In which I vainly attempt to be a food blogger…

Over the Christmas break, I went to my first certifiably fancy-shmancy restaurant in Chicago, Spring, home of Chef Shawn McClain, James Beard Winner 2006.

 

 

Generally not the sort of place I dine at, but my good friend wyu was in town and I had a Groupon to burn. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to do do grown up things every once in a while, yah?

 

 

I’ll apologize for the generally poor quality of photos and food descriptions in advance. My taste memories are a bit clouded, and I’ve never shot in candlelight before, and I couldn’t get the white balance to behave. Photos have had their levels adjusted, a crop here and there (really just there), but that’s about it.

 

 

Spring is surprisingly low-key. It was cozy, in a trendy/zen sort of way, which makes sense, given its location in Wicker Park, Chicago’s once-bohemian / now-gentrifying(-ied?) neighborhood. I figured that I would’ve needed to wear at least a blazer or something, but I didn’t, and still managed to not feel out of place, which as a grad student, feels like it should be some sort of an accomplishment.

 

 

The menu is “New American”, with lots of seafood and Asian influences. Lots of different fantastic sounding flavors and only 2 stomachs! Whatever a dilemma! With the help of our very helpful (and very perky) waitress, we eventually settled on 3 appetizers and 1 entree. Unfortunately, we let her take away both our menus, so it was a little hard to identify everything on our plates.

 

 

What’s this? I was prepared for small portions, but this is ridiculous! Ah, what did you say? It’s an amuse bouche, compliments of the chef? Why thank you very much! I don’t remember exactly what it was. I want to say that it was a small salad of seaweed, homemade noodles, and soy/sesame oil. Quite tasty. They also provided some sesame crackers with white bean puree dip. Not quite as tasty, but I was pretty hungry and they kept on refilling the basket, so down they went.

 

 

Unfortunately, I can’t make out the the last set of ingredients on my menu-photo, and this dish isn’t online either. It was sushi. It was slimy. It was tasty. It was room temperature (which was odd to me. Not unpleasant, just odd.) A little heavy on the soy, but the salad provided a nice contrast with the sushi. I’d never had hamachi before, and unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll see it on a menu again either.

 

 

Appetizers Two and Three, ie, the hot appetizers. The grilled octopus was fantastic. It was sweet and smoky and managed to be chewy yet tender. The inch-long egg pasta was also great. Really QQ, if you happen to know what I mean. There was definitely enough to share between three people.

 

I was a little wary of the foie gras gyoza, but wyu was pretty interested in them, so order them we did. I had never had foie gras before, so I wasn’t so much worried about the taste as the the texture. I tend to prefer that my dumplings have a bit of substance when I bite into them, and pate is sort of the antithesis of substance. So, what can I say? Taste-wise it was great. Foie gras is some pretty tasty stuff. The dumplings were fried well. I have no idea what Tataki is, and I don’t think I took note of the apple, since I forgot that it was supposed to be in there. Texture-wise? Eh…it was what I had expected…

 

I think the busboy is under orders to not let anyone’s water glass be less than 3/4′s full. I contemplate challenging him, but think the better of it.

 

 

Ah, the main course. We were deciding between the skatewing and the sea scallops, one of the signature dishes. As neither wyu or I had had skatewing before, we went for something new. Highlight of the dish: The not-skatewing. The lobster was super-sweet and once again, the hand-made ravioli was fantastic. Guess I’m just a sucker for QQ pasta. Lowlight? The skatewing was lightly fried and salted, and really, just didn’t have too much going on. On the other hand, wyu really enjoyed the dish. She was also eating the skatewing and the ravioli together, whereas I was left with a half-chunk of skatewing at the end. How was I supposed to know? Why wasn’t someone there to tell me how I’m supposed to eat the dish like on Iron Chef!?

 

 

Not feeling quite sated, we succumbed to the temptation of dessert. I actually didn’t read the menu close enough (I blame the darkness), so I was expecting to have a poached pear tart with fig ice cream and blue cheese, which sounded like an intriguing flavor combination. Much to my surprise, it was fig _and_ blue cheese ice cream. It was still an intriguing flavor combination, to say the least. Not bad, but it took a bit of getting used to. On a whole though, it was quite good.

 

 

We capped off the meal with yet _another_ item sent complements of the chef: a small shot glass of drinking chocolate brewed with thyme. (Aside: actually, does anyone ever _not_ get sent these items “complements of the chef”? Does s/he ever send them begrudgingly? What would it take to not be sent something? Or is it more a “how busy is it?” question?) But, back to the drink. It sounds like a weird flavor combination, but it’s absolutely fantastic. Perfect way to finish the meal.

 

Total (inc. tip and tax) for 2: $105 – $35 groupon = $70

 

Totally worth the $70. I haven’t eaten out at enough high end restaurants to know if its worth the $105. I suspect it is.

 

Major props to: wyu for the excellent company and for schlepping in from the suburbs; groupon for giving me the opportunity to impulse buy gift certificates to places that I would never otherwise eat; and the nameless waitress and staff and chefs of Spring!