First stop: Magnolia Bakery!!! for banana pudding and a rich chocolate cupcake.
The banana pudding recipe is to-die-for! The first time I had Magnolia Bakery's banana pudding I was on vacation with my family in New York. Low and behold tucked into the small corner bakery at Rockefeller Plaza is the glorious-ness that is, banana pudding. That Christmas a Magnolia Bakery cookbook turned up under the tree just for me!!! (Thanks mom Santa!) It takes over 24 hours to make, so needless to say, the giant bowl of banana pudding is only made for special occasions, about once a year.
Next stop, a search for food with more substance....This took up through Millennium Park, past the poor man's yacht club (still too rich for me), and along the lakefront to Navy Pier. By this point, we weren't hungry. It was decided that given Adam's fear of heights we'd go on the Ferris wheel!!
 |
| I'm having a bad hair day (sorry about the finger in the foreground) |
 |
 |
.It was a remarkable view of the city, and over looking the water just tempted us enough that we decided it was worth it to take a water taxi over to the Shedd Aquarium just for the chance to get out on the water. Don't worry, I snapped some great city views there too. Despite the turbulence of the waves - the lake was quite choppy, I think I had some great shots of the shoreline. The funniest part of the whole taxi/boat ride (that lasted about 10-15 minutes) was the employee on the boat who assists the captain with docking the boat and help you off is strapped in to one of those U shaped life preservers you wear around your neck. While the rest of us are safe with them just at our feet....Thankfully water doesn't startle me, and I'm fairly confident I could tred water or swim if necessary.
After the boat ride, we were torn with the same predicament we always find ourselves in....It's 4:00 pm, do we go to dinner with those maybe a bit older than us or do we think "I'm-so-hungry" for the next 2 - 3 hours for a more socially acceptable dinner time? We decided shopping was out of the question (I'm on a budget), it would take 6 - 7 hours for us to make our way through one of the museums, and we definitely had a cupcake and pudding for lunch. We realized.....It was time to eat!!!
Just north of State and Wacker we reached the Public House - similar to Muddy Pig in Saint Paul, MN - really great food and an AWESOME selection of micro-brews on tap! I liked the Goose Island Marisol while Adam couldn't resist the Dogfish Head on tap (which is not distributed in Minnesota). We ordered up french fries (standard.....we're on vacation so it's-all-bets-off on eating healthy) which same our choice of a trio of sauces --- we choose: cheddar ale (we're from Wisconsin), smoked jalapeño aioli, and carolina bbq. I MUST recreate the smoked jalapeño aioli....my personal favorite! I'm sure I can find a start from an informative food blog or two! We also ordered a Mediterranean grilled flat bread. Public House Menu -- It's the next pizza I'm making once it cools down enough to turn on the oven again so September/October. I'll keep you posted.
We enjoyed the beer selection so much we spent the evening at Public House before the leisurely walk back to our hotel. We did manage to stop at Walgreen's to pick up a bottle of wine to finish off the night ....It's so nice to know the convenience of liquor is readily available in most all places outside of Minnesota (that's certainly the opinion of the German/Milwaukee native in me).
This is a longer than usual blog post, so look forward to day TWO of Chicago later this week!
No comments:
Post a Comment