Belly Shack, Belly Taqueria, Half Acre Beer Dinner

I really like to go to special dinners hosted by various restaurants, not only because it let's the restaurant's kitchens the chance to explore and try different things which allows the diners to get to try things that may not be on the regular menu.  At these dinners diners also frequently get to try new beers and wines that may not yet be available to the public.  The thing I like about these special dinners though, is that frequently, industry people come to them, and it gives me the chance to meet some of the people that work behind the scenes and learn about things that might be in the works elsewhere.  I attended a beer dinner at Belly Shack for Half Acre Brewery recently called Belly Taqueria, which allowed the restaurant, which serves a fast food fusion of Latin and Asian cuisine, a chance to explore more of their Mexican side.  I really like Belly Shack and have been there many times.  I have even been filmed there (a quick shot of me eating showing the atmosphere of the place) when Chicago's Best was filming there for there Best Balls episode.  I am not sure how it has managed to be written up by me in normal circumstances.  The place is kind of small and has an Urban/Industrial Cool kind of look to it.  The place has cement floors and steel furniture with fake graffiti on the interior walls.  The front of the space is glass and the windows extend about halfway along the two adjoining sides.  There are four tops tables on either side of the room and a large communal table that will seat about 12 in the center of the room.  The counter for ordering is at the back of the room.  Under normal circumstances, people will place their orders at the counter, be given a numbered piece of angleiron, and find a place to sit.  The food is brought out as it's made.   For this visit, as there was a set menu, I didn't have to worry about ordering and I was seated at the communal table.  The beers we would be drinking were displayed at the front of the communal table actually next to where I was sitting.  We started things off with Half Acre's Pony Lager which was pretty good.  I am generally not a fan of lagers, because many have too little flavor for me. The Pony is modeled after a German Pilsener (as opposed to an American Pilsener like Miller high Life, PBR, or Budweiser) and was pretty flavorful.  After enjoying our first beer for a few minutes, our first course arrived.  It was a Beef Tendon Pozole with Pho Broth, Hominy, and Pork.  Neither Pho or Pozole are things that are served at Belly Shack, but it the combination falls right in line with what they normally serve.  The soup was warm, spicy, and very flavorful with a lot of meat and hominy to chew on.  It was very good and a nice start to the dinner. 

While the first course was served individually, the next several courses were served family style.  They were serving a lot of food, so I imagine that it made it easier for service.  The next course was the salad, which was actually sort of two salads in one. On one side was Chayote which is like a Mexican Summer Squash, and on the other side was Arugula.  A Poblano Peanut Dressing was served over both sides, although only the arugula seemed to have sliced peanuts.  Crispy Rice Noodles topped everything and provided a nice crunch.  It was fresh and flavorful with a little spice and lots of textures.

The next course was brought out on a large platter, but could actually be eaten easily without dividing anything up.  It was a sope, kind of like a thick tortilla with a rim.  It was topped with Braised Pork, Pineapple, Pea Shoots, and Kimchi.  Everything about this was good and it was one of my favorite dishes.  The sope was crispy and flavorful, the pork was tender, and the pineapple provided some sweetness.  The kimchi was both sour and spicy and the pea shoots provided a fresh vegetal flavor.

For our next course, we were served tacos that we had to build ourselves.  We were given fresh soft, corn tortillas, and on two separate plates we were given Nopales and Bean Curd on one plate and Oranges and Blood Oranges on another with Queso Fresco.  I built my tacos with everything, and while I don't regularly eat vegetarian tacos, I am not averse to having vegetarian food (especially since there was already a lot of meat with the meal), and the tacos were very fresh, and flavorful.

After all of this, we still hadn't gotten to the main course, this came next with a main course and two sides.  We were served some Roasted Chicken in Green Curry Mole Sauce with Dirty Rice, and Refried Lentils for sides.  This felt very Mexican to me despite the curry and the refried lentils instead of pinto beans.  The Asian ingredients added to the flavor of the dish(es), but it was so close to something that you would find in a Mexican household that I totally would have built this into a taco if there had been any tortillas left.

At this point, I was pretty full and I would have been happy ending things here, but the only thing left was dessert, and dessert was a must have.  We started out with Horchata, the sweetened rice milk flavored with cinnamon that is a favorite of mine.  I would have been fine with this, but it was paired with Churros with Soft-Serve Vanilla Ice Cream and Horchata Caramel.  They both went together very well and it was a great way to finish dinner.

