A Vegetarian At Moto: The Photos

I haven’t had a chance to write up our trip to Moto yet, but I was able to get all the photos uploaded and labeled.  If they’re labeled correctly, that’s anyone’s guess, but for trying to write stuff down on the fly, I think I managed fairly well.

Here’s the photos.  Write up coming soonish.

A Vegetarian At Moto? – A Prologue

You read the title right.  The big mystery I hinted at back in February is that Katie and I will be heading to Moto tomorrow for a once-in-a-lifetime (for us anyways) 20 course ovo-lacto vegetarian tasting.

How did it happen?  I can only assume the almighty Christ-like power that is Google made it happen.  Back in January, I posted a link to a Raccoon Roadkill dish that was featured in the Chicago Tribune.

I finished the article with these words:

“Of course, being a vegetarian I won’t be experiencing Moto anytime soon anyhoot. Of course, if Chef Cantu is reading, and wants to prepare a 20 course vegetarian meal for me to try, I’ll be there with 200 bucks and a completely open mind. “

Well Chris Jones,  Chef de Cuisine for Moto Restaurant, saw the post and sent me an e-mail.  After picking my jaw up off the floor trying to wrap my head around the fact that ACTUAL Chicago chefs are reading these pages, we started talking about the raccoon dish, his ideas behind preparing food, and a special offer to come out and have a tasting created so I could judge for myself.

That day has finally arrived.  I’m power-loading myself tonight for my day long fast tomorrow in preparation of three hours of food that will most likely take us completely by surprise.  Katie’s still not too sure about this whole endeavor, but when you’re called out/invited/challenged by one of the restaurant’s chefs themselves, you step up!

Now I just need to bring some bells, as promised.

I wonder if they would like to try some Bacon Salt.  They seem like the kind of people who would appreciate that.

Washington D.C. – The Misses #4

#4 – Cake Love

If you’ve ever watched Food Network, you’ve more than likely seen an episode of Warren Brown’s Sugar Rush. We had a few hours to kill on our final morning before the flight back to Chicago, so we decided to take a walk up to U Street and check out his bakery and cafe, Cake Love/Love Cafe. My recommendation is, skip Love Cafe unless you’re going later in the afternoon or evening.
We arrived for breakfast a little after 9:30 and were given the option of, well, one sandwich: Egg, cheese and meat on a bagel or croissant. Apparently, there is a breakfast and lunch menu, although that wasn’t really denoted on the menu. I ordered the grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich only to be told that was a lunch item only. It was also the only reason I wanted to check the place out in the first place! Dammit! I want peanut butter and bananas!
They only had one type of cupcake there at the moment, and we actually arrived before their shipment for the day. It was just a disappointing experience all around.Before leaving, though, we went across the street to check out Cake Love. Maybe it’s the expensive nature of D.C., or maybe it’s the fact that Warren Brown is a food celebrity, but 3 dollars for a cupcake is WAY too much, especially when the cupcake is exactly the same kind of thing my mother makes at home. If they were larger than average? Sure. Covered in a ridiculous amount of icing? Alright. I’ll bite. But when you buy a cupcake for 3 dollars that looks like something I can do over the weekend, that cake better be massaging my esophagus on the way down.
Maybe the cakes themselves are outstanding, but the cupcakes are definitely not a reason to go to Cake Love alone.

Counting Down D.C. – The Misses #5

Sure, we went to Washington D.C. nearly a month ago, but isn’t still fun to talk about the food we ate? I think so, too! Thank you for agreeing with me faceless, anonymous public!

When Katie and I first talked about escaping for a weekend, we were hoping for something a little warmer and sunnier than D.C. would provide. We were thinking San Diego or Las Vegas. Hell, we’d settle for L.A. But once we saw that the price for all those areas were well out of our price range, it was off to our nation’s capital!

Neither of us were expecting much out of the place. Between our active disinterest in dealing with government types, and the constant warnings of the out of control crime, we weren’t in any kind of hurry to get mugged by a crazed US statesman.

