Chicago Eats - Girl & the Goat

From the best restaurant in North America (and #6 in the world) to various hot dog and burger shacks that are heart attacks in a grease-soaked brown paper bag, the food lovers of Chicago are some damn lucky people. Sure, Chicago is known for its Chicago style hot dogs (HOLD THE KETCHUP!), deep-dish Chicago style pizza, and the ever famous dipped Italian beef. But Chicago has a much nicer side to it, and brings world-class cuisine to the city of ever-broadening shoulders (get it...because we love food here...?) I've been eating at as many places in the city as I can, but my list keeps growing. However, I'm determined to transform my "must try" list to a "have tried" list - no matter how long it takes. This post got longer than expected, so I'm going to break these up a bit...

I'm trying to go in chronological order of the places I've been to recently, and I swear I'm not trying to get more of you to read my blog. But hey, this should help. I had a couple of friends visit from out of town this past May, and I knew I had to show them what this city could do when it comes to food. Afterall, one of my friends possibly loves food more than me (although it doesn't show on her). So a little over 3 months before their visit, I searched for reservations on a Saturday night for 4, and I got lucky. Dinner was at a palatable 9pm, but I knew it would be worth it. One of the hottest new restaurants on the Chicago food scene, Top Chef contestant Stephanie Izard of the Boka Restaurant Group definitely lived up to her mountain-top-high reputation. Enough with the words - onto the pictures:

hiramasa crudo w/pork belly

I love pork belly. I love sashimi. So obviously, this was a dish that we had to get. It was the perfect way to start our long, 2.5hr meal. Nice and light, the saltiness of the crisp pork belly contrasted with the delicate nature of the hiramasa fish. The only downside: why must the pork belly be so small??? Luckily one of our friends didn't seem to want his share of pork belly so I quickly grabbed it before the busboy whisked his plate away.

pan roasted halibut with grilled asparagus

I tend to slightly overcook asparagus when I grill it. I want those nice grill marks dammit! But Stephanie et al. masterfully cooked this dish. The asparagus was cooked perfectly - still crispy, but the right amount of char. But as it should be, the real star of this dish was the halibut. This was definitely the best piece of halibut I have had the pleasure of eating. Not only was it cooked perfectly (with that right amount of translucency), but that sauce was so good that I literally drank the rest of it once everyone was done picking out the solid bits. I definitely had to resist the urge to pick up the entire plate-bowl, but I had no shame in having our waitress wait for me to finish the last bits using my spoon. Apparently I'm not alone...and you can't let something that delicious go to waste!

fried soft shell crab pakora

Let's be real here: crab, good. Fried foods, good. Fried crab, GOOOOD. There's really not much more to say here, except the common theme across all of these dishes - yes, it was cooked perfectly.

seared scallops

Perhaps the *only* disappointing dish of the night - the scallops. A bit salty for my liking, but at least they didn't overcook them. I haven't figured out how to properly cook a scallop, and I feel like my wallet can't take these experiments all too frequently at over $2 each for the giant versions. Anyways, the redeeming factor of this dish was the sauce. Once again, I took that big spoon there and drank the brown butter sauce until none was left, much to the chagrin of my tablemates. Except I couldn't tell if they were embarrassed or jealous. Oh well, NO REGRETS.

roasted cauliflower

I always thought that cauliflower was just albino broccoli growing up. I had this revelation when we had learned about this genetic trait in grade school. Apparently, I was wrong, but hey, I was like 6yrs old. Back on track - the cauliflower was probably the best albino broccoli I've ever had, although that's not really saying too much. A criticism was that it was a bit greasy.

grilled pork ribs

Ah, ribs. How I love thee. One of my favorite dishes of the night, these had a nice after-taste kick in the tastebuds from some spice that I wasn't able to get a handle on. Maybe some horseradish or mustard? No clue, but they were juicy, succulent, and fall off the bone delicious. Besides the halibut, this was definitely a must-order if they still have it on the menu when you go.

confit goat belly

I think that confit is intriguing. I don't know how to do it, although everything I have ever had that was confit anything was freakin' awesome, including the classic duck confit I had at the Gage. Well, we were at the Girl & the Goat, and thus, we had to get SOMETHING with goat in it, dammit. And since my table was a bit scared to get the last remaining goat leg (that feeds like 20 hungry marines or something), we decided to get the confit goat belly. Goat BELLY! I like the bellies of animals. Tuna belly, pork belly, never had cow belly but that would probably be the udders...Moving along, this was basically Chef Stephanie's take on the classic surf 'n turf; there was some lobster and crab acting as the surf, and the goat acted as the turf, naturally. WHY WAS THE GOAT SO SMALL?? I DON'T THINK I ORDERED CONFIT CHIPMUNK??!??!!? After splitting the goat into 4 somewhat equal sized pieces, all I could think was...I WANT MOAR. Goat is fairly similar to lamb from my experience, but I just wished there was more. Now, to some of you the following will be blasphemy - but I thought there was too much crab and lobster to go proportionately with the goat. I mean, everything tasted great, I just wanted some more goat. Given how good this place is, maybe they're getting endangered...?

shiitake gelato with chocolate cake brownie

That's not the real name. I don't remember the name of this dish. But I thought it was great. Generally, people morph their faces into the same strange distorted growl/scowl/frown when I tell them I had a shiitake gelato, but you would be doing yourself a disservice by letting your imagination scare you away from this dessert. Yes, it tasted of shiitake. Strongly. But for me, it was amazing how the flavor developed as the gelato melted in my mouth. The taste of the shiitake was subtle at first, and grew stronger as it melted and lingered for a few seconds after it was gone. Truly amazing, and truly delicious. I'm surprised at how well shiitake mushroom becomes a dessert. The chocolate cake brownie thing and frosting like white stuff was good too. But not as memorable as the shiitake gelato. Shiitake.

So, a three month wait. Totally worth it. If you haven't been, go. Make reservations now, even if they're 3-4 months ahead of time. Once the day comes, you'll be excited. Time flies. Just GO.