Chicago! Food!

I went to Chicago with Martin and Aubrey to meet my amazing friend, Amanda and her equally amazing husband Zach over a month ago. I have yet to post a single sentence about the trip. Ok, maybe I've posted a sentence here or there - but this trip was amazing, it was Aubrey's first time on an airplane, it was great to see Amanda, AND it coincided with Martin's birthday. So you see, lots of post-worthy material.

Because I really like food. I'm going to start off my Chicago vacation series around the food we ate while in Chicago. Because, Chicago, you sure do know your food.

This was a previously unknown fact to me, but Chicago is apparently known for its Steakhouses. So on Saturday night, in celebration of Martin's birthday - we went out for steak. We went to the Weber Grill. The steak was delicious, the conversation was hilarious, the wait was incredibly long but we were able to snag some seats at the bar and Martin's drink was on the house (due to it being his birthday)

It also happened to be that lady in the background's birthday. I'm not sure how old she turned. I asked her, but then everyone made it seem like it was such an offensive question to ask I think she got too embarrassed to answer.

Everyone knows of Chicago for it's deep dish pizza. It obviously would have been completely blasphemous for us to leave Chicago without trying some original deep dish pizza. So, of course, we gorged ourselves on it. We got pizza from Giordano's, Chicago's famous deep dish restaurant. We actually took this pizza back to the hotel and at it after Aubrey had already gone to bed, but had we eaten there I think it would have been perfect. It was a very nice family atmosphere. Be it as it was, though, Amanda and I had a great time drinking way too many gin and tonics (for me) and whiskey gingers (for her) while waiting for our pizza to cook. The boys hung out at the hotel with Aubrey. I can't say that I'm a huge fan of deep dish. I can say that I am very happy I tried it. I'll admit that it was pretty tasty. But given the choice between a good old New York pizza and a deep dish, I'd pick New York any day of the week.

They have McDonald's in Chicago. We didn't eat here, but we did find a GIGANTIC McDonald's and Martin insisted that we take a picture.

And then we crossed the street and went inside to use the bathroom. And Amanda got her picture taken with every statue on the lot (trust me, I have a lot more pictures similar to this one)

But, hands down, my favorite meal of the vacation was the CHICAGO DOG we got from a street vendor on Sunday afternoon. It was pure deliciousness. A hot dog with tomato, pickle, mustard, onion, relish, hot sauce, celery salt. AMAZING.

Martin and I actually enjoyed these so much that we got another one in the airport before leaving the city.