The other bakery on Central St, in Evanston… the one we thought we’d buy stuff for the meet up… is Tag’s Bakery. They definitely had good stuff but nothing that screamed “meet up”. If I wasn’t already aware that Jamie was bringing cupcakes, I probably would have grabbed some but who needs 500 cupcakes at a BlogHer meet up of 15 people?

We did buy stuff just for us to eat. The lemon bars were excellent and the kids really enjoyed the eclairs. Some of my crew sampled their Florentine cookies and said they were fabulous.

Last month, we went in search of some sort of treat to take to the Pre-BlogHer meet up in Chicago and found ourselves on Central St, in Evanston. There are two bakeries on that street (not counting Foodstuff which has baked goods but is not just a bakery) and Great Harvest Bread Co was the one we did not think we’d buy anything from.

We were wrong. I think we spent $50 there!

We grabbed huge sticky buns and toffee chip brownies to take to the meet up and there were plenty for us to eat before and after. These things are HUGE so I cut them into quarters and a quarter was still huge. And they’re amazingly good.

We also grabbed a loaf of Apple Crunch bread, based on the recommendation of Prince J and RJ. They were right, it was awesomely delicious and I could eat the entire loaf (but didn’t.)

It’s a good thing this little bakery is not in the most convenient location for us (parking stinks) or I’d probably be there every week.

I don’t seem to blog very often about places we don’t like, possibly because there are very few places we don’t like. The Dixie Kitchen is a place we did not like. Some of us liked it less than others. None of us have even the first clue why President Obama enjoys eating here. (Did he get a kickback?)

It’s not bad food, but it isn’t great food. I’ve never seen Fried Green Tomatoes the way they made these. The Plantains were excellent but is that really southern cooking? Not anywhere north of Florida, really.

I enjoyed my taco scramble a good bit, very spicy. I think I am the only one who didn’t walk out of there with mean things to say about my meal. But, that’s because what I ordered isn’t in any way shape or form traditional.

TW’s fried green tomatoes and her mom’s oyster po’ boy were disappointments because they expected “real” fried green tomatoes and oyster po’ boys. They didn’t get what they were expecting.

The L & L Snack Shop has been on my short list of breakfast spots to try. All of the restaurants on this particular list have to be near the assisted living facility we go to every weekend in Des Plaines. The L & L is the last on this little list I’ve been accumulating and I found it by shaking the Urban Spoon iPhone app.

Greasy spoon food. Our favorite. A restaurant people seem to LOVE – or hate. This spot was right up our alley. Boy was it.

When we got there, closer to lunch than breakfast, all of the booths were full and about half of the counter stools. TW’s mom was with us so a counter stool was out, though if it had just been me and TW we’d have grabbed those stools and been happyyyyy.

So, we stood outside and waited for a free booth. One emptied but it was a tiny booth for two, jammed right up against the counter stools with no way to get a wheel chair in, so we waited some more. Finally a party of three left the booth right inside the door – a two seater with extra room for a chair.

We knew what we wanted since TW and her mom had read the menu while we waited. I knew what I wanted from watching everyone order and eat.

While we waited for our food (and discussed the waitress in detail – fascinating woman, errr. Heh) I pursed the reviews and was reminded of the chef’s love of ham. “You’re going to get ham whether you ordered it or NOT.” Damn, none of us ordered ham and I was thinking we totally should have.

It didn’t matter, the reviews were right. We all got ham – even TW’s mom who ordered eggs, wheatcakes and sausage got a chunk of ham. Even TW who ordered an amazing looking egg n cheese sandwich with hashbrowns and a side of corned beef hash got a chunk of ham. And yes, I who ordered no meat at all with my french toast got a hunk of ham.

The ham… fabulous.

In fact all of the food was fabulous. The corned beef hash… freaking amazingly good.

I have been trying to get TW to agree to dinner at Booby’s for WEEKS. For some reason she had it in her head that it was a hot dog place and that’s why she kept turning up her nose at the suggestion. It doesn’t matter that I rambled off all sorts of things I’d seen on their menu, none of which were hot dogs. It didn’t matter that it had a great name or that everything I read indicated this would be a place TW would love. She just kept making that face… the one that means we should find some place else for dinner.

