Some of the most unhealthy food in existence, here for your viewing pleasure

We had a four-day weekend, which the swim team spent on an away trip in Bloomington, IL for a giant swim meet. The meet itself was pretty fun-- PRd on my 50 free but NOT my 100 breast! I don't understand... It seems like the more I think about the stroke itself, the slower I go. I need to just feel the motion in my body and go. We still have a week till Sectionals, and our coach announced that this week we'll really be perfecting our stroke and cooling down... AKA NO MORE SHOES! EVER! Well, at least for the rest of this season! ALSO: Friday I get to shave, finally! Apparently shaving (this is all psychological) your legs right before your most important meet will make you glide more smoothly and quickly in the water.
Anyways, back to the food. The trip itself was only 2 days, but the food we ate... we ate so much crap I could hardly believe it. I did the best I could, and was happy to see that I no longer beat myself up about things beyond my control. I must say though, it was an interesting experience for me, considering my family never goes on road trips, to the suburbs, or to diners. I'm pretty happy I don't live in Bloomington.
Before we left for Bloomington, we stopped for lunch at Jimmy John's. Since roughly half our team is vegetarian, we all ordered the Gourmet Veggie: avocado spread, double provolone, sliced cucumber, alfalfa sprouts, lettuce, and tomato. I ordered mine on whole wheat without mayo, plus hot peppers and a pickle. They wrapped everything individually, including the pickle, which is a huge waste of packaging, but was really cute.
As for the sandwich... I wasn't aware that "double provolone" was code for "Try to compensate for lack of meet by piling as much cheese on the sandwich as you would turkey." There must have been 10 slices of cheese on that thing! I took off roughly 8 of those slices. It isn't even that I don't like cheese, but that much is just unnecessary, and I'm not a provolone fan because it doesn't seem to have any taste.
The peppers were HOT, and I mean really hot. I ate everything, but I was definitely feeling the lack of protein, since I had gotten rid of almost all the cheese. I was still starving by the time we got back on the bus and had to eat the bag of nuts, dried apricots and Kashi crackers that I'd packed (no photo).
We arrived in Bloomington approximately 2 hours later, after a long bus ride of crazy hairstyles (here we see me at my most Asian).


The hotel was pretty nice! Our original plan was to see a movie, but since nobody could agree on anything we decided to hang around until dinner time. For dinner, we went to Avanti's, your typical Italian-American pizza/pasta joint, which was perfect for pre-meet carbo-loading.
I ordered the veggie lasagna with marinara instead of al fredo and a house salad. One of the girls at my table is a really picky eater as well as a vegetarian.
Her: can I have cheese ravioli with no sauce?
Waiter: No sauce? Are you sure?
Her: yes...
Him: Not even on the side on a little plate?
Her: No, I really hate sauce.
Him: Okay. Do you want salad or soup?
Her: salad.
Him: what kind of dressing.
Her: None, please.
Check out those lonesome ravioli with only the white bread to keep them company.
The lasagna was good in that airplane food kind of way. It was extremely rich and creamy on the inside, but once again, didn't fill me up! I ended up having to eat some of the pasta that had come with my (gluten-free) friend's chicken tenders. I don't know what was wrong with me that day, but it seemed like I just had to keep eating.
Even worse, after dinner we went to DQ! DQ as in Dairy Queen... when was the last time I even went there? I think it was back when I lived in China when I was 7 and there was a DQ at my favorite ice skating rink... I remembered getting the vanilla soft-serve dipped in chocolate... delicious. That was what I had planned on getting (DAIRY OVERDOSE THAT DAY) until I saw the giant sign advertising their PUMPKIN PIE BLIZZARD. The second I saw the word "pumpkin" I knew I was done for. I had to order one, despite how dense people said blizzards were (believe it or not, I had never had one before!). But if it makes you any happier, I ordered it with no whipped cream. The "small" was approximately a pint of soft, pumpkiny-goodness, tasting of nutmeg embedded with crunchy pieces of graham cracker crust. I asked Page to split it with me, but she loved it so much she had to get her own. I regret none of it. It was so extremely delicious-- granted, I didn't eat all of it-- I shared it with various people and then ate the rest.
UGH, check it out: DQ uses LIQUID PEANUT BUTTER... whatever that is.
THE NEXT DAY... Breakfast at Bob Evans, your classic greasy-spoon breakfast joint. I was probably the only one who was excited to go to a breakfast place with huge portions. Not many people are breakfast people. At first, I thought I should just get oats, but I realized how stupid that was, since I have them every day. Even though I knew it would be a huge amount of food, I ordered the multigrain hotcakes with apple topping and a fruit cup. Is it true that people from the city talk more softly in restaurants than suburbanites? I don't see why that would be the case, but since Page said so and the waitress couldn't seem to be able to hear me, maybe it's true.
Page was feeling really sick and ended up having to go home and not swim! She ordered grits and that was it.
The other people at my table ordered blueberry crepes (CRAYPS, according to our waitress) and French toast. People at other tables were even more decadent, ordering hot chocolate, cinnamon buns, sausages, biscuits, eggs, gravy, you name it.
As for my fruit dish, it contained approximately 4 pieces of fruit. I relished it.
The hot cakes... well, I completely regret that apple topping. It was so disgusting that I couldn't stop eating it, if it makes any sense. It was basically corn starch, cinnamon, and a few pieces of apple dispersed throughout the gluey mess. when I poked it with my fork, it WRINKLED!
The pancakes were good, and definitely whole grain, which I suppose made me a bit happy. I tried to eat them slowly, since there were three pancakes the size of a trash can lid. I ended up eating 2 OF THEM. YES, 2. And while I didn't even feel too full, I felt incredibly nauseous. So did the entire swim team. All of us were moaning in the car on the way to the pool, since we had to warm up directly afterwards and all of us stumbled to the bathroom and felt terrible. We felt okay eventually but wow. Our coach said we should just "relish the fatness after eating a Bob Evans meal."
The meet was huge (8 schools), so it was about 4 or 5 hours. Check out the awesome signs we made for our school!
My sign:
Also:

