Chicago Food Trip

Strangest conversation with my brother last week...
Exact transcript:
Me: "Hi brotha.  What are you doing this weekend? We were thinking of coming up there."
Brother: "This weekend? Why, I'm hanging out with my sister when she comes to visit, of course. Be warned that it is freezing."
Me: "Anything in specific you would be up for doing?  You know us, we're always up for anything. :)"
Brother: "Want to go shopping for expensive/fancy chocolate shops? Maybe shopping while we're out, malls or IKEA?" 

This is very peculiar and unlike his normal apathetic self. I forwarded the message to Francisco, who responded, "I think he might be on the drugs."  Indeed - if only he could be this upbeat more often! I love my little brother and miss him dearly. :)

So, we threw together a list of places we would be interested in checking out and turned Saturday into a self-made Chicago food tour. Our first stop was Glazed and Infused, an amazing-sounding doughnut shop. Solid start to the day.  They even came by with a tray of free samples with the cutest mini donuts. I sampled a mini Blueberry-Lemon Cake and then tried the special doughnut for the day, which featured rosemary infused caramel with dark chocolate, sea salt, and a homemade marshmallow from Katherine Anne Confections (another place we happened to stop by later that day!).

Doughnut selection - Maple Bacon Long John for you bacon lovers. :)


Reviewed here: Yelp - Glazed and Infused

Next place on the tour was Terry's Toffee. I was immediately impressed by their sample selection.

Check this out and tell me how you could NOT be impressed:

They seriously had like every single flavor available for sampling, and I tried more than a few. Not EVERY one, but I definitely had a fair sampling.

We purchased a small box of the Peanut Butter Chocolate Toffee, and they were selling small bags of Naked Toffee at the counter for a couple bucks, so we also bought Lemon Paradise Naked Toffee.

Reviewed here: Yelp - Terry's Toffee

Next was a failed attempt to go to Vosges Haut Chocolat. Our first address was misleading - the shop was either closed or the address was just wrong - so we changed course and went to another location. Wandered around and weren't really seeing prices on much of anything. But we got the sense it was a little out of price range. Onwards....

Katherine Anne Confections was considerably more affordable (with more straight-forward pricing), which thrilled my brother as he was hell-bent on coming home with some delicious truffles. We hand-selected our truffles of choice.

I had had my fill of sweets, so lunch at  BadHappy Poutine Shop was next on the agenda.

My brother had never heard of poutine, so we explained that its a Canadian dish of french fries covered in cheese curds and gravy.  He was like "ew, gross". All the more reason to take him there and force him to try it! ;-)  And he loved it, of course!

BadHappy Poutine
Reviewed here: Yelp - BadHappy Poutine Shop

We tried a couple of other stops, but nothing really panned out. Ended up wrapping up the day at the new Chicago Diner location at Logan Square. Amazing food there, as usual!

Comments

Popular Posts