La Scarola - Great Italian Restaurant in Chicago!

Finally, after a whole week meetings and those working meals, got a chance to have a real dinner. My lovely US colleague knew I'm a super fan of Italian cuisine, he took me to La Scarola, a famous Italian restaurant in Chicago. It's so nice to have a relaxing dinner after a long day.

 

 

 

I know the dish size in US usually big, so skipped appetizer, I ordered vegetable soup and a main course - Chicken Angelo.

Chicken Angelo was really good. The chicken breast was very tender and juicy, covered by bread crumble. Unlike Japanese style bread crumble, this coating was much fine and full of flavor of herbs and garlic. And it didn't taste greasy. Which most satisfied me was the fresh mozzarella, really fresh and creamy. The eggplant was very soft and sucked Marsala sauce, which was really nice. And of course, fresh and sweet tomato sauce was a must ingredient for most Italian dishes.

 

 

 

The vegetable soup was good as well, rich and creamy, especially the cannellini beans.

 

 

BTW, this restaurant was a little bit crowded, but for HK eaters. That should not be a problem, haha!

 

If you're looking for a restaurant in Chicago, if you love Italian cuisine, La Scarola's a good choice for sure. Enjoy!

My First Homemade Pizza! Yummy!

Last weekend, made my first Margherita Pizza at home. Everything was made by myself - pizza dough, tomato sauce together with fresh mozzarella and basil leaves. How couldn't be good?

Honest, the dough could be thiner. The all others were good. Great tomato sauce with my own recipe. Fresh mozzarella is always good and basil leaves was good as well.

Here the photos. The melting cheese was so tempting. Wanna make it again soon, it could be better.

DiVino Wine Bar & Restaurant - Cheese Night!

約了好久不見的朋友週五一起晚餐，知道他也喜歡cheese，所以去DiVino嘗一嘗Burrata。

 

 

Burrata果然大只夠分量！一切開outer shell，裏面的panna cream傾瀉而出，雖然我對這種所謂的流心沒有太大感覺，但這種看得見的freshness確實讓人食欲大增。從裏往外，裏面的mozzarella由新鮮的buffalo milk製成，本身已屬semi-soft，加了cream一起，不但口感變得很juicy，更增加了乳香味，panna cream本是也是奶製品，味道上相得益彰，所以從味道到口感都很棒。

再説外層的solid mozzarella，口感稍稍硬一點，比較有嚼頭，味道清淡卻純淨，應該沒有加butter和sugar，這點很和我口味，喜歡吃原汁原味的cheese；隨著咀嚼，可以一點一點體會到cheese的味道。cherry tomato是很常見的佐菜，和cheese一吃更加fresh，tomato的酸甜也為cheese增添了一分風味，是很好的搭配。

 

兩個人分享這一碟Burrata，真是很滿足！

 

知道後面的重點Burrata份量頗大，之前我們選了三款bites(two classic bites and one premium bite)，其中兩款也都有cheese（or semi-cheese)，但品種和做法都不同，可以試試不同的口味及餐廳的水準。

CLASSIC BITES: Deep-fried goat-cheese in sesame crust, little frisée salad and Pecan nuts

Goat cheese味道通常比cow或者buffalo味重一點，但又不及blue vein那麽濃烈，我個人平時還是蠻喜歡味濃的chesse，但這種用芝麻包裹起來炸的做法不太和我心水。炸過之後的goat cheese夾雜了油炸食品的油煙味，口感變得不純淨，太混雜，且比較油膩，本來goat cheese就比較軟，口感比較粘，在吸收油份就太過heavy了。另外覺得芝麻也是自身很香口的食材，這兩個味濃的食物放在一起，再加上油炸的做法，不是我的那杯茶。

 

 

Roulades of sheep ricotta, aubergines and fresh thyme

雖然ricotta嚴格意義上講並不是cheese，但作爲cheese的leftover，我們也當cheese來吃了。這個roulade用aubergine裹住ricotta，aubergine烤過，ricotta沒做其他處理或夾雜其他材料，整体okay，不难吃，但也不算太好吃。個人更喜歡small red pepper, fig或者apricot里面塞ricotta。ricotta因为由milk whey製成，本身low fat，味道沒其他cheese濃，比較味淡，需要和其他食物來襯托。aubergine雖然烤過，但很吸油，又沒有什麽突出的味道或香氣，用pepper會更加清脆，而用fig或apricot則可以突顯水果的甜味。

 

 

PREMIUM BITES:

Duck liver “confit” slice served with a summer rhubarb compôte and toasted brioche bread

這是三個bites中最美味的，duck liver很細膩潤滑，毫無内臟異味，而是有一絲清甜，肥美但不油膩，又因爲是凍食，在兩個油份較多的bites之後吃，更覺清新。搭配的sauce也香甜可口，配麵包非常美味。

 

 

最前面上的麵包籃，三款麵包，不過不失。麵包都是常溫，沒有保溫或特別處理過，所以算不上香口。但麵包本身質素還可以，都算鬆軟新鮮，加上olive oil and vinegar，還算不錯。

 

 

一餐下來，覺得Burrata確實物有所值，其他食物不管在選材和煮法方面，應該還是有探討和進步空間的。餐廳環境不錯，雖然空間不大，座位也比較逼迫，但氛圍不錯，輕鬆愉悅。服務方面也還可以，實習的侍應不夠老練，但態度很好，相信給多一點時間就可以變得老道。