We didn't eat lunch, and while none of us thought we would ever be able to eat again, of course we were hungry when it was over. We went to STEAK N' SHAKE. I wanted to go just to say I had been inside one. Being there was pretty funny... I knew I had to have some kind of shake, but I wasn't up for a real milkshake, so I ordered a strawberry-banana yogurt one instead (PS, I know that none of these things are actually healthy, but I was searching for a protein source and I scooped off all the whipped cream), a chicken salad without the chicken, and a side of cottage cheese. The cottage cheese, which arrived first, was topped with a canned pineapple ring and made us all laugh. My coach said, "did you honestly order cottage cheese?" It made me think of back when the vegetarianism movement was a novelty and all restaurants could serve their vegetarian patrons was cottage cheese and pineapple.
The salad was fine: it had apples, grapes, iceberg lettuce, sugary walnuts and a raspberry vinaigrette.
The shake was great, and definitely not lowfat, since it was so rich I would have thought it was a milkshake if I hadn't known.
Actually, that's not true. When I sampled the various milkshakes that people had ordered (vanilla-mocha, cookies and cream, even turtle), I could taste the difference.

I know you're probably thinking, who is this person? Since when does Lida eat food like this, or have tons of nibbles of other peoples' food? But we had just had a meet, we were all together and feeling like a team, and this was no time to be a health freak loser. But as you can see, I did what I could in the given situation.
By the time we got home it was around 8, and while I wasn't really that hungry, my mom had roasted brussel sprouts, and a medley of onions and root vegetables (sweet potatoes, pumpkin, turnips, and celery root). That was all I wanted to fulfill my vegetable requirements for the day. I had a big plate of vegetables and I relished it with every fiber (pardon the pun) of my being. I couldn't wait until the next day when things would be back to normal.

