Bloomington/Normal Day 3: JJ's

One of my favorite movies of all time is "The Blues Brothers".  In that movie, the part when the brothers go to recruit Matt Guitar Murphy from his verbally abusive wife, played by Aretha Franklin, they go to a really run-down restaurant, resembling a hole in the wall. What I like about that scene, is that Aretha's character refers to their fried chicken as the "best fried chicken in the whole state."  So, very similar, there is this awesome place in Bloomington called Super JJ's.

 
The place is small, has old ceiling tiles, has some old carpet and floor tiles, looks like this:

But there is the kicker: the food is freakin' amazing.  The fried fish is so fresh and clean.  The fries are delicious.  I have ordered their wings before and they are so good they make me and anyone else want to take some "to go" and make the 2 hour drive back home with it.  I ordered something new, which is on that sign in the middle of the counter, near the hot sauce squeeze bottle.  I ordered a chicken sandwich.

It may not look like much, but that fried chicken sandwich was the best chicken sandwich I have ever eaten.  This is a big deal considering that during my teenage years I had lived on a mix of the chicken sandwich from Burger King and Mcnuggets from McDonalds.  It is amazing and perfectly cooked.  An easy 3 out of 5 stars.  Please look them up and go there. 

• 1510 W Market
  Bloomington, IL 61701

Bloomington/Normal Day 2: Destihl

So, Destihl is this brewery/restaurant that had told us the previous day that they only take reservations.  So, I we made reservations and when we got there, we still had to wait for a table.  I'm sure there is a Jerry Seinfeld episode about the purpose of having a reservation and this always reminds me of that.  When I worked at a restaurant and I heard that we had a reservation coming in an hour or even coming at a certain time, I quickly went into action putting a table together.  Under my supervision, I never had a reserved table wait.  I'm not saying wait a few minutes or wait longer, but I mean that the party would come in, tell me their name and their reservation and I would sit them: that easy. 

So, this place does what Schlafly does, for example.  They have a brewery/restaurant combo.  We sat down, ordered our food and was stuck in the curse of slow food and service, which we have been experiencing the whole trip so far then.  So, besides the slow service, what did we get?  The first item was deep fried bacon, tempura style.

Crispy crunchy fried batter on maple bacon.  A 3 out of 5 stars.

I ordered one of their signature dishes: Thai Fried Chicken.

It was a drumstick and breast piece, fried lightly with a thin coating and covered in these Thai flavors, like the flavors in a Phad Thai noodle dish.  It was a 3 out of 5 stars.

So, it was an okay place, not very child friendly and if you are hungry and you want to order, get a beer and get food within 30-40 minutes, then this isn't the place for you.  We also happened to seat in "Spot A" as I had mentioned earlier.

DESTIHL® - Opened November 2007
318 S. Towanda Avenue 
Normal, IL 61761 
P: 309-862-2337  F: 866-381-0349

A suprise meal

 Everyone knows about Eckert's farm and store and restaurant, right?  If not, here is a quick summary of what you have been missing: Long ago at a galaxy far and away, my grandparent's used to take my brothers and I, to Eckert's to go apple picking in the fall.  They would drive out and we would do the apple picking and then we would enter the country store, which I recall at the time, being nothing more than a large barn.  We would go in, get a wooden basket, go out and get apples, and then bring them back where they would weigh them and you would pay pennies for each pound of picked apples.  This was great.  Now, within the past few years, or year, they changed everything.   

This is what the Country store looked like a bit ago, with the restaurant to the left of it.  Then they did this:


You can tell that this farm is doing well when they can tear down their old store and make a huge one.  This store is very much on the inside, as high-tech as a Whole Foods or Schnucks.  As for the restaurant, it used to be tiny, country-style decorated and could sit maybe 50 people.  Now, the place is huge and can easily seat a few hundred.

Now, while the family is still running the farm and businesses, these 6th and 7th generation Eckert's have created a memorable and delicious menu for their restaurant to boast and surpass their apple and other produce picking.

