Gastronomy Blog by Cathy Chaplin

Restaurant Review

17 Apr 2012

Girl & the Goat – Chicago

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A meal at Chef Stephanie Izard’s Girl & the Goat was an absolute must on my culinary tour of Chicago. I first tasted her cooking late last year at the Food & Wine All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas. She prepared a hiramasa crudo with pork belly for an event called “A New American Lunch” and an especially memorable spicy goat curry for the grand tasting. Chef Izard makes the kind of bold and exciting food that I love to eat, and I couldn’t wait to do so on her home turf.

Girl & the Goat has been booked solid ever since it opened two summers ago. I tried and failed to snag a reservation a few weeks before our trip, so our party of four prayed for a miracle when we walked in at dinnertime on a Saturday night.

We were seated sometime past 10 PM and wrapped up our dinner around midnight. It wasn’t the most ideal situation, but we rolled with the punches and were rewarded with a stellar feast.

The menu here is divided into three categories: Vegetable, Fish, and Meat, with a separate specials menu full of goat options. The restaurant goes through seven whole goats each week, all of which are grown and raised locally. “Izard,” by the way, is a breed of Pyrenees goat. Hence the chef’s fascination with the animal.

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Recipe

15 Apr 2012

Furikake Kettle Corn

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It’s high time we commence alfresco dining now that spring has sprung and summer is around the corner. These warmer months were made for breaking bread with friends and family under sunny skies and shady trees. While the burgers are grilling or the ribs are smoking, I highly recommend serving a big ‘ol bowl of Furikake Kettle Corn. It’s an addictive nibble that never fails to delight.

This recipe comes from Chef Roy Choi of Los Angeles’ A-Frame restaurant. I couldn’t keep my hands away from the bowl the first time I tried this Hawaiian-style popcorn. Every fistful of buttery kernels brought a hit of sweetness from Corn Pops, sourness from dried pineapples, savoriness from bacon, spiciness from cayenne pepper and chili flakes, and a whole lot of umami-ness from furikake. This unlikely combination of big, bold flavors had me hooked at first bite.

Making Furikake Kettle Corn requires very little preparation, especially if you’re using bagged kettle corn like this recipe suggests. The bacon needs to be fried and chopped, chives minced, and butter clarified. After that’s good and done, everything comes together in a snap. Serve the popcorn in a bowl, or better yet, channel the aloha spirit and spill it onto the table just like they do at A-Frame.

4 cups kettle corn
2/3 cup of Corn Pops
2 ounces clarified butter
2 tablespoon furikake
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
Pinch of cayenne pepper
2 tablespoon dried pineapple
2 tablespoon chopped bacon, cooked
2 teaspoon chives or Shiso, minced

Chop and fry bacon, mince chives, and clarify butter. Note: My dried pineapple came dusted in cayenne pepper, hence its darker appearance, so I skipped the “pinch of cayenne pepper.”

My “Qwik and EZ” method for clarifying butter entails microwaving the butter in a small bowl for 20 second at a time until it’s completely melted. Let the butter cool for a minute or two at room temperature and then skim off the white foam with a spoon. The resulting clarified butter isn’t perfect, but it’ll do just fine for this recipe.

Finely chop the bacon and dried pineapple together using a food processor.

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Restaurant Review

13 Apr 2012

The Doughnut Vault – Chicago

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The Doughnut Vault doesn’t make it easy for doughnut fiends to get their deep-fried high on. The shop is only open for a teeny tiny window starting at 8:30 AM Tuesdays through Fridays and at 9:30 AM on Saturdays. The blue doors slam shut just as soon as the last ring is sold, which is usually an hour or two after opening.

The internet is flooded with sob stories penned by poor saps who were left empty handed at the hands of The Vault. Needless to say, I did not want to add to that dialogue.

The lines haven’t let up since Brendan Sodikoff opened Doughnut Vault over a year ago in Chicago’s River North neighborhood. Housed in an old bank vault, the shop sells around 600 doughnuts each day.

Sodikoff, who has spent time in the kitchens of Per Se and Alain Ducasse, also owns and operates a half dozen other eateries in the city including Au Cheval Diner, Bavettes Bar & Boeuf, Curio Chicago, Gilt Bar, Maude’s Liquor Bar, and Pizzeria Cella. His diverse portfolio of restaurants helps explain how a doughnut shop that barely operates for ten hours a week can be a viable business venture.

Knowing that it might take a few tries to hit the doughnut jackpot, I made sure to pencil in a visit to Doughnut Vault every morning of our trip (See: Appendix I).

My first attempt, at 10:30 AM on Friday morning with my friend Esi, yielded no fruit. The following morning, The Astronomer and I, along with our friends Mike and Kellie, arrived on the scene thirty minutes after the shop opened. The line of eager customers stretched out the door, around the corner, and then some. Things weren’t lookin’ so good for us…

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