Sepia

Last night was my dad's birthday and we went to Sepia, another hip restaurant in the West Loop. Seriously, all the good restaurants are there: I think it's something about the contrast of the starkness of the meatpacking district to the comfort and upscale quality of the restaurants that seem almost like oases (is that the plural?).
Some great restaurants in the area: Avec, Blackbird, Meiji, Moto, Otom (haven't been there), Follia (my parents have), Sushi Wabi, De Cero. The list goes on.
How to define the cuisine at Sepia? Of course, it's categorized as "Contemporary American," but I hate that term with a burning passion. I would say that it's a lot like the food at Avec: both classic and modern, rustic but with interesting combinations.
The food was great, although very protein-focused. I was at least glad that I ate fish, and even then it turned out to be a little complicated to negotiate my way out of bacon grease, etc. It will certainly make things easier when I start eating meat again.
My Aunt Claire came up from Madison, and since she didn't do anything for her birthday, which was in October, we decided to have a joint birthday dinner.
One of the exciting aspects of Sepia is the location: an old print shop. You could tell that they had tried to keep its vestiges in all their glory: an old accordian camera, a rough-cut wooden door with a brass knocker.
Speaking of cool locations, Spring is located in an old bath house, and it's another restaurant I've been meaning to visit.
The inside was dark and noisy, with a definite modern-retro feel: there were chandeliers surrounded by glass and in the corner, a light made of a thin mesh design of metal, a bit like the Olympic Bird's Nest.
Our waitress was incredible, and unlike most waitresses, who look like they never eat their restaurants' food, she looked like she had enjoyed every dish on the menu, and she could describe each distinctly.
To start with, my dad ordered one of the craziest cocktails ever, and which my mom pronounced the best she had ever had. My tastebuds probably aren't evolved enough when it comes to alcohol, but it was so strong that I could mainly taste only bourbon. It was called the Chipotle Old-Fashioned: smoked chipotle pepper-infused ridgemont reserve 1792 bourbon, triple chocolate and balsamic vinegar bitters, muddled orange and cherry.
The chocolate was so subtle that you could barely tell it was there, but definitely added another dimension to the aftertaste. The bourbon was firy enough, but the chipotle added extra heat.
We also ordered red wine, which I had a few sips of, but decided for me, wasn't really worth all those extra calories.
To start, my dad, against my will, ordered STEAK TARTARE. It's not even because I don't eat meat that it grosses me out... the idea just seems so unsanitary, and with the addition of the raw egg, just too much. Aunt Claire, who doesn't eat red meat, and I decided we needed to construct a brick wall between us and his plate.
Originally, I was going to order the charred baby octopus with roasted tomato sauce and baguette, but also didn't want to order too much food. Aunt Claire ended up ordering it and said she would share. Although it was maybe a little similar to the food I eat at home, thanks to my squash obsession, I ordered the market squash with serrano ham (minus the ham), arugula and walnuts. The squash was red kuri squash, which I had seen at the Farmer's Market that morning and been excited to try. It had been seared in a little maple syrup, and the whole dish was light and fresh, and definitely a good choice for a starter, since the rest of the food we ordered turned out to be quite heavy. There was something about the dressing the made the salad great, although now that I look back, it seemed to be just a simple vinaigrette with the addition of some secret ingredient.
The octopus was INCREDIBLE! I would go as far as to say that it was the dish of the night. I almost regretted not having ordered it, but once again, I didn't want too much food. I had never had octopus with tomato sauce before, and the bitterness of the burned octopus and the sweet tomatoes paired perfectly. The presentation was also breath-taking: a stack of tiny tentacles and crostini arranged on a pool of sauce. Octopus has an incredible chewy texture and smoky flavor that really does remind me of meat.
My mom ordered the sea scallops with pork belly, knob onions, and brussel sprouts... at first I thought it was strange, since we eat a lot of scallops at home, but she wanted to try the pork belly and brussel sprouts.
Of course, the portion turned out to be two humungous scallops, which looked great.
Between the appetizers and mains, we realized that they had forgotten to bring us bread and asked for some. The bread turned out to be some of the best multi-grain bread I had ever had: warm from the oven, with a crispy crust and chewy inside. I was good and only had two bites.


