Chizakaya - Japanese Pub

Restaurant week every year in Chicago is just after V-day.  http://www.choosechicago.com/things-to-do/dining/chicago-restaurant-week/   It involves over a hundred restaurants throughout the city/suburbs during which they have set prix fixe menus.  Prices are very reasonable, lunch around $22 and dinner around $33 and you usually get at least 3 courses.  For the last few years, my cousin Jeff and his cousin Kent have been coming down for it because it just so happens to coincide with the Chicago Auto Show.  One year we went to Roy's (Hawaiian Fusion) and this year we went to a Japanese Pub as they call themselves, Chizakaya (http://www.chizakaya.com). 

I was pretty happy to find that the menu had 4 courses and was pleasantly surprised that there were choices to be made for our appetizer and main courses.  For the app course I chose the 'crispy pork, slow poached egg' which came in soy sauce.  It was delicious and my favorite of all the courses.  The second course was a preset 'Kushi Yaki' course.  3 skewers of salmon, chicken, and shishito peppers came.  The third course options were all noodle options.  I chose the pork tenderloin ramen in a pork bone marrow broth.  The broth was straight buttery goodness.  Finally, the dessert was fried mochi balls with a sweet black sesame paste. 

There were quite a few cocktails, sake, and beer selections on the beverage menu.  Jeff, Jane, and I shared a some sake which was very good, and clean. 

Pork tenderloin ramen in Pork bone marrow broth



LINSANITY

Just Lin baby Lin
Linnin'
All I do is Lin Lin Lin no matter what
Time to Lin

If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you've probably been living under a rock for the last 2 weeks.  This is the most excited I've been about basketball in years, and he doesn't even play for my team.  Of course by he, I mean the new basketball sensasian, Jeremy Lin. 

For those that don't know, Jeremy Lin is the new starting point guard for the New York Knicks.  He was a California state champ, played 4 years at Harvard, and got an economics degree from said university.  On the other hand, he wasn't offered a scholarship from any of his home state universities, including the one he really wanted to go to and was basically in his backyard - Stanford, went undrafted in the NBA, and was cut by 2 teams, his hometeam Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets.  He was then picked up by the Knicks and sat on their bench for awhile until injury and circumstance finally gave him the chance.  I think in his first game, he came off the bench and scored 25 and hasn't looked back since.  He's ignited the Knicks and have brought them back into the playoff picture.  They've won something like 8 out of 10 since he started playing/starting with regularity. 

His rapid rapid rise has been amazing.  Everybody and their mother have been talking, blogging, tweeting about it.  both good and bad.  Lots has been said about his heritage.  Lin is only the 4th asian player to play in the NBA.  A lot of people are wondering why he was so overlooked by so many college and NBA teams and speculate that its because he's asian.  In fact, he was recently, and might still be sleeping on his brother's couch because he didn't know if he was gonna stick around on the team.  Many coaches and players have made comments about how they didn't think he would be that good or that athletic.  The guy is 6'3, 200, not exactly a small dude. 

Along with millions, maybe billions of people (considering he's Taiwanese-American), I have Linsanity!


You can follow him on twitter: @jlin7
Here's a funny video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9yVnKQNj58

Ping Pong...the restaurant

I went to Ping Pong the other day to meet my cousin Jason and 2 of his friends because he was in town for a conference.  It just so happened to be his birthday as well.  This was my first time successfully going there.  I had tried to go there another time a few years back w/a large party, but the restaurant isn't very large and we decided go next door to eat instead. 

The restaurant was decent.  The food was good.  Its kind of pan-asian.  The menu had some chinese, thai, and general southeast asian specialties on it.  Jason had the Hong Kong chow fun.  I had a dish called butter chicken, more Indian or maybe Malaysian or from Singapore.  It was good, but spicy.  We also had a side of Chinese Broccoli w/oyster sauce.

The ambience of the place is kinda of clubby.  Its definitely has a hipper vibe, plays trance music, and has sleeker furniture and artwork.  Its also BYOB.  If you don't know what that means, its Bring Your Own Beer/Booze.  Its pretty much a Chicago thing as far as I can tell.  Most places will charge a little 'corkage' fee.  Ping Pong was a little weird in that it charged an higher corkage fee than normal, $8, but also served beer and cocktails.  Basically, I think you can only bring wine. 

All in all, I'm glad I tried the place, but it wouldn't be in my top asian restaurants in the city.

http://pingpongrestaurant.com/

Hong Kong Chow Fun

Butter Chicken

Chinese Broccoli

Jason and I

 

Making Pho

About a week after eating at Tank, I decided to attemp to make pho.  Let me tell you, it is not easy, not easy at all!  I decided early on that I wanted to try to make my own broth.  It was a total failure.  I started by browning beef neck bones in a large pot.  Then I filled the pot nearly to the top with water, a chopped onion, a few chopped stalks of celery, carrots, some bay leaves, salt and pepper.  This simmered down well over halfway for nearly a day, but never became a real broth.  It just ended up kinda greasy and had no real beef broth flavor.  In the end, I had to go buy some beef broth from the grocery store.

The other ingredients I had were rice noodles, pre-sliced ribeye, lime slices, bean sprouts, enoki mushrooms, and chopped green onion, and hot sauce.  I cooked the noodles, then added them and the beef to the broth.  The thinly sliced ribeye cooks in a minute.  Everything else I put on the side to add separately in case people didn't like it.  I did notice the green onion quite a bit while eating so perhaps I should've cooked them for a few minutes beforehand as well. 

Overall, it was a pretty good meal and not a bad effort.  A lot of ingredients can be added/subtracted, i.e. different veggies, meats, etc.  The broth was disappointing...guess I'll have to work on it.

Tank Noodle - Pho

Asians make great noodle soup dishes.  One of my absolute favorites is a traditional Vietnamese dish called Pho.  Pho is delicious!  For whatever reason, I've only recently, in the last few years, come across this great dish.  In its most basic form, from what I understand anyway, is that its comprised of a beef broth with rice noodles, thinly sliced beef and veggies and spices on the side that you can add.  At least thats the way its usually served at the places I've been to. 

Just last week, I went to Tank Noodle (http://www.tank-noodle.com) with my wife and our friends Bob and Emily.  Its a great Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant specializing in pho on Argyle in Chicago.  Its on street known as Vietnamese Street.  The menu is huge there as is typical of many asian restaurants.  I ordered the #90 which was Pho with flank steak and tripe.  They served it in a big bowl with noodles and broth.  On the side, are a variety of vinegar, soy, and chili sauces along with a platter consisting of limes, sprouts, and basil.  The meal is massive at a pretty good price of around $8.  We also had a crepe appetizer which was very good as well.  All in all, quite happy with the place, especially since its BYOB!  Gotta love that about Chicago.