Exhausted and hungry pays off for Ysha
You know I love to chronicle my food adventures when I am out of town. For one thing, it makes Mimi drool and call me bad names. *giggle* Plus, I’m all alone and therefore must turn to LJ for company.
Today didn’t seem that it was going to be a good day. I had a mild headache start in at about midnight saturday. As of this morning, it was still hanging with me. That didn’t bode well for the first day of a PeopleSoft class. I crammed a couple of Aleve down my throat and went on. Oracle University is pretty much catty-corner across the river from here, so it was a nice short walk.
There’s a big drawback to aleve, it makes me sleepy. However, it’s the only thing that seems to work on my headaches, so I still take it. Or maybe the headaches just make me sleepy? Doesn’t matter, it all goes together. By lunchtime, I thought I was going to have to come back to the hotel and forget the afternoon class. However, I’d missed breakfast and was super hungry, so I thought I’d better go get lunch.
I have the same silly flighty instructor for this class that I had for my last class in Atlanta. She’s fun. She listed off several places nearby where we could get lunch and I headed off to find some. I decided to just solo it and not try to find anyone from class to have lunch with, I didn’t feel very social. Amy had mentioned a Dim Sum place nearby, but she’d also mentioned 42 other places right after that, so I was a bit confused. I set off to sort of looking for the dim sum and … oh, hey, sushi! That would be lovely. A little sushi/grill right down on the river walk – Diosa. I had the veggie spring rolls and a spicy ebi roll(shrimp). The spring rolls were absolutely terrific and were served on some pile of green stuff. It was about the consistency of slightly al dente glass noodles, yet was vibrant green. I asked my server what it was – seaweed salad. TERRIFIC!
I headed back to class, figuring I could tough it out and if I couldn’t then “home” was a block away. As soon as class was over, I hightailed it back here and FELL RIGHT OUT! I slept for the next four hours and when I awoke, I seriously considered just going back to sleep. However, I figured that if I didn’t get some dinner, I’d wake up at midnight and absolutely ravage the minibar. I’ve done enough damage to that thing without going all insane! Honestly though, I’m better off with $5 peanuts than when I stay in a residence inn and try to stock enough snacks to suit my constantly changing desires.
I’m hungry, I’m lazy and there’s a restaurant downstairs. So, guess what’s for dinner? I popped down to check out the South Water Kitchen. Regardless of what the booking agent on the phone said when I reserved my room, there was no need for a reservation there. At least not at 8:30 on a monday night. I was seated immediately.
I opted for the halibut and a glass of Edward Sellers Cognito. I had no idea what to expect with the wine, it was one of their featured summer selections, but I liked it quite a bit. This is something that I love about Chicago – I walk everywhere so I can always have a glass of wine with dinner! The halibut was splendid, seared with an herbed butter on top. It was served with teeny thin green beans and twice baked fingerlings. The fingerlings amused me, as they were split open like a normal sized baked potato and filled with chive creme fraiche. For dessert I had their carrot raisin walnut bourbon bundt cake with homemade caramel sauce. YUMMO!
And now, my darlings – I goes back to bed. Tomorrow night – Wicked, and maybe I’ll check out that Garrett’s caramel corn place that had people queued all that way down the block on sunday. Assuming the line isn’t so long this time.