly citrusy, but still fresh, served in a martini glass with arugula tossed in olive oil & chips. Chicken-based soup was intensely flavorful, soothing, and delicious. Bien Trucha taco features grilled skirt steak topped with homemade chorizo, Manchego cheese, and Serrano chili salsa. All the flavors were intense and blended with perfection, and steak was perfectly tender. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me, but I did find a picture online, I think on Chicagomag?


Excited that they hand-mash fresh fruit margaritas, I asked the hubby and gal pal to join us the following week for a Thursday night dinner.

Between the 4 of us, we shared the following:

guacamole of the day - sprinkled with small watermelon chunks, adding a perfect sweetness to the usual guacamole blend. I'm definitely trying this at home over the summer.

chorizo cazualita - a crock of melted cheese with homemade chorizo, served with 4 small fresh tortillas so we can make our own wraps. The flavor was SO GOOD, wrap tasted homemade and fresh... this dish gave my taste buds an explosive surprise, so intense that I wondered, "is this really that good or am I drunk?" My friend took photos with her iphone:



Speaking of drinks, I ordered their hibiscus flower margarita, brother went with strawberry (later, a traditional), husband went with a lime variety (later, cucumber). All of the margaritas were on the rocks, very fresh, and perfectly stiff.

next came the shrimp tacos in a sweet & tangy chili sauce with avocado. fresh, crisp, tasty, but not as delicious as other dishes. I forgot to bring my camera on both occasions but I did find a photo online:

"pescado" tacos (fried tilapia with cabbage slaw). Tasty, and breading was nice and crispy, but I felt the batter was a bit too much, overpowering the tender fish. I appreciate the crunchy texture next to the soft fish and tortilla, but I still prefer grilled fish tacos. (4 small tacos / order)
Next, we tried the steak tortas, which was my favorite (tied with cazualita) of the evening! Again, perfectly seasoned & grilled skirt steak with melted cheese & roasted jalepeno pepper!

Lastly, the portobello mushrooms tortas - small chunks with onions & peppers (i believe?) The mushrooms made the bread a bit too moist, and it's a mess to eat. They use soft italian bread for both tortas which is much more elegant than the usual hamburger-like buns. I loved the crispy texture and how soft the breading was inside.

I can't wait to go back! As hubby described in an email this morning, "i still can't get over how good last nite dinner was. everything was soo good. im burping up some good stuff. lol."

(note: including tip, it was around $30/person)

Bien Trucha

410 W State St
Geneva, IL 60134

(630) 232-2665

Panes Bread Cafe

When hubby first moved back to Chicagoland area from Peoria, he wanted to move straight into the city life. He also wanted to have a basement space to start a band, so him, his h.s. friend, and another friend started renting at 1237 Wellington.

Panes bread cafe was about 2 blocks from their house, so we always picked up sandwiches during the wknd practices. It's such a cozy, comfortable atmosphere with delicious (and cheap!) homemade food -- we missed it so much! I recently saw an article of Panes raising their prices at the cause of increased costs (damn the rise in fuel!), but it's still pretty cheap.

This past Friday, I finally had the opportunity to visit one of my old fave cafes, and this is what we ordered:

The Popular always a winner chicken breast caramelized onions, spinach roasted peppers, provolone cheese on tomato bread $5.50

They bake their own bread. Usually it's on a tomato foccacia, but they ran out (we got there around 9pm). This crisp and soft bread with fresh ingredients made a winning combo.

Panes Linguini linguini pasta tossed with grilled chicken mushrooms, spinach and spicy tomato cream sauce

7.25

The sauce base was tasty, as well as the ingredients, but it was a bit on the overly creamier side for my taste.

BBQ Chicken shredded chicken breast, asiago, mozzarella cheese and bbq sauce

5.25

Loved this thin crust pizza with tangy homemade bbq sauce -- definitely one of the most memorable of the three.

Even though this is a casual order-at-the-counter place, the lady at the counter was very nice, and they even made the effort of dividing our dishes into 3 portions for us to share.

I can't wait to go back!

Note: Photos taken by Dave Won -- Since he had his professional camera took out and started to take photos with various angles, I did not want to embarrass myself by pulling out my little digital.

Panes Bread Cafe Sandwiches, Italian, Desserts & Bakeries 3002 N Sheffield Ave, Chicago 60657 At W Wellington Ave Phone: 773-665-0972

Lao Shanghai

Since we live so close to Chicago Chinatown, love Chinese food, and love the cheap prices, we often end up roaming around new Chinatown square, just trying different places.

In my opinion, dim sum in Chicago is best at Shui Wah, and I heard their dinners are great too, so we almost stepped into the restaurant when we saw 老上海 (Lao Shanghai) across the walkway. I believe this location used to be a Taiwanese place called 海霸王 (Hai Ba Wang), which was exciting and delicious at first, but slowly deteriorated in food quality / flavor. very disappointing.

I saw a supposed 'article' on their soupy dumplings, and thought... why not, lets check it out.

