Today was kind of a slow day at work. Many had returned from vacationing, but many were still gone and, due to the holidays, there weren't any major deadlines that needed to be reached five minutes ago. So a good-sized group of us decided to go out to lunch. We went to Mitchell's Original on Clybourn, a pretty basic diner-type restaurant with Greek influence. It serves breakfast and lunch foods whenever you want. It's not great, but it's not at all bad.

By the time I was supposed to place my order (which took a while, though this wasn't a bad thing), I had no idea what I wanted because I had spent the entire time amusing myself by the menu. Here are some highlights:

- The "Just Picked Omelette" -- I really should get myself an omelette tree. I think I might actually eat breakfast if I had one.

- The "Pizza-Cado Omelette", the "Bac-O-Cado Burger", and the "Breast-A-Cado" (a turkey sandwich) -- Not only do I find the need to title anything with Avocado in such a manner hilarious, but I am also highly amused that each incarnation is concatenated in a different way.

- "Don't forget that you can order any sandwich 'Hollywood Style!'" -- So what does this special style of sandwich mean? -- "Hollywood Style sandwiches are served with lettuce, tomato, and mayo." -- ... uh... huh.

- "Glorified Bacon & Eggs" -- this is the actual menu item name, not just what I called it.

- "Fresh, Light, and Beautiful Salads" -- Steve-o said he would please like to know which salads were fresh, which were light, and which were beautiful.

- Tuna Melt Deluxe, made with "our freshest tuna salad" -- ... as opposed to the normal tuna melt with gets the not-so-fresh tuna salad? Which menu item gets the day-old tuna salad?

The power went out for a couple of hours at work today. We played 3 rounds of Murder. It really is a fun game when you've got a large group of willing (because there's nothing better to do) adults playing in a committed manner.

Also today: went out to lunch with a few coworkers with the intention of getting Chinese at some new place we'd never gone to. We missed the turn for the restaurant and realized we were right by the Vienna Beef factory public cafeteria... so we decided to go there instead. Mmmm... Chicago style hot dogs and cheese fries. It was actually the first time in a LOOOOOOONG time that I've had a Chicago style dog that didn't come from Superdawg. It was good, but Superdawg is still way better, in my opinion.

This is something new for me. I've never been a fan of going out to eat alone. It always seemed to be the sort of thing you should do with someone else. However, since moving to Chicago, this has caused quite a dilemma for me -- all my "eating out" friends were still in Los Angeles and there are so many restaurants in the city I want to try.

Jim has never been an adventurous eater, is reluctant to try new places (unless they have lots of beef), and generally would rather just eat at home. My brother was a great dining partner for the few months we were both living in Chicago, but alas, he's now in Baltimore.

Normally I just deal and don't eat out nearly as often as I'd like. In some ways it's a good thing because it certainly does save money. But I gotta tell you... being pregnant and having cravings can drive you to do things you wouldn't normally do.

Hence, dining alone. On Monday I really wanted some Udon, and I've been dying to try this restaurant called the Sunshine Cafe since I moved here. I called everyone I knew in the city who might want to join me for dinner, but there were no takers. So finally I just decided to up and go on my own. Then just this evening, after my disappointing attempt to satisfy a sushi craving at lunch, I decided to go out for a sushi dinner alone. I went to one of the many recommended places that isn't open for lunch -- Sai Cafe.

It was wonderful. Both my solo meals were very tasty and entirely satisfying. Getting sushi was particularly nice for dining solo, because I just sat at the sushi bar and chatted it up with the sushi chefs when they weren't too busy.

Though I'm sure I'll continue to dine alone as my cravings dictate, I'd have to say that I still enjoy eating with company better for two reasons:
1) Eating out is probably the best place for good conversation.
2) The more people you're eating with, the more menu items you can sample.

It's times like these that I REALLY MISS L.A.

