Breakfast, Lunch, and Chocolate

We have spent the last several days unpacking, organizing, and generally trying to make this new apartment a home.  (Special thanks to Charlotte and Craig for their herculean efforts on Sunday!)  And so we find that occasionally we need to get out and take a break.  Our street and neighborhood is perfect for this.  We've been able to explore several little shops, restaurants, and even a Farmer's Market without losing much momentum in our unpacking.  A few of our favorites from the last few days:

Amy's Candy Bar

Amy's is a super cute, old fashioned candy shop with a modern vibe just across the street from us.  When we got the apartment, the first thing Michel found while exploring the area on Google Earth was Amy's.  I think that sealed the deal for him.  

 

The shop is divided into varieties of chocolate candies and gummy/fruit candies.  There are all the old favorites plus kinds of candies of which I've never even heard.  There is even a special section for imported candies from all over Europe, mainly.  I was especially excited to see Winegums, a favorite of mine from England which Meghan had introduced me to in college!  The great thing is that you can get a little bag and buy however much you want of whatever you want.  We decided on a small bag for chocolate buttercrunches for Michel and dark chocolate sea salt caramels for me.

Ultimately we were a little disappointed in the buttercrunches, but the caramels were yummy, and who doesn't love a place that advertises root beer floats on their sidewalk sign?

Lincoln Square Ravenswood Farmers Market

One day we walked to the Lincoln Square Ravenswood Farmers Market for lunch and to grab some items for dinner.  It is a fairly substantial market, right next to the Western Brown Line stop (though we walked down my new favorite street in the neighborhood to get there rather than take the train) and has tons of wonderful-looking produce from the Chicagoland area farms.

One of the really cool things about Chicago is its proximity to Wisconsin and therefore its proximity to really, really, really amazing cheese.  And I like cheese.  A lot.  Like a lot a lot.  So living close to the place where that rich, creamy goodness of basil cheese my grandmother's friend brought her is made is a very exciting prospect.  But what I didn't know is that Wisconsin also produces gorgeous mushrooms, which, as many of you know, is my favorite food.  Cheese and mushrooms.  I am a happy camper.  In fact, that is what we bought at the farmers market: portobello and shitaki mushrooms and fresh blue cheese for scrambled eggs that night, our first home-cooked meal in the new apartment.  It was delicious!

As we were about to leave, we saw a crepe stand at the back of the market.  Now we love crepes, particularly the crepes at Melange Creperie in Houston, made by the one and only Buffalo Sean.  Sean's crepes are the perfect crispy texture with the most creative flavors made in the traditional Parisian street crepe style.  When we found out we were moving to Chicago, we asked Sean if he knew any good crepe places up here.  His response: he hadn't been able to find any good crepes, but he knew a few good Italian beef places!  This stand was run by two French guys with strong French accents and a traditionally French menu, though, so we gave them a shot.

 I had the strawberry jam crepe, and Michel's was ham and pesto.  Delicious flavors, but the texture of the crepes were disappointing.  Really thick and spongy, not at all crispy.  We do recommend checking them out if you are looking for a decent street crepe in Chicago.  But for the best, head to Houston and visit Buffalo Sean at Melange!

Over Easy Cafe

Our most recent find is a second breakfast place.  Along with cheese, we really like breakfast.  Over Easy has charming, modern decor and a friendly staff.  It was pretty busy when we arrived for a late lunch (they close at 2:30 p.m.), but we were greeted at the door and got a table right away.  Michel had their signature Sassy Eggs, a Tex-Mex confection of eggs, chorizo, ancho chile ketchup, sour cream and guac, and red potato hash.

 

I had the French Toast special: brioche French Toast with orange pastry cream and fresh, locally sourced blackberries and a blood orange syrup.  Both were fantastic!  However, it wasn't quite Marmalade.  And when you've had Marmalade's freshly made vanilla bean whipped cream, cream from the can just tastes like a sad, thin, watery imitation of whipped cream.  This experience showed us just how important your mindset and the people are when trying a new place, whether restaurant or other.  We needed Marmalade the other day, and Marmalade came through for us.  So, while we will enjoy the occasional jaunt to Over Easy, our regular breakfast place will continue to be Marmalade.

Michel made a prediction the other day that at least 90% of our blog will be about food.  We're par for the course, then.  I do hope to expand some, though, and I know for a fact that there is an upcoming blog on the installation of our air conditioning window unit, so get excited.  We have several blogs planned for the next few days (so much to do and so much to say), but after a while we'll be posting a little less frequently.  So thank you all for reading, and we hope you are and will continue to enjoy our adventures in Chicago!