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Mexican Tapas in Geneva, IL

July 9, 2010

It wasn’t until this past weekend that I realized there are some really enticing small towns that reside along the river outside Chicago. With their boutique shops and attractive landscaping, the main streets are overflowing with restaurants. It was on one of these streets in the small city of Geneva, IL that we had the pleasure of experiencing Bien Trucha.

My brother-in-law and his wife had told us about the place prior to our arrival so the anticipation had been building for a while. This little restaurant and its Mexican tapas are in high demand. Apparently the restaurant began with about six tables and has since expanded to twelve or so.

Lunch service began at noon and we arrived early to avoid a line which we’ve heard is the norm. Surprised to be the first ones at the door at 11:45 am, it took a mere 30 seconds before others started filing in. By the time the restaurant opened the line was long enough to fill every table inside.

The atmosphere was an inviting mix of quaint, cute, rustic and authentic. The dining room gave hints of a romantic evening ambiance, but at the lunch hour it was bustling with couples, friends and families, loud conversation and few cocktails round the tables.

I was still trying to soak everything in, with my camera in hand of course, as we were quickly asked for our drink order. I barely had time to look at the menu as the waiter rattled off several margarita selections. A quick glance and three were ordered at our table – Pinasada with grilled pineapple, Pepino or cucumber, and the Flor de Jamaica with hibiscus flower extract. The water of the day was also ordered which was mango.

My drink was the Pepino and the rim came adorned with a chili-type salt that melded the flavors together. It was refreshing with that familiar tequila kick. Yes, cucumber is a wonderful ingredient in a summer cocktail.

The menu boasts a creative list of appetizers, soups, salads and tortas, but the real draw are the tacos. Each order comes with four, tapas-style, served on a wooden platter.

Before we took on the tacos, we began with the guacamole of the day. What distinguishes the guacamole of the day from the traditional guacamole is that it is topped with fresh fruit. Ours had grapes and apparently watermelon has been the fruit of choice on other visits. For me, the texture was perfect as far as guac goes. Creamy, but still slightly chunky and the sweet grapes added a nice contrast with the slight heat of peppers and tart lime.

Still not done with starters we continued to look over the menu. My husband immediately noticed the ceviche. We weren’t sure how our hosts would feel about it, but fortunately they were game. I say fortunately because the ceviche was delicious, not to mention beautifully plated.

While the standard selection on the menu was with tilapia there was a special the day we were there. Our choice was the ceviche with shrimp, strawberry and melon with an avocado mousse. I’m not extremely experienced in ceviche, but this creation was outstanding.

We chose three different varieties of tacos, and with four people at our table this meant that we all got one of each. The Pescado came highly recommended by our family and included beer battered, fried tilapia topped with a red cabbage slaw made with chipotle-morita aioli. Crispy, crunchy, spicy, creamy – these tacos had it all. The red cabbage really added to the presentation as well.

As a side note, I was unfamiliar with morita. It turns out that Chile Morita is a small reddish-purple chile. It can literally be translated too small blackberry pepper.

Next up were the Pastor tacos with ancho-guajillo marinated pork, morita salsa and a piece of grilled pineapple. As you can imagine the sweet pineapple tasted wonderful with the mildly spicy flavor of the meat and salsa.

The grand finale was the Bien Trucha taco. These had both grilled skirt steak and homemade chorizo. The salsa was roasted tomatillo-serrano. What a way to end our meal! The chorizo really made this one for me. There was just a little bit added, but the flavor took over in a very good way.

To be honest, there is no way I could pick a favorite. Each item we sampled had its own appealing characteristics and individual flavors. Visiting Bien Trucha reminded me how much I crave authentic food which we tend to have very little of where we live unless you want a southern favorite.

There is little if anything on the menu that has been altered to appeal to the US American palate. Even the style of service from the refilling of water to serving sodas in a can was incredibly Latin American.

Bien Trucha is the type of place where you adapt to the food, the food doesn’t adapt to you. The type of place that makes this former expat think – perhaps this whole repatriation thing isn’t so bad after all.

Bien Trucha
410 West State Street
Geneva, IL 60134-2104
(630) 232-2665

Taste of Chicago

July 7, 2010

Chicago has always been one of my favorite cities. When I was in high school our art and chemistry teachers used to organize a trip each year. We’d head up from southern Indiana for a weekend that always included Chicago-style pizza, a show, shopping Michigan Avenue and a stop at some other attraction such as Shedd Aquarium.

Chicago was really my favorite city until I discovered the public transportation system in DC and the rustic outdoor feel of Seattle. It may have dropped a few slots, but it still remains in my top 10 in the US. These days my brother-in-law lives there along with his wife who is native to the area. So visiting now also includes an insider’s view and local tips. Not a bad situation to be in.

It has been a long time since our last visit so we decided to make the trip up over the holiday weekend. My husband had wanted to see a Cub’s game and it didn’t hurt that our trip fell the same weekend as the Taste of Chicago! So this week, Chicago is the part of the world we’ll be covering here on the blog. I’ve got a few posts for you that cover some incredible eats from our weekend.

We arrived on Friday, mid-afternoon and headed downtown to the Taste of. I had been warned it would be crowded and hot and tiring so I was prepared. To be honest with you, all three of those things seem to have much less of an effect on us since living in Brazil. It is like our crowd and heat tolerance has increased quite a bit.

Fortunately we got there fairly early in the day so there was still plenty of room to move around. By the time we left, however, it looked like this. Yeah, I was glad we went early.

