A few friends and myself decided to put together a midwest meet up in the wonderful city of Chicago. Just between you and me, I adore Chicago and certainly would say it is a contender to my beloved New York City. However, Chicago makes it hard for me to love it (ahem, the weather is terrible.) This is besides the point. The point is Chicago has some great dogs, hot dogs that is.
We arrive in Chicago and my friend, who will forever be a tourist, shows me the itinerary to a food tasting tour that apparently we were signed up for. It looked interesting and I am fan of food tours. However, thanks to a plentiful meal and cocktail party the night before, we were a little “sluggish” the next day and missed the kickoff to our food tour. Therefore, we were left to our devices…Yelp. Being a hot dog fanatic I was destined to eat a Chicago hot dog. I have been bouncing around NYC lately consuming as many dogs as possible (Crif Dogs is leading the pack) and now I wanted to taste Chicago’s version.
We pulled up to the original Portillo’s, oddly I have never been here before. This is a Chicago staple and supposedly the home to the Chicago hot dog. I ordered the Portillo’s original beef dog with all the fixins (warning the peppers are pretty hot.) Verdict: pretty good. I preferred to eat the pickle separate from the hot dog only because I really love hot dogs and I really pickles…I prefer to savor each individually. Honest Verdict: I think a New York Crif Dog would win in a taste test.
The twist to the story is Portillo’s is not the best Chicago hot dog. Hot Doug’s has almost a perfect star rating on Yelp, thanks to over 1,000 user reviews. I also confirmed with a friend and Chicago native that the hype surrounding Hot Doug’s was indeed true. The story behind Hot Doug’s is that you can order a variety of different kind of meats and toppings AND it was featured on Anthony Bourdains, No Reservations. Sounds pretty legit. You may have to wait awhile in line, sometimes hours. Once you make it to the promised land aka the front of the line, I suggest you treat yourself to the Paul Kelly, which is a bratwurst soaked in beer. Do bratwurst count as hot dogs? Well, they do in my book. You also cannot go wrong just ‘The Dog,’ which is your typical Chicago style hot dog.
Other stops we made on our food tour include Gibson’s Steakhouse where we had a few great steaks and probably the best twice baked potato I have ever had. If it wasn’t the best it sure was the biggest. We also made a quick stop at Hugo’s Frog Bar to browse and indulge in their oyster selection.
My plan for the day was the head to Marrakech and look for a painting to hang in my living room. However, after chatting with some of the hotel employees, the idea of visiting a small Berber village called Imlil about 30 miles away started to sound very intriguing. The hotel had arranged for an early dinner at the only restaurant in town. So I threw on my skinney jeans, a trendy blouse, and one of my favorite pair of heals, I wanted to dress appropriately for dinner.
