A Starving Actor

Whenever I’m feeling the mood to just feast the hell out, I like to try out different ways of feasting. If you’re unfamiliar with the art of dim sum, then listen up! It’s a Chinese style of food that cooks most of their food in bamboo steamers. And the possibilities of what can be cooked are endless! At Furama over on Argyle, the dim sum was unbelievable! Taking Kevin with me was a blast because he hadn’t been to dim sum in a while and I wanted to test his limits—so I got them all: octupus, jellyfish and roast duck. That and other shumais and steamed dumplings filled our table, and as you can see, it kind of got out of hand. That look on Kevin’s face is pure fear, and I love it! Nothing like food you get a little shock out of, am I right?

Well, that fear was pretty much just of the unknown if we would finish all of that food or not. Hey, that’s what we get for going on an all-out feast, I guess. It was a lunch I still think about today! Never have I ever really gone all-out and just order as much food as I possibly could. 

Life’s good if you have fun with it every now and then. And my kind of fun is always food. So glad I got to do this, and I recommend you all try some dim sum someday!

A tiny little gem on Devon resides Thai Spiceand it literally is a hidden hole-in-the-wall. Don’t let the unconvincing outside fool you—inside it packs a whollop with your tastebuds. Their Thai food is probably the best I have had in the city of Chicago. They make their food in family-size portions and they take their time cooking. I always believe that if a restaurant says their food will take a while to cook for your order, it’ll be worth the wait. And it’s definitely worth it!

Their crab rangoons had a very homemade feel—larger than other Thai restaurants. Their chicken pad see ewe is also extremely flavorful and hearty. And the beef kang dang is definitely the best dish of the dinner. Sirloin cut beef—made it extremely tender. And a beautifully-stewed curry. UNF. I think the owner knew how much we liked the food, because he kept offering free rice. What can I say? A nice cup of white rice was the perfect sidekick to this Thai meal. If you want an authentic culinary experience, check this restaurant out!

This one time, Kevin came over and brought a ginormous cut of salmon. It was freakin’ huge! So, as the always experimental chef, I had to come up with salmon recipes off the top of my head. Then this idea came: salmon nuggets! It’s a very simple recipe, and you get some awesome fried fish at the end of it. 

1. Cut your salmon into small bits. 
2. In one bowl, beat 2 eggs. Add a little milk. Then add a few dashes of hot sauce.
3. In another bowl, have your yellow corn meal ready with half part panko breadcrumbs. If you have seasoned fish fry, by all means use it! If not, corn meal with some salt and pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, and a little Old Bay seasoning should do the trick.
4. The secret is the double dipping! Egg first, then breading, then repeat egg, and then repeat breading! It’ll make for a crispier nugget!
5. Now pick your poison: both frying and baking in the oven works! 

When finished, serve it with some garlic rice (that I topped with green onions), and either tartar sauce, or make a quick mayonnaise sauce mixed with minced garlic!

Enjoy!

Etno Village Grill is a small restaurant in Lincoln Park, Chicago, right next to the Apollo Theatre. If you’re looking for an authentic burger or sandwich that’s signature and special, then this is the place to go.

I got one of their specialty sandwiches The Figgy Chicken Breast which had cabbage, caramelized red onion slaw, red pepper, asiago cheese, and chives. Both savory and sweet, the special ingredient is their ajvar—a relish that was made with figs. So good!

The other burger you see was their burger of the day—called the “CTA Bleu Line” which I’m pretty sure was a burger with bleu cheese and caramelized onions.

We wanted to try something new and exciting for a date night, so we headed out to Fondue Stube for our first ever fondue experience. And boy, was it an experience! They start you off with a cheese fondue as an appetizer. Then comes their oil fondue where you can have a selection of meats and vegetables to fry right on your table, with some awesome sauces with it: barbecue, aioli, raspberry, horseradish. Finally, the desert is of course chocolate! What’s cool is that they light the leftover oil on fire so you can roast your marshmallows first before they bring out your pot of chocolate. So if you’re looking for a new way to celebrate that big date, try some fondue!

No one can resist homemade mac and cheese, am I right? So after scrounging my new favorite website Foodily, I found an amazingly simple Macaroni and Cheese recipe from The Pioneer Woman and decided to try it out myself! Here are some of the things I tries to do differently, though.

• I added some spinach in that cheese sauce, since I had too much in the fridge at the time.
• I also used all of the cheeses I had in my fridge: cheddar, parmigiano reggiano, and mozarella.
• I also used tri-color pasta because, well, why not?
• And for breadcrumbs on top, I used some cheese sandwich crackers I had in the pantry. And topped it with more sauce on top before baking it.

Remember, always be bold and brave in playing with how you cook your food!