Friday, July 26, 2013

The Pump Room - Restaurant Review


Dining date:  July 20th, 2013
Website:  http://www.pumproom.com/

A quintessential Chicago restaurant, the Pump Room is a destination everyone in Chicago should visit at least once.  Established in 1938, the restaurant quickly became a celebrity hot spot.  The restaurant was recently re-opened (2011) and has now become more approachable.

The restaurant itself is very open and the lighting is some of the best I have seen.  The service was excellent and I found our waiter to be attentive and very knowledgeable about the food.  I also appreciated his recommendations, which I am sure he delivered because we informed him early on that this was our first time at the restaurant.  The true hallmark of a great waiter is someone who listens to his guests, and reacts accordingly.  In our case, we were newbies to the restaurant that needed some guidance, and he was quick to offer suggestions without being overly pushy.

The food itself is comparable to some of the best restaurants in the city.  Great care is put in appropriate presentation of all the dishes.  Any of the dishes when photographed could grace the cover of a food magazine.  Some of the culinary highlights include:

Watermelon salad with goat cheese -- A light, refreshing starter.  The watermelon and goat cheese combo bring together the perfect ingredients to get the taste buds firing.

Black truffle, fontina cheese, frisee, and chives -- Whole wheat flat bread with a generous helping of black truffles.  Would highly recommend if you are a fan of black truffle.

Fried chicken -- Both white and dark meat chicken fried perfectly.

Dessert -- The star of the evening.  I don't recall the exact name of the dish, but it was the perfect ending to a great dinner.  Essentially an elegant lava cake with ice cream.  The ratios of chocolate to cake to ice cream were perfect and expertly made.



Overall, I would highly recommend this restaurant for a special event.  This restaurant is perfect for birthdays, anniversary's and those days when you just want to dress up and go to a great restaurant.


Sunday, July 21, 2013

Next Vegan - Restaurant Review



Dining date:    July 7, 2013

Grant Achatz's brain child Next's 8th menu focuses on a purely vegan cuisine.  This was my first visit to Next as my predilection towards vegetarianism precludes me from enjoying their other Prix Fixe menus.

The ambiance and atmosphere of Next is equivalent to the classiest restaurants in the world, toned down just enough to not make it pretentious.  I found the service to be attentive, however, the ever revolving door of waiters makes it difficult to single anyone out for exceptional service.  At times, I also found the servers to be robotic, a bit too scripted in their presentation and explanation of the culinary delights being presented.  Overall, the service was supportive of the culinary star, it neither detracted or added much to the experience.

Now on to the food.  The dishes keep coming out at a consistent pace, with just enough of a break between courses for your palate to refresh.  I do not re-call all of dishes, but that is part of the point.  You are not expected to recall all the notes played in a symphony, but the experience stays with you none the less.  Certain melodies stay with you, and in Next's case, a few dishes stayed with me, lingering in my memory as I write this.  There were some highs and lows, but overall Next excelled and truly showed the possible range and extent of culinary delights possible with a purely vegan tool set.  

I also requested the non-alcoholic beverage pairing for my culinary tour, a pairing I would recommend over wine to anyone partaking in this tour.  The beverage pairing was excellent and inspired as well.  Each drink paired perfectly with the dish, and elevated the flavors perfectly.  In certain instances I found the beverage pairing to be the star of the dish.

After much thought, I decided to keep this review spoiler free.  I believe previewing pictures of the tour before hand would detract from the experience, akin to knowing the ending of a movie before the opening credits.    I think it will suffice to say that the experience is well worth the price of admission and I would highly recommend this menu, and this restaurant, to anyone who likes to experience food crafted at the highest level.


Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Emperor of all Maladies -- Book Review




The Emperor of all Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Completed:  July 19th, 2013
Delivery:  Utilized eBook as well as audit book from Audible.com

The Emperor of all Maladies is an excellent biography of cancer, with a very humane personal touch.  As an oncologist, Siddhartha Mukherjee constantly draws upon his own personnel experiences with the disease and seamlessly interweaves his accounts into the biography.

The personal stories interlaced throughout the narrative make this book about a dark disease much more approachable.  His biography begins as far back as 1600 BC  with the first evidence of the disease.  Chapter by chapter he goes down the history of the disease and its current struggle to find a cure.  He further discusses the trials and tribulations of many physicians and scientist as they struggled to gain acceptance of their theories behind cause and cure.  Especially enlightening was his discussion on the extent of gene mutation that ultimately leads to uncontrolled proliferation of cells leading to malignant tumors and cancer.  Mr. Mukherjee certainly doesn't shy away from the science, but his narrative is never dry or overly pontifical.

I would highly recommend this book to everyone, especially if you or a loved one are battling this disease.  It will shed some light on your journey and help you realize that you are not alone in your struggle.

http://www.amazon.com/Emperor-All-Maladies-ebook/dp/B003UYUP58/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374103373&sr=8-1&keywords=emperor+of+all+maladies