MandiCrocker

TRIP TO CHICAGO:

REUBENS & TAPAS!

Please forgive me, ladies & germs. I have been exceptionally MIA! I'm sorry. :(

I've been super duper busy working at the bakery lots and then this weekend I went to Chicago to spend 4th of July with the Sweet Lovin' Man. It was wonderful and soooo good to wrap my arms around him. Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! (That's a big, big, big, big, big hug noise).

*swoooon*

Saturday after our spin class (our hour & a half spin class!!!) he dragged my passed out body by my ponytail & took me to a place around the corner called 'Eppy's.'

It was the very first place he took me to the very first time I came to visit him in Chicago. When he came to visit me for the first time, I took him to 'In N Out.' What can I say? It's how we do it. We think it'd be how Rick Astley does it as well!

And Miley Cyrus.

To go back to Eppy's was sweetly sentimental. I didn't tell him that because my lungs weren't working-- and after a spin class you can forget even thinking about cohesive sentences! But it was nice to go back. We like our quiet little holes in the wall.

So here's the scoop on Eppy's. Think Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. Subtract the soup a

nd add a reuben. There you have the owner of Eppy's. It's magical! He has a neighboring feud with Subway who happen to have a shop right next door to him. He has a chalkboard outside & he writes things on it about how eating Subway sandwiches will give you venereal disease. He yells at the Subway patrons that sit at his outside tables & throws bagels against the wall when you ask if they're fresh. It's really quite charming. I loved it!!!

AND...

I had a reuben. The reuben to end all reubens. The melt in your mouth corned beef reuben that was so deliciously melt in your mouthable I still can't put a sentence together.

SO. FREAKIN. GOOD.

Seriously. It tasted so fresh & flavorful I wanted to cry. Okay, that may have been the spasm-ing muscles but still. I'd do an hour & a half spin class twelve times a day if it meant I could eat that sandwich all day long. Just delicious. I freakin' love sauerkraut. And holy corned beef, Batman. Holy corned beef.

Give me a moment. I'm drinking in the memory...

*hours pass*

We also went to another restaurant called 'Emilio's' for Spanish tapas.

It was WONDERFUL!!! :)

Now keep in mind, I'm from upstate New York. The height of sophistication at the Smith household were meals like meatloaf or tuna muffinlettes. Tuna muffinlettes were made with tuna & rice and pressed into muffin tins. I kid you not. So it is such a treat when the SLM takes me places to eat where I get to experience new things.

We drank delightful mango sangrias (the SLM loves him some mango) and we tried so many delicious things. Some kind of cold chicken curry something, cooked sweet dates wrapped with bacon, a goat cheese something or other and a couple of other things we couldn't remember. We pointed quite a bit & said things like, "That is GOOOOOD. Try this. It's soooo GOOD. Oh my gosh, that over there.. is GOOD. What's in this again? Yeah, I don't remember either. But it's GOOD." :)

I didn't get a picture because I was just so happy to be there with my man, enjoying his company... I wasn't really thinking food blog. And good for me? Why, yes. Good for me. That is right. Thank you for understanding. :)

But I AM doing this serious injustice. Please do me a favor, will you? Check out their website: http://www.emiliostapas.com/ Turn up the volume and let yourself marinate in the glory that is their background music!!! Only THEN can you even begin to understand the greatness that is Emilio's. Makes me wanna shake my shoulders & make my "sexy eyes" at the computer screen. Makes me wanna... and so I'm going to!!!

*shimmy, shimmy, sexy, sexy*

I can't help it!!!

*shimmy, shimmy, sexy, sexy*

I feel so alive!!!!

*shimmy, shimmy, sexy, sexy*

I am soooo sexy right now! I don't look goofy at all!

I'm Salma Hayek, baby!!!

*shimmy, shimmy, sexy, sexy*

Whoo! Okay... THAT was nice. What a rush! If only the SLM was here. He couldn't possibly handle the sexiness that just occurred in the past two & a half minutes.

*shimmy, shimmy*

Anyway, we had a blast. If you live in the Chicago area, please check these places out! You won't be sorry. We weren't! Okay, maybe we hurt a little but boy, oh, boy those sangrias were worth it. NUM. :)

Eppy's

224 East Ontario Street

Chicago, IL 60611

Emilio's

215 East Ohio Street

Chicago, IL 60611

And go see 'Up!' It's soooo beautiful! We both cried!!! ...SQUIRREL!