Yep, another post about food

Yesterday afternoon, I had a date--with Joseph Conrad! I decided to leave my laptop at home and, after work, venture up to the North Side to spend sometime in the Heart of Darkness. Or rather, at Julius Meinl.

Black tea with pieces of sour cherry

All parts of my meal at Julius Meinl contained cherry, actually; in addition to the tea I had sour cherry apple cider (from a local orchard!) and a turkey sandwich with cherry jam, among other things. I haven't quite made up my mind about Julius Meinl. Sometime I need to go with the purpose of getting one of their Viennese dishes and also trying at least one pastry, and hopefully I'd bring someone with me who wanted to try their coffee and give an opinion of that. As it is, I have this sneaking suspicion that it is too expensive and is one of those places that tries to be more than it is (the food I've tried so far sounds fancy and fantastic on the page and just hasn't been that spectacular).

I did get halfway through Heart of Darkness during the afternoon, and in the evening, I met up with friends and we created this:

Mark Bittman's prosciutto-wrapped fish (with basil/pine nut paste), with garlic-sauteed green beans

If it looks a little funny, believe me it was delicious (if quite rich). Dinner was accompanied by two bottles of wine and followed by drinking chocolate with Grand Marnier, and Clay and I didn't get home until 12:30am. Who says Monday's aren't any fun?

I've realized by this point that I'm just not doing as much cooking this quarter as I would normally like to (and the cooking I'm doing is not especially frugal, as this meal indicates).
I think I'm okay with this. While I'd like to cook more, I've been enjoying a great many excellent Chicago restaurants. I can cook when I get to Houston, but I should take advantage of this city while I'm still here, and I've been doing a pretty good job so far.