San Soo Gap San -- Chicago

San Soo Gap San Korean BBQ
5247 N. Western Ave.
Chicago, IL

Don't go Korean BBQ alone; if you order for one, the kitchen cooks your food, but if you order for two or more people, you get the full table-grilling experience.

Whatever you order for grilling, you will get a table-full of these tiny dishes. A good half of these are very spicy, so those go on Bill's side of the table. Nothing is labeled or ordered by name -- the waitress just piles them on the table -- so I don't know what any of these are called. My favorites are the tofu strips (which I think are prepared in a peanut sauce), the oyster mushrooms, and the tiny omelettes. They also serve complimentary miso soups, which I never eat because they're loaded with sliced jalapeños.

The main attraction is the monster pile of meat they'll bring to your table, along with a charcoal grill that mounts into the table (the vents above the tables catch most of the smoke.) Our waitress was pushing the short ribs, saying it's their most popular dish, but we didn't like it the one time we ordered it: The bones just ended up burning on the grill, and there wasn't much meat. Our favorite is the marinated beef (pictured above), which is gorgeously marinated and cooks down to juicy, tender, but not-too-fatty strips. You can mix the beef with rice, with any of the mini appetizers on the table, or wrap it in lettuce leafs, but personally, I think it's best savored with no interruptions -- just take it off the grill and pop it in your mouth.

I would like to make a note on the service. The waitstaff here is very polite and hard-working, but they run a no-nonsense operation. If you need doting service as part of your dining experience, this is not a place for you. On a busy night, we had a waitress come by and put more beef on our grill so we would finish up faster. Bill and I don't care what the service is as long as the food is good (and as long as it's not Ed Debevic's), so we're always glad we came.

Sticky Rice -- Chicago

Sticky Rice
4018 N. Western Ave
Chicago, IL
www.stickyricethai.com

This was our first time at Sticky Rice, which is outside of our usual territory (it's not too close to the Irving or Western stops on the Brown Line.)

I loved Bill's appetizer, the Golden Baskets. They're an interesting departure from the usual Thai apps, and I have to say, they're pretty darn adorable, too.

Meanwhile, I ordered one of the most common appetizers, the spring rolls, which are nothing out of the ordinary, but still tasty and a great choice when you want to avoid the fried and the greasy.

Bill was disappointed in the ground pork and bamboo; it wasn't as spicy as he thought the menu had promised, and felt the "sour bamboo" clashed with the other vegetables. (Picture below with sticky rich, natch.)

I ordered the wrong thing. A seafood special is generally my thing, but I underestimated how spicy it would be. What I hate about spicy food it how it prevents me from tasting any of the other flavors; it's particularly frustrating when it's squid and mussels with basil and baby eggplant that go untasted. I couldn't finish it, and had to order a green tea ice cream to kill the burning in my mouth. If you love spicy, then by all means order this. (And, I might add, the green tea ice cream is recommended whether your mouth is on fire or not.)

We'll definitely come back here. There was enough promise in what we had to make us further explore the menu.

Alice and Friends' Vegetarian Cafe -- Chicago

Alice and Friends' Vegetarian Cafe
5812 N. Broadway
Chicago, IL
www.aliceandfriends.com

We used to live right around the corner from this place; these days we are happy to make the trip to Edgewater to eat here. As you can see from previous entries, we are not vegetarians, but this is still one of our very favorite restaurants. Their tofu meat substitutes are shockingly delicious; the flavor and texture are so impeccable, it's easy to forget they're not actual meat.

There is always a soup special, which Bill ordered on this visit. This one resembled Korean kimchi soup.

My favorite appetizer (seen below) is the steamed dumplings. Stuffed with shiitake mushrooms and supporting vegetables, they're smooth and compulsively snack-able. (I could probably eat two orders of them.)

Bill had the Himalayan Spirit, a grab-bag of goodies served in a Bento box. The "un-Beef" skewers are excellent.

My favorite dish is the smoked duck, which is the only non-vegan entree they offer (the un-duck contains whey powder.) In the interest of trying something new, I ordered the yakisoba noodles instead. I can highly recommend these, too, because they ace the two main challenges of vegan/vegetarian cooking: They're not at all bland, nor are they doused with a single over-powering ingredient. (A dish like this could be easily ruined with too much soy sauce.) The noodles were well complimented with a mushroom-laced sauce.

Unlike the terrific meat substitutes, the desserts won't fool you. The soy chocolate mousse pie definitely tastes non-dairy, but the dense cocoa (not diluted with milk) will satisfy a chocolate craving.

Whatever you decide to try at Alice's, your stomach won't regret it. Everything leaves you feeling healthy and rejuvenated (and full!)

