I'm actually up in Chicago right now. We just got back from a few hours at Taste, and it was amazing. For those of you not familiar, you pay about 50-60 cents per ticket, and every booth has at least two 'tasting' options for 2-4 tickets. Additionally, they have around 4-5 dishes with larger portions that sell for between 5 and 11 tickets. There were about 70ish restaurants overall (I think).
Some of the more interesting dishes:
A chocolate cupcake filled with mashed potatoes- I think the potatoes had rosemary in them. It was good, but felt kind of gimmicky to me. Personally I would've rather just had the cupcake. Any thoughts from our cupcake mercenary on this one?
Cajun Meatballs from Cest si Bon-These were very tender, and quite a nice kick to them. I was very pleased.
Iyanze's Jerk Chicken- Very tasty bone-in jerk chicken and rice. Savory, spicy, and melting in your mouth.
It runs all week, and I know several of you all have been before. Is anyone else catching it this year?
On a non-Taste related note: if any beer lover is ever in Chicago, you really should stop by the Hopleaf. They have a great selection of belgian-style beers, and the food is fantastic. I had the CB&J, which was a cashew butter, fig jam, and morbier cheese sandich that was served on sourdough and grilled. It was accompanied by stilton mac and cheese (I could eat this all day) and housemade potato chips. The rest of their food looked equally scrumptious.