I like both Belly Shack and Half Acre Brewery and will continue partaking in both.  The dinner was great and the food and drink were paired well, but the service and the company I had at the table was very good as well, and I predict that this will go down as one of my favorite dinners of the year.  

Coobah

If I just want Cuban food, I can go to any number of restaurants in my neighborhood.  Many of these restaurants are also very good but I also like to see what else is out there and how different restaurants compare.  I went to Coobah recently which despite the name, is not specifically a Cuban restaurant.  While it does serve some Cuban-style food, it also does general Caribbean, Brazilian, and surprisingly, Filipino.  Located in Lakeview on the outskirts of Wrigleyville, I expected something pretty casual and it is in a manner of speaking.  It has a nice patio where you can relax in the sun.  The inside of the restaurant is done in weathered wood which did look nice but I was interested in the patio so that is where I sat.  The wait staff was friendly and pretty easy going, and the dress of most patrons there was pretty casual, but the presentation of the food was very definitely fine dining.  For my appetizer, I ordered seared scallops which came with fried plantains, fried yuca, guacamole, balsamic vinegar, and I think, some honey.  The presentation was very nice and it tasted really good.  The scallop had a nice sear and the yuca was crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside.  The sweetness of the plantains went well with the sweetness of the scallops.  Between the taste and presentation, it was a nice start.

My next piece of food art was called Pork Bicol.  What it was was Pork Tenderloin and Crispy Pork Belly, a Coconut Arancini (a fried coconut risotto ball), Pineapple-Bacon Chutney, Wilted Arugula, and Adobo Glaze.  The tenderloin and pork belly were cut in about equal size pieces but it was pretty easy to tell them apart by appearance.  The pork belly was rectangular and you could see the meat and fat layering  as you would in bacon.  While it was crispy, it was crispy to the point of being pretty dry.  This was probably the only fault in the dish.  The pineapple-bacon chutney was very good, the coconut arancini sounded a little weird but it was really good.  The outside was crisp, the risotto interior was creamy, and the coconut was sweet.  The arugula had a nice flavor to it and the adobo glaze was spread over everything and added a nice spice.

I then came to dessert.  I will admit there are a few things on a restaurant menu that I have a bias for and if I see them on a menu, I will be sure to order them.  One of these things is a cheesecake and the cheesecake on the menu sounded especially good so that is what I ordered.  When it came out, I knew that I had chosen correctly.  What I had was a Dulce de Leche Cheesecake with Salted Caramel, Filipino Sea Salt, and a Sliced Strawberry.  The cheesecake was dense and covered with dulce de leche and the flatbread that was stuck into the cake was light, crispy, and light layer of flaky salt.  It was all very good and it was gone quickly.

I liked my meal here even if there was a little bit of a juxtaposition between the look of the food and the feel of the restaurant.  Even with the very nice look of the food, this is a casual restaurant and it was fun.  If I want a nice casual restaurant with a Latin flavor, I know where I can go.

Vermilion

There is no comparison between the food a restaurant/chef serves at a benefit or the Taste of Chicago and the food that is actually served in the restaurant. I had tried the food of Vermilion outside of the restaurant and had been positively underwhelmed. Vermilion serves a Latin-Indian fusion and even before going into it the first time, I was a bit skeptical because the only thing that I could think of that Latin cuisine had in common with Indian food is that they both could be pretty spicy and they both use a lot of cilantro. If you stretch things, you could argue that naan is similar to a tortilla. I was willing to try it again because Maneet Chauhan, the executive chef is very talented and has competed on Iron Chef America, The Next Iron Chef, and Chopped. The meal that I went to Vermilion for was a combination of those experiences so I gave her/them the benefit of the doubt. The meal was a ten course (or five because the courses were served in pairs). The first three plates were set as was the dessert. The 4th plate needs explanation which I will do when I get there. I ordered my drink, which they called a mango mint mojito. What it actually was was a caipirinha which is similar to a mojito, but is Brazilian and uses cachaça instead of rum.