Turns out we were pleasantly surprised by the entire trip. The area we stayed in was quiet (DuPont Circle), the Metro system was super easy (once you figured out the CRAZY diagonal streets), and everything was within walking distance (for the most part). The weather was mid-50′s and the sun was constantly shining. We ended up quite smitten with the place.

I’ll be counting down the 5 things that we enjoyed and the 5 things that disappointed us the most on our trip. Up first, the misses.

#5 – Suprise Meal Replacement At Central

We were excited to be eating at one of Michel Richard’s restaurants. Central is the “more affordable” restaurant compared to Citronelle. The place was packed, even for a Sunday night, which is always a good sign that you’re in for some good food. And Michel Richard didn’t disappoint. But we’ll talk about that tomorrow.

Our disappointment came when Katie’s entree was replaced without getting her approval. She had ordered the rabbit with spaetzle, deciding to live on the edge since we were on vacation. When the meal arrived, she looked at me and asked, “Are rabbit bones this big normally?” I replied, “Maybe it was a big rabbit?” I mean, really, how are we to know? I’ve been a vegetarian for a decade. The last rabbit bone I saw was probably in Donnie Darko.

It turned out that, no, rabbit bones aren’t that large, but lamb shanks are! When our check finally arrived for the evening, it listed lamb shanks as one of our entrees. This set off a warning signal (as well as two extra desserts we didn’t order) in my head. We flagged down our waitress to rectify the problem. She apologized and ran to take care of it. When she came back she informed us that, “No. You did have lamb shank. They were out of rabbit.” Katie and I looked at each other a little dumbfounded. “Did you enjoy it?” The waitress asked Katie. Katie replied in the affirmative, and the waitress said, “Well it’s all okay then!”

And it was okay. But what if she was allergic to lamb, or one of the sides? Shouldn’t the waitress have at least come out to tell Katie that her meal needs to be replaced? Shouldn’t she have been given the chance to order a different meal of her choosing? It just seemed like an simple oversight that never should have happened in the first place.

Bacon-Dusted Mozzarella Dinner Rolls

Once you find yourself on the receiving end of such an eye-opening spice, you start wondering how you can apply to your recipes.  That’s the only reason I can come up with that would explain why every restaurant in Chicago was serving hearts of palm a year or so ago.

And this year?  Jicama seems to really be popular.  And it’s especially popular with me, because I just love saying it out loud.  Few other words give off the appearance they should be spoken with a throaty Klingon growl like Jicama.  You just want to scream, “Jy-Ka-Ma!”  But when you realize that first time it’s pronounced “Hi-cuh-ma,” you end up saying to yourself, “Awwwww, that’s so peaceful.”  It’s my favorite food word after falafel.  Fa-LA-fel.

And my current favorite?  Oh, it’s back.  The Bacon Salt has returned.  After falling in love with the stuff last week, a discussion arose about what we could toss it on next.  Being of the baking persuasion, I wondered about bacon bread.  I’ll save you from the logic train that ensued, but let’s just say that we ended up with a recipe calling for cheese stuffed bread.

I had originally discovered this recipe over on bakingsheet, but hadn’t found a good reason to make them.  Until Bacon Salt.  I adjusted the recipe a bit, adding some butter to the activation process, and replacing the regular sugar and salt with kosher salt and brown sugar for taste.  If you don’t have Bacon Salt (blasphemy!), you could honestly sprinkle anything on top.  The original recipe calls for garlic salt, which would also be pretty dang tasty.  So, again, if for some reason you haven’t run out to buy Bacon Salt, make these with your favorite topping.

