Food Tour

Well, there’s no shortage of delicious food in Chicago! I am stuffed!!

Once the Healthy Living Summit ended for the day, I attended the Tastebud Food Tour, hosted by Arnold and Oroweat, with a group of about 15 other bloggers.

On the tour, we walked through the heart of Chicago and stopped at six different restaurants and food specialty shops where we tasted lots of goodies. Along the way, we listen to entertaining historical stories and fun facts about Chicago and its cuisine.

At the first stop, we enjoyed bratwurst and potato salad from Berghoff’s, which was the same place where I ate lunch yesterday.

Then, we visited the Palmer House.

It was breathtaking inside!!

Rumor has it that the brownie was invented in Chicago!?!

Adventures in Babysitting, anyone?

Ok, let’s talk about Chicago Mix popcorn. It’s cheddar popcorn and caramel mixed together, which sounds totally weird and not-so-tasty, but it’s amazing in so many ways. Who would have guessed!?

After munching on popcorn and exploring the city, we stopped into Halsted Street Deli for Chicago-style hot dogs.

Tonight, I learned that a typical Chicago-style hot dog is steamed, served on a poppy seed bun, and topped with yellow mustard, chopped onions, sweet pickle relish (often a dyed neon-green), a dill pickle, and tomato slices with a dash of celery salt. I don’t usually love hotdogs, but this one was awesome! I almost ate the entire thing!

Our final stop of the evening was the Billy Goat Tavern, which has a fun/interesting history and is now a great Chicago legend.

Good times!!

I was pretty full at this point in the tour, but I managed to eat half of a cheeseburger and drink a beer.

After the tour, I headed to a dinner/cocktail party hosted by Angela of Oh She Glows at Karyn’s On Green.

From the website:

Contemporary. Stylish. Vegan. With delicious food and a vibrant bar scene, Karyn?s on Green is making vegan sexy in the midst of Chicago?s traditional Greektown neighborhood. Serving lunch, dinner and drinks seven days a week in an atmosphere so chic you?ll forget it?s good for you? and the planet.

Karyn’s was quite swanky. Good thing I showed up in stinky flip-flops and dirty feet!

I couldn’t fit an ounce more of food into my stomach, so I passed on dinner and ordered a couple of drinks at the event. I started with a dirty vodka martini.

And then drank 3/4 of a glass of Chardonnay. (My 6-mile run in the morning reminded me to behave myself!)

Blog friends: Kath & Mara!

Anne P!

So tired. Need bed. Night.