Hey friends!

Are you enjoying any snow? I trekked all the way into my apartment after I got off work to do some food prep all day long for the upcoming week. To fuel that vegetable dicing, I enjoyed the water and meat of a baby Thai coconut blended to fluffy perfection:

I’m really happy I first experienced the wonderment of this unfussy smoothie at Caravan of Dreams not too long ago.

Steve and I just got back from a short vacation to Chicago on Thursday night. Overall, we had a really good trip, although I definitely had some mixed emotions about being there again, this time without my instrument. Most importantly, however, I got to savor some of my favorite dishes in the city!

Our first meal was at Karyn’s Cooked, which happened to be only steps from the hotel where we stayed.

When I was in my undergrad at Northwestern, I frequented Karyn’s Cooked as often as I had an occasion to make the journey downtown for some seriously good comfort food. This Karyn’s location (there are a handful) was definitely my favorite, especially if I happened to be dining with anyone who wasn’t totally convinced that vegan food can be really awesome.

We sat down and defrosted with some hot tea before our main dishes came out:

I ordered the grilled polenta, which came with sautéed shiitake mushrooms.

Steve had my favorite- The Slab of Ribs!

I really liked the polenta very much, but despite the wonderful grilled flavor and savory shiitakes, I really wished for something green along with it that wasn’t the garnish. The polenta did have some finely minced veggies-olives, peppers, onions, but I found myself a little unsatisfied. There was not despair for long, however, since Steve needed assistance with the ribs. I’m not usually a big faux meat person, but really, I think I might be persuaded to consume just about anything slathered in that barbeque sauce. For me, it has the perfect balance of sweet, tangy, and spicy. I wish I could bottle it up and take it home, but it might freak out guests if they saw me washing my face in it, pouring it into a mug instead of my morning tea, painting the walls with it, etc.

Anyway, for dessert we had the bread pudding, which is basically one of the best things I have ever tasted. I fantasize about this stuff more often than I’d willingly admit. It’s full of shredded coconut and plump golden raisins, slathered in cinnamon-y, coconut icing. So. Incredible.

Later that night, we ventured to Chicago Diner, which meant reuniting with the notorious Radical Reuben.

This picture is actually the second Radical Reuben I consumed in the three days we were there.

There’s really no going back to any other vegan Reuben after this one. Life will never be the same. Don’t even bother with any old tempeh Reuben, or anything that feigns to be on the same level. The real deal has “corned beef,” which is a thinly sliced tofu and seitan mixture, topped with buckets of sauerkraut, caramelized onions and bell peppers, your choice of dairy or non-dairy cheese, and finally the most ridiculous Thousand Island dressing you’ll ever meet. All this is basically exploding from the marbled rye, as you can see. It’s not a neat and clean affair, but that won’t matter. Trust me.

After some yoga classes downtown and visiting Northwestern, our last day consisted of sleeping in, some Sun Salutations, followed by our final pre-flight destination- Karyn’s on Green:

Karyn’s on Green is the more upscale sister to Karyn’s Cooked. There’s also a Karyn’s Raw, but my experience there was not nearly as positive as the other two restaurants. Despite the classier decor and menu selections, Karyn’s on Green is still really affordable. We received a 10 percent off coupon from the Cooked location, and our meal was right around fifty bucks for a number of dishes you’ll see below. The portions are smaller than at Cooked, but you’ll leave feeling refreshed and satisfied.

For my meal, I enjoyed the butternut squash soup and arugula salad with citrus and fennel:

The butternut squash soup was to die for. It was coconut based, which made it extra luscious. There were some fried chickpeas for crunch, along with some guajillo oil for added spice. Unfortunately, I was really disappointed with my salad. There was very little fennel, as you can see, and it wasn’t citrus-y at all. The issue was salt overkill.

Steve had the Buffalo chicken wrap with a delectable Caesar salad on the side. As you can tell from the picture, the texture was really realistic, which kind of freaked me out the first time I had Karyn’s “fried chicken legs” a couple years ago. After I got over the initial shock, I’ve been intrigued ever since! I was happy Steve got to experience it via a wrap.

We washed it all down with some non-alcholic elixirs, which were really tasty. I had the Happy Ginger on the right, while Steve enjoyed the Apple Thyme elixir.

For dessert, we shared the peanut butter pie and hazelnut panna cotta. The part I loved most about the peanut butter pie was actually the coconut cashew cream hiding under the cookie. The orange caviar with the panna cotta looked exciting, but it wasn’t nearly as interesting as the hazelnut brittle, which was full of buttery (Earth balance-y?) flavor. The main part of each dessert was good, but nothing to write home about incomparison to the bread pudding!

All in all, we had a lovely trip, and I do feel like being there one more time has helped in the healing process.

I will always love this view of Lake Michigan from the Lakefill on Northwestern’s campus.

Any Chicago fans out there? What are your favorite things to eat in the Windy City?

Take care!