Baking these fresh, the aroma of cheese, butter, bread and bacon just fills the house, and that’s no bad thing.  It’s miraculous.  Try and eat these hot, because they taste like nothing else.  Die hard fans of my pretzel bread say these trump the pretzel bread, and they never thought they would say that.  I take that as a huge compliment.  Even Katie, who said she wouldn’t go near the Bacon Salt has been converted.  She loves these rolls.  She’s made me promise to make them only on special occasions because she’s afraid of what eating a dozen of these a day would do to her body.  (Hint: She’d probably smell like Bacon Salt)

Bacon-Dusted, Mozzarella-Stuffed Dinner Rolls

• 2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup water, warm (110-115F)
• 1/2 cup milk, warm (110-115F)
• 1 tbsp brown or dark brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2-2 1/2 cups all purpose or bread flour
• Fresh mozarella cheese cut into 12, 1/2-inch cubes
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tsp Hickory Bacon Salt
• 1 tsp grated Parmesan Cheese

In a large bowl, combine yeast, water, milk, sugar and butter and let stand for 5 minutes, until yeast is activated and has gone foamy.  Add salt and 1 1/2 cups of flour, stirring well. Add the remaining flour gradually, mix until the dough comes together into a ball, away from the sides of the bowl. Place onto a lightly floured surface and knead until very smooth and elastic, 5 minutes should do.  Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover with a dish towel.   Let rise until doubled, about 60 minutes.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Divide dough into 12 equal pieces and shape each into a ball. Place a square of cheese inside each ball and pinch tightly to seal the dough around the cheese.  Reform into a ball if need be.  Place seam side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet, or into well greased cupcake tins, and cover with a dish towel for about 15 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 375F while rolls rest.

Using a fork, mix the Bacon Salt and Parmesan cheese.  Brush rolls with the melted butter and sprinkle with the Bacon Salt & Parmesan cheese mixture. Bake rolls for 18 minutes, turning after 9 minutes, until golden.

Serve right away, as the cheese is best hot.  You may end up with one or two cheese explosions, but really, is there anything better than slightly burnt cheese?

Makes 12 rolls.

On The Subject of Bacon

Also in keeping with this week’s theme, I present to you Bacon Cups.

Yes.  You heard me right.  Bacon Cups.

I wonder how Bacon Salt would taste on these?

Unicef’s Tap Project

In keeping with the awareness theme this week, whether it be Multiple Sclerosis or lizards in salads (*blurg*), a co-worker forwarded me a link to another worthy semi-food related starting next week.

Unicef’s Tap Week is teaming with a host of the nation’s restaurants to try and provide clean drinking water to children in third world nations.  Between March 16-22, participating restaurants will be asking $1.00 for a glass of tap water which will be donated to Unicef.  Chicago has quite a few restaurants helping out.

From the Tap Project site:

To address this situation, a nationwide effort is launching during World Water Week called the Tap Project, a campaign that celebrates the clean and accessible tap water available as an every day privilege to millions, while helping UNICEF provide safe drinking water to children around the world.

The Tap Project.

Beginning Sunday, March 16 through Saturday, March 22, restaurants will invite their customers to donate a minimum of $1 for the tap water they would normally get for free. For every dollar raised, a child will have clean drinking water for 40 days.

Even if you don’t live in the Chicago area, there’s probably a restaurant near you joining with Unicef to provide clean water.  Why not help out if you can?  You can also donate online.

Geico Lizard Found Dead. News At 11.

Usually stories like this get dismissed out of hand. Who doesn’t remember stories of people finding thumbs and pieces of animals in their food, only to find out the stories were false and the people were just trying to scam a free buck.

But when you have witnesses AND photos? Well now it’s just fun. My friend Jen, the queen of bacon grapes, sent me a blog post written by her friend Kerri about a little something extra added to her coworkers chicken salad from Mezza’s Wraps and Pitas here in Chicago.

Kerri writes,

“At around noon today (Tuesday) I heard screams, squeals and a general ruckus coming from our office kitchen/lunch room. The commotion kept on and, intrigued, my co-worker and I went to investigate. We figured someone saw a mouse or a bug, which would be odd since the cleaning crew comes 2 times a day.

Her description of the scene sounds like something straight out of a Kids in the Hall sketch.

In any event, when we walked in, another co-worker was over the sink frantically splashing water in her mouth. Three other co-workers were there standing away from the table with mouths wide open in disbelief…One co-worker, a former biology TA was poking at (it) with a plastic fork. In her dry demeanor (which I find hilarious) she said, ‘Uhm, I hate to tell you this, but he’s missing an arm.”

