Tricia and Paige: Chicago Marathon 2023, Day 1

October 6, 2023

Tricia and Paige are in town this weekend, as the both of them are running in the Chicago Marathon. They’re staying out by O’Hare (all the hotels got crazy booked/expensive around this time)… but we’ve got plans to meet up here and there, in the days leading up to the big event.

Tonight, we met up with them after work and went out for some tapas. Tricia is a big fan of Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba, but we unfortunately didn’t get reservations in early enough. While looking around, I found Jaleo, which looked pretty great (note: this is a restaurant by José Andrés – someone Liz and I enjoyed watching on PBS).

Side note: getting distracted by looking up videos of Andrés cooking on YouTube. Reminded of his exuberance, and how entertaining he was to watch.

Outside Jaleo.

My pick – Salchichón ibérica de bellota: Cured acorn-fed pork sausage.
In the background, Cono de membrillo, queso de cabra y nueces: Brik pastry cone, quince marmalade, goat cheese and walnut dust.

We also got a sample of three different cheeses, and this was really fun to sample as a table together. L to R, it’s:

Caña de cabra: (Murcia) A soft, semi-sweet goat’s milk cheese paired with a rosemary cracker and fig jam.
Rey Silo Blanco: : (D.O. Asturias) An intensely-flavored cow’s milk cheese paired with honey, rosemary and pine nut shortbread with PX reduction.
San Simón: (D.O. Galicia An aromatic birch-smoked pasteurized cow’s milk cheese paired with candied nuts.

Patatas bravas: Fried potatoes with spicy tomato sauce and alioli.

Dátiles con tocino: Fried bacon wrapped dates served with an apple mustard sauce.

Pollo con pisto Manchego: Seared chicken thighs with stewed vegetables and mojo verde.
Albondigas Ibéricas: Baked Ibérico pork and beef meatballs with tomatoes and flauta bread.

For dessert, I learned that Paige also has a leaning for cheesecake. We were both excited to get the Tarta de queso vasca: Basque-style goat’s milk cheesecake with a creamy center.

Liz and Tricia got the Churros con chocolate to share.

Look at these lovely ladies. A very fun night, tasting a lot of amazing dishes and catching up together.

I don’t know how this happened, but I actually failed to take a photo of the star of the dinner – the Bikini de sobrasada Ibérica: Pressed sandwich with sobrasada Ibérica and Manchego cheese glazed in caramelized honey.

It’s not often that I’ll say that a sandwich was the best part of the meal. But this particular sandwich is worth the price of admission. I’d come back here just to have this sandwich. It was incredible.

As an aside, I think the restaurant (and our server) did an excellent job in delivering our order in the best possible sequence. I think it was intentional that the Bikini de sobrasada Ibérica came out last, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. We were all just raving about it, during and afterwards.