ArcaMax

Bread on a Hanger

I did my most recent ZBinge in pretty much one meal instead of over two days. I only gained two pounds, which was good, and I immediately lost 4.1 pounds so I’m on my way down again.

In order to do my ZBinge my husband and I visited a restaurant in Chicago called Allium. Allium is located in the Four Seasons hotel and is run by a chef named Kevin Hickey. Very talented man. Chef Hickey is so talented that the last time the Michelin raters came to town he was one of the first places to receive the revered Michelin star for the outstanding food served in his restaurant. Fancy stuff! Funny thing is, the star was earned and then Kevin and the Four Seasons decided to completely revamp the entire dining room and the food. Nothing is the same. Before it was white tables cloths and rather stuffy. Now it looks like club atmosphere with beautiful wood tables and plush seating.

The menu is totally new. Now, they specialize in small plates (like many restaurants do), so you are encouraged to order more courses. The courses are smaller so it’s easier to do. They come with a smaller price tag too (per course) so it encourages you to taste lots of different things.

The list of what we ordered is almost embarrassing to reveal here but I am going to do it anyway and make comments along the way.

We started off with two things from the Snack category. We got the California almonds and the chorizo cheese chips. The almonds were amazing. I have to figure out a way to make these for ZReboot. They were regular almonds coated with a mixture of maple, sea salt and spice. Don’t worry. I’ll figure it out.

The chorizo cheese chips were a sad disappointment. Can’t win ‘em all, I guess. They were homemade chips, which were nice, but they were covered in a white, gooey cheese sauce that was bland and the chorizo bits were just about non-existent. Let’s move on.

We then ordered a couple of carbohydrate-laden favorites. The bacon and onion buns and the cheese lavosh.

The bacon and onion buns were fabulous but since they were a jazzed up version of Parker House rolls I can’t recommend you eat them on a regular basis. The lavosh was worth a picture. I have never seen lavosh hanging on a hook. I asked them to take a picture of one on my phone so you could all see it too. They took my phone back into the kitchen, so as not to disturb other guests, and brought me back the picture. The paper-thin oval of lavosh was perfectly seasoned. We just ate enough to get the idea and began to prepare the doggie bag for transport. We have others in the company who love it when we bring them leftovers. I could never endeavor to eat that whole thing so we definitely planned to take some home.

In the Smaller Course category I ordered the 24 Hour Onion “Tarte Tatin”. The onions are soaked in butter and milk a full 24 hours and the final product had plenty of goat cheese along with some apricot bits. It was small. Nothing left when we were done with it. No leftovers there.

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