Quartino
Location 669 N State street
The first restaurant we felt our readers should know about is Quartino.
This perfectly located pizzeria and wine bar is definitely a "must do" in our opinion.
If you are one of those people who think that Italian food is mostly the same and the only thing that changes is whether you dress it up or down, Quartino might just convert you to an Italian food lover.
This restaurant is almost always packed with people. Mostly adults and young adults, but if you go in the afternoon you could possibly spot a few families. So if you want a peaceful night out, this is not the place for you. Quartino is bursting with energy.
We arrived and were seated promptly. It was another cold and chilly Chicago fall afternoon; the restaurants air conditioner was on blast and made it seem like it was colder indoors than it was outside.
We were attended to by two different servers before we got out "official" one. Our server was attentive and friendly.
The menu had a great variety of dishes for pizza and pasta lovers, vegetarians and meat lovers. Prices range from as little as $5 for a side dish or appetizer to all the main dishes, which are meant to be shared go up to $23.
There was not enough space on the table considering all the dishes were "made to share". The food came out as soon as it was ready and we did not wait too long.
We ordered:
Beef Carpaccio
Speciality Shrimp
Grilled Organic Veal Skirt Steak
Mushroom Risotto
For dessert: Coppa al Banana
All the dishes were tasty but the Coppa al Banana made us wish we could stay in that moment for ever.
Quartino is perfect for groups, one on one (friendly) and even family meals. It definitely deserves to go on "our fav's" list (you can find on the side bar of this page).
Accessibility: 5
Price: 4
Food Quality & Taste: 4
Service: 3
Ambiance: 3
* restaurants are rated between 1 and 5. 5 being excellent and 1 being poor*
Don't take our word for it? Decide for yourself http://www.quartinochicago.com/
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Recipe of the week
Seeing that this weekend is Halloween weekend, we at ChiSoNe felt it would only be appropriate to have a Halloween themed recipe.
*A full slide show of pictures showing us making the recipe can be found at the bottom of the page*
Pumpkin Chocolate chip Mini Eyeball Cakes
1 1/2 Cups of sugar
5oz of butter (room temp)
3/4 cup of pumpkin purée
6 Egg whites
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of cocolate chips
Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter and sugar till it's light and fluffy. Mix the flour and baking powder, make sure you mix it well otherwise you will have uneven mini cakes. Slowly add the pumpkin purée and butter mixture into the flour. Add the (mini) chocolate chips!
It would be better to use a cupcake baking dish with 12 cups. Fill the cups roughly to the top and pop them in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes.
While waiting for the mini cakes to get ready you can either make your own butter cream (make sure you buy food colouring for different eye colours) or you can just buy small amounts of butter cream and make sure you buy different colours.
Take the mini cakes out of the oven and let them cool for 20 minutes.
Decorate the cakes using four different colour icing.
1) the pupil of the eye
2 ) the eye colour
3 ) the eyeball vains
4 ) the Sclera (white part of eyeball)
Tip of the day: It's always better to pipe out the butter cream especially for such detailed work. If you do not have piping bags you can simply use a ziploc/ plastic bag, squeeze the butter cream to one side of the bag and make a small cut in the corner.
Makes approx. 15 minicakes.
time: 1hour
approx. price:$45
taste and quality: 4 out of 5 stars
*A full slide show of pictures showing us making the recipe can be found at the bottom of the page*
Pumpkin Chocolate chip Mini Eyeball Cakes
1 1/2 Cups of sugar
5oz of butter (room temp)
3/4 cup of pumpkin purée
6 Egg whites
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of cocolate chips
Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter and sugar till it's light and fluffy. Mix the flour and baking powder, make sure you mix it well otherwise you will have uneven mini cakes. Slowly add the pumpkin purée and butter mixture into the flour. Add the (mini) chocolate chips!
It would be better to use a cupcake baking dish with 12 cups. Fill the cups roughly to the top and pop them in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes.
While waiting for the mini cakes to get ready you can either make your own butter cream (make sure you buy food colouring for different eye colours) or you can just buy small amounts of butter cream and make sure you buy different colours.
Take the mini cakes out of the oven and let them cool for 20 minutes.
Decorate the cakes using four different colour icing.
1) the pupil of the eye
2 ) the eye colour
3 ) the eyeball vains
4 ) the Sclera (white part of eyeball)
Tip of the day: It's always better to pipe out the butter cream especially for such detailed work. If you do not have piping bags you can simply use a ziploc/ plastic bag, squeeze the butter cream to one side of the bag and make a small cut in the corner.
Makes approx. 15 minicakes.
time: 1hour
approx. price:$45
taste and quality: 4 out of 5 stars
Fall Trends
Hot pink blush:
Fall is introduced to us and as usual, new trends are breezing in.
One of those trends is switching your popular summer bronzer, to the new hot pink blush. The new blush color is bright pink making it appear as if you have great youthful rosy cheeks. Bronzer is out and blush is in!
One of our favourite is Bobbi Brown’s pale pink blush, or nectar blush.
Hope to see you out there with your pink, pink cheeks.
Knee high boots:
Summer has ended and fall is here. But its not all bad, knee high boots are so in, it makes us ask where were they last fall?
Knee high boots make you look fashionable, chic, and keep your legs warmer than usual all day. Btw, don’t worry there are plenty of different styles and and plenty of variety out there. We suggest you either visit Nine West, Macy’s, or Aldo.
Have fun choosing your favourite.
Military Jackets:
Yes, oh yes we have seen them all over magazines, in the runway, on celebrities; such as Kanye West, Rihanna and Brittany spears. Those amazing, new military jackets.
Help us figure it out, do the look more like circus-type jackets, military, or even Michael Jackson jackets inspired look. But that’s besides the point.
They look amazing, and make you look ohhh so chic.
Whats Up With That?
What's up with balloon boy and his crazy attention seeking parents?
Like alot of people in the US, I remember watching this story play out with live coverage on CNN a cable news channel reporting of this experimental helium balloon experiment gone wrong.
I must admit at the time, I felt so sorry for these parents, thinking how terrified they must be and hoping that their son, who supposedly climbed in to this balloon was going to be alright.
If only someone had told me to save my empathy for a real cause like animal rights or global warming.
After rescuers chased the balloon for over 90 miles, it finally landed and to everyone's surprise, there was no boy inside. Hmmm seriously?
I am no Wolf Blitzer, but I think most of us knew as soon as we heard there was no body found in that balloon I knew there was something sketchy about this story. And now we all know that this was just a huge "hoax" for publicity.
His parents are being charged with felonies and only time will tell what happens in to this family.
Personally, I don't want or need to know. I think too much time and energy has been spent on reporting this case.
Lesson of the day: Do not lie to the police or other authority.
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