My mother and I have been on a quest to find a good place to get sushi for lunch relatively nearby where I work. I've been recommended several places close by, but NONE of them are open for lunch.

We've tried two places so far, both of which were overpriced and just not at all good. Dude, the fish was pre-sliced at BOTH places! What's up with that crap?!

If you've been reading the My MiniMonkey blog, you'll know that I've decided not to entirely give up sushi during my pregnancy, but to stick to good quality places only. So once we saw the pre-sliced fish, I decided to opt for the "nothing raw" version of a sushi lunch today, ordering a Shrimp Tempura roll and a Spider roll. Both were just not good, and small, and expensive. Ug.

So as soon as I got back to work from lunch, I started researching sushi places on LTH Forum. Again, most of the places that come highly recommended aren't open for lunch. There seem to be two potential winners that I'm anxious to try very soon:

Itto Sushi Restaurant -- Don't think I didn't notice that the menu also includes my favorite varitey of udon - Nebayaki Udon. Of course, I've heard the sushi is good... I haven't heard anything about the udon.

Sushi Naniwa -- Owned by the same people as Bob San, which my brother recommends. I hear the menu is practically identical, except the place is slightly less trendy and open for lunch. (woo hoo!)

It's funny how when you have a craving for something and you're disappointed when you try to satisfy that craving... that the craving grows even stronger.

So... my curiosity got the best of me and I ordered Dominos Pizza the other day. And yes, for the extra $3.99 I got the Oreo Dessert Pizza.

The Verdict?... Disgusting. Seriously. I love Oreos. I even loved the short-lived Oreo Granola Bar, but I could not stomach one bite of this crap.

To those who inquired: No, I haven't seen the commercials. Should I consider myself spared?

So I just got a mailer from Dominos Pizza advertizing this new baby.

I'm both horrified and intrigued at the same time.

Anyone tried it?

I usually leave the foodie posts up to my brother over at Skillet Doux, but today I had a rather lovely culinary experience that I wanted to share. The thing that was really so lovely about it was that it was new and unexpected to me.

You may or may not know this, but I used to be a very picky eater. In the last 5-10 years, I've managed to ween myself off this habit. It came down to two things my brother taught me: 1) Even if you HATE a specific ingredient, there is most likely some particular way to prepare it that you would really enjoy. and 2) If you try a food enough times, you'll develop a taste for it.

So for the past 5 years, I'd say, I've been totally open to trying anything... not just once, but multiple times. There are foods that I hated the first time, but found upon later inspection that I loved. I'm proud of my palate-expanding endeavors, and it has led me to many wonderful culinary pleasures.

It is pretty rare, however, that I get a chance to try something that I've NEVER been exposed to. I haven't traveled to many exotic locales and I've lived in large metropolitan cities my whole life, so I've had a chance to sample lots of different cuisines. But until today, my only experiences with Korean food were Korean BBQ (yummy) and some greasy rice-stick things I had once at the Taste of Chicago.

Today I had traditional (I think) Korean Tofu Soup for the first time. Not only was it a new culinary experience, but it was delicious!! I liked it right off the bat - talk about great comfort food! It was exactly what I needed today. It was really more of a porridge than soup, and it came to the table bubbling furiously so that the egg our waitress cracked into the bowl at our table cooked up right away. It came with an array of side dishes, the glass noodles with sesame flavor of which were my favorite, and a pot of rice cooked and burnt into the bottom of a bowl.

I got the image from Google, but that's pretty much exactly what it looked like. Practically the whole thing is soft tofu, with very little loose broth, giving it the porridge texture I mentioned. Basically, all the tofu soups are the same, with different ingredients added in. Despite my friend's discouragement, I got the soup with dumplings. It was very good, but my other friend and co-worker, Yumei, ordered the beef and mushroom tofu soup, which was excellent. I will definitely be getting that next time.

It is such a pleasure to discover food which is entirely new and wholly satisfying. I'm happy to have found a new meal to crave.

