RoobiFood

676 W. Diversey Parkway
Chicago, IL 60614

If it’s great seafood you seek, you’ll find it in spades at Half Shell, in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. It’s a pretty simple joint- just a small menu offering all sorts of fish and sea creatures set in a garden level space which creates a dark, almost cave like vibe (garden level in Chicago means slightly below ground). In the summer, there is a small outdoor seating area for those who don’t want that “octopus’s garden” feeling! No frills here and the service is brusque almost to the point of rudeness but Half Shell has been going strong for over three decades and upon receiving your more than ample sized entrée, you’ll understand why.

The menu begins with a variety of appetizers, both hot and cold. Of course, fresh oysters on the half shell are a given! With items ranging from fried jumbo shrimp to Russian caviar, you can accommodate your taste buds and wallet as you like. As for entrées, the menu skews heavily toward fried food in the $12-17 range but also offers grilled fresh fish as well as lobster and crab offerings at market value, which can bring the price closer to the $30 range. Each entrée comes with French fries, an appropriate sauce for dipping and a small multicolored lollipop. I can’t speak for the lollipop but the grilled swordfish with garlic lemon butter was delectable and my boyfriend’s sampler of perch, frog legs, shrimp and squid with tartar and horseradish sauces was quite yummy. All around us, diners were merrily digging into the sea’s bounty right there in Chicago.

Fancy it is not and service is not five stars but with its full bar and consistently excellent seafood Half Shell is definitely a noteworthy restaurant. Bring cash and a hearty appetite!

BridgetA // Other posts by BridgetA

As I just returned from Monterey Bay Aquarium, here in Northern Ca., I wanted to give some insight into the seafood world.

There are many fish that are great to eat and sustainable. These fish are abundant and caught and farmed in ways that are good for our environment. Farmed striped bass, talapia (US farmed) to name a few.

There is also a list that we should avoid. As these fish for now, are farmed in ways that harm other marine life and/or the environment. These fish can also carry mercury in unsafe levels and/or other contaminants. Atlantic cod, monkfish and orange roughy to name a few.

As consumers we have a lot of power where and how we spend our money. I am awakening to more and more ideas where I need to take action now. A way to keep our planet and bodies more healthy and of course treat the animals around us with more respect. In this case, fish are giving their lives so that we can share a nice dinner with friends and/or family. I am for ever grateful to have choices in what I eat and with those choices I learn all that I can to make well informed wise decisions that in the long term really do effect us all.

To learn more about my brief overview go to www.seafoodwatch.org.

This site will give more info. on what to eat and watch out for so that you too can start making more informed choices.

Once we have the information we need to be more responsible.

lynn the personable chef // Other posts by lynn the personable chef

When we woke up the next morning, I couldn’t wait to explore this cozy coastal town while the guys played 18 holes. My cousin and I meandered through lovely shops and galleries on Main St. that ran along the ocean front. After golf and meandering, we all drove a little north of Ft. Bragg (a neighboring town) to visit the Pacific Star Winery high on a bluff with a spectacular view of the Pacific. The tasting room was “warehouse” funky and our wine pourer knowledgeable and very charming. If only the wine we sipped had lived up to the view or his charm.

That evening before the sun set we drove up the winding cliffs to the casually elegant Albion River Inn & Restaurant with more breathtaking views of the ocean and rocky shoreline in hopes of seeing a magnificent sunset from one of the window tables. Unfortunately, the sky was dark and cloudy and the fog never lifted.

Before going to our table, we decided to have a drink at the bar and take in the dramatic foggy view and the restaurant’s romantic atmosphere… fire place ablaze, white table cloths, Windsor chairs, hurricane lamps I half expected Heathcliff to come dashing in from the moors. Though my husband had a single malt and I had a vodka martini, Laura, the bartender poured all of us a mini-tasting of various wines from her cellar, our favorite being Chante Perdrix’s Cotes du Rhone from the Rhone Valley.

At our table our wait staff (Tamara and Anthony), like Laura, were attentive and friendly. It was obvious that they enjoyed working at the restaurant. My cousin’s husband and I had the chef’s choice two-course dinner with wine. The lst course was a lovely feta cheese salad which I paired with the Husch chardonnay that I had liked from the night before. The entrée was roasted boneless breast of chicken with a Marsala wine, mushroom, Dijon mustard & cream sauce, served with garlic-mashed Yukon Gold potatoes and a mix of steamed vegetables. Just writing about this meal makes my mouth water.

My husband had the oven-roasted quail (two – they are tiny) wrapped with honey cured bacon, marinated with burgundy vinegar, soy, garlic & fresh rosemary as a sort of barbeque sauce, served with maple-whipped sweet potatoes and sautéed snow peas. I tasted. I salivated.

My cousin chose the grilled fresh Pacific swordfish with lime & soy, served with stir-fried Nappa Chinese cabbage, mushrooms, sweet peppers, snow peas & coconut jasmine rice, topped with a chili-garlic glaze & marinated cucumbers. A definite winner.

