THE GIRL NEXT DOOR.

It's my first restaurant review ever on Sage & Slingback and I would like to dedicate this post to my adorable foodie friend Poorna (Poo to us), the food connoisseur of our group. No one understands the flavors and the science of food better than you my friend. Thanks for adding spice to my life through your shining presence and charm. I am privileged to have a friend like you in my life, so let's eat and drink to that!

Year 2008, A New beginning!

Chicago girl Chef Stephanie Izard wins the "TOP CHEF - Season four" contest aired on Bravo, thus making her the only girl in the history of the show to win the title. Winning the reality show was only the beginning. In 2010, this curly haired chef partnered with the owners of Boka, a top restaurant in Chicago to open an all American eatery called 'Girl and the goat" in the city’s West loop. Her fifteen minutes of fame became the launching pad for a restaurant, now a celebrity brand worth $1.5 million. This restaurant seats up to 130 people. Within two months of its opening , "Girl & the Goat" became one of the most talked about restaurants in Chi-town. Known for Stephanie's bold and exciting cooking style (yes folks, she gives the words masala and curry a whole new meaning) and the use of simple yet unusual ingredients, it is now one of the most sought after restaurants in Chicago. People have to wait for months to get a reservation.

It was during this time that a few of my foodie friends and I decide to try out this much hyped eatery. After many, many phone calls, Poo finally managed to get a reservation for all of us.

Having tried some of the best eateries in town , I feel that my "Girl and the Goat" dining experience has by far been one of the best . I can still recall the taste of the chickpea fritters, the roasted cauliflower, the sautéed beans and the cheese stuffed peppers that we ate. And to top it all, Stephanie’s presence in the restaurant that night truly elevated our dining experience. We ate, drank and ordered many plates as we celebrated Stephanie the girl, and her goat. It was a lovely evening and the restaurant lived up to its hype!!.

With Top Chef - Stephanie Izard.

Year 2012, A new project!

"LITTLE GOAT”, Stephanie's newest project and a spinoff of her wildly successful restaurant "Girl and the goat" opened its doors to Chicago on Dec 29th, 2012.

Just across the street from its flagship location, it is a complete diner and is open from 7am to 2am. Breakfast is served all day along with lunch and dinner. It also houses a café called "Little goat bread" inside it, offering coffee , deli items and breads. Besides the main dining hall and the cafe, there is also a cooking classroom and a private dining area on the top floor. No reservations are accepted. As a result the place gets very crowded and you can easily gauge the kind of fan following Stephanie has.

Jan 21st, 2103 – It was Martin Luther's day and the temperature in Chicago, a bone chilling minus five degree Fahrenheit. But how could one resist good food? It had been a month since the diner opened and we didn't want to wait any longer. So, bad weather notwithstanding, Poo and I coordinated the outing and a bunch of super hungry friends headed to the city early that morning to try out the new eatery.

Little goat is hot,hot,hot. A warm, vintage inspired green and caramel colored vinyl wall welcomed us. The entire place was abuzz with solo diners, foodie friends and families thus giving it a typical diner feel.The open kitchen, old school stools and the cozy booths all added to the diner decor.

A centrally located skylight at the restaurant promises ample sunlight but if you get a table right under and the brightness is too disconcerting, then, no worries. The super friendly waiters will walk up to you right away with a box full of retro sunglasses. You can take your pick and continue looking cool and enjoy your dining experience.

The menu has more than 75 items with some great twists on traditional dishes and the prices aren't that big either. The monstrous size of the menu will definitely make you want to come back for more.

The young waitresses are attired in aubergine colored dresses and aprons.

We ordered the 2 most popular dishes on the menu, the Goat milk latte and the tempura fried onion rings with pickles. The "curry mayo" dip that accompanied the tempura was to die for, a great start to a cold morning!

A big hit with the Indians for sure. Eggs inside a paratha served with Avocado Bean salad.

A whole new twist on mashed potatoes...crunchy!!

Clearly my favorite dish, the tangy Blood Orange meringue pie. Don't miss this sweet treat!

Now taking you to the other section of the diner, "The little goat bread". This bakery/ café is headed by the bread guy "Greg Wade" and is enclosed in glass so that the guests can see the action. Fresh bread is made daily for both "Little goat" and "Girl and the goat".

Stumptown coffee, handpicked by Stephanie during her research trip to Columbia is prepared at the adjacent coffee bar. The fresh baked treats from the bakery are served in a sit down setting. Guests can also shop throughout the day for coffee, bagels, croissants, sandwiches, soups and of course fresh baked loaves of bread.

The "Little bakery bread" shop sells Stephanie's famous "FLAVOR" sauce and her cook book " THE GIRL IN THE KITCHEN" and all the little goat knick knacks.

With such a large menu to choose from, I am sure I will be visiting "Little Goat" again this summer, where I will be enjoying my beer & sandwich from the roof terrace. BTW, Stephanie just spilled some details on her next project  that she is working on, a chicken fast food and she is definite that it will not be called " Girl & the Chicken" !!

CHOO Story!!

BRAVEHEART.....

REST IN PEACE BRAVE ONE!!