So... I make fun of the whole "It can be healthy to eat at McDonalds" thing a lot. It's not because I don't think it's true that some stuff you can now get there IS, in fact, relatively healthy. It's because WHY would someone ever go to McDonalds if they were craving a salad? The concept just seems stupid to me. It's OK that eating at McDonalds 3 times a day will kill you... you're just dumb if you actually think that's a smart thing to do.

It has been pointed out to me, however, that sometimes people go to McDonalds when they really don't want to - just for the people they are with. For example, perhaps a mother would take her kids for some Happy Meals, but not wanting to partake in the greasy goodness that is a Quarter Pounder with Cheese or my favorite, Chicken McNuggets... she might choose to just get a salad. A "Premium" salad, to be exact.

I don't know what about them makes them "premium," but I have a friend from work that says the name itself creeps him out because the only other thing frequenlty labeled as "premium" is gasoline. But it's all too easy to make fun when I haven't tried it. So I decided to try it.

The results??
Not bad. Not a great salad, but you do get a whole sliced chicken breast on it and the ingredients are, in fact, fresh (no semi-wilted lettuce or anything). And really, it's still fast food, so you can't expect much. It's certainly big enough to be a filling meal, and at only $4 I think it's not bad as an alternative for someone who didn't-really-want-fast-food-in-the-first-place-but-got-dragged-there-by-friends/family.

But I MUST share my scary conversation with the guy on the drive-up speaker:

[Me]: I'd like a Caesar Premium Salad, please.
[Guy on Speaker]: What kind of salad dressing would you like on that?
[Me]: ......
[Me]: .........
[Me]: Um... Caesar?
[Guy on Speaker]: Let me check and see if we have that... [seconds pass] You said you wanted Caesar dressing, right?
[Me]: Yes, I'd like Caesar dressing on my Caesar Salad.
[Guy on Speaker]: OK, please pull up to the first window.

... and so it begins. I just placed a rather large, exclusively marzipan order from The German Deli. I seem to have covered all the bases for fine German marzipan brand names...

Niederegger
Schwarzbrot
Schluckwerder
Carstens Luebecker

Yeah... those are the brands :) I picked up a variety of traditional "shapes" as well -- the dark chocolate covered loaf, the plain loaf, chocolate covered hearts, "potato" balls, etc. I'm particularly looking forward to the Niederegger. It seems to be the one put on a pedastal as the finest quality marzipan. It also has a rather low concentration of sugar (more pure almond) which I'm guessing rocks. Schwarzbrot, on the other hand, is supposed to be on the sweeter side. We shall see what I like best!!

I find that when it comes to sweets, I'm far more discriminating than I used to be. Perhaps it's because I don't want to give in to the temptation unless the enjoyment will be supreme. Really, I don't know the reason. But it's clear that I just don't enjoy chocolate and other types of candy all that much anymore unless it's really good.

One sweet confection of particular note is Marzipan. I went through the majority of my life disliking Marzipan. I first had it in Italy when I was young in the shape of a small fruit, as is typical. I found it tasteless and of a displeasing texture, so I dimissed it entirely. Some 10 years later, I'm in a hotel in Paris with my brother and we get a complimentary box of marzipan fruits. I decide to try one and I REALLY like it. It was fantastic! Smooth, consistent texture with a slight give and with just the right amount of sweet to enhance, but not overshadow the nutty flavor. It was quite the eye-opener for me and since that time, I have loved marzipan... when it's good. It's just so often BAD. And I realize that I really haven't had much marzipan in my day, and I probably haven't even had the really good stuff, and that's a shame.

So I'm on a quest (see the title) to find the perfect marzipan. Half an hour ago I didn't know where to start this quest, but a wee bit of web scouring informed me that Germany is probably the place to look. Luckily, this website called The German Deli seems to carry a wide array of the most popular German brands of marzipan. Perhaps I will start there.

If anyone has any recommendations, please do let me know. I'm eager to try.