Birreria Zaragoza (Chicago, IL)

Since moving to Chicago, I've eaten at a lot of great restaurants that I otherwise wouldn't have found if it weren't for the recommendations on LTHForum.com. Birreria Zaragoza is one that I can confidently say that I wouldn't have found on my own. Just south of I-55 on Pulaski, Birreria Zaragoza is a small ~20 seat Mexican restaurant that specializes in birria, a roasted goat dish served with broth.

Sitting down, the condiments are first brought to the table. Here, the birria is served with chile de arbol peppers, cilantro, onion, lime, and some hot sauce.

Next, the plate of birria comes with consomme. Handmade tortillas that are are made to order accompany the plate of goat. The goat that I received was some of the rib cuts, along with some of the belly. The way that the goat was cut reminded me Chinese roasted meat butchery. The goat tasted similar to lamb, with only a hint of gaminess. Some of the bites, specifically the belly with the skin-on, were verging on overly fatty, but were delicious when made into tacos. The tomato-based consomme was a great accompaniment, keeping everything moist. Birreria Zaragoza is a definately try if in the area.

Birreria Zaragoza

4852 S Pulaski Rd

Chicago, IL

Santouka Ramen Shop (Arlington Heights, IL)

After seeing Carli's delicious-looking ramen, I got a craving and headed to Santouka Ramen Shop. Santouka is located in the Mitsuwa Marketplace, which is the largest Japanese grocery store in the Chicagoland area.

Santouka serves three main types of ramen: Shio (salt), Shoyu (soy), and Miso ramen. Also, there are two main meat choices: pork (belly) and special pork (cheek). My favorites are the Shoyu and Miso ramen, always with the braised pork cheek. My order today was the Miso ramen with special pork, with a side of rice topped with leeks and a soy boiled egg. Accompanying the ramen were bamboo shoots, a fish cake, kombu, and green onion. The broth is a very rich, milky, pork-based broth that is absolutely delicious. The pork was braised until extremely tender, and the noodles had soaked up some of the flavor of the broth. Right now, this is my favorite soup in the Chicagoland area and any trip down I-90 requires a stop if Santouka is open.

CUT (Las Vegas, NV)

For a Las Vegas trip with the guys, a visit to a prime steakhouse is a must.  Having already been to a number of the top Las Vegas steakhouses, instead of trying one that we hadn't been to, why not just go back to one that had already served us one of the best steaks we've ever had?

CUT is a Wolfgang Puck steakhouse that is located in the Shoppes at the Palazzo hotel.  They serve a variety of dry aged beef, as well as other meat and seafood dishes.  But we came for the steaks.  The meal began with a duo of amuses; Gruyere cheese Gougeres and Parmesan cheese breadsticks.  Both were delicious, and I wished for more than one of each.   Bread service was next, with a selection of white, wheat, pretzel, pumpernickel, and onion focaccia.  In order to complete our introduction to the meal, we ordered a couple of salads: a butter lettuce salad with avocado and blue cheese, topped with a champagne-herb vinaigrette and a caesar salad. 

[DANIEL] Finally, the steaks came.  Two years ago, I enjoyed 35 day dry-aged, USDA Prime, Nebraska corn-fed New York Sirloin at CUT.  I wanted to try something else, so I went for the American Wagyu/Angus "Kobe-style" beef from Snake River Farms in Idaho.  The steak was extraordinary, rich and perfectly cooked at medium rare.  The steak was so well marbled it almost melted in my mouth, oozing almost a meaty "butteryness".  This was one of the best, if not the best, steak that I've ever had.

[CHRIS] While Daniel typically goes for a sirloin or strip cut of steak, I prefer the flavor of a ribeye steak.  Therefore, I decided to order the 35 day dry-aged, USDA Prime, Nebraska corn-fed 16 oz Ribeye.  Again, I wish that I had taken my camera with me to illustrate the quality of these steaks.  The pictures below do not do it justice.  I never know whether its CUT's dry-aging process, the steaks they choose, or some other Wolfgang secret, but the ribeye here, this one included, is less fatty than your typical prime ribeye but still provides that rich, mature, full-bodied "beefy" flavor. 