Between the three of us, we shared the following:
1. Shanghai Lao Mien - a bit on the greasier side, but deliciously chewy noodles won me over.
2. Braised Pork Belly - there was this orange/red sauce on it that reminded me of the americanized version of sweet & sour sauce. I love fatty parts of pork belly, but this one had the ratio of 80% fat, 20% meat... pretty disgusting.
3. Seafood Casserole - this was like mapo tofu with shrimp. pretty good w/ rice, big shrimps.
4. Soupy Dumplings - omg, this is the worst EVER! It seriously tasted like the freezer-instant versions I get at supermarkets, the skin wasn't thin at all! SUCKS!
I later remembered that my mom told me about the opening of Lao Shanghai (it's owned by Tony Hu -- same owner of Lao Sze Chuan, and will open Lao Beijing too). I hope they make some improvements or else it won't be able to compare to the success of Lao Sze Chuan.

Lao Shanghai
2163 S China Pl
Ste 1F
(between Princeton Ave & Wells St)

http://tonygourmetgroup.com/tonyweb/home01.html

menu

Mai Thai

I think I have my love for pho back, because I'm often craving pho (especially at Tay Do) these days. We tried going there on Friday despite the stormy weather, but it was friggin closed... who closes on a Friday night??

Mai Thai is in the same plaza as our beloved Katy's dumplings (I love buying their frozen handmade dumplings, and they now have baos and man tou too!!). We were always interested in checking it out, since there aren't ANY good Thai restaurants in the burbs, so mom, hub, and I decided to go.

Mom wanted to try their Thai Calamari appetizer, which turned out to be this:


She was hoping it's the kind where they deep fry then saute the calamari with salt/pepper, onions, green pepper and garlic. Their homemade special sauce tasted like a spiked up srirracha sauce. Although the calamari was crisp, it lacked flavor. booooring dish never to be ordered again, please.

Next was the papaya salad, which was refreshing and seasoned nicely. The last papaya salad I had was marinated for so long the papaya softened. This one had a perfect balance of crispy papaya and good flavor.

Their seafood tom yum soup turned out to be quite good too. Nice ingredients that tasted fresh, and isn't so small that you feel cheated, and the flavors were good.


Then we ate their Pad Kee Mao (aka Crazy Noodle) which turned out to be too sweet.


Green curry tasted good, but nothing exceptional.
The service here is really good -- very sweet waitress, and they seem to care about our impressions. The ingredients were fresh, and tastes were decent, so I don't have much to complain about. At the same time, unless I'm desperately craving thai food in the burbs, I probably won't return again. Nothing really stood out.

Mai Thai

697 N Cass Ave
Westmont, IL 60559

(630) 455-4299
http://www.maithai.netfirms.com/
menu

NYC 2008: Oh! Taisho, Village Yokocho, and mysterious bar...

As full as we were, I couldn’t resist the desire to have a few yakitori – after all, they’re one of my favorite treats to eat with drinks! We walked by two popular looking places with cute signs, and decided to give it a try:

turned out to be a disappointment – the meats were teeny, overcooked, and very plain. Server was a non-japanese guy who asked us, “you’re going to order more, right?”, apparently not satisfied with our initial order. Aside from the disappointing skewers (I think we tried tongue, gizzard, chicken, chicken bone, squid, etc…all of which sucked)… portions were small, ingredients not fresh, and overcooked.

we also tried their raw octopus in a wasabi sauce… not fresh nor tasty.

Very disappointing place – didn’t even like the place itself either. Seems like a non-food focused, very cheap college drunk kids-intended place.

We decided to walk around some more when we came upon Village Yokocho.

Still determined to find good yakitori, we ordered two skewers... better, but not by much.

We finally gave up and decided to do nightcaps at an underground izakaya with a very interesting vibe. The bar felt like it was owned and ran by a couple young folks with a bit of a nonchalant & tired attitude (the bartenders, anyway). I saw them making food orders by putting them into the microwave and was certain I did not want to order food. Huge variety of sake and shochu though.. (**Hubby just found the name of this bar: Sake Bar Decibel**)

Perhaps it's because of how popular izakayas became (in NYC and Cali, anyway), that so many imitations/average places popped up, or perhaps they've felt forced to sacrifice taste/ingredients to survive... but these places were beyond average. This just reaffirms the fact that I must conduct research before visiting restaurants, especially while on vacation.

Oh Taisho!
Neighborhood: Manhattan/East Village
5 Saint Marks Pl
(212) 673-1300

Village Yokocho
8 Stuyvesant St
(between 11th St & 12th St)
(212) 598-3041

Sake Bar Decibel
240 E. 9th Street
(between 2nd Ave & Stuyvesant St)
New York, NY 10003
(212) 979-2733
www.sakebardecibel.com

NYC 2008: Ippudo NY

My hub and I were on a mission to walk around as much as possible (so we can digest, then eat as much as possible). On our way to the area where many Japanese restaurants/bars reside, we needed a bathroom break. We decided to step into Ippudo, do our thing, and walk on out. While hanging out at the bar, we noticed ramen noodles as décor underneath their glass-framed bar.

and variety of ramen bowls on the wall...

