Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Tasty Chicago!


OK, it's been a few weeks. But back in the heat of July, Dan "dagwood" grodner and his lovely gal Ditte drove on in from Rochester and we all went to the Taste of Chicago. All the locals warned us not to even try, but really, a festival dedicated to food? can it really be that bad? truthfully, it was very hot. and fairly expensive. Yet, there were tons of food stands to choose from, and we got to eat some stuff from the South side (which we have yet to explore, even though it's more than half of Chicago!). Most of it was deep fried, or meat! The first thing we tried, the deep fried bananas, filled with gooey chocolate, were a serious highlight! This being a Chicago festival there were tons of pizza options to choose from. Ditte wanted to get a sample of this deep dish we are so famous for, and Connie's pizza (from the South side) didn't disappoint, covered in pounds of delightful cheese. There was a free cheesecake promotion, to celebrate Eli's cheesecake (after 26 years at the Taste of Chicago!) but by the time we walked over there, the line was literally a mile long. literally. so, we just went and bought some cheesecake. it was a bit frozen, so the texture was off, but the flavor was good, serious cheese action. what else would we expect from this town? clearly it's not a place for those on low calorie diets. We were so glad to see dan and meet ditte, it was great to help her celebrate her birthday! Hopefully she's been wearing her bike helmet. hopefully all of you are wearing your bike helmets!