Vacation Gleanings, Diet Observations and Faux Turkey

Short men with short legs shouldn't wear long (below the knee) shorts. They look like dwarves. Not a good fashion statement.

One morning at our Chicago hotel, someone abandonned a $6.00 bowl of fresh fruit. Totally untouched. Delicious blackberries, et. al, with juicy watermelon chunks. I wanted to whisk it off to my room and scarf it down. What a shame.

Devon Avenue in Chicago, the longest street in the world. Starts in Pakistan, ends in Israel.

Chicago, like many other cities, has two seasons. Winter and road construction.

Tonight we're having a South Beach Diet chicken salad. SBD has some delicious recipes, although of course sometimes I make a few substitutions in the interest of taste.

The non-fat half-and-half is a weird concoction of chemicals--better living through chemistry I guess. Why don't they call low-fat cheese no-taste cheese, in the interest of truth in marketing. Actually, the Laughing Cow brand (La Vache qui Rit) does taste like, well, cheese. It's good on celery, just like the diet recommends. Whenever the stores have in on special, they sell out the first day, which tells you that many folks must be following the diet. As diets go, it's do-able.

Lots of people do, but I never could hack weight watchers. Counting all those points was a full time job, and they were such lipophobes. 72 points for a pat of butter. Not quite that bad, but almost.

And then there was good old Dr. Atkins, with peaches and cream and pork rinds instead of potato chips.

When we lived in Wellesley the stores didn't even have pork rinds. Wellesley women are thin by nature, driving those big SUVs to soccer practice, and whatever must burn calories. You can stroll through the entire Roche Bros. store and amid all that food and temptation, not see one fat woman. They are all buying that disgusting sliced turkey that has some sixth-cousin relationship to turkey or meat but mostly related to nitrates, saline and flavor enhancers. Yuck.

O.K., ask me how I feel about deli turkey. Do you ever seen skin? Bones? Anything resembling a real turkey? Ask yourself what you're eating.

Better yet, buy a turkey breast--the kind with bones, damn it, and rub it with canola oil, salt, pepper and some seasonings and roast it until the timer pops up. Carve and eat and put the rest in the fridge for turkey sandwiches.

Real people eat real food.

Grapeshot

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig

Chicago Skyline

Milwaukee Museum of Art

So we're back from The Road. Chicago is a fantastic city of stunning architecture, museums, public spaces, food, culture, you name it.

We had a Mexican feast at Salpicon, so delicious, the kind of Mexican food you cannot get at any price in Boston. Chowed down on beef at the Chicago Chop House; went back to an old haunt at Hackney's in Wheeling. Another old haunt was The Berghoff in downtown Chicago, closed and now reopened, but a shadow of its former menu, which was German. German food is hideously out of style, even in Germany. They perfer bad Italian. Whatchagonnado?

We touched the Finger Lakes region briefly and had motel issues, but the Hotel Burnham in Chicago was great. A former office building. They had wine in the lobby at 5:00, a nice San Francisco tradition. We like wine at 5:00.

We also had a drink at the Ritz, and the vodka gimlet was very fine. I do enjoy quaffing a good gimlet.

The Milwaukee Art Museum was an incredible white structure with great exhibit space and some cool art. The Art Institute, reliable as always, but I couldn't find the cute little tiger that used to greet me when I trudged by en route to the School of the Art Institute.

We visited the Botanic Garden which was just underway when we left, and found it unbelievable. Worth two or three days of your time. S.O. took great photos which I may post on Flickr.

Here are some links to museums and restaurants in The City of Big Shoulders, that toddlin' town:

Chicago Botanic Garden

http://www.chicago-botanic.org/

Art Institute of Chicago

http://www.artic.edu/aic/

Museum of Contemporary Art. Sigh! I missed the Jeff Koons exhibits. (:

http://www.mcachicago.org/

Milwaukee Art museum (pictured in blog photo)

http://www.mam.org/info/

Salpicon Restaurant-- fantastic Mexican food and drinks!

http://www.salpicon.com/

Chicago Chop House: old timey Chicago atmosphere

http://www.chicagochophouse.com/noflash.htm

Hackney's: world's best onion rings, bar none

http://www.hackneysonlake.com/

Burnham Hotel: Our home away from home

http://www.burnhamhotel.com/

The Berghoff, another old-timey Chicago establishment

http://www.berghoff.com/


So, more anon, and lots of good book plotting done, always something to think about when falling asleep in a strange bed in a strange room.

Grapeshot

The garden looks great, with scads of ripening tomatoes. We enjoyed insalata Caprese again tonight. I find it addictive, but in a good way.

Apropos the Olympics: Aren't the Ralph Lauren outfits the U.S. Olympic team marched in wearing incredibly cool? Grapeshot, as a young, skinny mom, discovered Ralph Lauren when we were both young. My first purchase was a turtleneck with the now familiar logo and corderoy slacks, size 4. Sigh.