The much anticipated Soda& Swine along with its counterpart Polite Provisions is now open. Doors opened to the public last night, Monday, for the restaurant and bar’s soft launch including family and friends were welcomed earlier in the evening. I passed by around 9 and the place was packed for the pre-launch.

The menus include dozens of draft options including beer, wine and spirits, as well as the signature sodas—think sarsaparilla, chai cola and orange cream, to name a few. Oh, and virgin options too.

Soda and Swine boasts simple small plates along with a meatball concept (you choose the meatball type, sauce, cheese and style for a total DIY dining approach), salads, sides and pies.

The place is beautiful with dark wood, comfy seating and lots of candlelight. If I were in Chicago, I’d say it resembles Gilt Bar and Maude’s Liquor Bar, brainchildren of the Windy City’s Brian Sodikoff and not too shabby (incidentally the force behind the food here comes from former Chicago Ria chef Jason McLeod, as reported by SD’s edition of Eater back in November). Surely once it gets in gear it will be a North Park/University Heights destination for San Diego’s finest foodies. Review coming as soon as I can get in the door!

Soda and Swine menu: click here.

Polite Provisions menu: click here.

Polite Provisions/Soda and Swine

30th and Adams / University Heights / San Diego

Thank you to Jessica and Brian for teaching me the deliciousness that is Christmas Coffee.

It’s a very simple addition to the start of a day, but one that is becoming a morning staple for me.

When brewing your morning coffee in a drip maker or French press as I have been doing, add a tablespoon of cinnamon right on top of the coffee grinds. It adds a nice spicy flavor and doesn’t do a thing to the calorie count like some flavored creamers do.

Plus, cinnamon supposedly has lots of health benefits. I don’t know if that’s true, but reason enough to start with Christmas Coffee  every day!

Next stop: perfecting the “Mexican Mocha” just the way my local coffee spot Filter does it. Add some chocolate and nutmeg into the mix…

Well, I stand corrected. I previously wrote after a trip to California that acai bowls were nowhere to be found in Chicago. Little did I know, they are here, they’re just DIY.

Full disclosure, Amafruits sent me some of their awesome frozen acai samples and I fashioned them into what I like to think of as a Chicago-style acai bowl (see below). Like the Chicago-style hot dog, this bowl has a special Chicago twist: Julius Meinl granola.

I also learned from Amafruits that sometimes acai served in restaurants is not fresh. This antioxident-rich fruit has a shelf life and since it grows in the Amazon, it’s shipped frozen to preserve its natural benefits.

The acai (Amafruits sells through Treasure Island, Potash and some other locations downtown or order online) comes in single-serve packets that blend extremely well. It doesn’t take a super-blender to smooth it out, when mixed with a little orange juice, or even water.

If you haven’t had acai, it’s a fruit, but it blends smoothly when frozen without separating into fruit versus water. The consistency is almost creamy, but it’s just pure fruit.

Here’s how I assembled my bowls:

-Blend four packets of frozen acai puree with orange juice to desired consistency.

-Pour blended acai over Julius Meinl granola

-Top with sliced bananas, shredded coconut and fresh raspberries

Enjoy!

Even though this makes for a great breakfast or snack, we actually enjoyed acai bowls for dinner. Who knew?

City Provisions is not new to me, but its North Center location makes it a bit of a hike for anyone who works downtown. That means: It might be new to YOU! Plus, it has received a lot of praise and general street cred for people who know about it (ahem, TimeOut Chicago’s Top 100 list).

If you do have the occasion to be on the North Side around lunch time, this is your place. It doesn’t even matter who you are. If you like food that tastes good and is good for you, go here. (And the wait is pretty much non-existent when compared with, say, my other other downtown favorite, Publican Quality Meats.) The caterer-turned-retail lunch shop is a relatively no-nonsense deli counter with some of the most inventive staples in the city.

Also, its big, wooden shared tables, self-serve water station and cute jars of fresh flowers are pretty darn pleasant.

Have a taste for sriracha egg salad? (Happens to be JUST how I like mine.) Or a curried veggie wrap on whole wheat tortilla (shown)? There are usually soups and specials, too, and there are always cookies and other treats, a coffee bar, and Chicago-based foodie finds like honey, dressings and other accoutrements. City Provisions prides itself on the best ingredients that are local, organic and in season.

You will not find a $5 Foot Long here but you WILL find the best $12 sandwich you will have this summer.

City Provisions

1818 W. Wilson / North Center / Chicago

Each time I visit California, I become a little more infatuated with the ubiquitous “acai bowl.” Yes, there are a few acai applications here (Protein Bar includes the berries in some of its blended drinks, for example), but for a breakfast/lunch/snack staple so simple, it’s shocking we don’t have something that resembles the goodness of Swami’s Cafe’s very own (Encinitas, Calif.).

Whether or not you believe in the acai’s antioxident benefits, the bowl is made from frozen acai berries, blended like a thick, still frozen smoothie, covered in sliced banana, granola, shredded coconut, frozen raspberries and bee pollen. (Bee pollen is another thing Chicago hasn’t quite caught on to, unless I’ve missed something.)

Does anyone know where to find an acai bowl in Chicago? Why are we so behind on this?

Swami’s

1163 S Coast Hwy 101 / Encinitas, Calif.

I was so happy to hear about a new taco shop in Wicker Park. After all, Big Star is great, but the scene can be a bit much sometimes. Enter: Antique Taco.

Photo is courtesy of Antique Taco’s site, since my photos were lost in phone photography snafu. More importantly, though, here’s what I think about this new “old” Mexican-inspired spot.

