#whereas Berry would have a grand ol time

[skyward-floored]

Hee hoo thinking about if my Link ocs were in lu

[omnomwithrob]

Post post-doc.

The end of August was bittersweet for me - it was also the end of my post-doc at UIC. It was an opportunity that surfaced out of nowhere during a time when Rob and I were pretty desperate for opportunities, and it turned out to be exactly the right thing for our lives. I absolutely loved my year working with the students there, but my year-long appointment was over, and it was time to move on. It just so happened that the very next day, my parents came to town to visit Chicago for the first time since we moved here a year ago, and they couldn’t wait to celebrate the completion of my post-doc. After much deliberation, we decided on a restaurant we thought they’d like - Bistrot Zinc (http://www.bistrotzinc.com/).

Rob and I had actually been to Bistrot Zinc once before, but it was just to walk in and say hello to some of Rob’s mom’s friends when she was in town back in January. While we there, we took note of how much my mom would love the lovely French ambience amid the splendor of the Gold Coast neighborhood, and nine months later, here we were to enjoy it! Look at my cute mom, enjoying it with her big ol’ glass of wine in this super orange photo :)

Oh man, we ordered so much food for this meal - so much on the menu looked so good, we had a lot of trouble saying no! We ordered two appetizers for the table, and the first was a mushroom risotto with shaved parmesan cheese. All at the table enjoy a good risotto, and what stood out to me the most about this one was not necessarily a strong mushroom flavor, but that it was very milky! Not necessarily a bad thing, but it made for a very mild dish.

Rob loves octopus and wanted to try the warm octopus salad - Mom is pretty picky about seafood and doesn’t often like it, and Dad didn’t seem too interested at first. But he really liked it when he tried it!  It was served amid roasted bell peppers and fresh thyme - a little different and warmer both in temperature and in flavors than your typical chilled octopus salad, intended to cool and refresh. Good pick, Rob!

While my company picked away at the two above appetizers, I was mostly focused on this little bowl of French onion soup. It probably wasn’t the most outrageously delicious onion soup I’ve ever had, but I appreciated that they were VERY generous with the gruyere cheese.

Not long after finishing our appetizers, our entrees arrived. I think poor Rob drew the short straw with his pick, the poached chicken with country stuffing and baby vegetables. At best, it tasted like just a run-of-the-mill chicken noodle soup (obviously without the noodles) - a little disappointing, unfortunately. 

Dad and his newfound appreciation for octopus ordered more seafood, the salmon with potato-leek ragout and beurre rouge (red butter). A classic Dad pick, he seemed to enjoy the salmon, which was beautifully grilled and pretty stunning on that plate. I wish I’d asked what made the butter red - red wine, perhaps? Not sure.

Whereas both appetizers and Rob and Dad’s entrees were on the seasonal specials menu for September, Mom and I ordered classics they have available all year. Mom had the vol au vent, which involved the stew d’jour (it was beef stew that day) with crème fraîche mashed potatoes and a little hat of puff pastry. It looked delicious, but unfortunately the stew was completely bland! Rob never believes me when I say this about anything, but sure enough, he took a bite and confirmed - not much flavor to that stew at all. On the bright side, the mashed potatoes were fantastic - the French have always known their way around a potato, and perhaps I need to start buying crème fraîche for my mashed potatoes at home.

I have to admit, I think I won the entree round with my poulet grand mere. I was looking for something suuuuper French, and I got it with this roasted chicken, served in a rosemary-garlic jus swimming with smoked bacon, mushrooms, potatoes, pearl onions, and roasted garlic. The chicken was slightly overcooked, but the rosemary garlic sauce was divine, especially with a big ol’ lardon of some of the best bacon I’ve ever had. So rich, savory, and flavorful - I loved it.

I’d like to take this opportunity to remind you - we ordered a lot of food. When the dessert menu appeared, we again couldn’t agree on what sounded the absolute best and ended up with three. Mom had the baeis avec mascarpone, or berries with marscarpone - and that’s exactly what it was! This is a great dessert if you don’t want something terribly sweet, as the berries were plenty tart, and the marscarpone cheese didn’t seem to be sweetened very much. Very good if you’re into that kind of thing, but if we learned anything from my last post, I needed something sweeter :)

Torn between the chocolate cake and something more traditionally French, I went with the latter and had the gâteau de beurre d'amande, or the almond butter cake. This was a fabulous decision - the cake was perfectly cooked with a crusty, sticky exterior and a soft, chewy interior, with both butter and almond flavors very well-represented. A bite with the beautiful whipped cream and a berry or two was just sublime.

Something I have learned throughout my pregnancy is that both of the major men in my life, my husband and my father, just have to get me chocolate if it’s even remotely on my mind. I like his about them. Knowing I had been deliberating over it, they ordered the chocolate cake so I could be sure to have a few bites - it was spongey, somehow both dense and light. It wasn’t quite the kind of brick of chocolate cake I’d been craving earlier in the week, but was rather more delicate and artisanal. I typically prefer something a little more decadent, but it was still pretty good, and the frosting and the whipped cream were both REALLY good.

I don’t think the four of us have ever ordered more food at a restaurant in my entire life. It was magnificent and gluttonous - the perfect way both to celebrate the end of an era of my life and to welcome my parents to Chicago. Bistrot Zinc may have had a few dishes that didn’t quite hit it out of the park, but it really delivered on the special occasion factor and was a wonderful place for us to celebrate together.

Caroline