Eating My Way Through Chicago
Does Chicago have a theme song? Like New York, New York? If they did I’d be singing it to my heart’s content. What an awesome town! Last week I got to experience Chicago first hand, absorbing all I could with my eyes, ears and best of all stomach with the great people from Cracker Barrel Cheese! The next few months here at Country Cleaver we’re going to be chatting cheese, creating fun recipes and going into the wonderful world of curd – so get your stretchy pants on people, it’s gonna get cheesy up in here!
Learning Cheese
Our first stop was to the Kraft test kitchens where we learned all about the basics of cheese making, cheese tasting, pairings and judging. Did you know that cheese and chocolate go together? Well, they do. White chocolate and cheese – life changer.
Crackerbarrel ranks amongst the best cheese available, winning some of the most prestigious awards in the cheese world. These aren’t you “paid to be awarded” type of awards, these are blind taste test awards that pit them against some of the best artisanal cheesemongers out there. Consistency and quality make Cracker Barrel the cheese you go back to time and time again for all your entertaining and snacking needs.
Tasting Chicago’s Finest
If you’re a Top Chef fan you will know this name right off the bat – Stephanie Izard. After the Top Chef Season 4 contestant swept the show and won, she returned to Chicago to open up her restaurant Little Goat. To say that it was simply “delicious” would do it the biggest injustice. It was utterly fabulous, flavorful, innovative and still homey and comforting. Between the sweet onion soup and the chocolate and cheese dessert – I really couldn’t pick a favorite.
If you are ever in Chicago – Go. Here.
Along the way we also took a few moments to try out hand at additional chocolate and cheese pairings at the Vosges Flagship store. With brilliant culinary flair, these chocolate combined exotic spices with sweet chocolate and strong, flavorful cheeses. It was so cool! They’re chocolate bacon bar is everywhere and once you go bacon and chocolate you’ll never go back. Fine, it doesn’t rhyme – but the statement stands.
Between the Chicago Hot Dog and the Chicago Deep Dish pizza – I’m not sure which is more “Chicago-ish”. Which one is better? Which one is more Chicago? Who cares – because either one is a total win. Our final stop on our food tour was to the renound The Haute and the Dog. Seeing as mac and cheese was the end all be all of my childhood food pyramid – I couldn’t pass up the green chile mac and cheese dog. I know, how terrible am I for passing up a tried and true Chicago Dog? But it was scrumptious to the Nth degree. Along with their baked fries and aioli. I’m lusting after a hot dog now. I’ve officially got problems.
Food Styling
Before departing Chicago our last meal was had at The Boarding House where we got to partake in some of the simplest and most lovely styled foods and got to experiment ourselves with styling with cheese. Laura Bedardski taught us all the tricks of the trade for styling with cheese and gave us a chance to try our hand at it, too. And yes, I snuck a bite here and there. Shhh…
The design of the Boarding House was so snazzy, with over 6,000 wine glasses hanging from the ceiling downstaire and over 3,000 beer bottles hanging above us at brunch.
The whole trip was just pure perfection. It was a trip I won’t soon forget.
Oh, and did I mention the Vosges Chocolates? Just covering my bases.
Stay tuned for more cheese talk and join me in this fun new adventure.
*Fine Print*Â Photography:Â Todd Rosenberg/Cracker Barrel (Boarding House Photos), Girl + Goat set – by Courtney Whittmore from Pizzazzerie – all the rest are my own. | Disclaimer: The trip was provided by Kraft Cracker Barrel but all opinions are my own. Cheese rules! Â
Loved following along when you were there. Such torture as I seriously love Cracker Barrel cheese. I wanted to blink or snap my fingers and be there with you guys! 😉
Such an amazing trip!!! Cheese is my biggest weakness in life – what a fun experience for you!!!!
I wish I was there with you! This trip sounds amazing! I am so jealous, but I LOVE reading your recap!
Looks like you had a fabulous time! What a fun trip!!!
What a fun trip and in one of my favorite cities! Loved your recap.
What a fun trip!! Looks like you had a blast 🙂
um AWESOME! Sounds like you had a fabulous trip! Can’t wait for all your upcoming cheesy posts!! 🙂
Chicago does have a theme song of sorts–My Kind of Town by Frank Sinatra!
What a great experience! Chicago is truly a town to eat your way through, haha! I found that out first hand the very first time I visited… Let’s just say the scale didn’t love me afterwards. 🙂
What a fun trip! I wish I was there. 🙂
Start singing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoKn7vkSMBc
It was such a great trip! I want to go back and do it all over again! So glad I got to meet you =)
What a great time! Cracker Barrel is seriously the best.
I was following you on instagram–looks like you guys had a great trip!
I want to be you!
The Boarding House looks like a great restaurant. I love the look of those beer bottles hanging from the ceiling!
So jealous of this awesome trip! I love cheese and I LOVE chicago!! looks like such a blast – i had so much fun following along 🙂
So jelly you got to eat your way through Chi-town!! I miss that darn city! Can’t wait to see more recaps!
How fun!! I love Chicago, can’t wait to hear more. They picked the right girl!
Looks like you had a dreamy trip filled with delicious food.
How fun Megan! The food looks amazingly delicious! What a great experience!
What an awesome trip! My husband is from Chicago and that’s where we met before moving to CA and I lived there for 5 yrs or so…great, great city. I can only imagine how much fun you guys had!
Wow looks like such an amazing trip! I just adore the style of the boarding house 🙂
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Love this! Â We still haven’t been to Chicago but are talking about it potentially for this Fall. Â Love the atmosphere of The Boarding House!
Now I’m hungry!! Â I need a trip to Chicago asap!
Cheese and chocolate? Chicago is speaking my language, lol. 😉 I still haven’t visited there yet, but the windy city is definitely on my travel bucket list!Â
Chicago is my husband’s home town! I always have to have a Chicago deep dish when we visit. I couldn’t make it the last time he visited, so I made him fly home all the way to Italy carrying a Chicago deep dish.Â
Did you try Frango Mints? Those are my husband’s favorite! They were created at the old Marshal Field’s, which is now Macy’s. Another Chicago treat you can’t miss.Â
Um, take me with you!! I love ALL.THE.CHEESE!
Those chocolates are TO DIE FOR! Â So good. Â A must for any visit to Chicago.
What a fun trip and a great recap, makes me want to visit right now!
Oh my yum! I love the cleverness of the Haute and the Dog, how cute. Drool worthy pics!