Wot I Ate On My Holidays

[Proudhuff]

maybe he's had to chop them fingers off after touching a public toilet? 

[Buttonman]

I have returned! Tales of slaw on plastic plates may be missing but everything else was eaten so you don't have to endure the shameful gluttony and plate licking yourself.

The tour took in 5 states although I didn't eat anything in Utah having only spent 2 minutes there at the 4 Corners monument. We flew from Heathrow to Chicago and after the 8 hour flight we were keen for some deep dish pizza.

Forget that frozen 'Chicago Town' crap these are the real deal - basically an open pie with thick crusts that take 45 minutes to make and just as long to eat. We shared this bad boy along with a salad (for show only) and had to take a slice home (which I then ate cold the next morning when the wife was in the shower; photo unavailable).

This dense monster had extra jalapenos, onions and chichen as well as two inches of tomato sauce. We went to 'Pizza Due' which was recommended but so was 'Ginos East' 'Giorandios' and two others that the cab driver and hotel desk clark both claimed were 'Oprah's favourite'.

Although very tasty and relatively inexpensive at about $40 including beers we didn't have another - possibly the bagged up feeling wasn't one to repeat. Worth doing once though!

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Egon returns, HUZZAH!

[Zarjazzer]

The foodanistas tremble at the return of the DARK MASTER.(though not so dark in that shirt),ooh that looks nom that pizza does and two beers waiting. Top.

[Spikes]

Pizza and Beer. Grud, im feeling hungry now!

[Frank]

Are you very small, Buttonman, or are those beers and that pie absolutely ginormous?

[Buttonman]

We are all full sized sauchie!

The morning after we took a refreshing walk along the Navy Pier and a nice woman offered to take our photo and then recommended this place, The Billy Goat Tavern for breakfast. She must have had us down for bums as it had plastic plates and cutlery.

It was fine although nothing great. I got eggs (scrambled), hash browns (chopped up & fried potatoes) and some turkey sausage. The bacon you can see is the result of a trade with the wife. Also shown is a pre-packaged cinnamon roll which was a bit dry and doughy. Bill was about $10 a head including coffee so you can't complain.

[JOE SOAP]

That is the most depressed looking fry but that pizza on the otherhand looks, as they say, awesome!

[The Doctor Alt 8]

Ah but have you had any luck finding a woven bacon tortia stuffed with chocolate and peanuts.... ?

[Buttonman]

Darn jet lag got me up at 5am and the newly enforced diet has me hankering for grubier times! Stay posted Doc 8, you never know! (in short, no.)

Something we ate a lot of was chicken wings. Basically every bar makes you eat a dozen before they'll give you a pint. Despite traveling about 2000 miles within America I was surprised how consistent the flavours and presentation of the wings were. You normally get about a dozen for $12 and they usually come with a dip - we always had blue cheese. You also get celery sticks and maybe carrots to stop total artery clogage.

This place Jake Melnick's Corner Tap was our first wing experience and they were excellent. They claim to have won 'Wingfest' 3 years in a row and we didn't have better. They were flash fried and really crisp with no black veiny bits inside. The blue cheese was tasty and lumpy  and the buffalo sauce was zingy perfection.



Obviously being new to this we didn't expect the 'appetizer' wings to fill us up so we had already ordered three items from their barbeque pit. This stuff was great but the oncoming stuffedness meant we had little time to savour. In the picture we have pulled pork (served on a slice of bread), a half rack of fall apart ribs and some braised beef. The food was excellent although they barely gave us a second after the wings before the meats arrived. Felt like Two Ton Tony Tubbs doing his thing! This came with some slaw, which was fine and some fries which were a bit limp.



The next one will get me some criticism, but after a walk we chanced upon this McDonalds which looks like something out of 'Bladerunner'. It had statues outside and was at least twice as big as any McD's I'd been to.



I went for the hot fudge sundae and it was great. Say what you like about McDonald but they are consistent - this was indishtinguishable from one bought on Sauchiehall Street. The wife got an M&Ms McFlurry and could barely eat half - must have been a pound of candy in that mother!

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Great work and that McDonald's is very Gerry Anderson.

[Proudhuff]

 

Are those beers part of Count Arthur Strong's famous 2-4-1 offer?

[Buttonman]

Pint two is the wife's - happily a lot of places don't offer halves so she gets a full one that I can polish off!

Back to breakfast and we went to this nice chain, Yolk in Streeterville. I had the Heuvos Rancheros which is a spicy egg omlette with potatoes, salsa and sour cream. Might sound a bit strange for breakfast but it was execllent and I scoffed the lot. Slightly more upmarket than McDonalds but the bill was OK at about $35 including bottomless coffee.



As a bonus they also had sparrows that took food out of your hand.

[The Doctor Alt 8]

Awwww CUTE!

[Proudhuff]

Next piccie: