Road Trip: Eating Local in Chicago

For my starter, I chose a salad of endives with crispy potatoes, basil, dijon, pancetta and poached egg; all locally-sourced.  It was possibly the most delicious salad, I've ever eaten.  The crunchy potatoes with the fresh salad greens and the poached egg were truly magnificent.



Bev chose the crispy maryland soft shell crab with honey custard, edamame, yuba and soy caramel.  The crab was perfect - crispy and fresh, not soggy at all.



While David had the blue hill bay bouchot mussel soup with whitefish, saffron, garlic and basil.  I almost caught him trying to lick the bowl, but he grabbed a piece of bread to soak up the broth instead.



Honestly, we could have all stopped there, but there was more. David ordered the slow-cooked halibut with uni, black trumpet mushrooms, spring radishes, baby parsnips and ramps.  As they delivered his dish to him, the aroma of the ramps and the mushrooms wafted across the table.



Bev ordered the aged pekin duck breast with porcinis, fava beans and brown butter worcestershire sauce.  Did you catch that?  Brown Butter Worcestershire Sauce.  Oh my.  The duck was locally sourced and it was ever so tender.



As fantastic as their dishes were though, Bev and David were filled with order envy when my entree was brought to the table. First of all, you could smell the Slagel Family Farm pork belly grilling in the kitchen. But then, they brought it to the table. And they poured chorizo broth over the belly, royal trumpet mushrooms, melted leeks and pickled turmeric. And just a whiff of the broth made you salivate. I swear I saw David drool on his napkin.

The pork belly was perfectly cooked, grilled just so that the fat melted in your mouth but the meat still had a bit of firmness to it. And it was in chorizo broth. Yummmmmmmmm. I shared exactly the amount I had to in order to be polite and not one bit more.

As if we hadn't indulged enough, we decided dessert was in order. David opted for the jivara chocolate ganache with ovaltine, sesame and banana bread ice cream.  It was actually a pretty fun collection and the chocolate ganache with ovaltine was surprisingly my favorite.





If you're visiting Chicago, here's a list of other restaurants and chefs that support the Green City Market and source locally: Eat Local Chicago.