{"id":80552,"date":"2017-01-16T08:57:59","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T15:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wend.ca\/?p=80552"},"modified":"2020-04-05T20:30:08","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T00:30:08","slug":"foodie-adventures-in-windy-city-day-7-of-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/?p=80552","title":{"rendered":"Foodie Adventures: the Goddess, Wow Bao, and a Goat"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there is a theme for the day, it’s Google Home. <\/p>\n

It’s everywhere in Chicago. It’s on billboards. It on computer ads. It’s on TV. It’s in cabs. It’s on the walls in the malls. And, now it has become bus stops.<\/p>\n

\"sm-2016-12-05-08-01-26\"<\/p>\n

For some reason, Google is really really pushing this product. I’ve never seen them act so aggressively when selling a product; and, I’m wondering why. <\/p>\n

I think it’s because Home<\/em> pulls together all the software (both built and acquired) that Google has been gathering over the past few years. There is a bigger play, and we’re now just seeing it come together.<\/p>\n

Breakfast. Goddess and the Baker.<\/h3>\n

For a moment in the morning, I thought that I had run out of good coffee options to explore in Chicago. Then I realized that there’s a concerted effort to sabotage certain cafes in the city… and drive them down in-app and map results. As such, I REALLY dug through pages and pages of coffee recommendations until I found the Goddess and the Baker.<\/p>\n

\"sm-2016-12-07-08-31-47\"<\/p>\n

This is my new favourite coffee shop in Chicago. Hands down. The vibe is energetic. The coffee is delicious and the perfect size. Sure, the service was a bit disorganized, but the resulting coffee on the other end made up for the extra minute of waiting time.<\/p>\n

The barista knows how to pull a shot without making it bitter and how to heat milk to the right temperature. The bean they use is slightly fruity.<\/p>\n

\"sm-2016-12-07-09-13-13\"<\/p>\n

On the other side of the counter, they are a plethora of different baked items for a variety of food preferences (gf, v, nut-free). For a rare moment in my life, I had to choose between the gf options that were available (instead of going to two separate places for coffee and food).<\/p>\n

\"sm-2016-12-07-08-28-03\"<\/p>\n

Walking to work after the experience was a wonderful thing because it felt good to find such a great place!<\/p>\n

Lunch. Fusion. Wow Bao.<\/h3>\n

Bad. Just really really bad. I don’t want to talk\/write about it. I ate maybe two spoonfuls before throwing it out.<\/p>\n

\"sm-2016-12-07-13-00-00\"<\/p>\n

I feel bad for this place… to be sandwiched between two fantastic restaurants on one day. And, it was already terrible, to begin with. Now it just seems extraordinarily terrible. <\/p>\n

Dinner. American Tapas. A Girl and a Goat.<\/h3>\n

The moment I hit the ground in Chicago (or rather… the moment I found out I’d be in Chicago) I booked a reservation at A Girl and a Goat<\/em>. I managed to score a crappy time on my last day in the city but I snagged it because the foodie-rumour-mill says it’s nearly impossible to get in without months of notice. <\/p>\n

This is how it works for us foodie travellers… we immediately find the best restaurant… we put our name on a reservation list sometime in the impossible future… and we hope we don’t get rolled off the project before we get to experience the food.<\/p>\n

This time it worked. <\/p>\n

\"sm-2016-12-07-17-36-14\"<\/p>\n

I can’t even begin to explain the fantastic-ness that is A Girl and a Goat<\/em>; everything we tried on the menu was off the charts delicious. <\/p>\n

The cuttlefish (above) was so good we ordered it twice, the goat liver pate came with freshly baked bread, and the entire evening just became a sea of one delicious food after another.<\/p>\n

\"sm-2016-12-07-18-15-47\"<\/p>\n

I’m happy that we managed to make A Girl and a Goat<\/em> work; it was worth the wait and became a great last dinner in Chicago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\nIf there is a theme for the day, it’s Google Home. It’s…\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading “Foodie Adventures: the Goddess, Wow Bao, and a Goat”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[411,67,34],"tags":[478,480,307],"class_list":["post-80552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chicago","category-illinois","category-us","tag-cafes","tag-foodie","tag-gluten-free","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t