We started our day out with a train ride into town. I love having this option available to us now that we live in the Chicagoland area. Parking downtown can be pretty expensive so the $7 weekend roundtrip ticket and $2 parking at the station is well worth the longer ride.
After arriving at Union Station we hit the streets to shop our way over to The Magnificent Mile. After a little time up State St. we arrived at our first food destination. The Purple Pig. This is definitely not the first time you've heard about the Purple Pig on our blog. You first heard about it here... Mothers Day in Chicago ... on our first girls weekend. We usually like to try new places but all we could think about were the Roasted Goat Cheese Beets and there was no question we were going back for lunch this trip.
We started with the Salt-Roasted Beets, Whipped Goat Cheese & Pistachio Vinaigrette... I don't care if you don't like beets or goat cheese, if you get to The Purple Pig...eat the beets!! We also had the Shaved Brussels Sprouts, Pecorino Noce & Parmigiano Reggiano. I haven't like brussels sprouts for years, and still don't make them on my own but for some reason I've been craving them. These were pretty tasty. You would never know they brussels sprouts, lots of parmigiano reggiano, lots of yummy.
As a palette cleanser we had a delicious Tuscan Kale and Romaine Caesar Salad with Soft-Boiled Quail Egg & House Cured Anchovies. The kale was a nice bitter twist for the classic salad and the anchovy was uber yum.
So as if this wasn't enough food yet we hadn't even got to the meal dish! By main dish I mean dishes. First the Mussels with Pancetta, Creme Fraiche & Marjoram in which we ate so fast we never caught a picture of them. But we had plenty of time to get our camera ready for this dinosaur of a turkey leg!
Enter, the Turkey Leg Confit, Crispy Lentils, Treviso, Endive & Agrodolce.... to die for. Amazballs! Un-Flipping-Believable! Confit means this ginormous leg was seasoned, marinated, placed in a roasting pan and then covered in a layer of it's own melting fat and baked low and slow for 3-4 hours. This was the richest, most tender amazing turkey we have ever eaten in our entire lives! If we could "confit" an entire Turkey and not feel guilty about the fat Thanksgiving could be altered forever.
So now when you go to the Purple Pig to try the beets..... eat the Turkey too!!
We decided after all that rich amazing food a walk up and down The Mile and up and down The Water Tower was in major need. But then we needed a break... and a snack... Where to go?!
Sea Salt Caramel and Mocha Hot Chocolate
We shopped some more... bought stuff... well I did anyway. My mom supervised.
Lastly, dinner.... a short walk off the mile was a quite sushi bar called Bistro Pacific that came recommended by one of my co-workers. The place was damn near empty, which we feared was not a good sign for the dinner about to come but we had a lot of bags, walked all that way and if you can imagine, we were hungry again. We are so glad we stayed. With all our (aka my) shopping bags and being so exhausted from the day a loud bustling restaurant would have been too much. This place gave us a chance to wind down and stuff our faces some more!
Thank you Mommasita for a wonderful and fun weekend!
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