Panda Empire -- New Milford, CT

Panda Empire
254 Danbury Road
New Milford, CT

My family has been going here since I was a kid. Many foods/restaurants I loved as a kid I have[understandably] lost my taste for, but this place is still my all-time favorite Chinese restaurant.

Their simplest offerings – hot tea and crispy noodles with duck sauce for the table – are top notch.

Too many American Chinese restaurants serve only one flavor -- salty -- but Panda rises above with tasty sauces light on the sodium. (Their fruit-based sauces are particularly good, such as the orange beef or lemon chicken.) They use fresh, natural ingredients; there's no glowing neon goo masking poor-quality meat or vegetables.

Bill and I split an appetizer of minced shrimp and black mushroom wrapped in lettuce, which had a festive texture.

I had the duck special, which was almost perfect. The house sauce was the stand-out, with notes of plum that brought out the best in the duck without overwhelming it. The duck itself was tender but a little too much skin for my taste.

I can't remember the name of Bill's entree; I can't find the take-out menu I grabbed from the restaurant, and I can't find it online either. It was two different dishes served on one plate, and whatever it was called, he loved them both.

The after-dinner fortune cookies arrive with fruit, in keeping with Panda's fresh, high-quality offerings.

Banana Brazil Luncheonette -- Danbury, CT

Banana Brazil Luncheonette
91 Main Street

Danbury, CT

All my trips to Connecticut include a trip to the Danbury Library for my genealogical research. After several hours of spooling through microfilm and printing about 100 birth/marriage/death announcements, I get pretty darn hungry. Luckily, this little gem is across the street from the library. It’s a straightforward, no-frills set-up: Grab a plate, and move down a buffet of meat, rice, vegetable, and fruit dishes, and take your delicious haul to the checkout counter. You can also get some barbeque off the grill behind the counter, or a glass of fresh squeezed juice from the fountains. (Their mango juice is a dream.) The buffet offerings vary, but I’ve never been disappointed, and I’d be mad about any Latin American restaurant that lets me pile on as many sweet plantains as my heart desires.

Good News Cafe -- Woodbury, CT

Good News Cafe
694 Main Street South
Woodbury, CT
www.good-news-cafe.com

Carole Peck’s café is both out of our price range, and out of the way on our drive from East Haddam to Brookfield, but it was more than worth the exception.

I discovered this restaurant through a most unlikely source: I had seen a news item that Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban were vacationing in the Litchfield Hills, and ate here for dinner. I have no interest in celebrity gossip, but it always amuses me when I hear about people “vacationing” in Connecticut, particularly Litchfield County, which I grew up thinking was the most boring place on earth. Once I read the online menu, though, I decided I had to try it.

Bill and I ate there for the first time last year, and we were in love. I had an amazing appetizer of cherry and pecan encrusted oysters, and Bill’s entrée of “adult macaroni and cheese” (made with provolone, lobster, and truffle oil) was unbelievably rich.

This was our second visit. I started with the lobster soup, which is my new favorite thing I have eaten there. This topped the excellent lobster bisques and stews I had in Maine, with just the right amount of sherry, and lobster flavor throughout the broth, not just in the tender chunks of meat.

Bill was pleased with his stuffed poblano pepper. (I didn’t try it; spicy and I don’t get along.)

My entrée was the seafood wontons, and I’m surprised to say I was a little disappointed. The mussels and scallops in the broth were impeccably fresh, but the broth itself was overwhelmed with soy sauce, and thus so salty I was gulping down glass after glass of water. The wontons themselves – stuffed with a creamy seafood medley – were too good for me to stop eating, though. Bill’s seared scallops in Thai coconut broth were marvelous, on the other hand.

Both times we’ve eaten here, we were entranced by the dessert menu, but we had eaten so richly that all we could order was the fruit cup. It is probably the simplest item on the menu, but still a delight with fresh, in-season fruits that glisten like jewels.

La Vita Gustosa -- East Haddam, CT

La Vita Gustosa
9 Main Street
East Haddam, CT
www.lavitagustosa.com

On the way to Gillette Castle, we stopped here for lunch. The restaurant is situated at a beautiful street corner, just over the Connecticut River and across from the Goodspeed Opera House. I was in the mood for a light lunch, and found the perfect choice in their artichoke and cranberry salad.















Tossed with leeks, almonds, and romano over a bed of romaine, and kissed with a lemon-olive oil vinaigrette, it was an excellent contrast of flavors and textures, and though it was an appetizer, it made a fine lunch. I also took a bite of Bill’s melanzane panini, which had a nice harmony of smoky flavors in the eggplant, provolone, and grilled flatbread.