tried and true

to some it may seem like we never eat at home- and this is understandable given many of the recent posts to semifreelife. however this is mostly due to our wanting to catch up with folks that we won't see over the winter before we leave town for warmer climes.

So tonight we had our farewell dinner for the fall of 2014 with long time partner and friend Neil.  We headed to Restaurant Michael in Winnetka - somewhat of a hike out of the city, but worth it for excellent food and no corkage on Tuesdays!

everything was first rate and here is the menu for this evening- we started off with a Dom Perignon champagne - and had two bottles of excellent red burgundy for starters I had the tuna and salmon tartare and Phil had the foie gras and Neil had the sweetbreads and escargot combo... then I had a salade Lyonnaise before the mains came-

the mains - I had the salmon, Phil the venison and Neil the guinea fowl-

Phil ordered a chocolate souffle for dessert and then the wait staff brought a couple more desserts the chocolate bombe and the creme brulee- which I tried and which Phil and Neil finished off before waxing off the chocolate truffles to end the meal.  Good food, good wine and good friends - make for an excellent evening out...

tomorrow night our final big dining out event for the 2014 Chicago season- goosefoot... then we have arts events for Thursday (Chicago Humanities Festival and a concert for Phil Friday at City Winery) - rounding out our year of social events here in Chicago until our return in the late spring... meanwhile, at home we are eating weird combinations of things from the freezer and frig in order to get that cleaned out before we go- so it is very much form the sublime to the ridiculous on the eating here- hotdogs and potstickers anyone? No? well we can offer you leftover gumbo or a plain omelet...LOL

I promise I will actually get us back to Venice at some point - so keep on coming back....

still getting there- LOL

I promise- I will get us to the Adirondacks soon... very soon, but first I want to make sure that kudos go out for two places we had superb meals in the last two days-

on Monday night we returned to Oceanique and had a wonderful dinner of fish and seafood and on Tuesday we met with three friends for some incredible wines and an excellent meal at Restaurant Michael in Winnetka IL. 

Photos - of course...

Oceanique- starting with the amuse....

a fabulous foie as an appetizer

A lovely lobster salad -

one of two excellent wines - from 2002 vintage- showed really well!

 

 my skate wing course- wonderfully prepared

Phil's bouillabaisse which he loved!

and incredibly light chocolate mousse cake called night and day cake-

Phil's un-potted pot de crème (LOL)

and the champagne we were drinking early and to end the meal- a 1995 Cuvee Gabriel- from Gosset-Brabant

 

Really a perfect meal and warm welcoming service- first rate evening - highly highly recommended!

Then on Tuesday night we met friends Art and Michael along with Neil to go to Restaurant Michael in Winnetka... although kind of a hike for us city dwellers it is worth the extra half hour to get a chance to eat their fab food.  Neil generously brought a 1988 Krug and a 1988 Pol Roger Winston Churchill along with an amazing 1985 burgundy (shown below) and Michael brought a tremendous 1982 Bordeaux (also shown below) -

The dinners are prixe fix 3 or 4 or 5 courses or a chef's tasting of 8 or so---
we each had the 3 and it was PLENTY of food.  Phil and I started with the foie gras duo of crème brulee and a foie club sandwich.  this was a winner! and since we had brought the Y'Quem we had Sauternes to go with it as well for the dessert course.

so my photo of the starter is not fabulous but the course certainly was- trust me!

then I had the rabbit and Phil the chicken- Neil had Halibut but I don't recall Michael and Art's choices... I do remember Art said he wanted to lick the plate - which might be a clue that he liked it- LOL

we had amazing desserts that didn't make it into photographs (they were too appealing (LOL) and so here is what was left of Phil's plate when I remembered to take a picture- LOL- sorry!

so while the photos from Michael do not begin to do it justice- it was also a highly recommended venue -

PS - Oceanique has no corkage fees on Mondays (usually 50 per) and Michael has no corkage on Tuesday (usually 30 per) both restaurants have extensive wine lists of their own so you will easily find choices for all budgets if you come on a night other than the ones I mentioned....