What was the former biology assistant poking at, you may ask? The woman so desperately cleaning out her mouth was the unlucky recipient of a 2 1/2 inch lizard in her chicken salad.

For the full story, Mezza’s explanation, and how they tried making amends, hop on over to Kerri’s MySpace blog.

Bacon Salt. It Exists. And It Is Good.

My office smells like bacon. Not just a little, but as if we were hosting a bacon buffet in our tiny little encoding room. And it’s been lingering for a couple hours now. I did this. And there was no burnt pig involved.

Bacon Salt. How could salt infused with the taste of bacon possibly be good? Or vegetarian? Or kosher? The product’s website promises all three.

My friend Jen had sent me a link to the Bacon Salt website a few weeks ago, declaring that we MUST find this on the shelves somewhere. I checked out the Illinois stores that offered it up, but they were all in suburbs that even I’m not anywhere near. Next stop? Amazon. They have everything, so why not try. Plus, I get free shipping thanks to their handy Prime deal. Sure enough, Amazon was listing a 3-pack for 12 bucks. But, honestly, I don’t mind tossing 99 cents towards a bag of crazy flavored chips, but I wasn’t giving 12 dollars to a wholly untested product.

Luckily, Jen found a link that said they would be happy to send out samples to people interested in trying or selling their product. I shot out an e-mail, and within the hour, I had heard from their sales department. They would have it out in the mail the next day.

And then we dined on United States Postal Service-fueled anticipation for the week until the box finally arrived last Thursday.

I just wanted to get all that out there, because I don’t want you to think I’m pandering to people who offered me up some free stuff. If their product tasted like powdered hell, I’d be the first to tell you. Hell. I’m still getting attacked for reviews I wrote almost a year ago. I’m not afraid of you internets.

I was really, really, *really* prepared to be disgusted by this. I was all set to come onto this page and declare that I found the most disgusting thing since Dorito’s “secret flavor” X-13D chips.

But holy hot damn, was I proven wrong. Be afraid Mrs. Dash, Bacon Salt is gunning for your position in the spice rack.

And I warn Mrs. Dash because ultimately, while there is salt in the Bacon Salt, there’s also plenty of other herbs and seasonings, making it more of a seasoning mix than traditional salt. On the plus side, a 1/4 teaspoon serving is only 6% of your daily sodium intake.

Created in 2007, and financed after one of the creators’ son won $5,000 on America’s Funniest Home Videos, Bacon Salt hit the market in 3 flavors: Original, Hickory and Peppered.

(I’ll let you in on a little secret before I continue. The Original was actually the least favorite out of everyone who tried it the day I brought it into the office. It turns out that there wasn’t ENOUGH bacon flavor for everyone. The winner? Keep reading.)

NOTE – Katie withheld herself from the taste test because she thought the idea of Bacon Salt was truly disgusting, and was only more turned off by the smell.

• The Smell Test

  The group of us trying these out, 6 of us in total, treated this like a very scientific wine tasting. We opened each canister and let the aroma hit us. The Original flavor was subtle, but present. The Hickory, however, blew everyone away. The smell filled the room (and stayed there) with the smell of freshly cooked bacon on a weekend morning. The Peppered is exactly what it claims- a slightly punched up, peppery version of the original. Winner of the smell test…Hickory.

• The Standalone Taste Test

  Next up was the standalone taste test. We licked the back of our hands and sprinkled a little of each on to the wet skin. I don’t necessarily recommend doing this unless you’re either a professional, or someone who REALLY likes to smell like bacon. That stuff lingered, even after a couple washings. Hickory, by itself was a little TOO strong for the tongue, and Original was again to subtle. Winner of the standalone taste test…Peppered.

• The Fry Test

  For the final bit of taste testing we went for the closest fast food we could find that would benefit from tasting more like bacon…McDonald’s French Fries. Again, I don’t recommend everyone doing this, because even three small French fries (and a Shamrock shake) ended up being my entire meal for the day. Apparently 3 IS the magic number if the magic number is the answer to the question “How many small bags of McDonald’s fries does it take to make you nauseas and pray for death?”