Finally, she grudgingly said yes to Booby’s. On a Wednesday night, which is not a convenient time for me to go out for dinner due to a standing date. But whatever, I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity – who knows when she’d be game to try it again.

So we headed out. For some reason I thought it was much further from our house than it actually is. I also thought there was less parking than there actually is. Win. Win!

It wasn’t crowded at 6pm on a Wednesday. But, the folks eating there were interesting. Older folks. Men in suits grabbing their Boobys’ to go. A couple of families.

TW and I ordered Big Boobs and we ordered a Cheeseburger (that doesn’t seem to have a special Booby’s name) for TW’s mom. We ordered a side of onion rings, a side of cole slaw, a side of fried mushrooms and a couple of rice puddings.

It wasn’t fast but it wasn’t slow either. I ate my onion rings on the drive home and they weren’t great but they weren’t bad either.

The Big Boobs on the other hand – amazing. Best. Burgers. If not ever, than definitely the best burgers we have had in ages. They have slaw and onions on them. BBQ sauce that is not exactly BBQ sauce but something else. And, the dill pickle… I need to order a side of dill pickles next time. Awesome pickle. Oh yea, did I mention the slaw was fabulous and I was so glad I ordered an extra side.

As for the rice pudding – I thought I heard TW’s mom say she didn’t like it. Turns out I mis-heard. She loved it. She was comparing it to some fabulous rice pudding from some place else. I know squat about rice pudding (except that it’s disgusting) but TW and her mom liked it and that’s saying something since they are picky about their rice pudding.

I love Booby’s.

Last Friday, it was our very last breakfast with Lizzy wandering time. Next year she’ll go off to middle school so we won’t have that hour to kill with her after dropping off the other two kids.

In celebration, we asked her where she would like to go for breakfast – out of all of the places we’d visited, what would she prefer…? She chose Kaufman’s.

So, off we went. We ordered a ton of food.

The bagels, excellent as always. The chocolate chip cookie Liz reports was amazing. The bialy’s very good. The pizza bread, fabulous. I impulse purchased a seven layer bar that defies words. Seriously. The onion rye bread was hot out of the oven and smelled amazing. I didn’t have any while it was hot but had a couple of slices with some of Kaufman’s amazing chicken salad – fantastic.

Black bean burgers and salmon patties were also purchased and I’m pretty sure reports will be good, once they come in.

Kaufman’s rocks.

Last month, TW read about Spiro’s Deli and mentioned that it was just down the road from us and supposed to be really good. She mentioned all of this right about dinner time, on a night when she did not feel like cooking. That’s what they call a hint. So, I took the hint and we headed out to run some errands and then tracked down Spiro’s Deli – in a little strip we pass every day, sometimes ten times a day, and have never really noticed. It’s right next to the Dunkin Donuts and that sign draws the eye, so we’d never noticed the tiny little run down looking Spiro’s right next door.

We stopped. It was a dumpy little place, that looks like it has been there for years. And, they do not take cards. We had no cash. So, darn, no Spiro’s for us. (We ended up at fRed Hots that night.)

One day last week, we were in pretty much the same fix. TW did not feel like cooking and I certainly didn’t. So, we made sure we had cash and then headed to Spiro’s.

A woman went in right before us who knows the gentleman who appears to be the owner. She chatted him up, when she noticed us behind her she moved aside and told us to order from the best deli in the world. Huh. That was an awful lot of enthusiasm from a little hole in the wall that didn’t really look like it was going to be anything special.

We perused the menu. We ordered… TW ordered something called an Athena. I ordered a Lady Di. We ordered an Italian for TW’s mom and we grabbed a couple of tubs of pasta salad. All to go.

While we waited, the woman ahead of us continued to chat up the owner as he cooked. A young young young couple came in and ordered Bombers. And we all waited together. It wasn’t quick. It was just this one guy (presumed to be the owner) and a young guy.

Most of the food was finished at the same time. The woman left first, then the young couple with their Bombers, and then our turn.

