Restaurants: Tre Kronor

I’ve been talking about trying Tre Kronor ever since I saw it featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives last summer. Tre Kronor is a little Swedish BYOB restaurant located in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago. Although it’s a bit of a trek from downtown, Katie and I chose to go on a snowy night last week thinking it was perfect weather for some Swedish comfort food.

We were freezing by the time we got there, so we were happy to see that they had several soups on the menu. Katie got the mushroom soup special and I went with the French onion. I have no doubt that both were delicious, but we were so cold and hungry that anything hot would have been amazing!




Tre Kronor makes their own gravlax, so that was a must try. An order of gravlax turned out to be a pretty large platter including toast points, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, red onion, and mustard sauce. The gravlax was perfect. I want more…now.


I ordered the duck with apple pork sausage, wild rice, and lignonberry jam. I always love duck with something sweet, but I wasn’t sure if I’d wild rice was really what I felt like with my duck. I went with it anyways and was glad I did; it was absolutely delicious. I wasn’t wild about the sausage that they put next to it, but everything else made up for it.


Katie ordered the Swedish meatballs, which tied with the gravlax for star of the night. The meatballs were smothered in a veal stock gravy and served with mashed potatoes, fresh cucumbers, and some lignonberry jam. I bet they serve such a large portion so others at the table can try.


Ok – we were kind of stuffed by this point but still had some of our wine to finish, so we ordered the bread pudding to share for dessert. It was warm, comforting, and a perfect end to the meal.


Did I mention how cheap this place is? We ordered tons of food, but were very pleasantly surprised when the check came…

Guacamole-off

When I heard last week that a couple of my co-workers were organizing a “guacamole-off” at work, I knew I would have to come up with a winning recipe. I’m usually a purist when it comes to guac, but I figured I’d have to make something a little different to make mine stand out. I decided to put some mango in it and add some habanero hot sauce to counteract the sweetness. I also found some key limes at the store that I thought would give my guacamole an interesting twist. It worked – I won!

I created the recipe the night before using one avocado and just recreated it in the morning with four avocados. It made for an easy but yummy dinner over with some pan-fried catfish.

Key Lime Mango Guacamole

1 ripe avocado
1 clove of garlic
¼ tsp. kosher salt
2-3 tbsp. mango, chopped
2 tbsp. red onion, chopped
Juice of 1 ½ key limes
½ tsp. habanero hot sauce
1-2 tbsp. cilantro, chopped

Chop the garlic and smash into a paste with the salt. Add the rest of the ingredients and mash until desired consistency.

Restaurants: Momofuku Noodle Bar

Since I moved to New York last month, everyone has told me that I need to try the pork belly buns at one of the Momofuku restaurants. Fortunately, Noodle Bar and Ssäm bar are both within walking distance of new place. My roommate Jess is one of the many who have gushed about them, so we made our way to Noodle Bar (the more casual option) on Sunday night to check it out.

We started off with the pork belly buns. Each bun is filled with a couple generous slices of pork belly, cucumbers, hoisin, and scallions. When you top it off with a little bit of chili sauce, it’s…well…heaven.


We also tried the roasted brussels sprouts with bacon, kimchi, and carrots. If you know me, you know how I feel about Brussels sprouts. Bias aside, I think this dish could convert the most adamant brussels sprouts hater.


We then each got noodle bowls. I got the momofuku ramen with pork belly, pork shoulder, and a poached egg. I guess I went a little overboard on the pork, but how could I resist?


Jess tried the ginger scallion noodles. She also ordered a side of broth to pour over the noodles, which turned out to be a great call. The broth was incredible.


I’ll probably be back very soon...next weekend maybe??

Restaurants: Toro Sushi

A post about my favorite sushi restaurant (and maybe overall restaurant) in Chicago is long overdue. Toro is a tiny BYOB in Lincoln Park that may not look like much, but I don’t think you can get better sushi for your money. I went about once a week when I was living in Chicago, even braving the sometimes 2 hour wait.

A few tips -

• Get there early and prepare to wait. They will turn people away when the waiting list has gotten too long. Don’t take your chances: get there early, leave your phone number, and wait at a bar nearby.


• Sit at the sushi bar. It’s a little cramped, but Mitch (the chef/owner) will usually pass out some of his favorites to try. Don’t be alarmed if he gives you a fist pump.


• Get the salmon nigiri! It’s the best…ever.

My friend Katie and I went last week and got some of our favorites:

Hot Finger Roll Appetizer – deep fried spicy salmon roll


“O” Roll – super white tuna, wasabi tobiko, spicy tuna, and avocado


Alaskan Roll – salmon and avocado


Mackerel Nigiri, Salmon Nigiri, Hamachi Sashimi, Tuna Sashimi


Deep Fried Green Tea Ice Cream

Restaurants: Hungry Mother

Hungry Mother quickly became a favorite of my family when it first opened down the street from my parents in Kendall Square last year. The food is kind of like refined Southern food with a French twist. The menu is very small, but it changes often and I have never had anything that I haven’t loved. Between the atmosphere and the service, you actually feel like you’re dining at someone’s house.

Unfortunately for us, word got out. In addition to getting rave reviews all around, Barry Maiden, the executive chef, was featured in Food & Wine Magazine as one of the best new chefs of 2009. Let’s just say that same day reservations are hard to come by these days!

Last Sunday was the last night of my Thanksgiving visit home and my dad had just flown out for a business trip. My mom and I thought we’d call Hungry Mother on the off chance that they had an opening for two. They didn’t, but they told us that someone was about to get up from one of the bar tables and that they’d save it for us if we could be there in five minutes. Off we went…

The menu is split up into snacks “to tide you over,” firsts, mains, and sides. The mains are generous portions, but it’s hard to resist ordering a few additions. We started off with the beef tongue canapé. I ordered it my first time there just to try something different and was blown away with how good it was. They thinly slice the smoked tongue and top it with a little bit of mustard and melted gruyere. It’s a little bit sweet, has a bacon-like smokiness, and just melts in your mouth.


We also got the black eyed pea fritters, which had a really interesting texture that we loved. They were both crunchy AND creamy on the inside. Our server told us that the black eyed peas were soaked but not cooked. It didn’t hurt that they were served with buttermilk ranch dressing and house made bacon.


I ordered the gnocchi in a mushroom broth with chanterelles, squash, red peas, brussels sprouts, and parmesan cheese. They seem to always have a variation of this dish; they just change the vegetables with the season. I’m not usually one to order a vegetarian dish, but I had some of my mom’s one time and fell in love with it.


My mom ordered the cornmeal catfish served over dirty rice, andouille, and mustard brown butter. It was topped with a sour vegetable relish that cut through the richness of the fish really nicely. Again, they always have some kind of cornmeal catfish on their menu and it actually seems to get better and better.


Because I can’t come to Hungry Mother without getting some grits, we shared a side of the baked cheddar grits with tasso ham.


For dessert, we split the coconut cream parfait. The coconut cream was layered with toasted coconut and topped with rum whipped cream and a coconut shortbread cookie.


As you can probably tell, I love everything about Hungry Mother. Its’ the kind of place you can go to and know you’ll always leave in a good mood. If you haven’t already, you should definitely check it out.