Leap of Faith.
This vegetarian loves Chicago, and the
Blind Faith Café in Evanston (immediately north of the city, for you out-of-towners) is one of the many reasons. Ladies and gentlemen, here is a fully vegetarian fine dining establishment WITH A CASUAL CAFÉ STOREFRONT attached to the more nuanced ambience of the full-service restaurant next door. I’ve eaten in both, and the experience is great either way.
Plate tour clockwise from the top left: we started off with tofu “crab” cakes amazingly seasoned (they don’t taste like crab) and served on a sweet pepper sauce swirled with balsamic reduction. Look good, don’t they? They’re fantastic.
Next up is Christa’s selection, Santa Fe salad with BBQ seitan. An unbelievable portion size forced her to carry it most of it home after those crab cakes. She also ate the rest of it later.
Those noodles were crazy and fun to eat and they topped my Mongolian BBQ seitan (a different sauce than the salad seitan, to be sure), which I can’t believe I finished. Okay, yes, I can, and so can everybody else. Shut up.
Observe, if you will: a high quality vegetarian chili served with what was reported to be a very fine vegan corn bread. This from Louisiana-lover Colleen, our friend and my colleague (why didn’t we get a picture of her?).
Take my advice and finish (or start) with a bottle of China Cola (I love the stuff) or a cup of Mighty Leaf Tea—the best on earth, as far as I know (not very far).
Is it cheap? Not as cheap as we’ve seen, but not as expensive, either, and definitely affordable by Chi-Town standards. We’d love to go again sometime. Who’s game?
Crepes, crepes, crepes!
We have discovered that our neighborhood has quite a few french-style creperie cafes, so we have set out to eat at all of them to find out which is the best! And we get to eat lots of crepes, of course. La Creperie, a small place on N. Clark just north of Diversey, has a decor that feels very french. Lot's of antique-y maps and french art deco posters. We arrived around lunch, but both went for dessert crepes, made with whole wheat flour. I've had the savory ones there too, made with buckwheat. Both are good, but the sinful indulgence of dessert-for-lunch was irresistable! My strawberry crepe was just OK (the side of eggs was cooked perfectly), but the star of the meal was Dan's creme de marron (chesnut creme) filled crepe. Nutty, sugary, delectable! no photos, though, i always forget when i am very hungry.
Our second and third crepe adventures have been at The Crepe and Coffee Palace, otherwise known as "that Algerian place on Clark just north of Fullerton", since the real name is sort of missing from the sign! We have always gone for the savory crepes here, where there are some Algerian influenced ingredients you wouldn't find at La Creperie.
The crepes all come with soup, and both times we went the vegetarian option was a subtle, simple sweet potato puree with a few peas and a nice piece of mint. The coffee is organic, and the water is served with a refreshing slice of cucumber. ( left panel below) On the right is my half eaten crepe (oops) filled with arugula, red peppers, pine nuts and goat cheese. Pretty affordable (about 7 bucks) and really, really good! Dan chose his own fillings this time, with eggs, avacado, red pepper, onions and creme cheese (all for 6.95!). 
Ok, so we got dessert too. It was so pretty! And delicious, of course, filled with Belgian chocolate sauce, bananas, toasted almonds and coconut. We can't wait to go back!
Where "Yuppie" and "Yummy" Meet.
Well, I didn't think I would be spending too much time in downtown Chicago. That was before I realized Christa would be working there. Lucky for us she's been more than capable at finding quality, affordable downtown dinner spots. She recently called and informed me that we would be meeting at the Fox and Obel Cafe.
Fox and Obel is a one-of-a-kind (no, literally) grocery store centrally located across the street from Chicago's Navy Pier. The Navy Pier is touristy, and I refuse to link to it. Look it up if you care that much. Big Ferris wheel, blah blah blah.
As I am a new addition to the big city, I was muy surprised to be eating gourmand-worthy grub at a grocery store. Of course, this grocery store 
has embroidered disposable napkins that cost $15 per 20.
No, that's not a typo.
This is me thoroughly enjoying boccocino (small rigatoni) in olive oil with various wild mushrooms-- simple and amazing. Christa picked out the taste of smoked salt-- we theorize that they did not adjust for the truly saltier flavor of smoked varieties, and hence the dish is a little too salty.
She had a panini-pressed grilled cheese paired with one of the best tomato basil soups that either of us has tasted, and there are no pictures since I was too engrossed in my dish to remember that we were starting this blog.
I love it when a restaurant nixes table service in favor of lower prices and still manages to quickly deliver freshly prepared meals in a comfortable (no flies) setting. Perfect for a meal before a movie across the street at the River East 21, affordable and highly recommended.
learning to blog....
Here is our first photo for our first blog. so cute! -cc
first is the best?
here it is, the first posting. after a weekend of eating every kind of pork i could find in Rochester, i am back to chicago. we tried a new pizza from Ranaldi's, the spingione, a fancy sicilian crust. very buttery, very good!
