I love the Taste!

Bill and I went to the Taste of Chicago last night. Since I started spending my summers here, (the summer of 2001) I have gone to the Taste every year. This year was no exception. I was bummed when I read that there would be less vendors that last year (including the loss of bella luna). But I was excited for the new format and the mandatory 2 taste portions. Anyway, as the rain held off yesterday Bill and I decided to try to go because we weren't sure about the rain today or tomorrow.

Tickets are still 8 for 12$, so we bought 3 sheets of tickets for the two of us. now usually we end off the night trying to figure out what to do with our one or two tickets, but with two taste offerings at every booth I was optimistic.

**note we only get taste portions unless otherwise stated**
We started off right away with my curry fries. I have never been to Abby pub, and if I did go I don't know if I would even try their curry fries, but it is a tradition for me to start the taste off going up Jackson and getting my curry fries. We then hit up Sweet Baby Ray's for a meatball sandwich (or a large meatball on a sad looking bun). I then got two cheese perogi from the Polka Sausage and Deli (usually I get perogis from kasia's). We couldn't pass up the sweet potato hashbrown from Hashbrowns, but with all of that heavy food I ended up passing on my normal frozen banana. (I could always get it on my way out).

Time for the main strip! We head down the main drag, that was surprisingly open due to the redesign and the smaller number of vendors. Seriously, I hardly ran into anyone while walking down the main drag. We happily past Robinson's (as we still had meatball on our pallet) and Eli's (oh we'll be back don't you worry my sweet cheesecake). We stop by Lou Malnati's for some bruschetta and then turn toward the Buckingham Fountain. We check out the offerings at the chefs table, and while they all sound great we weren't willing to part with enough tickets for any of them. We picked up some churros from Adobo Grill (though I really wish they had a taste of their guacamole.) then we went down the southern most part. Bill sadly past Las Tablas (they don't do a taste of their empanadas) and then hit up Arya Bhavan for a taste of samosa.

On our way back, I hit up Tuscany for some fried ravioli. As we walked, we were trying to figure out what to do with our 6 tickets. We were happy it wasn't 5 because then you never know what to do with the two. anyway as were are walking a little boy comes up to us and asks us if we would like his ticket. Now Bill and I are hardened city-ites and so we assume something is wrong with this picture, but we see he is there with his mom and we ask her and she says they are leaving. What a genuinely nice thing- it really made our day. And, because we had 7 tickets, we were able to get an Oreo Eli's cheesecake with ice cream on top (the only non-taste portion of the night). It was a sweet end to a wonderful taste experience. And again little boy -- I don't know who you are but thank you for making our night so nice.