My favorite item of all, is chicken and dumplings.  What I love about the chicken and dumplings at the Eckert's restaurant is: first of all, it is bottomless and second of all, it tastes just like my grandma used to make.  Well, first off, they call it "bottomless" on the menu and what that means is that if you have an awesome server, like we did, he will notice when you are remotely close to the bottom of the large bowl of chicken and dumplings and then he will come out with another large bowl and take the old one.  That's right, a wonderful server will come and replenish your ambrosia, before you can flinch, all for $10.  What made our time there even better, is that when I took what was left to go home, our cool server not only refilled my bowl and placed it into a to-go container, but then he filled up a second container for me.  Awesome.

Now, what about my grandma?  Well, she is of German ancestry.  Her parents came from Germany and started a horse farm near Sullivan, Missouri.  As time went on and she became older, her parents sold the farm for a flat in St. Louis.  Then, she went to work at a shoe company, on Washington Avenue.  Every day, her mother and grandmother (whom lived with them), would make their dinner, which I lust for because it was awesome German food.  Now, my grandmother made two kinds of dumplings:  One was a potato dumpling and then other was a spaetzle dumpling.  What I find most often called "dumplings" when paired with chicken, is the spaetzle ones, which are made with flour, water and some egg.  These are what proper dumpling became to be and as my brothers and I grew older, the spaetzle dumplings paired with chicken

So, the chicken and dumplings I ordered at the restaurant, tasted just like the ones my grandma used to make, which means, the original recipe they make to sell, must be similar in cultural or ethnic region.  Anyways; the famous fried chicken, which is also served and sold as an all-you-can-eat option, is also incredible and juicy and moist with a super crispy coating.

So, my thoughts?  Service, atmosphere and food, all get a 4 out of 5 stars for me.

Go there and give it a shot.

3.14

Many years ago, my wife and I went to both the Manchester location and the Delmar location of Pi.  They were several months apart and I don't think either one of us was way too impressed with the pizza or prices. Now, recently we went back, with a large group and the 2 kids we had and 4 adults thought would be enough to get a good variety.  So, we tried an appetizer and two pizza pies.  What I did forget, was just how large those pies are.  I completely forgot that they were super thick deep dish, like a Chicago style pizza.

So, we started off with these little Pi Bites.  These things have about 6 of them and they have cheese, prosciutto and rosemary and then they were breaded with bread crumbs and then deep fried.  They were not greasy and were cooked nicely so they did not have molten lava cheese on the inside.  They were served, stacked and had a very sweet sauce on the side in a little dish.  I'd say that they were good and the price of $7.95, for 6, which is what I think a bit steep as other restaurants have entree dishes starting at that price.  I'd give them a 3 out of 5.

I then ordered the Kirkwood, which is a deep dish pizza with mozzarella, sausage, red peppers and basil and then had a gallon of red sauce on top of that.  The pizza was huge and larger than I remember.  It was thick, sweet and meaty.  I would give the Kirkwood a good 3 out of 5 stars as it seems an easy choice for a go-to pizza for everyone.

We also ordered the Delmar, which is a pizza with mozzarella, cheddar, chicken, BBQ sauce, peppers, red onion and cilantro, all in a giant deep dish pizza.  The pie was colorful and flavorful.  It tasted good and the vegetables, unlike the Kirkwood, were still a bit under cooked so they were half way between cooked and under cooked.  It was in that space between mushy and crunchy where things were sitting and left you wondering if they were supposed to be crunchy or supposed to be soft and tender.  Either way, there was a lot of flavors going on and in one case, my case, I thought that there was too many different flavors and you couldn't really taste one because it was masked by another.  I'd give this one a 2 out of 5 stars as while it was okay, I wouldn't order it again.

