Chicago Food Hunt - Day 1

Chicago deep dish pizza is my first stop. Giordano is one of the well know Chicago deep dish pizza in the city. But after talking with the locals, they've suggested Lou Malnatis Pizzeria. The first impression of Lou Malnatis.... hmmm... "Friday's" like resto and frozen pizza for sale at the entry, not that impressive. I was really curious to see how good the pizza is. Lou Malnatis is their signature deep dish pizza so it must be their best if it's name after them.


This 9" pizza is quite heavy-duty even when it's shared. I was amazed with the amount of cheese and dough contained in this small deep dish pizza. After 1 slice and a mega size ice tea, I was done. Coming from NYC, I still think our thin crust pizzas are the best.

After consuming this enormous cheese pie, I had to walk at least 5 miles around the city to burn off the carbs for my next good meal.

Blackbird was another local recommendation. We managed to get a 10pm reservation on a Friday night. The restaurant was nicely decorated but it was a bit too loud for a relaxing dinner. Lucky enough we got a outdoor seat on the sidewalk.

Braised organic pork belly with grilled spot prawn, cornbread and gumbo consomme. Interesting combination .... organic = healthy; pork belly = high cholesterol. The prawn was well grilled, the pork belly can be more tender, and the gumbo consomme was ok.

Seared tasmanian sea trout with cherry molasses, baby turnips, and black rice. Fish is always a good light dish for late dinner. The fish was really fresh, the skin was perfectly seared and the sauce is pretty tasty.

Let's keep this short, Blackbird was good but not good enough to be great.