(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

I am home!

If it seems like I've been to a lot of museums and events lately, it's all part of Sam's Plan Not To Be Such A Fucking Shut-In Anymore. Even when it's a zillion degrees out. Besides, usually something funny happens, like today, when I encountered The Scallop That Wasn't.

I was going to go to Dose Market, but I decided I didn't need to pay $10 admission to be sold overpriced artisan groceries. So instead I ran down to the free model city displayed by the Architectural Society, which I have to say is nice but less impressive than I was expecting. But it was kind of cool to look at it and find my building, and the corncob buildings, and all the rest. Plus they had an old outdated model which was interesting to compare to my mental map of the modern city.

It's right near the Art Institute Museum, and I thought I could really use to look at some statues while being air conditioned. So I went and said hi to "my" Ganesh and to La Grande Jatte, and sat in the Ando Gallery for a while, and then went down to the North Terrace for lunch. If you have a few bucks to spare and you're at the Art Institute in the summer, you can't beat the North Terrace for a meal -- you sit outside around a gorgeous fountain populated by ducks, and the food is nicer than the cafeteria (which is no slouch) and cheaper than Terzo Piano, the superfancy restuarant on the third floor of the modern wing.

The selections are slim -- four or five salads and a handful of hot dishes -- but everything is delicious. I had creamy grits with white cheddar and tomato compote, served with sauteed shrimp and mini chive biscuits.

My one mistake was not examining some of the food more closely.

I thought they'd given me a bonus seared scallop, because it was white with a dark caramelised underside and it was sitting next to the shrimp. It was smallish, so I forked it into my mouth and on the second bite realised it was not, in fact, a scallop. It was a pan-seared cippolini onion.

Now, if you're going to eat a whole onion, a smallish cippolini is probably a good one to eat. It's sweet and not too strong. At the same time, I can't in good conscience recommend eating an entire onion of any kind, especially if you are expecting it to taste like scallop.

Other than that, however, the meal was delicious. And I managed to get the taste of onion out of my mouth by dessert, which was a chocolate panna cotta served with chocolate crumbs, raspberries, and mint leaves. I don't even know what a panna cotta is, actually, but from now on I'm a fan.

And now I am home, having satisfied my requirements for not being a shut-in today by flirting with the waitstaff at the North Terrace.

Comments

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

It's delicious, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panna_cotta) is what it is.

And how is it hot and humid by you, when it's only a gorgeous 66 and nearly humidity free where I am?

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's nice up here -- I got off the train at Sheridan and went AHHHHHHH.

The loop's holding the heat a bit more, even out by the lake. It's not too humid really, though it was a bit earlier. And then I'm also super-sensitive to heat, I haaaate it.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I am SO unhappy with heat and humidity. Today is like, my perfect day. 70 degrees, low humidity, beautiful skies.

And good for you for getting out and doing shit! I need to take a page out of your book.

(OMG TUUUEEEESSDAYYYY)

ALSO ALSO

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I challenge you (and I'm sure you'll just be *desperate* to get out of this [not]), to find an AWESOME panna cotta recipe and MAKE IT AND REPORT BACK.

Re: ALSO ALSO

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I found one, but it turned out to be a fruit jelly!

I SHALL CONQUER YOU, PANNA COTTA!

[juniper200.livejournal.com]

Today I ironed for two hours. Then I vacuumed the carpety bits of the house and mopped the rest. I also hosed out the cat boxes and scrubbed the stove with harsh chemicals. Mostly I did these things to keep Dove from making me read Bandom mpreg, but it also in no small part was about giving me something to resent in comparison to your day.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Neal Caffrey says you need a hug. And a Ketel One on the rocks.

[juniper200.livejournal.com]

Tell Neal to cram his product placement; gin and tonic is the finest of the summer tipples. Makes me want to go colonize something.

[ladytinyhelm.livejournal.com]

I have a similar reaction to mead. Though it's less "colonize" and more "pillage."

Also, my sympathies on the cleaning. (and the bandom mpreg, if that did end up passing before your eyes) Hopefully tomorrow will involve much nicer things that will make you sit back and go "wow, today is SUPER AWESOME compared to cleaning all the things yesterday."

[bookfanatic]

Do you have a link for the Bandom mpreg?

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Oh god, the horror is spreading...

[bookfanatic]

It's a weakness. In Bandom, at least, once I've suspended my disbelief most of the mpreg I've seen is adorable. (The rest I close quickly and purge from my memory.)

[evilstorm.livejournal.com]

How can you not have eaten panna cotta before now?! They're damn delicious, as upthread says.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I probably have and didn't know it :D

[caffienekitty]

Could've been much worse than an onion. The first time I had sushi, I saw what I thought was avocado paste on the platter and as a result stuck about a tablespoon of wasabi in my mouth. I don't know if the waitress has stopped laughing yet.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Ahahahaha. Like the first time I ate a chunk of pickled ginger, expecting it to be sweet...