-There are a lot (maybe too many) bells and whistles here. Sure, the little wooden tags marking “bird,” etc. stuck into the taco plates are cute, but are these little sticks as well as the pretty paper straws and cloth napkins the reason the margarita is $12?

-Yes, $12. That means for the price for two people to drink margaritas here, I could buy a bottle of Hornitos ($20) and a can of Minutemade Limeade ($3.99) and make my own. Then, I wouldn’t get to drink them in the company of Wicker Park’s finest, but I also wouldn’t have to wait in line to order and then wait in line for my order to arrive at my table. (AT quotes a 15-minute wait time for all orders.)

-Oh, and the food. The flavors here are great. I loved the curried chicken taco as well as the smoky flavor of the crispy fish taco. There are unexpected twists on the tried-and-true taco staples. Which is why it isn’t really fair to compare this place to a Big Star or Taco Joint or Tapatio. But, if you expect something along those lines, you are likely to be surprised here.

It seems to me there is a little bit of an identity crisis going on. It would make a lot of sense for this place to either a) be more of a sit down spot and less of a taco window or b) drop some of the cute touches and let the food speak for itself. I was intrigued by the patio, which was not yet open on my visit.

Antique Taco

1360 N. Milwaukee / Wicker Park / Chicago

It’s not quite summer, but this weekend served as the season opener for mango rice salad. As soon as mangoes can be found in the market at a reasonable price, this one is a go-to. It looks beautiful and is a crowd pleaser AND it is healthy. It’s good the first time, and as leftovers, so make an abundance! You can adapt and adjust however you’d like, another plus.

I have to give credit to Dirk’s Fish for introducing this salad to me several years ago at a cooking demonstration hosted by Dirk and his wife, Terry. Thank you Dirk and Terry—I probably have made this salad 25 times and everyone, I mean everyone, loves it. (For those who don’t know Dirk’s, it’s a seafood shop at 2070 N. Clybourn; it has it all and the service is the best around.)

Here’s the secret: make the brown rice ahead and use light coconut milk (found in the Asian foods section of the supermarket) as part of the liquid in making the rice. Make sure to season well with salt and pepper as well.

Dirk’s Recipe:
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 cups brown jasmine rice-uncooked
1 1/2 cups lite coconut milk
2 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt

2 cups fresh mango, diced
1 1/2 cups carrot, shredded
3/4 cup red onion, diced
1 cup red pepper, diced
2 teaspoons garlic, chopped
3/4 cup cilantro. chopped
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons salt

Click here for the original Dirk’s recipe.

Directions
Put oil, rice, coconut milk, water, and salt in a pot. Bring to a boil, uncovered, reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. (40 minutes if you’re using brown rice!)

While rice cooks, chop all other ingredients. Toss into a bowl with salt and lime juice. Mix well.
Remove rice from stove, add all ingredients, toss gently. Serve warm or at room temperature.

First food stop in Del Mar, California: The Brigantine. There are fish tacos everywhere here, but this one is somehow set apart from the rest. The fish tacos come in several varieties: mahi mahi, fried white fish, sword fish or fried shrimp. While the crunchy, fried house version is delicious, today I opted for the mahi mahi—flaky, grilled mahi with spiced mayo and Brigantine slaw.

One of the pluses of this place, which has several San Diego-area locations, is the fact that the tacos come on a single corn tortilla that actually stays in one piece all throughout the eating process. Even the second taco, even when splashed with a healthy amount of lime juice. Still stays together. It’s a lot more than I can say for most corn tortillas…

The other plus of the Del Mar location: The view. Go for porch seats and overlook a sunny lagoon that abuts the Coaster train tracks and Del Mar Race Track. It is picturesque, pleasant, and if you come for lunch, you might end up staying through cocktail hour.

The Brigantine

3263 Camino Del Mar / Del Mar / San Diego / California

I was craving comfort food on Sunday and decided Toll House chocolate chip cookies were in order. Never one to keep things simple, I opted to make them into mini ice cream chip-wiches.

A few tips…

For the cookies, extra vanilla and a pinch more salt than the recipe calls for. Especially when mixing with vanilla ice cream, both are good for boosting the flavor of these little delectables.

To assemble and fill the sandwiches, using cold cookies helps. The ice cream needs to be soft, but not too soft. I ended up spooning softened ice cream into my 1/4 cup measuring cup to give it a circular and even shape. I didn’t fill it all the way to the top, but it proved a really good way to shape the ice cream before placing it between two cookies.

Straight into the freezer with these, either on cookie sheets or in flat tuppeware containers so that they can firm up. The hard part is not eating all of the cookies during assembly…

Just touched down in New York for a foodie weekend in the big city. First stop: The James Hotel and its pretty wooden “Treehouse Bar” patio/porch with Sara, my NYC foodie inspiration. We had a pleasant lunch by David Burke featuring ahi tuna tacos, cheese platter, salmon sticks (little bundles of salmon shaped around an extremely thin bread stick; think: lollipop) and something I have had several times in New York and never in Chicao: ricotta spread.

The James version comes in a little jar and is fixed with roasted tomatoes, giving it a savory taste. Another version, at Caffe Falai (two NYC locations; ricotta can be found at Lower East Side cafe/bakery installment) is served with figs and honey and is also delicious on toast, or just spooned in big bites.

Does anyone know of a place in Chicago that serves this? It must be out there. Hoping I can find one soon.

Now off to explore Brooklyn. Destination: Brooklyn bagels.

Places:

The James Hotel / 27 Grand Street / SoHo / New York