To go along with the steaks, we ordered a number of side dishes: asparagus with poached organic egg on a  topped with a warm bacon vinaigrette; creamed spinach mixed table side with a fried organic egg; the CUT version of Mac & Cheese (Cavatappi Pasta with aged Quebec cheddar); Potato Tarte Tatin; and their roasted artichoke special.  

To accompany our fantastic meal, we ordered a bottle of the 2007 Antica Cabernet Sauvignon from the Napa Valley region.  The picture was so poor (and the wine was so good) that I decided to retake the picture from a couple of bottles I purchased when I got back home. 

 

To finish the meal, we were provided a variety of small desserts.  Nothing special here, but its nice touch to finish the meal. 

We've been to CUT twice, as well as other steakhouses like Carnevino, Craftsteak, Flemings, Ruth's Chris, Mastros, Capital Grille, etc., and not only does CUT impress everytime, it is our absolute favorite.  Even though we are ones who enjoy trying new restaurants, we just cannot say no to CUT.  It is the pinnacle of steak and one of the best reasons why we want to share our meat.

Noodle Asia (Las Vegas, NV) - II

Daniel and I are such fans of Noodle Asia that we decide to eat here year after year during our annual trip. After ordering the Si Jiu Beef in January, I settled on the Seafood Stir Fry Soft Noodles, which included shrimp, squid, and chinese bbq pork. There's not much to say about this dish, it was a large portion of food and fantastic as always. Fans of noodles houses would enjoy this restaurant very much.

[DANIEL]

While Chris has ordered a number of different dishes each time in the last few years at Noodle Asia, I have my one dish I order each time: the Szechwan Beef Noodle Soup. Tender pieces of beef shank were braised in a rich beef broth, loaded with anise and other spices. While it didn’t appear to have freshly pulled noodles, they did have a bit of chew, and had soaked up the broth. For us, Noodle Asia always provides us with a tasty and satisfying meal.

i ♥ burgers (Las Vegas, NV)

Every year during March Madness, Daniel and I meet a few friends out in Las Vegas for some well-mannered frivolity. To kick off this year's trip, we tried i ♥ burgers, a new restaurant located in The Shoppes at The Palazzo. I'll apologize in advance for the picture quality, forgot the camera for this trip.

To start, we had a difficult decision between the Tahitian Vanilla Bean or Coffee Bean Haagen-Dazs Milkshake. But the decision was made easier when our waiter informed us of their beverage special: $2 PBR drafts. The choice was clear and the beers were served.

I ordered the Dante burger, which is made of ground sirloin and is topped with provolone cheese, caramelized onion, roasted garlic aioli, and is served on a brioche-style bun. I also added the applewood-smoked bacon and an organic farm fresh egg. In addition, I ordered the Parmesan garlic fries with the herb remoulade. 

The burger was absolutely phenomenal. Dante was cooked perfectly, was nice and juicy, the bacon was a perfect complement, and the egg was a great addition. The fries were nothing special though. It was more like fries with some Parmesan sprinkled on top and no garlic flavor was noticed. The herb remoulade was OK; regular ketchup would have been just as good.

[DANIEL]
I enjoyed the burger as well. I ordered the standard angus burger with swiss, applewood-smoked bacon, and a fried egg, also served on a brioche-style bun. For the fried fare, unfortunately they were out of the Triple Truffle fries, so I chose the breaded mac and cheese. The burger was perfectly cooked, and the yoke kept everything moist. The breaded mac and cheese bites were good, but nothing out of the ordinary. But I guess one isn’t looking for much when he orders deep fried macaroni and cheese. They were served with the secret fry sauce aioli, which seemed pretty similar to Chris’s remoulade with the addition of parmesan.

All in all, i ♥ burgers lives up to its name, serving up delicious burgers. While the fried foods left a bit to be desired, make it here on a $2 PBR day and you’ll have a good meal and a good time.