Archive for May 2008

This unassuming storefront on Broadway near Argyle holds one of the hottest, sweetest Thai restaurants in Chicago. Curries and hot pepper dishes are unflinchingly spicy and the pastry case offers house-made Thai desserts. Almost any Thai restaurant will serve pud see ew and pad prik king, but how many mix their own lychee ice cream and bake coconut dumplings and thin, crisp wafer cookies? Bring your friends to Thai Pastry to share dishes, eat family style and split the delectable desserts.

The menu includes the usual rice, noodles, salads and soups: pad thai, pad prik king, crying tiger (spicy beef), red, green and yellow curry. There are plenty of appetizers to share, including: satay, shu mai and fried bananas. The peanut sauce on the Rama chicken has a perfect balance of sweetness and spice. Basil, peppers and other vegetables are fresh and flavorful. Tofu and brown rice can be substituted in most dishes. Seafood dishes abound and specials change weekly; ginger tillapia or fresh sautéed perch for $13.95 are a few good picks. Most entrees range from $5 to $10.

The hot and sour seafood soup mixes green mussels, tender squid, and shrimp with basil and bell peppers. The kang pa red curry tasted spicy but not overpowering with Thai eggplant (lighter and crunchier than the Japanese variety) bamboo shoots and seedy little green peppers swimming in lush golden broth. Pud see ew is savory sweet with brown sauce and fresh carrots. Portions of pad thai and wide noodles with broccoli are generous and just saucy enough.

Tall glasses of Thai iced coffee and Thai iced tea mitigate the spice of the hot dishes and you can also order coffee, a pot of tea and soft drinks. Thai Pastry is BYOB.

Remind your friends to save room for dessert. You can try some of the pastries, many filled with cream, coconut or fruit. The house-made ice cream comes in parfait glasses or by the carton to take home. Coconut, green tea and mango are available and my favorite is lychee, light and creamy with chunks of the sweet white fruit.

Delivery and carryout are available and super cheap with the $6.50 lunch specials. If your coworkers like Thai food, try this menu on a weekday between 11am and 3pm. Delivery is available between Devon, Lake Shore Drive, Diversey and Western and it’s well worth a trip to Thai Pastry for lunch. You could also come here for a happy hour dinner after work. Popular but never overcrowded, Thai Pastry is relaxing with lime green walls, soft Thai music, and doll-house size models of Thai restaurants by the entrance. Service is friendly and substitutions are no problem.

Do you wish that you could take your sweetheart to exotic foreign places? Do you dream about sharing coffee and cake in Vienna, Russian tea in St. Petersburg or Thai iced tea in Bangkok? Then, do you wake up and realize that you can’t afford to leave the city?

Yeah, me too.

At times like this, I take my date to Kopi Cafe, on Clark Street and Berwyn in Andersonville. Billing itself as “a café for travelers,” Kopi brews a wider selection of tea and coffee than any café I’ve encountered. The affordable, tasty menu spans several continents and breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. Clocks on the wall tell you the time in Katmandu and Tokyo as Jalan Jalan Boutique sells clothes, jewelry, bags, incense and travel books in the back of the shop. Stop in for a cup of tea or coffee or enjoy a full meal, most for less than $10 per person.

Taking its name from an Indonesian word for “coffee”, Kopi Café serves up coffee in all its forms - from simple espresso to fluffy Viennese coffee, Thai iced coffee and frozen espresso treats. Traditional and trendy teas abound here: Darjeeling, red roobios, gunpowder green, anti-oxidant rich white tea, and many healing herbals like Women’s Libertea with dong quai and licorice root. My favorites are white teas with blueberry, strong black Russian tea with sour cherry preserves and yerba mate, a naturally caffeinated South American herb tea. The ultimate shippable indulgence here is Thick.Hot.Sipping,Chocolate, a melted dark chocolate indulgence like a French chocolate pot or the cioccolata I lived on as a student in Florence.

Brunch gets crowded and noisy at Kopi, but with good reason. Brunch items range from old-fashioned croissants, scones, eggs and lox to experimental dishes like Breakfast Pizza of the Future, topped with scrambled eggs, vegetarian sausage and cheese. Crepes and healthy fruit smoothies, including the lychee mangosteen start your day off right or help you recharge after a late night out. No matter how busy brunch gets, servers stay friendly and keep the tables and floor spotless.

The lunch and dinner menu features Greek, Italian, French, Mexican and American inspired soups, salads and sandwiches, making Kopi a good pick if you and your date each want a different cuisine. If you like cheese, split a cheese platter or enjoy the Chevre Chaud salad with crisp goat cheese baguette toasts on a big bed of mixed greens and tomatoes. A unique Greek salad includes a block of feta and tomato pesto with olives and greens. Sandwiches range from Black Forest ham and smoked salmon to Tofurkey sausage and black bean burgers. Panini selections include Caprese Pesto and The Elvis, a fried peanut butter and bananas sandwich.

If you have room for dessert, check the glass cake cases for flourless chocolate cake, carrot cake, fresh cookies and brownies, and puffy yellow Lemon Blossom cookies. You can start or end a date pleasantly at Kopi, which stays open late, or relax in the afternoon on the cushions by the low tables in the front. Peruse the travel books from Jalan Jalan and imagine your next trip to Australia, Brazil, Belgium or Vietnam. Even if you’re on a budget, maybe saving up for your next journey, Kopi encourages you to try new flavors and dream big.

So you think you're playing it safe by buying flowers for the mom in your life? Not necessarily! You're not five years old anymore, and pulling dandelions out from the back yard just isn't going to cut it, and neither is grabbing a five dollar bouquet from the convenience or chain drug store. Even if you are one heck of a landscaper and can cut the perfect arrangement from your patio, you just might want to kick it up a notch and present it in a nice vase, with a card, of course!

Here's some fantastic places to shop that can make her forget all about the teen angst grief you gave her as a kid!

Fleur: Hands down, this place is the BEST in Chicago when it comes to beautiful arrangements, fantastic prices and wonderful, caring staff. If you tell them no carnations, they will oblige. If you just want a single, long stemmed rose, they will treat you just as well as they do for their big weddings. What I like is they stick with the seasons, so you always know what you order will be fresh, long lasting and treasured.

I recommend you visit the store instead of calling your order in, because you will find a lot of nice additions here you won't find anyplace else, like unique and locally made jewelry, soaps and purses. Besides, when it comes to Mother's Day, you really should be doing the delivery yourself. Like I said, this place is the BEST!

Cattails in Wicker Park is my second favorite place for all of the reasons above. I love working with the independent shops for things like this, because they genuinely seem to care and not treat you like a number. And wow - when you walk in, you feel like you have just stepped into paradise, with all the sights and smells of the most vivid romance or fantasy film ever created.

Now granted, they seem to run on the pricey side, but if you go in and chat it up with the staff, they can most assuredly assist you within your budget and not have you walk out feeling like a cheap skate.

Gethsemane Garden Center: Now if you're looking for guaranteed organic cut flowers, your best bet is to hit up your neighborhood WF. However, if you're going that route, I would suggest taking it a step further and tapping this local, indie nursery. Buy a couple flats for mom to plant in her garden (after the 15th, of course!) and decorate them in an open, gift wrapped box, lined to prevent water seepage. Go perennial if you can, so she can cherish the blooms year after year!

This place isn't cheap by any stretch, but you get what you pay for, and you just might end up calling it even when you count the gas and headache you save from heading out to the 'burbs to wheel n' deal with the chains. And hey - they're just plain sweet and helpful!