The service was pretty fast! They were really good at getting everything on to the table at the same time.
On to mains: My dad, being extremely carnivorous when not cooking for a vegetarian, ordered pork chop with arugula and apple.
My mom almost ordered fish, but my dad convinced her that we don't eat much meat at home, so she ordered braised veal short ribs with mint noodles and truffle butter, which sounded like one of the heaviest, most decadent items on the menu. She didn't even end up eating a quarter of it when she found out how big the portions were. She said the noodles were great, but that the mint flavor didn't come through.
Aunt Claire doesn't eat red meat, like I said, but she was so tempted by the roasted cod, spaghetti squash, and wild boar sausage with paprika sauce that she decided to go for it. Truth be told, that was the entree that appealed most to me too, and that's what I'm looking forward to about not having such strict restrictions on myself: when there's something I really want on a special occasion, I'm going to go for it.
I was disappointed at first, because the dish I wanted, skate wing with braised greens, carrots, and grape-pine nut sauce, had bacon fat in the greens. I didn't want the other fish options, so I asked if the could sub the greens for another vegetable, and they ended up giving me sauteed spinach, which was nice.
Once again, huge portions (probably only ate half of the fish). My favorite part were the carrots, which were tiny and obviously locally-grown: you could tell that they were young enough that their skins didn't even need to be peeled off. The addition of grapes was interesting, but I would have preferred if the pine nuts and grapes had been cooked and blended a bit into a sauce, rather than I got, which were halved basically raw grapes on top of the fish. The idea was a good one, though, and the skate wing was perfectly cooked.
For extreme decadence, they also ordered a side of duck-fat fried potatoes. Wow.
Because they had had wine, bread, potatoes, and heavier appetizers/ main courses than me, I was really the only one interested in dessert. I convinced them to at least get one to share for the table. The dessert of the night was an insane chocolate cake with peanut butter mousse the size of a dictionary, that the surrounding tables were all ordering... TOO MUCH FOR US!
The dessert we ordered turned out to be the perfect portion: sweet potato spice cake bread pudding and caramel thyme ice cream.

See what I mean about heavy dishes? The portion wasn't outrageous like that cake, but served the four of us perfectly. The sweet potato flavor didn't come through too well, but there were small chunks of sweet potato buried in the spice cake, which was out of this world. It was like extremely decadent French toast, and the ice cream was also great, although I couldn't taste the thyme. At these restaurants, it's all about the descriptions.
I can't decide which restaurant out Blackbird, North Pond, and Sepia is the best. However, Grandma, if you're reading this, Sepia is the place to bring you-- one of the dishes on the menu was amish chicken with acorn squash and serrano ham.

Neighborhood eats: Park 52

Hyde Park finally has a real restaurant! Park 52 has been opened by the same people who own Gioco, Marche, and Opera!
It's located on Harper court, right by Calypso Cafe and Dixie Kitchen. My mom had already been there and told me that it was pretty expensive, but with huge portions.
Basically what it was was a slightly more upscale restaurant, but still a neighborhood place, and adjusted to fit Hyde Park clients... that is, the food was slightly more "homestyle." My dad claims that a lot of it was more expensive Calypso food, but I don't really think so.
But first of all, mom, the portions were NOT that big. I had to order additional sides, and I still didn't feel full (granted, I came from swim practice).
The atmosphere was almost kitchy, like something out of Cabaret. However, what prevented it from being tacky was the TVs playing the presidential debate in the corner. It still felt like Hyde Park: the waitresses were equally nice and accommodating, and there was no wait for food.
We both ordered salads (me house, him Caesar), and they were definitely more restaurant-worthy than the usual wilted iceberg with gross tomato and raw onion.
I ordered the BBQ salmon over garlic spinach, which was perfectly cooked. The BBQ was more sweet than spicy, but an interesting way of serving salmon. The spinach was almost exactly like my dad's.
On the side, I ordered mashed sweet potatoes, which I feared would be too sugary and buttery, but they seemed to be just sweet potatoes with nothing added.
My dad ordered ribs, although the waitress misunderstood him and brought him a burger first. Still, since the ribs had been slow-cooked, she replaced the dish within seconds. His was served over mashed potatoes. The structure of the dishes was very formulaic and not especially interesting, but everything tasted great and was cooked perfectly. My dad didn't think he had ordered the right dish, although his ribs were good. He felt that he could have ordered them at a place like Calypso and ordered something a little more upscale here.
Despite everything we ordered, I was still hungry! We decided to order dessert. Everything seemed good, but the pineapple upside down cake jumped out at me-- I've been craving one so badly, since my dad and I used to get them at Calypso.
The verdict? like Calypso's, although in miniature, served with tasty sides, and missing its signature rum sauce. In general, Calypso's cake was probably better, but what I loved about Park 52's was its icy pineapple sorbet and a warm pineapple creme anglaise. It was nice and small, so my dad and I could share it without it being too much.
Will Hyde Park continue to change? I hope so. I hope eventually more and more places like this will continue to pop up. Maybe it wasn't the best meal I've ever had, but I would definitely come back and support park 52 and keep it in business. :)