Monday, June 18, 2012

Hungry's Birthday Dinner: The Publican

I have absolutely no idea where I'd live besides Chicago.  The food continues to knock my socks off week after week.  With that said, it was difficult deciding where to eat for my birthday.  Should we go to a hot new place, or an oldie but a goody?  We settled on an oldie, but an awesomie.

You'll have to excuse the quality of the photos.  I was planning on enjoying my fair share of cocktails, so I wanted to leave my SLR at home where it was at a lower risk of me swinging it around like Bam Bam's bat.

Charlie and I first fell in love with oysters in Chicago of all places, specifically at The Publican.  Their mignonette is to die for.  It's sweet, sour, and complements the brininess of the oysters perrrrfectly.  One thing I learned.  I do not enjoy West Coast oysters nearly as much as East Coast.  Must be the Mainah in me. 


I have no clue what are in these little crack laced crackers but they are AMAZING.  They are buttery and flaky and have, what I believe are green onions, baked into them.  They are also topped with a healthy serving of sea salt.  Be still my salt licking heart.


I've always eyeballed the hams at Publican, but have never gone ahead and ordered them.  Since it was my birthday and I love me some pork, we said what the hell.  We are also getting very excited for our trip to Spain and decided we should start prepping our bodies for the inevitable high ham consumption.  We got the sampler of all three hams:

Serrano—rich, wild—Salamanca, Spain
La quercia rossa—mild, smooth—Norwalk, Iowa
Benton country ham—smoky, sweet—Madisonville, Tennessee

They were served with rye and goat butter.  My favorite was the Benton country ham.  It just melted in my mouth.



You guys have seen this dish before.  I refuse to go to Publican without an order of these puppies.  Fresh, crispy, divine fries covered with a fried egg.


Ok you pork lovers out there.  Hold on to your pants.  Because this shizz was BANANAS.  Here is the porchetta.  MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS.  This was incredible.  It's a brined pork chop, wrapped in pork belly, and slow cooked until everything is incredibly tender.  Maybe the most ridiculous thing I've ever eaten.  It's topped with escarole that was braised with golden raisins and finished with a little pecorino romano.  Salty, sweet, melt in your mouth tenderness...it does NOT get better then this.  After making it through about a tenth of this, we packaged it up to bring home.  Except, it never made it home.  Drunky left it in the cab.  I don't want to talk about it.  The end.



I love the custom postcards Publican serves with the check...



This place continues to amaze me.  I just love it.  Keep rockin' out Publican until next year...or this Tuesday...stay hungry! 

2 comments:

  1. I can't see the pictures for some reason (pretty sure it's me not you, my computer is being weird today), but everything sounds divine anyway! Which is quite a talent, when you think about it.

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    1. Thanks for letting us know! I think I fixed it...let me know if they go down again :)

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