I arrived in Chicago just in time to walk down Michigan Avenue on a beautiful June Sunday and over to the Harris Theater to see the 3 p.m. performance by Hubbard Street Dance Chicago – fantastic as always. Turns out we’d already seen the third selection, Three to Max, – or at least part of it – last year. I recognized some of the music (uno, uno duo tres, uno due tres – and so on grunted over and over at one p0int) and some of the choreography (including being mooned by several of the dancers except this time I wasn’t sitting with my 10-year-old niece). The first selection, Malditos, was perhaps the most striking – including a performance by a topless dancer who frankly was so flat chested at first I wasn’t sure she was a she. But she was. And a very engaging dancer at that. The second piece, Quintett, had very dramatic choreography (there were several times when I feared one of the dancers would get kicked in the face by another dancer) but the music was repetitive and monotonous. As always I was impressed with the physicality of the dancers – and the difficult choreography they mastered effortlessly.
We had dinner on Michigan Avenue at the Purple Pig which was fun – small plates. Some better than others. (My favorite was the Braised Baby Artichokes, Fingerling Potatoes, Asiago & Salami Toscanaand, surprisingly, the fava beans
Fava Beans, Leeks, Hard Boiled Eggs & Crispy Prosciutto. I didn’t like the caponata (too sweet) although I liked the bread with goat cheese that accompanied it and the clams were not as good as advertised. But the place had a fun vibe – bustling with people sharing long wooden tables and high (a little too high) chairs. As always, Chicago felt like such a vibrant welcoming city. (I also ate at a good quick noodle place on Michigan Avenue near Millenium Park. Nothing fancy but quick and fresh tasting.)
When we go to – or more often through – Kansas City, we tend to stop at the same place: Gates BBQ. Every once in awhile, we diversify and go to: Arthur Bryant’s BBQ. Or a handful of other restaurants like Lidia’s (Italian). Last weekend, having just had very good bbq in Eureka Springs, we decided to try something different. (Plus both Gates and Lidia’s were closed on Memorial Day.) So we drove along Southwest Boulevard, an quasi-industrial area on the west side that has long had eclectic restaurants and more recently Mexican restaurants and finally settled on El Patron, which turned out to be a terrific choice. We had very good fajitas – the best I’ve had in ages – that included chorizo and grilled shrimp (plus chicken and steak and lots of grilled vegetables) and sat on the outdoor deck upstairs at the rear of the building. We’ll be back! (The margaritas and mojitos looked great – we didn’t try because we had a 3 hour drive ahead, back to Des Moines.)
TakeBetsywithyou 