Review
The husband and I are visiting friends this weekend. Going out of town means lots of eating out at new places. Unfortunately this time it doesn’t mean lots of fabulous food.
So instead I’ve been reminiscing about some of my favorite restaurant discoveries over the past year. Here are my top 3:
#3:
Rioja! Wine Bar
It goes without saying this place has good wine, but who knew the food was simply scrumptious? The tangy spinach artichoke dip stole my heart taste buds.
#2:
Tartine Bakery in San Francisco
I was a little nervous about the food after sitting down with my “salad”:
But I had absolutely no reason to worry. This open faced sandwich ranked up there with one of the best I’ve eaten.
Who knew Tartine wasn’t just a baked-good heaven?
#1
Quartino
By far my favorite restaurant of the year was Quartino in Chicago.
From grilled antipasto to polenta sticks to mouth-watery pizza…
Italian tapas in a beautiful city with great company. What more could a girl ask for? {Besides leftovers!}
One thing I’ve learned? Tapas are the answer to everything.
What’s your favorite restaurant? How do you discover new places to eat when you’re traveling?
HLS
1. The food not only rocks, it’s healthy too. Plus vegetarian & vegan options galore.
The Arnold/Orowheat lunch was stocked with veggie options like marinated tofu, grilled veggies, and quinoa edamame salad. Proving yet again there’s more to veggies than salad. (That lemon bar was divine as well.;))
The Athenos snack break offered more than just feta- veggies, pita chips, and hummus too. (I didn’t even know they made hummus- it was fantastic, especially the roasted red pepper. Shocker I know since that’s my favorite hummus flavor of all time.)
2. Breakfast includes making your own cream cheese recipe.
You picked fresh ingredients & chefs mixed them into your choice of regular or reduced fat cream cheese at the Thomas’ breakfast.
I’m not even a cream cheese fan, but this was such a cool idea I had to go for it.
My mix included shredded carrots, sundried tomatoes, jalapenos, walnuts, green apples, & capers. Don’t knock it til you try it. It rocked.
3. Nobody blinks when you take a picture of a “Chicago Works Out” stamp on the sidewalk
Cool, no? 😉
4. Healthy samples get snatched up faster than you can say probiotics.
Attune bars & granola, an alternative to eating yogurt for those ever-important probiotics. I even won a bag of apple cinnamon granola- score!
5. This many people get up before 8am to run or walk.
That’s more than just a handful of people ready to get their fitness on. Pretty great if I don’t say.
My knee injury had me bummed out yet again when I realized I’d be with a group of fitness enthusiasts and automatic running buddies and wouldn’t be able to take advantage of it.
But look how many people wanted to walk!
Nothing like an hour long pre-breakfast stroll through a gorgeous city to get your blood pumping. 🙂 The only thing missing was an iced coffee.
Perhaps adding a morning walk to my non-running recovery routine wouldn’t be such a bad thing?!
For more Healthy Living Summit posts:
How to avoid baggage fees
Beer tasting at Goose Island
My 1st taste of RAW food!
The good, bad, & ugly of a chip company
Post-cocktail midnight sushi
Folding in half at the spa (aka yoga)
Best dinner EVER
Chicago by foot…and picture
Do you exercise or eat healthy on vacation, or do you say the heck with it, it’s vacation?
HLS
After a whirlwind of a weekend in Chicago, I’ve finally made it home in one piece- let the recaps begin!
A late flight out on Sunday meant time for some extra Chicago fun. Theodora, Kate, and I hit the “L” and headed to Goose Island Brewery to take a tour and taste some of their freshly brewed beer.
I proceeded to skillfully navigate us to the wrong Goose Island location- oops. Unfortunately we were not interested in touring the receiving plant.
Lost face.
So sad. (They were polite enough not to strangle me- phew!)
Luckily the iPhone came to the rescue with a cab app that brought us Ali, and soon we made it to the right spot- just in time for a tour.
The Goose Island Brew-Pub:
(It’s a “brew pub” because they brew it and serve it- clever, eh?)
Brewer Miguel gave a quick talk about how beer is made, then led us to the fun part—> the tasting room, where we sampled six of the pub’s many selections.
Beer making talk.
Beer is made with four ingredients: water, hops, malt, and yeast. (Read more about the beer making process.)
A look at the brewing equipment:
Time for tasting!
But for real, tasting time:
From left to right: Sai-Shon Tea, Liquid Dark, IPA, Honkers, Nut Brown Ale, and Willow Street White.
Tasting beer is as an elaborate of a process as tasting wine.
I have to say I was quite impressed. I’ve never tasted beer that had so much flavor- each one was distinct from the one before it. The Saison, Honkers, and Willow Street White knocked my socks off.
Apparently I “taste” beer fast- hey, I told you it was good!
Lunch
After the tour it was well past time for lunch. Veggie burgers & fries to the rescue! Along with a 312 Urban Wheat beer on Kate’s recommendation. (Plus a sample of Matilda on the waitress’ recommendation- it was fantastic!)
A veggie burger with pepper jack cheese & chipotle aioli.
Don’t worry, the evil tomatoes were exiled seconds after this picture was taken.
Every good healthy living conference should end with fries. 🙂
And thus concluded my trip to Chicago. 🙁
The rest of the weekend is coming up!! 🙂 [Yes, I’m backwards. Last event first, I know, I know.]