We drove home with food that looked less than spectacular. Not bad, just nothing to write home about.

We unwrapped our food, headed to our various eating spots (in front of our computers or in our beds) and proceeded to eat some of the best deli food we’ve ever had. I have no idea what made this exceptional food. Really no idea at all. But it was.

Last year we were really excited about the new fancy sciency ice cream shop in Wicker Park called iCream. (They use liquid nitrogen to freeze the ingredients in some magic way I never understood, to make ice cream.)

The reviews were mixed, mostly due to the crowds and the fact that their big machine was often broken. The reviews did not really deter us and we finally found a good weekend to head to Wicker Park… only to find the store was closed until spring while they worked on their machinery malfunction issues.

A couple of weeks ago, I started seeing reviews again and it looked like their machine problems had been solved. Yay! And what great timing, since my cousin (owner of Hamburger Calculus) was in town and we were looking for some place to meet. What better place for weirdo food people who don’t really know each other to meet up?

The machines do work. I am not sure how they work, that whole science is magic thing, ya know. But, they work with every day Kitchen-aid mixers and they work very very well.

I ordered a coffee flavored ice cream with bananas and caramel – and I ordered it pink. The taste – EXCELLENT. It’s oddly disconcerting to eat pink coffee flavored ice cream. A young man sitting on a stool behind me had peach ice cream that was… green. It had chocolate bits in it too so to look at it you’d have thought it was mint chocolate chip. Imagine that crazy disjointed experience – it should be mint chocolate chip and yet it is… peach? Fabulous!

TW and RJ ordered the pudding (Chocolate and vanilla) and they both enjoyed it quite a bit. Prince J also ordered coffee and wanted his red but it turned out more pink than red. My cousin ordered chocolate (which can’t be colored properly so it just looked chocolate) with nutella and hazelnut and reeses pieces and I don’t know what else. It was surprisingly good (yes he let me taste it!) considering I don’t much like hazelnut and really dislike nutella. J, my cousin’s g/f, ordered a pomegranate (but not pom/pear) with mangos and blackberries and may graham crackers. She didn’t get any color with hers so it was a weird off white tannish color. Fascinating!

We finally went to Bennison’s! Finally.

We haven’t spent all that much time in Evanston. We tend to go in that direction only to pick up or drop off the kids. Our roaming around, exploring food options and such, tends to take place on our side of the Eden’s Expressway.

But, we’ve exhausted new quick take out breakfast options in Skokie so I broadened the net and decided it was time to visit the famous Bennison’s.

The little kids have been there and Liz wasn’t all that thrilled when I told her that’s where we were going but in the end, she was happy with her chocolate chip cookie.

TW and I were happier though – we had egg & cheese sandwich thingies (I took the bacon off mine but kept the ham) and those were very good. The red velvet donut was tasty, really tasty. More places should make those.

We brought home a custard cup for TW’s mom and she liked it very much.

The loaf of rye raisin bread was not my favorite but RJ and TW’s mom really liked it.

We bought some sort of apple bread. Yummy. Very yummy. A hit with everyone, I believe.

Added bonus, you can follow Bennison’s Bakery on Twitter. I love that.

Cora Lee Candies is a block away from our house. We’ve been here almost a year and we’ve never gone inside.

A few weeks ago, Liz and I walked over to check it out but they’re closed on Sundays. Darn. This week, we remembered before they closed and before it was Sunday again.

Liz is really happy with their selection of novelty candy. She bought stuff like super sour gum and pop rocks. (I bought some lemon zotz for myself and some wax fangs for RJ.)

I was really thrilled to see hard candy by the pound. We’ve had so much trouble finding plain old sour balls (to take to JR at the nursing home) they have them at Cora Lee’s… along with sugar-free butterscotch candy for TW’s mom.

Liz bought a marzipan elephant gumball and I impulse purchased some Violets (both the candy and the gum) along with a tiny chocolate heart with a pink flower on top (again for JR.)

I can’t believe we spent $15 and didn’t buy any of their English Toffee or Grumpies (aka Turtles.) Next time, I’m buying those plus a chocolate mold of some sort.