[caffienekitty]

It is, a little, but not sweet like candied ginger.

[dorkabunny.livejournal.com]

In hindsight, it's also pretty funny when your mom tells you that the big bowl in the middle of the table is filled with green tea ice cream. That being said, I haven't touched wasabi since.

[caffienekitty]

Dude! Your mom is mean! XD

[dreamwaffles.livejournal.com]

I have exactly the same story, down a few comments. XD

...ow.

[caffienekitty]

The upside of our experience is we now know a surefire way of evacuating our sinuses in a big damn hurry, yeah? ;-D

[dreamwaffles.livejournal.com]

True facts.

[elainasaunt.livejournal.com]

Huh, funny that you had both grits and pana cotta in the same meal. They're two foods I find ultra boring - they only taste of what you put on them (or in them, chocolate pana cotta being slightly less boring than the white kind). Tofu's another one. Pan-seared cippolini onion, OTOH, sounds divine.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

The grits really were the base for the rest of what came with it, but they had a lovely texture, and they did taste faintly of grains, which I liked. I struggle with foods that are too flavourful anyway, so a bit of onion, bit of shrimp, bit of grits went down perfectly.

[elainasaunt.livejournal.com]

Ahhhha. "Too flavorful" just isn't in my vocabulary. Yeah, grits have texture, that's the one thing I'll give 'em.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I'm really sensitive to it in some foods -- for instance, I've had long arguments with people who insist lettuce has no flavour (I taste it for hours after I've eaten it). Cinnamon burns unpleasantly, most vegetables taste strongly bitter, et cetera. I can't eat cooked fish because the taste is too strong. So grits, to me, are delicately flavoured and perfect :D

[madripoor-rose.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a lovely day out. Except for Onion Surprise. I need a 'Stop Being Such A Shut-In' plan myself. I've almost forgtten there are other places than the library/grocery store/doctor's offices and I can go there!

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

It gets really easy in Chicago in the summertime -- there's TONS to do and a lot of it is free :)

[londonbard.livejournal.com]

OTOH, I would rather have a scallop that tastes like an onion than an onion that tastes like a scallop...

[rednwhiterose.livejournal.com]

I just got home from visiting my sister in London for a week where it was a comfortable 50ish F. In my neck of suburban US it is currently 90+ with humidity. I wanted to start crying when my dad and I left the airport.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

No wonder the good Doctor keeps going to London.

[sabra-n.livejournal.com]

Oh god, when you got the part of your story about the unexpected object in your meal I fully expected it to be an ear or something. I've been studying way too many torts scenarios for the stupid bar exam, clearly.

[darksideofstorm.livejournal.com]

This is totally the wrong thing to think about, but I'm not sure I could keep a straight face in a lawsuit involving SURPRISE EARS.

Does that kind of thing happen often?

[sabra-n.livejournal.com]

Torts professors love the grisly stuff. Cases I have read in my time as a law student include a decapitation-by-elevator and a human finger in chewing tobacco.

[tardis-stowaway.livejournal.com]

Oh god, when you got the part of your story about the unexpected object in your meal I fully expected it to be an ear or something.

Yes! When he thought it was a scallop, I was worried it was going to be a slug that had somehow crawled onto the plate. I was SO RELIEVED when it was only an onion. I don't even have a bar exam as an excuse!

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAHAHAHA. OMG.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

This is the fancy version of getting the onion ring in your Burger King fries.

[dreamwaffles.livejournal.com]

Man, that onion story reminds me of the first time I tried wasabi. It was a piece the size of a quarter. I thought it was avocado.

I was wrong.

[silentstep.livejournal.com]

Bahhhhhhhhh I was at the Art Institute today!

I mean I mostly was in the European Art Before 1900, but whateverrrr, I might have passed you.

This is turning out to be a terribly surreal trip for me, because yesterday it rained and then you posted about it having rained and I was all, HOMG THAT WAS THE SAME RAIN.

I mean, of course I knew you are a real person and not fictional at all but sometimes the line in my brain is a little bit blurry.

[silentstep.livejournal.com]

...upon rereading that may sound a bit stalkery; I can promise you that I didn't mean it so. It's just, I felt a little as though a character in a book I was reading suddenly started describing things that I was experiencing in the present. And then I had to remind myself that just because all I see of someone is text does not mean they are a book.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Nah, it didn't sound stalkery, it's one of those making-a-connection things. Glad you enjoyed the museum, anyhow :D

[itcamefromjapan.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on Not Being A Fucking Shut-In! I've been trying the same plan myself. Yesterday I watched Doctor Who with a bunch of friends and tonight I went to a party with the same friends and got pleasantly drunk.

...Granted, I'm going to spend the next few months painting houses in a small town and having no social life, but at least I managed it for a few days.