Be it VASUDHARINI or UDD, most of my posts in the past have been about Streeshakti, about these strong- resilient women. And today it is about AMAANAT, a braveheart who paid a HUGE price for being a woman, in fact an Indian woman!!

It's Sunday 4 a.m, I wake up with a shiver running down my spine. I experience a weird sense of gloom. I am still thinking about the Delhi rape case and about Amaanat who breathed her last yesterday. It was Sundari's 3rd birthday yesterday and as I was getting ready for the celebrations for my little girl, I hear about Amaanats death in Singapore. My heart sinks right there and for the very first time I regretted being a woman, a helpless one who has to fear for her own safety in her own country and fight for her rights at every step of her life.

As per the statistics more than 250,00 women gets raped annually in this world, but this particular case has disturbed me immensely and I simply can't get her out of my mind. The degree of non sensitivity, inhumanity and the brutality involved in this particular heinous act just leaves me with this one question - How could they do this to a woman, just how could they??

I have fond memories of my trip to Bombay last year where I travelled all alone, enjoying the mansoons, the local food and the transportation without any fear. I travelled in trains, local taxis and rickshaws from KalaGhoda to Juhu Tara at 9 in the night without having to worry about my safety even once. It felt good to be free and be myself  in my land but henceforth my trips to India will never be the same. I will have to reluctantly use chaperoning services as I have started to fear my own countrymen after this brutal incident. What a shame!! 

Sorry for sounding pessimistic but the fact is that things in India hasn't changed much in the past and it will not change in the future too, unless we dig the roots. Indian government did it's bit of drama by flying Amaanat to Singapore in-spite of knowing that her health was deteriorating, women protesters were labelled as "painted and dented" by Abhijit Mukherjee,  the speaker of Rajya Sabha didn't have time for Jaya Bachchan's plea & tears, a few other politicians blamed Amaanat for boarding the wrong- tinted bus, the sports fanatics worried about Sachin's retirement, the film buffs about Dabangg 2 crossing 100 crores and the truth is  in the end nobody really cared, such is the sad state of my country!!

I personally feel that brutality of this degree should be answered by brutality of the same degree, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Stone them to death, so that one wouldn't even dare to do something like this in the future and I hope a fair, fitting and a swift punishment is served to the culprits. Her fight should not go in vain.

I only wished that Amaanat was alive to throw that FIRST stone at those bastards.

Have a SAFE new year that's full of hope!

CELESTIAL UNION !

Ramaya Ramabhadraya, Ramachandraya Vedase,

Raghunathaya Nathaya, Sithaya Pathaye Namah:

Very often, I keep asking myself this question - Does one really need a reason to celebrate? Doesn't every minute of this beautiful life call for a celebration?

I am a typical cancerian, a total homebody who is extremely house proud. As much as I like to socialize and have a good time, I also find comfort within the 4 walls of my home and it's important to me that my house reflect my personality. Since I am big on celebrations, I have aptly named my house ‘Sambrama ‘, which loosely means celebration in Kannada.

Faced with the challenge of decorating the huge bare walls of my new home, I painted murals on them depicting the happy folk art of India. Be it the rustic Warlis or the bright and bold Madhubanis, the walls in my house have a story to tell, a story of celebration!!

According to Aristotle "A friend to all is a friend to none" and I couldn’t agree more.

By choice, I have very few friends and as you all know by know that Vandana is one of them ( my posts are incomplete without mentioning her). I believe that she is lucky for me & I keep pulling her leg by saying that she is my Kajol and I am her Karan Johar. She helps me out by editing my texts and is a part of Sage& Slingback in some way or the other.

She is an amazing cook & loves to entertain. During one of the dinner gatherings at her place, she introduced me to this fun loving person, Aashima Dogra. Aashima is a hotel management graduate who bakes gourmet cakes for a living. Light, airy cheesecakes and mousses are her forte.

After a few meetings, when it was my turn to return the hospitality, I arranged a "women only" lunch at my place and during this visit, Aashima saw my wall murals and loved them. She then told me that she would like me to paint one of her walls someday. I casually brushed it off since quite a few people have said this to me in the past and forgotten about it later.

But exactly nine months after our meeting, Aashima , true to her word, invited me to paint the family room wall of her new home. YES, a promise was kept and a huge, framed white wall had been readied for me. It is a very satisfying experience for any artist to see his or her work in another’s home.

So I decided to paint a Madhubani mural with an auspicious theme depicting "celebration" on this humongous 16 by 5 foot wall at Aashimas. And what could be more auspicious than the joyous occasion of Lord Shri Ramachandra and Sita Devi's wedding as this is considered the epitome of celebrations in Ramayana ( The second one being "Shri Rama Pattabhishekam", coronation of Lord Rama).

Aashima trusted me completely and gave me a free hand. Not once did she question my decisions regarding the theme or color choices. We finalized December 14th as the unveiling date and I then took charge of bringing this "CELESTIAL UNION" to life in colors and form!!

Today, through S&S, I would like to congratulate the Dogras on their new home and wish them a life filled with happiness, good health & cheer. May Lord Rama bestow his blessings on this family!

Aashima & I