We laid out some paper towels, and dumped each bag into its own pile, generously sprinkling the Bacon Salt onto each pile. Behind the piles were placed the respective flavors so we couldn’t get them confused.

Not surprisingly, the natural fry flavor overpowered the Original, and the Peppered just added a nice little kick to the fries. But again, Hickory smoked (HAR!) the competition. Winner of the Fry Test…Hickory

For those of you playing at home the final tally was: Hickory – 2, Peppered – 1, Original – 0. In the case that Hickory cannot fulfill its duties as the best tasting the Bacon Salts, the duty will then pass onto Peppered.

Other things I can guarantee Hickory Bacon Salt tastes good on:

Cheese Pizza!
Vegan Chicken Soup!

Things that Jen swears it also tastes good on:

Celery!
Grapes!

I cannot vouch for these things, only because I refuse to try bacon grapes. I will try many a thing, but not bacon grapes. NOT BACON GRAPES!

In summation, and in conclusion, Hickory Bacon Salt. It’s effin’ awesome.

As an added bonus to my dozens and dozens of readers, I will be giving away the Bacon Salt drink cozy to a lucky winner this Friday. You have until Friday to answer this ridiculously easy question: What is the name of the Bacon Salt Facebook group?

Just send the correct answer to twobitesinsuburbia at gmail dot com by Thursday at midnight (central). I’ll announce the winner on Friday and contact them for their mailing information.

Local Chefs Support MS Awareness Week in Chicago

Something I don’t believe I’ve talked about here on Two Bites is my special interest in Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week. I was diagnosed with MS in May of 2001, so I’ll shortly be celebrating my 7th anniversary with the rather obnoxious and annoying disease. Happy anniversary to me!

I don’t talk about it often, because frankly I refuse to be defined by it. When I was first diagnosed, people treated me as if I had final stage cancer. On the upside, people kept baking me cakes. On the downside, all those cakes and the prescribed Prednisone led to a rather hefty weight gain. In either case, no sane person can handle that much pity before they go a little crazy and refuse to live their life as if it was over.

Thanks to a change in diet, job and lifestyle, I haven’t had a relapse (or exacerbation) in 5 years. I’m pretty damn lucky, all being said and done. Aside from the occasionally energy lapse, I haven’t had so much as a symptom in 2 years. A stress and (mostly) preservative/chemical free lifestyle DOES make a difference.

But, I’m not the point of this post. I was flipping through the local Red Eye, the free publication from the Chicago Tribune, and happened upon an ad that I thought was both important AND topical for this blog. 9 local bakeries are joining with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Greater Illinois Chapter to help spread information about fighting the disease while also selling some tasty food.
From the ad:

“On March 10-17, join the NMSS, Greater Illinois Chapter as we celebrate National MS Awareness Week. Visit select Chicago-area bakeries and cafes, buy something sweet and you’ll get information on how you can Join the Movement and help create a world free of MS.

Visit the following locations during MS Awareness Week and participate in this special deal. Have a treat. Have several. Your sweet tooth will thank you, and so will countless others whose lives have been touched by MS.”

The participating bakeries and cafes are:

• Bleeding Heart Bakery – 1955 W. Belmont Ave – Chicago, IL
• Flourish Bakery – 1138 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. – Chicago, IL
• Solomon’s Cookies – 2222 N. Elston Ave. – Chicago, IL
• Vella Cafe – 1912 N. Western Ave. – Chicago, IL
• Cupcakes – 613 W. Briar Pl. – Chicago, IL
• Molly’s Cupcakes – 2536 N. Clark St. – Chicago, IL
• Cafe Selmarie – 4729 N. Lincoln Ave. – Chicago, IL
• Sweet Mandy B’s – 1208 W. Webster Ave. – Chicago, IL
• Apple’s Bakery – 8412 N. Knoxville Ave. – Peoria, IL

They list their site msillinois.org for a place to get more info, but I wasn’t able to find anything on their yet. You can also call 1-800-344-4867.