ceres table redux

last night we revisited Ceres table. It had been a while since we were there last and still I found the food very well prepared. I had the arancini appetizer and Phil had the antipasti.  Neil had a half portion of linguini vongole and the Sicilian meatloaf as an entrée.  I had the meatloaf as an entrée as well and Phil had the pasta special, fettuccine with guanciale and onions.

Neil had gelato for dessert and Phil and I shared a "baked Alaska" - which was non traditional but I found to my liking.  Phil is a bit more sever of a critic and although he liked his food he still found the choices limited. I on the other hand always find something on the menu I like and have a higher opinion of the restaurant which is very friendly and the service is good. 

It is also BYO with a 20 per bottle corkage and a two bottle maximum for table... corkage is waived one for one- so buy two and get two of you own poured free- which may work with a larger group but for the three of us- we decided to just pay the corkage on our own wines...Still it is a nice option!

the arancini- and then the anti pasti platter- with lamb terrine, duck confit and a lightly smoked pork shoulder-

my Sicilian meatloaf

Phil's pasta special-

Neil's meatloaf (he insisted his be photographed too!)

the baked Alaska (softer meringue versus harder)

the red wine and then the white-

up tonight the Bocuse D'Or menu at Next- with Mon and Beth... tomorrow Bistro Campagne with Brian and Tina and Sheila and Mary - then Monday: Oceanique with Evanston friends. Tuesday morning kitties and I leave for warmer climes!  And finally today I feel like my cold from China is well and truly over after two solid weeks! Yea!

and yes I will get back to blogging about the China trip- as soon as my social whirlwind dies down a bit and I have the time to do the marvelous trip justice.  Never fear! LOL

a week of going out

is coming to an end... aside from the amazing Monday dinner at Calihan memorialized in the "been there? done that?" post, we have ended up eating out every night this week.  I guess that was mostly because I cooked all last week except for the Mecenat dinner ("more food" post.)

So here is the run down- at the last minute we got an invitation to Richard & Irene's for a cook out on Sunday night.  On Monday we had the Calihan dinner.  Tuesday we had a yearning for Peking Duck and so went to Sun Wah and Wednesday we had a groupon thing for Little Budapest (skip it) and Thursday (last night) we went to a Hart Davis & Hart Champagne tasting with Neil and then stopped at Ceres Table for a later dinner.

 Sun Wah

Then the champagne tasting- fabulous offerings, lovely venue at Cafe Brauer in Lincoln Park.

Ceres Table (Clark Street north of Lawrence south of Foster) 

 arancine starter

Rabbit with arugula pesto for me - Strozappreti with wild boar ragu for PF

 chocolate cheese cake with cherries and chocolate chip ice cream sandwich

and even though this is from last week I can't resist putting in our favorite Chinese - straight old fashioned 1950-60 vintage Chinese- the Orange Garden on Irving Park.

so today we are off to Wrigley to see the Big Red Machine play the (100+ years since a world series win) Chicago Cubs----LOL.... so it's hot dogs for us!