#8 - Eat at one of the Top Chefs' restaurants

Last year I did "Best Thing I Ever Ate," and ate a few of those things and was fairly impressed.  So I decided to step it up a bit this year.

Back when I actually had cable - so, like, 6 months ago - I was quote the "Top Chef" conouissuer... coneussier...  conessier... connusseur...  watcher.  I flippin' love it.  I don't even know why.  I mean, the best part of the whole show has to be eating the food... which only a few people get to do and then they tell us how awesome it is.

When I really think about it, I have so many questions.  What do the Top Chef judges eat every day?  Most of them are chefs themselves.  Do they cook their own food?  Are they ever lazy about it?  What about the non-chefs, what do they eat every day?  If I ate some of the stuff on the show they thought was terrible, would it be the best thing I've ever eaten?  Why do I watch this show if I have no idea if I would even have the palette to eat what they eat?  Oh, and what happens if one of the judges just doesn't like a certain type of food, like how I don't like chocolate cake?  Are any of them ever allergic to anything?  

Anyways, both thinking about and just watching and not thinking about these questions has made me crave to eat at one of the winners' restaurants.  I have eaten at Deleece in Chicago, where Dale used to work (gay Dale, not Asian Dale).  It's flippin great.  The lobster eggs benedict may be one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth.  Seriously.  And it was like $13.  Obviously a lot for breakfast but for one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth?  Reasonable.

I really wasn't sure if I would succeed at this item though.  In fact, I'd pretty much given up on it.  I even lamented to my parents as we walked past Girl and the Goat (Stephanie Izzard, the Chicago champion's restaurant on Randolph in Chicago) that I wish I could eat there but I can't afford it and I would have had to have made reservations months ago to fit it in before I left town.  We went on to have a great little dinner at Maude's Liquor Bar on Randolph, which also serves a really great cocktail.  My dad even got boring and ordered the chicken and holy crap, it was probably the best chicken I had had in my life.  I didn't know chicken could be the best choice on a menu ever.  (Unless it's fried and you're at Harold's, which I still have to do.)

The next night we were going to go have dinner in Bucktown.  However, that morning, my mom had snuck down to the concierge at the Palmer House Hilton and asked him to just give the Girl and the Goat a ring, just in case.  They had a 9 o'clock reservation.  She hesitated.  The concierge leaned over and said, "Take it.  They don't have another reservation until July."  This was mid-May.  She took it.

And then she took me and my dad to Girl and the Goat.  It was everything I'd dreamed of and makes it into the top 3 meals of my life (the other two being in Vegas, and surprisingly, St. Louis).  I'll try to remember what we had without the fancy language: pretzel bread with homemade honey mustard butter, a salad of some kind?, mackerel, octopus with the perfect combination of beans and things, pig's face with egg and crunchy onions, goat, of course, and the most amazing part of the meal: the broccoli.  I'm serious.  This broccoli was incredible.  I will likely go back there at least once this summer, sit at the bar, have a glass of wine, and eat broccoli.  Fantastic.  We followed it all up with some red tea creme brule, which my dad swore he wasn't interested in but definitely helped us polish it off.

Although there's the long wait for a reservation and it's pricey - but not for what it is, this meal is up there with the St. Louis meal for being completely reasonably priced for what amazing, amazing food it was.  Plus, the service was casual and friendly.  

My parents definitely helped me check a big one off my list and to start off my Chicago send off in style!