Now, while prices are high on the pizzas, there is definitely enough for leftovers for many days.  This isn't a Pointer-saurus, I doubt that there is anyone who can finish a whole deep dish pizza and walk out.  So, ordering one or two for a party of people is a perfect idea and gives people a choice between the two.  In an age where you can get a large pizza for $5, this does make anyone who is a bit budget conscious, to find a reason to eat here.  But, if you are looking for hormone free chicken on your BBQ pizza or organic and Amish raised, Monsanto GMO free, and no green house gassed tomatoes on your pizza and are willing to pay for it, then come here also.

  

All-in-one

Okay as a huge proponent for make-it-yourself foods, I am a huge fan of the latest stunt from McCormick.  In the spice aisle, you can find all-in-one recipes and spices, complete with recipe card.

For instance, here is Spanish Chicken Skillet, as it is called.  What makes this so easy?  Look at the spices!!!!  In the package, right there in front of you, is all of the spices you would need for the dish. They even include red pepper flakes as an optional spice, to adjust the heat.  When you turn this package over, there is a tear-on-the-dotted-line spice card that you can remove while making the dish.

So, if you read the recipe, you need just a few other things: flour, salt, chicken, olive oil, green pepper, onion, a can of tomatoes and some chicken broth or dry sherry.  So, together it looks something like this:

Now, it was a really simple dish as you made a flour coating to coat the chicken and fry it up in a pan with the oil.  You then cooked all the vegetables together with the spices and when it was finished, it all went together. I feel a bit embarrassed as I don't have a picture of the finished protect but can tell you that for a dish that was put together and cooked in less than 20 minutes, it taste very VERY good.

Anyways, if you are thinking that you have nothing to cook and have no plans for a dinner meal, or lunch for that matter, I highly suggest picking up one of these spice packages and make a new meal today.

How common is chicken and dumplings?

A few days ago I was preparing a dish that most people don't know about.  It is a Lebanese dish called Mograbiah.  This recipe, from a large tome of Lebanese cooking, is a nice recipe involving chicken, vegetables, beef and most importantly, these large pearl couscous, made with semolina flour.  The original recipe wanted me to use whole chickens and boil in some water to cook them and essentially make a broth.  Then cook the other ingredients like the pearl onions, beef cubes and such and then add them all together with some mograbiah pearls to finish.  Like any good chef, I changed the recipe, and improvised.


I immediately noticed that it was a Lebanese version of chicken and dumplings.  Really.  These little balls, cook like pasta and are basically some water, fat of some sort, like butter or shortening and then semolina flour.  They swell up in water and get very tender like good cooked pasta.  Because they suck up moisture to get tender, they can absorb flavors as well and get tasty.  To make this dish, I cooked the chicken breasts in the oven and put them in a pot with 2 tablespoons of butter.  The mograbiah balls were cooked in boiling water and then I placed them into the pot with the chicken.  I then browned some beef cubes in oil in a pan and then added them into the pot.  I then browned some peeled and halved pearl onions in that residue from the beef and added some chicken stock to the pan to deglaze it.  Everything went into the large pot.  A little caraway seed was added with some freshly ground black lava Cyprus sea salt and some freshly ground pepper.  I filled the pot with enough store-bought chicken stock to cover everything, about 2 inches higher and let it come to a boil and simmer for about an hour.  What was finished reminded me of chicken and dumplings, with beef and onions, as the dumplings were essentially those smaller beads which had swelled up with delicious flavor.   


We all know that chicken and dumplings are made similarly.  I cook the chicken and add it into a pot where I add some chicken stock and butter, salt and pepper and start cooking.  In the same pot, as the stock starts to boil, I make some simple dumplings using Bisquick mix and milk and drop it into the pot in spoonfulls.  The dumplings cook and absorb the chicken flavor as well as thicken the soup.  Despite the lack of beef and the onions, it is amazing how similar the two dish taste.  Besides, one of them just likely happens to be a thousand years older than the other.  So, is our modern day, Southern-style chicken and dumplings a descendant of the Lebanese or Arabic dish as a whole?  Could be.