An Adventure at Vie Restaurant

I first experienced Vie restaurant when my boyfriend and I attended the first-ever (and let's hope there's plenty more) Bacon Cookoff at Publican in October 2009. But owner and head chef, Paul Virant, long ago established himself in the cooking world. While he didn't come out on top against Iron Chef Morimoto, Virant creates delicious contemporary American dishes with an emphasis on local ingredients.

The restaurant is a testament to simple elegance and minimalist decor. Roses adorn the tabletops and the bar. A fireplace emits a warm glow, and the stacks of wood beside it are just there for show.

While prices are a bit steep, especially considering Vie is located in the Chicago suburbs, every bite is worth every penny. The meal starts with an amuse-bouche, a delightful one-bit appetizer, that consisted of a bite of whitefish and pickled cucumbers, offering a delicate start to the meal.

As for the menu, it may only be one page, but you'll have a hard time deciding between all that Vie has to offer. Luckily, our waitress, Abra, pointed out some usual favorites, including the food she likes to eat herself. She knew what she was talking about; prior to serving as a waitress, she worked as a line cook in Vie's kitchen.

With Abra's advice, my boyfriend, two friends, and I started our extravagant meal with pierogies filled with smoked beef and a crème fraiche. The succulent pierogies sat atop a bed of sauerkraut that lacked the sourness typically associated with the German sidedish, but balanced the heartiness of the beef and the bits of bacon beef. A pickled celery vinaigrette rounded off the dish.

My boyfriend went for the pan-roasted icelandic halibut, a fresh and sizable piece of seafood topped with fried sage gremolata, and grounded by a pile of camargue red rice. The deep color of the rice possibly came from a reduction of red wine and cranberries, or at least that's how it tasted. Sides included sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes) and pea shoots. A preserved meyer lemon aioli added a touch of sweetness.

Even when ordering the burger at Vie, you get a specially-crafted dish. Made with Dietzler farm beef, the wood-grilled burger is hearty treat for a reasonable $12. Toppings on this extravagant burger include housemade bacon, clothbound aged wisconsin cheddar, and a pickled jalapeno vinaigrette. On the side, you'll also get a handsome helping of yukon gold potato homefries, along with pickle.

For an even heartier meal, Vie offers the pan-fried bourbon red turkey breast and smothered leg and thigh. This comfort-food dish is sure to fill anyone up. If the turkey isn't enough, it comes with a crispy bread dumpling and a generous portion of butternut squash, winter radishes, and fresh, preserved pears.

As for me, I went for the rack of lamb, medium rare. The outside was crispy, while the inside meat remained tender. An orange sauce added a touch more depth to the perfectly cooked meat. The lamb was complemented by even more meat, a house-made Moroccan spiced mereguez - aka lamb - sausage. The sausage wasn't as spicy and juicy as I expected, but it snapped and was full of savory flavors. This dish, like the burger, also came with housemade fries that were both crispy and soft, a perfect combo in my book. Finally, a handful of cooked leeks graced the side of the dish, offering a slightly crunchy complement to the dish.

Despite the large dishes, we couldn't bypass the dessert menu, which is full of ice creams, sorbets, and other decadent treats. Everything was shared: the crispy, gooey St. Louis-style butter cake topped with egg nog ice cream, as well as the scoop of pumpkin ice cream. The one dessert everyone feared, but dared to try? The chocolate ghost chili ice cream. And we had every right to be afraid.

Ghost chili was declared the hottest pepper in the world in 2007. But call my friends and me crazy, we wanted to give it a whirl. Abra assured us that while it's hot, the cream offsets it. Here's what it looked like:

Oh, wait. That's the daredevil that suggested we try the chocolate ghost chili in the first place. Here's the close-up of the actual dessert:

So unassuming! It looks like just a normal single scoop of chocolate that it's okay to just dig into...right?

Nope! Tread lightly, my friends. The original daredevil took a big scoop, and wowza. It took a couple bites of the pumpkin ice cream, and some gulps of water, along with a few minutes, for the crazy hot flavors to calm down and leave his mouth alone.

So, no one else tried it after him, because we saw the after-effects, right?

Wrong again. We each had some, multiple bites actually. Not bites though, really. More like nibbles, but even then you taste plenty of heat. First, it tastes creamy and chocolaty, and then KA-BLAM, an explosion of heat blows up in your mouth. But then, just as quickly, the spiciness evaporates, and you want more. What some might call torture, I call incredibly innovative and delicious, to an extent. Between the four of us, we weren't able to finish the whole scoop.

Clearly, a trip to Vie promises to be an adventure. From fresh ingredients and heaping portions of food to experimental desserts, I know I intend to go back, even if Vie is on the pricier side. It's just that good.

Mexican food winner: XOCO

Rick Bayless makes the food at XOCO, need I say more? Probably not, but I will anyway.
Photo: Fuzzy Gerdes/Flickr

Gold Coast Dogs is to Hot Doug's as Burrito House is to XOCO. In other words, XOCO is in a class of its own. Unless you're comparing XOCO (which in ancient Aztec language is slang for "little sister") to the other Rick Bayless restaurants - Frontera Grill, Frontera Fresco, and Topolobampo - there is no comparison. Just as in the other Bayless restaurants, the wait will be long but your growling stomach will for sure be satisfied.