Steve Smith is the executive chef and though the dishes sound complicated and fussy, they weren’t. They were presented simply and the tastes all complemented each other beautifully.

To end our last night in Mendocino we decided to have a nightcap at our hotel’s bar with its stunning, domed stained-glass ceiling. As we sipped our after dinner drinks we shared a deliciously sinful chocolate cake and a cheese platter of brie, blue cheese, manchego, apricots, apple slices and some nuts. The perfect end for a perfect day.

ilona // Other posts by ilona

A Vanilla Latte, Mocha, Steamer or any other fancy coffee drink when purchased daily at a local coffee shop is sure to drain your funds and postpone retirement indefinitely. Well have no fear, I have compiled a few recipes for coffee drinks that can be made at home quickly and easily, just by starting the drip machine before hitting the shower in the morning.

When making coffee in a drip machine you can add flavor directly to the grounds in the filter before brewing for a subtle flavor boost. Here are a few suggestions for add-ins.

Ground Cinnamon

Lemon/Orange Zest

Dried Coconut (unsweetened)

Cloves

Mint

Faux Mocha AKA The Hillbilly Mocha

Mix 2-3 Tbsp Ovaltine/Nesquick into a cup of coffee

Add a splash of Vanilla Extract

Add Milk to your liking

Mix and enjoy.

Some people prefer Hershey’s Syrup in this recipe. This is fine, but I like the lower sugar content and added nutrients from Ovaltine and Nesquick powdered mixes.

Lazy Mary Vanilla Latte

Milk

Sugar

Vanilla Extract

Coffee

This is a nice flavor shot. Add a splash of Vanilla Extract and 1Tbsp of Sugar to a cup of coffee, stir and add milk to taste. This is an amazing fake-out for vanilla latte, and if you like a more succulent flavor use Half & Half instead of milk.

Dreamer Steamer

This is similar to the Vanilla Latte above, but sans the coffee. This recipe is designed for a 12oz mug, adjust sugar for smaller mugs.

Milk

Vanilla

Sugar

Fill a mug with milk. Pour into a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add 1 tsp Vanilla Extract and 2 Tbsp sugar. Stir to dissolve. Heat and stir occasionally until a light foam or froth begins to form at the edges then pour into the mug and enjoy. Do NOT let the milk boil or scald, if this occurs there is no saving the treat and it will need to be thrown away.

An alternative is to place all ingredients into mug and microwave for 1-3 ½ minutes, until warmed through-out.

So keep that extra money you save on coffee house drinks and start building your nest-egg now. Plus, most people may find they enjoy using sugar to sweeten these drinks, rather than flavored high fructose corn syrup, which most coffee houses use.

DanBasil // Other posts by DanBasil

I’m an east coast girl. More specifically, a Long Islander with New England roots. I grew up in and around lovely coastal towns… from Glen Cove and Sag Harbor, to Quogue and South Hampton… from villages on the Cape and Vineyard to my mother’s hometown of Gloucester/Rockport, Mass. So for years after moving to LA, people had told how much I would love the little northern California coastal town of Mendocino, about a 4-hour drive north of San Francisco. They were right.

Recently my husband and I drove to the Bay area to rendezvous with my cousin and her husband then caravanned through the Anderson Valley, zipping through the Valley’s scenic wine country. We stopped for a picnic at the Navarro winery, a lovely Mediterranean structure with a beautifully manicured vineyard, then continued on through a majestic redwood forest to our final destination.

Our rooms were booked at the ‘period’ Mendocino Hotel & Garden Suites, an old hotel (est. 1878) with a wooden sidewalk on Main Street overlooking the Pacific that could have ‘starred’ in any John Ford western. Inside, the lobby, dining rooms and bar were charmingly decorated in Victorian décor as were our rooms in one of the hotel’s garden suites in a separate building away from the main hotel.

That first night we decided to eat in the hotel’s main restaurant which was given an “Award for Excellence” from Wine Spectator Magazine and a “thumbs up” from Zagatsurvey. Executive Chef Joe Brown is fairly new to the hotel and specializes in California cuisine.

We girls had the tapenade stuffed “rocky” natural chicken breast which I learned are from local chickens raised on a soft bed of rice hulls and allowed to range freely. The chicken came with braised cipollini onions, artichoke hearts and picoline olives. The dish was much lighter than we expected and just missed being excellent because it was sitting in too much broth.

Both guys ordered the roasted filet of California striped bass, confit red peppers, “speck” ham (juniper flavored from the Tyrolean region of Austria), baby fennel and marble (petite) potatoes. The fish was cooked well and all the tastes blended nicely.

We paid the corkage fee and brought our own bottle of Sonoma County merlot for the guys and my cousin and I ordered glasses of a pleasant Husch chardonnay, an Anderson Valley wine. As we ate and sipped we decided the new chef was good, but was trying a bit too hard to make his dishes ‘special.’

ilona // Other posts by ilona