I took a look at the menu and realized this is a ramen specialty restaurant, serving our favorite Japanese ramen – Tonkotsu (pork-based broth)! Hubby’s hometown is Fukuoka, which is where this broth originated. Hub insisted we must put our name on the list and get seated as soon as possible.

After our Japanese Shoju on the rox, we were seated at a round table with two other couples (is this a common trend in nyc?) Hub insisted we each get an order of their 2 ramens offered – Shiromaru Moto-Aji (white pork-based broth) and Akamaru Shin-Aji (red, spicier version w/ secret sauce seasoned with garlic oil). Both had creamy & intense broth, fresh ingredients, tender slices of Berkshire pork, and noodles with good consistency (very slightly chewy, mostly tender).

After a quick search online, I found that Hakata Ippudo is a popular chain restaurant in Japan, self-described as “ramen-noodle brasserie*”, opened by Shigemi Kawahara, who is supposedly known as “ramen king”. I also learned thru gothamist.com, “The secret to the milky broth’s subtle flavor lies in boiling pork bones for 18 hours and reducing the stock three times, while reserving a bit of the broth from each step, and then reincorporating the reserved broths with the ultra-concentrated result of the third reduction.”

(*wikinote: In France, a brasserie is a café doubling as a restaurant with a relaxed setting, which serves single dishes and other meals. It can be expected to have professional service and printed menus (unlike a bistro which may have neither), but more informal eating hours than a full-fledged restaurant. Typically, a brasserie is open every day of the week and the same menu is served all day.)

I heart tonkotsu ramen!

Ippudo NY
65 Fourth Avenue
212-388-0088

NYC 2008: Craft

I must admit the idea of a famous celebrity restaurant wasn’t the most appealing to me, I’m more into fabulous hole-in-the-wall joints, places that are surprisingly impressive. But as with many curious fans of Top Chef (I’m sure), I thought it would be fun to check out Craft by Tom Colicchio, especially after seeing ‘ravings’ by Andrew Zimmern on his blog.

Still, we weren’t hungry (especially after munching on nachos at a Mexican restaurant while drinking sugary margaritas). But we figured the experience will be interesting, and at least we won’t overly spend.

The restaurant is intimate, spacious, with elegantly simple décor – haven’t been in a restaurant that made me feel so perfectly comfortable in a while. The service was top notch – friendly, unpretentious, very knowledgeable, great recommendations, timely, and not overwhelming. Impressively made us feel relaxed instead of awkward (being in a nice restaurant).

Two slices of bread each were presented to us – I sincerely appreciate bread services by single portions and strongly feel that restaurants should be banned from breadbaskets (what a waste of food!) I’m not a huge fan of bread served at room temp…I prefer mine to feel like it came fresh from the oven. Altho the bread tasted fresh and moist, I wasn’t very into it.

As lovers of raw oysters, I asked her to pick out oysters for us (2 each). I told her we like the fishy & strong ocean taste. At $3 a piece, our oysters were extremely delicious and fresh. They were so creamy and refreshing we wanted to order a dozen (or so) more.

As a girl that was born and raised (til 7 yrs old) in Tapei, Taiwan – I grew up eating intestines, glands, tongues, and brains… so upon hearing how unbelievable Sweetbreads are, I did not hesitate giving it a try. For those unfamiliar, there are two kinds of sweetbreads: one made by young animal (usually lamb or calf)’s pancreas (stomach/belly) or neck (throat/gullet/thymus gland). Indeed this was creamy and delicious in the center and perfectly crispy on top, reminded me of foie gras. $16 appetizer portion was more than enough to share.

For main courses, we decided to go with the $30 Dayboat Diver Scallops and Fish Special (I believe it was trout). The scallops were PERFECTLY flavored and made – plump, silky, meaty. We absolutely loved the crispy exterior and each slice within the scallops. Since we weren't hungry, the proportion was perfect, but if this was my main course, I might feel slightly cheated.

The fish was fresh and flaky, flavored nicely too.

As for side dish, we went with the assorted roasted mushrooms – at $24 it was overly expensive, but delicious nonetheless.

An unmemorable dessert cookie was given to us:
Then a lemon spritzer was the intermezzo to clear our palate before dessert. We barely ever order dessert, but I read ravings about the amazing Doughnuts – so we had to give it a try ($12).

Indeed… the best doughnuts we’ve ever had. Crispy, lightly sugared, chewy center, with multiple layers… non –greasy, perfect by itself but indulgence increased with dipping of chocolate and/or raspberry sauce.

The experience ended with a coffee cake muffin, nicely packaged for us to take home “as a late night snack or breakfast in the morning”.

Hub and I brought it all the way back to Chicago to enjoy Monday morning – wow. What a moist and deliciously fluffy muffin… confirmed my intention to visit Craft again – perhaps in LA.

Craft
43 E. 19th St.
Cross Street: Park Avenue South and Broadway
craftrestaurant.com

menus