This isn’t a full post, but I have 3 random, food-related thoughts to share. Relevant fact is that I was in Chicago this past weekend for a library conference.
Veggie Friendly
I often hear that the Bay Area is vegetarian-friendly, and I might have taken that for granted. I figured that the options were okay, but nothing special. This weekend in Chicago, however, provided a reference point where I realize that it can get tougher. There are options, but they’re certainly fewer and less attractive. At dinner the first night, the options on a full menu were either a salad or a veggie burger. And at the conference center, the only lunch options were cheese deep-dish pizza and salads.
I’m not really down for just eating salads for a meal, so I ended up leaning on the “mostly” side of my diet and springing for meat. See a future post for a better explanation of my policy there.
Poutine
Off the top of my head, I can only name 2 Canadian foods: poutine and nanaimo bars. Oddly, I never had either in the 9 years I lived in Canada. I think I first had a nanaimo bar in junior high for an international foods day (it’s possible that my mom contributed it, too). And yesterday, I had poutine for the first time. At a British pub. In Chicago.
Overall, not bad; would order again. And I did break the veggie line because it was beef gravy. It was probably worth it to honor my culture.
Deep Dish Pizza
I ate deep-dish pizza for 6 days in a row. Although I don’t regret it, my arteries are considerably less excited.
On Wednesday, I went out to dinner with a few friends when Leland, one of my college roommates, came into town. We ended up at Paxti’s, which is the deep-dish pizza place in Palo Alto. Always delicious.
On Thursday, I stayed at Zanbato for dinner, where we again had Paxti’s. Had I realized that we had it on the catering schedule, I probably would pushed for a different dinner the night before, but I have no regrets about 2 consecutive days of Paxti’s.
That night, RJ pointed out that we were going to Chicago the following day, so to keep the streak alive, I ate leftover Paxti’s for lunch on Friday’s. For the streak, I didn’t regret it.
On Saturday, we went to Lou Malnati’s for Chicago-style pizza in the South Loop in Chicago. There was an hour wait to be seated, but to get the true Chicago experience, we didn’t regret the wait. It was good pizza.
At Lou Malnati’s, we ordered a large for 3 of us, so we had leftover. So on Sunday, we carried the leftovers to the conference with us, and I had cold pizza for lunch. I think it’s ridiculous that some believe cold pizza to be better than properly reheated pizza, but still, I didn’t regret it.
Monday was my last day in Chicago, and just for the streak, I got the deep-dish pizza sitting under a heat lamp at the convention center cafe. It wasn’t very good, and I regret having eaten it.