Ribz meet tha street

Okay, that’s enough attempt at sounding urban-chic.  Let the record state that I’m a white chick.  But seriously, folks, street fests, I’ve learned, are a pretty amazing way to try a whole load of different food items without having to commit to a huge order of anything.

I have to nod (belatedly) to North Center’s Ribfest where I wish I had consumed maybe one less beer so maybe I could remember more names of establishments that were there…I remember Robinsons, Hecky’s, Carson’s, and Gale Street Inn. Carson’s were pretty good, but I hope that Robinson’s stays home next year.  Their ribs were chewy and fatty. I was also disappointed to see that despite advertising to show up, Evanston’s Merle’s didn’t show.  I really wanted in their pulled pork sandwich, which I need to eat more of so I can blog about.  I hang my head in shame as I betray myself as a hog-centric blogger, because my favorite thing there was a pulled lamb sandwich.  Like pulled pork, only a little more savory and gamey-er.  Seriously awesome.  I was so ashamed of myself for going to Ribfest and liking the lamb best, I had to go eat a bacon wrapped hot dog to regain my street-cred.  Yes, you read that right.  Bacon. Wrapped. Hot Dog.  Next time I’m bringing more money and trying every rib sampler available.  And maybe getting less drunk so I can remember what I had.

I did the same thing and Randolph street festival this past Friday.  I tried some kind of ribs that were awesome; I’m pretty sure they were from Nicholas Quality Meats.  They gave me some free corn too, so can’t lose there. The game plan is to continue attending whatever festivals are available for me to attend and to continue sampling ribs and other meat options (meat on a stick is always a solid pick).  Taste of Chicago starts this weekend.  Hmmm….

Rib Review – Claim Jumper

Went out to Claim Jumper last night for my mother’s birthday.  I love this place and was in the mood for, you guessed it, pork covered in BBQ sauce!  So I went for the baby back ribs.

I’d give them an 8.5/10 – They were pretty tender but certainly didn’t drop off the bone.  The flavor was good, and had a slight hint of cinnamon, but not enough to be overpowering.  The BBQ sauce had a sweet and tangy flavor, and all in all, I enjoyed them, but they weren’t anywhere near the “best ribs ever” category.

Despite not being blown away by the baby back ribs, however, I still highly recommend this place based on AMAZING side dishes (fried zuchinni and cheese-potato cakes for me) and mega-tasty desserts.  

Gluttony, upping the ante on Thai stir fry and vegetarian conversion

It was my birthday celebration this weekend; 26 years of life, 25.25 of them have been spent as a carnivore-glutton.  I celebrated that fact with Saturday’s consumption of 2 hot dogs, 4 pulled-pork sliders, and half a hamburger.  I definitely have upcoming blogs in devoted extensively to hot dogs and pulled pork (my ultimate favorite), but the real find of my weekend,  was something called Prik Prow Noodle at this place. 

The place combines Chinese, Thai, and Japanese food, as well as offering a great selection of insane choke-a-T-Rex-huge sushi rolls.  But the Prik Prow Noodle is something I’ve never had before.  Their menu describes the dish as “Stir-fried flat rice noodle, carrots, onion, bellpepper, baby corn, green onion and chili paste”, which is certainly delicious.  My research tells me this is a Thai dish, given that “prik” is the Thai word I see in all the recipes that contain that chili-based sauce.  I can’t find a recipe for it anywhere online, although I do see “Prik Pow” coming up in searches, which leads me to believe a mistake might have been made on Thai Oscar’s menu.

I chose the dish namely because it seemed like it would be a little zingy without making my mouth feel like I needed to make out with a fire extinguisher, and I liked all the vegetables mentioned.  I wasn’t let down.  It was flavorful, slightly spicy, and I was pleasantly surprised with the texture and size of the flat noodles.  However, what put it over the edge was that my boyfriend had the brilliant idea to let them tag an extra $2.00 onto the order to throw some meat into that mess of stir-fried awesomeness.  Why not?  And furthermore, the choice made was BBQ pork.

And the ante was indeed upped.  Simple equation kids:

BBQ Pork + stir fry = GREAT
And on one more unrelated note, I had a great conversation with a friend this weekend.

Me: Are you still a vegetarian or whatever?

Him: Noooo…hell no.  I wasn’t going to stick with that.  Know what changed me?
Me: What?

Him: BUFFALO WINGS.

Score one more for team carnivore.