My Kind of Town....the Food!

Now this could only happen to a family like

And only happen in a town like this

So may I say to each of you most gratefully

As I throw each one of you a kiss

This is...

My Kind of Town...Chicago

Mmmmm.  When I travel, I like to make a point of trying the local food.  You know, the stuff the city is "known" for. And Chicago didn't disappoint.  Let's just put it this way... The food in Chicago was Ah-May-Zing.  Starting with this bad boy.  Yes, it's a hot dog, but not just an ordinary hot dog....a Chicago-Style Dog!

Start with an all-beef hot dog and top it with chopped white onions, diced tomatoes, pickled sport peppers, neon green dill relish, a pickle spear, celery salt, and lots of mustard.  And please, NO KETCHUP!!  Ok, ok, I won't put my ketchup on it. Frankly, it didn't need it.  This was DELICIOUS!!!  I was a little scared to try it, but there is so much flavor, that it was heaven each & every bite.  I don't know if it was the atmosphere of the wonderful, sunny, summer day Chicago provided me or if a hot dog with this much stuff on it truly is delicious.  Either way, it was a great experience that I recommend every tourist try at least once.  

While enjoying our time at the Bean, we decided an ice cream would be about perfect.  The place we stopped in advertised the "Famous Chicago Rainbow Cone."  Chicago-famous?  Don't know what I am ordering, but I'm in!!  Oh dear friends, I am weak in the knees thinking about this treat:

Yes, it is possible for all of these flavors together to be DELICIOUS.

 Even my kids were jealous that they didn't order one.  

And another famous snack we just couldn't go without?  Garrett's Popcorn. You know, the stuff that Oprah made famous on her "favorite things" list one year?!  Right off the Magnificent Mile (the amazing shopping mile...), there is a line out the store for this stuff.  

Garrett's popcorn is sinful.  Especially the Chicago Mix - warm, buttery-cheesy popcorn mixed with the sweetest caramel corn you've ever had.  I can truly understand the addiction to crack now that I have had this sinful treat.  (well, no, not really, but you get the metaphor)  It is best to eat it warm, so we stopped in the middle of the street, got our hands all cheesy and enjoyed this worth-every-minute-in-line-snack.  

Dinner?  Anyone hungry for dinner after this?  Of course we saved room for one last famous Chicago meal.....

CHICAGO-STYLE PIZZA!!

Gino's East is my Sis-in-law's favorite, so we made a point of finding the closest one to our hotel.  And thank goodness I asked our concierge about it, he gave us a pass to go to the head of the line when we got there.  See the line in the pic?  Those people had to wait over an hour to get a table.  The Texas Darlings with a pass?  10 minutes.  Uh huh.  We're cool like that.

Absolutely worth the 45 minutes it takes to cook this delectable slice of heaven.

And what did my kid's enjoy MORE than the pizza?  They actually encourage you to write on the walls.  So here is Bubba getting to do something his mama would never let him do it at home.  

And it looked like so much fun, I had to try it to:

There we go.  We were here!

Ah, what a nice little food crawl through Chicago.  Makes me hungry for it all over again!