Fogo de Chao

Several weeks ago, it was Spring Break: the perfect time for Nate and I to fulfill the plan we made a year ago to go to the Chicago branch of Fogo de Chao, the Brazillian steakhouse (since this way we would actually be able to go during a weekday and take advantage of the lunch prices…). I had heard of the wonders of the House of Skewers of Meat, but I had no idea of the awesomeness that waited within the hallowed halls.

Rest assured, I ate only a light breakfast of Cheerios before driving out to Chicago. Just enough to get the digestive juices flowing, but not enough to really satiate any hunger pangs. In fact, while driving out there, my hunger grew only greater with anticipation.

We finally arrived, and I knew it was going to be a great day when we passed the window display of racks of ribs slow roasting around an open fire.

We were greeted by a hostess and shown to our seats. Nate explained that at these Brazillian steakhouses, they pride themselves on the quality service as well as of the food, and the service was impeccable. The hostess explained how the simple process worked: flip the coaster from the red side to the green side when you want more food. We were ready to begin.

We retrieved a few select morsels from the appetizer and salad bar in order to whet our appetites a bit. The fresh mozzarella was particularly good. And then came the Moment: we flipped our cards from red to green.

Instantly a waiter was at our table, offering us bacon-wrapped chicken breasts. He was followed by another waiter with skewers of perfectly cooked bottom sirloin. We used our respective table tongs to hold the slice away from the skewer; we then placed it on our plate. Before we could dig in, yet another waiter was there with a skewer of ribeye steak!

And on it went. Round after round of flipping the card from red to green to red to green… It was definitely a good idea to flip the card to red until I finished my plate so I actually had some time to eat! The old plate was removed, a fresh plate was provided, and then I was ready to try the top sirloin, filet mignon, beef ribs, lamb, chicken, parmesan encrusted pork loin, and Brazillian sausage. Each meat was perfectly cooked; each bite delectable. My favorite cuts of the day were definitely the bottom sirloin and the ribeye–full of wonderful flavor.

Alas, all good things come to an end. We took our leave of this Restaurant of restaurants, but not before declaring that this had been the first meating of M.E.A.T. (Men Eating Animals Together). Ah, the joys of a perfect steak… Anyway, we had to gird our loins for the long drive home…on full stomachs. But we made it home safely, with fond memories and satisfied bellies.

Unfortunately the pictures I took while inside the restaurant didn’t end up well, so my descriptions will have to suffice…

Chinatown

A few weeks later, Melissa and I returned to Chicago with Nate and Grace. We decided that we would visit Chinatown and eat there before heading to the Shedd Aquarium. Nate and Grace had a favorite dim sum restaurant that they had learned of from Nate’s brother Joel and his wife Janet. It was Melissa’s first time eating dim sum (Chinese food ordered a la carte), and she liked it! It made me reminisce of the times my family took similar trips from Washington up to Vancouver just to eat dim sum… In any event, we greatly enjoyed our brunch there!

We then got bubble tea…

…and ate some pastries at a local Chinese bakery…

…and took pictures by the respective zodiac animals of our respective birth years.

We’ve had quite a bit of “culture” over the past few weeks!

Shedd Aquarium

And then we headed to the Aquarium, which was what spurred the trip initially; we had access to a special deal that allowed us to get two Aquarium passes for only $14 rather than $70… and it was only on the first weekend of each month. So we decided to take advantage of it! Although the lines were long and the halls were crowded (with very loud children), it was quite enjoyable! We saw fish from what seemed like every continent and every type of body of water. We saw (not exclusively)…

…a rock lobster (see also: the B-52 song “Rock Lobster” for laughs)…