We wanted to focus on more of the ethnic foods for this event. A lot of them we can’t get around central Kentucky, or if they are available, they aren’t quite as authentic as they tend to be in city like Chicago.

This was my first time going to this type of Taste Of. There was no entry fee; guests could buy tickets for 50 cents each before the event. Then tickets could be used to purchase food. All the booths had full meals that were about 6 to 11 tickets each and two options on their tasting menu that were 2 to 4 tickets each. We stuck with the tastings so we could try more things.

Okay now you know how it worked. Enough talk. Let’s go on a tour of the Taste of Chicago.

The first stop was for the Bobak’s All Natural Chicken Apple Gouda Sausage served with honey mustard. I should have tried it without the honey mustard first to get the full flavor of the sausage. Even so, this was really good. Not as much apple sweetness or gouda flavor as I would expect, but a great chicken sausage.

I never thought I would say this, but I really miss mandioca (cassava, yuca) from Brazil. They version I miss the most – fried. Fortunately Las Tablas was serving yuca fries with a delicious salsa verde on the side. It hit the spot.

If you know Chicago, then you know Garrett Popcorn. It is such good stuff. The biggest kernels you have seen with the best caramel flavor. And as fake as it may be, I have to admit I love the doesn’t-occur-in-nature neon orange cheddar thrown in with my caramel.

At the taste they served Caramel Popcornsicles, a popcorn ball freeze dried on a stick. It was as tasty as their original caramel and actually kind of refreshing with the cold which you typically don’t expect from popcorn.

Next came the one thing I had been anxiously awaiting. Mango Sticky Rice! Oh, how I have missed this from Thailand. It was so good even though the mango was canned. I got over that quickly because the rice was so close to what I remember from our trip. Even better, I was taken to an Asian market in town and finally came back with a bag of sticky rice! I’ll be making my own version soon!

The Varenyky from the Shokolad Café caught my attention because the eggplant and potato variety came with an Indian spiced sauce. I have since learned that varenyky is a Ukrainian dumpling similar to perogies. I typically love this type of dumpling, but this one was just okay. The sauce needed a lot more spice to it. I’m not sorry I tried it though because I actually think it may have been my first Ukrainian dish.

There were lots of sodas and energy drinks being sampled, and while we aren’t fans of soda anymore, this Manzanita Sol from Pepsi did catch our attention. We were hooked on apple spritzer while in Austria which is kind of like an apple soda, but a lot lighter. More like a sparkling apple flavored water. The Manzanita is nothing like that by the way. A sugary apple soda. Guess I’ll have to go back to Vienna.

Another new cuisine for me – Puerto Rican. We tried the mini Jibarito Sandwich from Sabor Latino Restaurant. The name comes from Jibaro which is a term used for those in agriculture working in the sugarcane and coffee fields, basically farmer’s from what I understand. It is traditionally a plantain and steak sandwich. This was so good! I absolutely loved the fried plantain version of a bun! I found a recipe if you’d like to try it yourself.

Now for the unique award – a Mashed Potato Stuffed Chocolate Cupcake. Yes, you read that correctly. Honestly, it wasn’t bad at all. Not something I’d have to go back for, but a nice sweet and salty combo and the smooth potatoes with black pepper blended nicely with the chocolate. The cupcake itself was excellent. These were served by Polo Café and Catering. I was joking with my husband that I’d love a wedding reception do-over and sneak these onto guest’s dinner plates to see the reaction!

These Pot Stickers from Star of Siam were by far the best deal. Just look at all of them! They were comparable to the full portion at most places. They were also one of my favorites with a delicious Thai chili glaze on top.

My husband was hungry for the Red Beans and Rice with Jerk Chicken. Vee Vee’s African Restaurant also had goat, but although I don’t like eating it for sentimental reasons, I have had goat and I really don’t prefer it. The jerk chicken was great, and although my bite wasn’t all that spicy my husband assured me that the more you ate it, the hotter it got.

The Sweet Potato Hashbrowns from a restaurant by the name of Hashbrowns had been on our list before arrival. These were good, but not what we were expecting. I had the fried, crispy version in mind. These were soft with what tasted like a lot of extra butter and spices. I’d get them again, but I think a Waffle House version might be better.

With a few tickets leftover we stopped at The Grill on the Alley for Mango Rice Pudding with Dried Cranberries. This was completely unexpected as well. (Apparently we had a lot of expectations). It was spiced almost like a traditional pumpkin dessert. There wasn’t the tropical, coconut/mango flavor I thought there would be. Good, but autumn flavors to me, despite the mangos.

Finally we finished off this eating marathon with a food that is as cultural as the sticky rice and yuca – a Chicago-style hot dog (or half of one) from Gold Coast Dogs. There is nothing else like these for me. The more stuff on top the better, especially that nice, spicy pepper you can see there in the photo.

That concluded our Taste of Chicago. After that, we did some major walking and went down to Navy Pier to see this:

This happens to be where we got engaged way back in 2002. Right up there on the observation deck in the middle of February during a dinner cruise on Lake Michigan. We’ve vowed to make it back for a repeat cruise at some point. Maybe anniversary #10.

We settled in at Navy Pier for some beers and to split a bag of Garrett Popcorn. I told you we couldn’t get enough of this stuff, right? We felt we needed to take full advantage while there, so while a bit unbalanced, this was our dinner. Not a bad way to end a wonderful day, overlooking the water.

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