The first course eliminated any trepidation I had about going there. As I said the courses were served in pairs. The first two courses were essentially vegetable dishes. On the left was a roll of jicama stuffed with orange on which was placed a Spanish Boquerone which is an olive marinated anchovy. On the right was what was called a crab-watermelon steak with a basil citrus vinaigrette. What it was was a block of watermelon on which was topped crab chunks with a basil citrus vinaigrette. It was also sitting on a bit of gazpacho. The jicama and anchovy weren't bad but the watermelon and crab were great. I wouldn't have thought that watermelon, crab, and gazpacho would have gone together but they worked incredibly well together. I finished the plate which they took away and we ran into a slight hiccup. There was a pause of about 10 minutes between the time that they took the plate away and the time they brought the next plate so I did a little looking around the restaurant.
Vermilion is a shade of red and the restaurant was trimmed in a bright red with the main colors being black and white. The ceilings are high and the tables were far enough apart to actually move around them. The bar is on one side of the restaurant opposite the main entrance toward the front of the restaurant. The place was pretty busy so it was a bit loud. While there was music playing in the background, I couldn't really hear it because of conversation noise from where I was sitting in the front. There was also an outdoor seating area that because of the heat of the day, wasn't really being used. After waiting for a while, my second plate showed up and it also looked pretty good. On the left was a fish taco using papadum and set on a curried yogurt sauce. I have to say that I was unaware of what papadum was and had to look it up but I have to say that it worked very well as a replacement for a corn tortilla and the curried yogurt sauce went well with it. On the right side, was what was called a Naan Tandoor Sandwich. What it was was a piece of naan placed on some mint sauce. On top of the naan was a slice of cucumber on top of which was a pile of pulled tandoor chicken. This was also a joy to taste.

The third plate was the fail of the dinner. While neither course was bad as such, they didn't compare to the rest of the dinner. On the left was what was called Potato 3 Ways and while I could figure out two ways, I am not sure what the third way was. What it was was a ravioli made of potato filled with goat cheese and topped with a sweet potato sauce. It wasn't bad and the sweet potato sauce was pretty good but the ravioli was made from what felt like raw potatoes. While it didn't taste bad, ravioli isn't supposed to crunch. The course on the right side reminded me of the tastings I had had in other places. It was called a kabab dog and was essentially a skinless chicken sausage with bacon and feta cheese on a skewer. While it wasn't bad, it was positively underwhelming. The bacon and sausage were very understated and the major flavor was roasted chicken. The chicken was pretty good but the course as a whole was pretty boring.

The fourth plating was the mystery basket and was essentially the diner's choice. The diner was given a table divided into proteins, spices, and sides and the diner was to choose two from each section. There were about ten choices in each section with a pretty good variety and while it was possible to possibly come up with some odd combinations, I think most diners wouldn't want to risk their meal. While the diner makes the choices, he really has no idea how the chef is going to combine them. My choices? I chose New York Strip and scallops for my proteins, chipotle and tomatillos for my spices, and mango rice and sweet potatoes for my sides. The plating that came out was the two spiced proteins and the two sides. I got mango rice, scallops topped with blue corn tortilla chips and tomatillo sauce and chipotle spiced strip steak and really spicy sweet poptatoes. The mango rice tasted good but their really wasn't anything done with it. The scallops were very tender and went well with the chips and tomatillo sauce, the strip steak was medium well which is a little more done than I generally like but it was a very good piece of meat which was spiced well and the sweet potatoes which really surprised me. The initial taste was of a boiled sweet potato that tasted pretty good but the pepper hit quickly and did require a drink to clear my mouth. This was a fun plating and while the results weren't exceptionally exotic, they were done very well.After all of this came the dessert courses which, while they were both very good, one rose well above the other (in my opinion). I was presented with avocado beignets with a wild berry reduction sauce. When I saw this on the menu I wasn't sure how this was going to work. I wasn't worried about the wild berry reduction or a beignet with the sauce. My question was how an avocado was going to work as a beignet. It worked very well and this was one of my favorite courses of the dinner. The other dessert was a chocolate coffee doughnut frittata. It was a chocolate and coffee flavored frittata topped with powdered sugar. It was served with whipped creme and a slightly sweet chocolate mole sauce. It also was very good but as I said, I liked the beignets better.

Vermilion has changed my mind. The service was fantastic even with the hiccup between the first and second plate and the Latin and Indian flavors can go together well. While this is not a new favorite, it is very good and I would have no problem recommending it to others.