Oceanique

Hello Everyone,

My girlfriend celebrated her birthday this week and I decided to take her to Oceanique in Evanston.  I have heard good things about it and I bought a groupon for it a while back so it was the perfect opportunity!

Lou Malnati’s

Hello Everyone!

A lot of the major cities in the US have food associated to it.  Boston has New England clam chowder, Baltimore has crab cakes, Philadelphia has Philly cheese steaks, and San Diego had fish tacos.  What about Chicago?  Chicago has deep dish pizza!  There are four main places in Chicago to get the best deep dish pizza: Giordano’s, Gino’s East, Uno, and Lou Malnati’s.  This past week, I went to the original Lou Malnati’s at Lincolnwood.

We went kind of late on a Friday night (around 8pm).  We were seated immediately and the first thing I noticed was all the posters and jerseys hanging on the wall and most of them were for the Chicago Bears.  There were signed posters of Urlacher and Hester; jersey of William Perry; and they even had a display for a goal post pad. 

There was also an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay where Bobby Flay challenged Mark Malnati (Lou’s son) to a deep dish pizza throwdown.  Here is a clip from the episode which describes how to make a Lou Malnati’s deep dish pizza.  If you were wondering, Mark Malnati defeated Bobby Flay in the throwdown.

The pizzas usually take a while to make (the menu says around 30 minutes), so we ordered a salad first.  We got the Antipasto Salad.  If you are not a fan of excessive vinegar and sourness, then you are not going to enjoy this salad.  Luckily, everyone at our table loves vinegar so it wasn’t a problem for us.  Aside for the sourness, it was a typical salad.  I really liked the baked croutons; flavor with every crunch.

For the pizza, we got a medium sized “Lou” which contains fresh spinach, mushrooms and sliced tomatoes covered with a blend of mozzarella, romano and cheddar cheese.  Deep dish pizza without meat is a crime, so we added sausage to it (for a little extra cost).

We had to wait a while for our pizza, longer than the 30 minute advertised on the menu.  But I will say that the wait was worth it.  The pizza was really good!  And the “Lou” comes with a butter crust which adds so many flavors into the crust.  It is completely different than any crust I have ever had.

Overall, my experience at the Lincolnwood Lou Malnati’s was positive.  The pizza was very good (I hear that the pizza at this location is better than the other ones), but I was not satisfied with the service.  Maybe it was because it was towards the end of the night and our waitress just wanted to go home, but I just didn’t feel welcomed.  Even with the unsatisfactory service, I would go back just for the deep dish pizza.  My goal is to try some of the other deep dish pizzerias and figure out which one I like the best, so make sure you check back for updates!

Tank Noodles

Hello Everyone,   

Sometimes I just get this craving for noodle soup and there are two different types of noodle soups that I love to eat: Vietnamese Pho and Hong Kong noodles.   The craving hit me hard earlier this week and I decided to get Vietnamese Pho.   My favorite place to get pho in Chicago is Tank Noodles at Argyle and Broadway in Uptown.    

    

One of my pet peeves when I go out to eat is when people always order the same thing at a restaurant.  I always feel like you should diversify and try different things.  I am my own worst enemy when I go to Tank Noodles because I order the exact same thing every time I go.  The first thing I always get is 7B, Fresh Spring Rolls with Shrimp.     

     

This stuff is awesome!  Don’t mess with number 7 (plain spring roll) unless you are allergic to shrimp…then you don’t have much of a choice.  But it is raw shrimp, mint, vermicelli rice noodles, and some other stuff.  It is very fresh and light and is very good as an appetizer.  It comes with a dipping sauce that is garnished with ground peanuts.  The spring roll itself is good, but the spring roll with the sauce is what takes it to the next level.       

       

For pho, I always get number 39 or 40.  They are the same thing except 39 is the large version of 40 and only cost a dollar more!  I usually get 40 (the smaller one) unless I am starving.  The pho consists of a clear beef broth, noodles, sliced beef, well done brisket, well done flank, soft tendon, bible tripe, and meatballs.  Some of these ingredients might not sound as appealing (mainly tendon and tripe).  If you don’t like certain things, you can always order something different or just pick them out of your pho.        

       

All pho dishes are served with raw bean sprouts, basils leaves, jalapeño peppers, and lime wedge.  

 

Personally, I am not a fan of the bean sprouts, but I put in the basil leaves, squirt the lime into the soup, and also add some hoisin sauce.  Also, I like to have a little dipping bowl with hoisin and sriracha sauce.  I dip all my meat into the sauce to add some extra flavors.  If you want a little extra kick, they also have this hot chili sauce.      

From left to right - hoisin, sriracha, hot chili

  

My girlfriend usually orders number 40 as well (and gives me the tendon and tripe); however, this time she decided to try something different.  She ended up ordering number 75 which is a beef noodle soup.  It was well spiced with star anise and other spices and she enjoyed it.  The soup was a little too red for me, so I didn’t even try it.       

      

Overall, I love this place.  There are many other places to eat in that area as well.  There’s this bakery just down the street that has the most amazing stuff.  There is plenty of parking in the area with the pay boxes.  I always get sited right away (unless it is jam packed) and the food comes out right away.  Prices are very reasonable, especially with the amount of food you get.  My pho (number 40) only cost 6.95! Our bill came out to be a total of 20 bucks and we were both left Tank Noodles full and satisfied.