Frontera Grill: Chicago, IL 11/23/07

Margarita!

Well, here comes the Friday of Thanksgiving week again. This is Rick & Linnea's tradition to go to Frontera Grill for lunch, and I totally agree that it is an amazing idea!

I usually don't drink anything other than water, milk, and coffee drinks(I consider milkshake a meal so I am leaving that one out). I don't drink tea, soda, or lemonade. But the limeade here is pretty refreshing.

So here is how Frontera Grill looks like inside.

The bar and also the waiting place when the restaurant's full.

The cute decorations I like

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So, let's start with the appetizers!

All time favorite Guacamole

Sopes Rancheros

The new thing we tried this year: Queso Fundido

Last time the Jack Cheese in the turnover quesadillas was very good, so we tried something new with the same cheese. Garlicky roasted peppers, chorizo sausage and cheese. How can it go bad? I loved it.

Great Appetizers!Too bad the "enlightened" vegetarians couldn't fully enjoy the feast of the "ignorant"! (inside joke)

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Then let's go to the delightful lunch main.

Kim ordered the classic Taco al Carbon with skirt steak. I had this my sophomore year, I think. I really liked it; the other taco al carbon I tried was one with red chile-marinated pork, and I did not particularly like it because it was rather lacking in flavor-not the meat but the marinade. But with steak it was very good.

Three people ordered Quesadillas: Owen with duck, Mirelle and Lizz with chicken. I was thinking shrimp with spicy peppers will go well with it too and was tempted to try it, but got something else eventually.


So this is what I got, Milanesa de Puerco. This was the very first dish I tried at Frontera Grill four years ago as a freshman in high school. Not knowing what to choose from the unfamiliar menu, I picked this and liked it. I like the roasted tomato sauce but maybe there should be a little more. The crunchy coated pork was a lot more than it seemed. I guess Frontera started to care about how the dish looks more over the past few years, because from what I remember, this same dish was served quite roughly without any decoration.


So here is what Bev and Linnea ordered: the day's special fish, salmon with Green Pipian sauce. This sesame based sauce is one of Linnea's favorite, and from having a bite of hers as always, the the salmon was good. I think the sauce goes better with salmon than mahi mahi, though I admit the potentia bias.


Rick, I believe, got the daily special pork tamales. Their tamales are good too. I think the only time I did not like something served here was the scallops, which was not very impressive and rather too fishy. That was the only disappointment ever and I think ten years later I will still be talking about it, just because it was such a sharp contrast to my other experiences here.


Jim's dish which he claimed to be photogenic. Looks good, but I have to admire vegetarians!

Angela ordered Tamal Azteca. Tortillas layered with butternuts, huitlacoche(ooh, the scary inky thing), beets, chiles, tomatoes and cheese. As it said in the menu, almost like lasagne in its form.

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Here is what made this year's visit special: the desserts.

This icecream is made of peach sour cream, apples and apple brandy. The texture is homemade icecream but the flavor was almost sorbet-like with its fruit flavor. I really liked it because it is just inbetween the creamy richness of icecream and the refreshing sharpness of sorbet. When something is too leaned to one of the two you get tired of it easily, but this icecream was interesting. Angela's was served with cajeta, goat milk caramel, which was also quite different.


I got the same ice cream with the other option, fudge made with Oaxacan chocolate. The bittersweet chocolate with peach-apple flavored icecream was really, "interesting." I enjoyed it.


Then Angela's pick for Jim was Budin de Persimo, a persimmon pudding with walnuts and cinnamon cream. This was a bigger hit for Kim and Linnea rather than Jim himself, it seemed. Just like the ice cream, it was quite "different" from regular desserts.

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So thanks to Rick and Linnea, nine of us had a wonderful lunch. It was also amusing to take photos of so many people's food. From the appetizers, main dish, and the dessert, I fully enjoyed the meal and it was the best time in Frontera Grill ever. And Juan, our same waiter, is Lizz's favorite part of our visits too, I guess!

Previous Visits:
05/26/07

Thanksgiving Dinner 2007

Here is one of the favorite Thanksgiving games: Tiles.

Linnea had to use an injector because she could not find what she wanted. I like Bev's kitchen because you can sit and look right in front of you the process of cooking. The smell of tarte tartin was making me dream even before it took the right form.

Out of the oven

Flip! Oops, a little too much juice?

It still tasted good! Mirelle and I had to fight over leftover breakfast. In fact, she finished her portion that night before morning even came. The only thing I missed from the last version of this was the glazy texture on the top when it was cooked longer.

After hours of cooking and smelling to tantalize the hungry eaters, the turkey finally allowed the men to cut it into pieces.

Cookin' here

Ready for the Thanksgiving Dinner

Deviled Eggs

It was never my favorite but I really liked it this year. Kim claims that it is because she is back this year to join and make the dish herself. Well, it surely was good!

Did not have enough time to get the lightings right because people started to go for the white and dark meat! It is so hard to take pictures when there are 1.many people 1.a lot of food scattered all over the big table. Thanksgiving is obviously and hopefully both.

Creamed spinach and green beans with a "tang." I wonder why it is called creamed spinach; it should be spinach cream considering the composing ratio. But that reminds you of a mushed or deformed spinach like that in spinach dip, so let's keep the name.


Sweet corn! American corn's sweet that I always think it is sugared. Asian corns are in general chewier and has more flavor but hardly has the "sweetness".

And I always love Thanksgiving Gravy, though some people said it needed more salt. I usually don't like gravy that much but every thanksgiving I wait for this. Is it just the occasion or the cook that does it? I do not know.

Pumpkin Sticky Pudding!

Amazing.

Pre-Thanksgiving Foodlog

My amazing school Cranbrook gave a whole week off for Thanksgiving. That means ten days including weekends and Monday(for some reason)! So even before the actual thanksgiving, I've got something other than dormfood = stimulated my urge to take pictures of food.

My beloved lasagne made by Linnea. The extra pan becomes my next day's breakfast and lunch; that is how much I like it. We were also joking about how some people would go "what kind of cook is she to cook with temporary material!"

Then we went to Bev's in Chicago.

Penne and burger. I wish I had a grill in the dorm that I could use to grill stuff to give a nice flavor. But that would be a pain when one-and that could be me-has work duty and has to clean up for those who willingly forget to clean their mess.


The next day, Lizz and I went to Panera to get brunch and also wireless internet. The usual half/half, with Asian Sesame Chicken Salad and Frontega Chicken Panini. I realized that the pricing system for the half/half has changed a little; now you don't get much advantage for having a half panini- they too count as signature items and therefore require extra charge.

Asian rice noodles with chicken and pot stickers for dinner!
Digging into noodles for more chicken is fun; and I liked the noodles.


Then here is the dinner when more people came over.

Warm bread with butter, mashed potatoes and pot roast: A nice comforting cold day dinner!