I Can’t Deny…
my love for food.
Most people go to a new city and want to experience the sights and sounds, the monuments and landmarks that truly define a city – the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Times Square in New York, and of course, Chicago’s Sears Tower.
But for me, the more I experience the wonderful food and cuisine of San Francisco, the more I want to experience new flavors and food in every city I travel to. What makes the cuisine of that city completely unique, something I’d crave and want to go back just to eat it over and over again?
Well, Chicago is a city that is known for its own style of pizza – Chicago deep dish and it’s all-American hot dogs. I’m embarrassed to say that I ventured out into the Windy City and did not have a bite of deep dish pizza, but did have a couple of hot dogs at America’s Dog at Navy Pier. Let’s just say, I could’ve had a better dog in San Francisco… but the chili cheese fries were good! 
Most of our stay in Chicago was defined by the fine dining we experienced in this lovely city. From signature cocktails and appetizers at Custom House Friday night to delicious Catalonian-style tapas at Mercat a la Planxa at The Blackstone Saturday night before venturing off to a full dinner later that evening.
The most memorable meal that the Boyfriend and I had a long time was from Moto – a fine dining restaurant located in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood in a seemly sketchy part of town (at night anyway). Moto treated us to our first experience in molecular gastronomy – a style of cooking infusing science and chemicals with tradition techniques we’d never even heard of before until Marcel showed up in Season 2 of Top Chef.
We dined on a five course tasting menu simply stated on the Moto website as: Bacon and Apple, Walu with Fried Rice, Fajita x (times) Three, Chocolate and Berry, and Biscotti and Coffee.
Check out how my cocktail was served – in a few plastic vials that I had to squeeze into my mouth. These were really fun!
But simple descriptions do not begin to describe the actual complexity of the dishes. Our dish of “Walu with Fried Rice” actually consisted of a perfect scallop with a seaweed concoction that was made to form a ribbon that looked a lot like BubbleTape, if you’re familiar with that gum from your youth.
The most interesting dish of the evening was the Fajita x Three dish. It was a deconstructed fajita made with sliced triple-seared beef, corn tortilla puree, a gelee of green peppers and onions, and a salsa chip. I didn’t really like the gelee, but eating the other components without it made it taste incomplete and it was obvious that something was missing. For me, this was the most interesting of the dishes, but the scallop from the previous dish was my absolute favorite!
Next up, we were served dessert, a concoction of chocolate and berries. Along the edge of the plate were bits of blood orange pulp that was frozen by liquid nitrogen and then broken up to create bits of pulp that’s still in tact. When you eat them, little pops of juice burst in your mouth. Dessert is not normally what I go to dinner for, although this dish was served with a little haricot vert cake in a lemon gelee casing along with a flourless chocolate cake covered with raspberry. And the best part about the raspberry coating was that it had a texture that was kind of like Pop Rocks.
For our final coffee course, we were served coffee with biscotti – however, our coffee came in the form of nitrogen frozen coffee (like ice cream!) and the biscotti was liquefied and served in a little cup. Also served on the plate was an edible packing popcorn with cream. This single component was the most fun to eat. I kept thinking, why weren’t the packing peanuts I tried to eat as a kid this good?!
Molecular Gastronomy is a type of cuisine that is extremely imaginative, pushing the limits of how I perceived food, and still managed to taste delicious and fulfilling like a good meal should. I only hope all restaurants served edible menus you had to decipher…
All in all, I really enjoyed Chicago and am glad I came back to visit again after all these years. Thank you, Windy City, for beautiful 63-degree days, the Gordon Matta-Clark exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the awesome Millennium Bean and the public transit system to help me get around your lovely streets.
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On April 7th, 2008 i♥makeup said:
Wow u look soooo happy:) The food looks sooo yummy!! <3
On April 8th, 2008 petitebelle said:
OK the molecular cuisine thing sounds TOO COOL. I need to try it!! I wonder if there are any restaurants like that in San Francisco??
On April 8th, 2008 Mrs. Lynne, MakeupFix.net said:
You are too cute Lil! Omg, when I visit, you are soooo taking me out to eat!! I want to officially enjoy some of these yummy looking plates. And I didn’t know the bf went with! How neat!! You two are always too adorable. *can we please set a date already!!!* hah.
On April 8th, 2008 Brittany said:
Your Next Stop(s): Come to the East Coast and I’ll show you how we do it in Atlanta…..yummy Southern food and in Florida: diviiiine Caribbean food. You’re like me, good food=good times!
On April 8th, 2008 beautytalk said:
Mmm everything looks soo good!
On April 8th, 2008 Carleen said:
Good to see that you had fun. I love the Bean! I must have about 30 pictures of me at it on various different dates!
On April 8th, 2008 the Muse said:
you’re ridiculously cute cookie
I just wanna squeeze your cute little cheeks!
Great pics! Although I feel a bit hungry now!
On April 8th, 2008 Rae said:
Wow!! The food looks amazing, and fantastically cool. I read about that restaurant in the paper the other day – and I’m up in Canada!
^^ You lucky duck!!
On April 8th, 2008 Jennifer said:
If I’m ever in the Windy City, that sounds like a really unique restaurant to try out.
Thanks for sharing it with us!
On April 8th, 2008 Lilan said:
Hi i heart makeup,
It was a really fun time and the food was certainly as good as it looks! I wish I were there eating again
On April 8th, 2008 Lilan said:
Hi petitebelle,
You KNOW I’m definitely going to try to find one here in San Francisco! Do you live here in the area? Maybe you can recommend??
Hope you’re having a good day today!
On April 8th, 2008 Lilan said:
Hey Mrs. Lynne,
I will take you out anytime you’re here, just tell me when! The BF flew into Chicago Friday evening to spend the weekend since he’d never been to the city before. And girl, you’ll be the first to know if we ever set that date!
On April 8th, 2008 Lilan said:
Hi Brittany,
You have no idea how much we actually want to plan a trip to Atlanta – or Hotlanta as my boyfriend says, LOL! We’d definitely have a great time together for sure!
On April 8th, 2008 Mrs. Lynne, MakeupFix.net said:
Awww.. well ain’t he just the sweetest thang! You go girl
On April 8th, 2008 Lilan said:
Hi beautytalk,
Everything was really delicious!!
Do you have a favorite type of cuisine?
On April 8th, 2008 Lilan said:
Hi Carleen,
I think that the Boyfriend and I took 15 or 20 pictures at the Bean on this one trip alone! That thing is so amazing!
On April 8th, 2008 Lilan said:
Hiya Muse!
Hungry?? I’m always hungry! What’s for dinner in NY tonight??
I gotta stop by and catch up on my blog reading and get my Muse fix!
On April 8th, 2008 Lilan said:
Hi Rae,
Thanks for stopping by again!
That’s so weird that you read about it in the paper all the way in Canada? Wowsers! Was in an online article? I’d love to read it too
Do you have any restaurants in Canada that serve up molecular gastronomy?
On April 8th, 2008 Lilan said:
Hey Jennifer,
I really recommend Moto to anyone! I also heard that Alinea in Chicago does the same style of food – so now you have choices
Hope all is well today!
On April 10th, 2008 MandyPandy said:
You and your boyfriend are seriously too-cute together; please tell me he has a brother (who’s not like, 12, or something)!
On April 10th, 2008 Lilan said:
Of course he has a brother, Mandy! AND they’re not 12 so you’re in luck. Although, I snagged the cutest one…
On April 11th, 2008 MandyPandy said:
Man! Just my luck! Best watch that one like a Hawk, then!
You’re really lucky; every guy I’ve ever met thinks Ruby Tuesdays is the height of haute cuisine, or something.