The restaurant's website proclaims that XOCO is a quick-service cafe that serves contemporary street food - but this definitely isn't your typical street side vendor. (For one, service isn't that quick when there's a line going out the door). After standing in line, orders are placed with the cashier, and you take a number before being shown to one of forty available seats. Chips do not come with every meal, but can be ordered for $3 with salsa or $4 with guacamole.

Tortas are available starting at 11am, and caldos, or meal-in-a-bowl soups, are available beginning at 3pm. The typical drinks line the menu, but hot chocolate drinks, made from Mexican cacao beans that are ground right there in the restaurant, are available as well.

To supplement my Wednesday lunch, I ordered a churro, made in the XOCO kitchen, which came warm on my plate and covered in plenty of sugar. I tried to ignore the temptation of eating it before my torta arrived, but gave in easily, making dessert my appetizer. Both crunchy and soft, the sugar fell onto the plate with each bite.

Just as we were done with the churros and waiting for the food to be delivered to the table, out walks Rick Bayless from the back kitchen. It took me a second to realize that he was there, not on the TV show Top Chef Masters, but right there in the restaurant, wearing his white chef jacket, standing two feet away from me. TWO FEET! Very surreal. But also really cool to know that one of the best chefs in the country - even before he was dubbed so by the Bravo TV show - was making the food I was just about to eat.

Oh the tortas! First, cooked in the wood burning oven, the torta bread on the choriqueso was crunchy. The filling was made of a spicy chorizo tempered by jack cheese and the tangy taste of a tomatillo salsa. Some roasted poblano rounded off the dish, giving it just a bit more kick and crunch.

While I enjoyed the choriqueso, the cochinita pibil torta won me over with an explosion of flavors. The heart of this dish is tender suckling pig meat, which is slow-cooked to soak up the marinade of citrus - from orange and lemon juice, typically - and achiote, which adds both a sweet and slightly peppery taste. Pickled onions, made with a dash of cumin, add a bit more sweetness as well as a crunch (a different variety of crunch than the torta bread provides). A habanero sauce came on the side, but I didn't dare use more than a drop for fear of burning away my taste buds. The black beans somewhat got lost in the mix, but otherwise all the flavors intertwined wonderfully, resulting in a hearty taste that makes you never want to take a sip of your drink again - even if it is one of XOCO's chocolate drinks that are sinfully delicious and have the consistency of pudding - because you don't want the taste to leave your mouth and you can't imagine Mexican food ever tasting this good again.

Seriously. It's that good. Don't believe me? Go try XOCO for yourself and then tell me what you think.

XOCO
449 North Clark Street (enter on Illinois St.)
Chicago, IL 60654
Ph.: 312-334-3688
Hours:
Tues.-Fri.: 7:00am – 9:00pm
Sat.: 8:00am – 9:00pm

Get the chicken wings at Murphy's

Pull up a stool and order some chicken wings at Murphy's Bleachers - but don't bother getting the pizza.

If you know me then you know how much I love buffalo sauce, usually on chicken wings but also in salads. I love the finger-licking-good flavor, but its also the heat and spiciness that has me coming back for more. I'm always on the hunt for new chicken wings to try around the city, and Murphy's has got some of the best I've tried in a long while.

On a Tuesday night when the Cubs are out of town, the gargantuan bar was practically empty, even though it's usually hopping before, during, and after a Cubs game. As the boyfriend and I waited for our to-go sausage pizza, we ordered an appetizer of chicken wings, which were $8 for 10. These wings aren't typical . There was a smoky flavor that worked well with the vinegar and cayenne that usually makes a buffalo sauce. Needless to say, every bite of those wings were gone before we left with our pizza. Then again, it took us awhile to leave.

While the pizza was brought to us faster than expected (average wait time for a Murphy's pizza: 40 minutes) and the bill was delivered to us quickly, it took the two bartenders for-ev-er to come get the credit card. They weren't even busy serving the other six customers. They lolly-gagged, watching the game, occasionally swiping down the unused sections of the bar. We eventually got their attention, but it took much longer than it should have.

As for the main course, we had high expectations for the pizza. The boyfriend had ordered it many times before when he lived in East Lakeview, and he said it was one of the best he's ever had. But the sausage pizza left a lot to be desired this time around (we both agreed), and even left a bad taste in our mouth.

The pizza tasted as if someone had accidentally dumped the wrong kind of seasoning, spice, or something that didn't belong into both the dough and the red sauce. The crust was thicker than the normal thin crust. All in all, the outer crust - which had tiny flecks of something in it - was inedible. While the sausage and cheese tasted good enough, it did little to make it worthwhile.

Even though the pizza was disappointing, I may try it again... eventually. After all, it was considered one of the boyfriend's favorites at one point in time. Maybe a different cook was working on Tuesday? Maybe an ingredient was used that isn't usually? Who knows.

Either way, I'll definitely be back for the chicken wings. But next time I'll go on Monday when they offer $0.25 wings.

(Note: I usually take pictures to accompany my posts - so you can salivate over the delicious items I write about - but, alas, I didn't have my camera with me).

Murphy's Bleachers
3653 N Sheffield Ave.
Chicago, IL 60613-4303
Ph.: (773) 929-7061