NY better than Chicago? Forgetaboutit!

I love food, most of it at least. And I am a man, most days. So it makes perfect sense, then, that I love Man vs. Food on the Travel Channel. It’s the show where Brooklyn native Adam Richman heads out across the globe tasting local treats then taking on an eating challenge of some sort. Down 50 Naga Jolokia wings in 30 minutes or ingest a twelve egg omelet topped with 1 pound of bacon, 2 and pounds of cheese without throwing up. I caught an episode this week where he was visiting Chicago. In case you’ve forgotten because we post here with a frequency just short of Haley’s comet passing, I am from Chicago and it’s a favorite travel destination of EJ and Roo given we live down South. In his tour of the town, he stopped at Gino’s East to try a deep dish pizza. While some Windy City folks will tell you thin crust is truly Chicago’s best pie, the deep dish is world-renowned and as synonymous with the Second City as are Harry Caray’s glasses. If you go to Chicago, get a deep dish. It’s worth the wait. If you are waiting for one at Gino’s East and are sitting upstairs and outside on the patio, look for our graffiti.

So back to Adam. Brooklyn guy. In the episode, he is clearly blown away by the Chicago style pie but mostly avoids making any comparison to the east coast style NY slice. He clearly doesn’t want to lose rep in his hometown but it’s that he is intrigued by the Chicago version (but then if he is a culinary guru that has “held every job in the business”, do we really believe that this is the first time he has had deep-dish?) He stopped just short of crowning Chicago’s pizza king, strategically I assume. Where he stopped, I will continue. There is no comparison. There is no way you can argue that a floppy, greasy NY triangle compared to the sophisticated, succulent pie that is a deep dish pizza. It’s like comparing Al Capone to Regis Philbin. Se determined was I to remind myself how great a deep-dish pizza really is, that I decided to make my own. I researched a few recipes on-line and came up with my own version.

Delicious. It’s not the real thing but close enough to remind that it is the best. Now, if I can just find a recipe for that 12 egg omelet.

Oh Monday, Monday...

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything, not to say we’ve haven’t had much to say…we’ve just been so wrapped up in the gulf oil spill, LeBron James free agency and Lindsay Lohan rehab watch that we haven’t had the time to focus on anything else. But not much has changed since last time. Typical Monday today that’s for sure, after a great weekend celebrating Roo’s birthday and her cousin’s wedding, I don’t want to be at work...and I’ve only been here for an hour. Fairly standard start: report requests needed yesterday that won’t be used for a meeting tomorrow but if I could make them my first priority today “That’d be great” and another lame corporate email reminding everyone that the green-outlined parking spots are for hybrid cars and carpoolers only. Sigh. My only saving grace today is that the Bachelorette is on tonight. No, I’m not quite the fan I used to be circa Trista and Ryan. As each new season passes, I am less intrigued. With each “perfect” match that falls apart, I am less surprised. The more I think about it, the more I believe the show is better suited for the Food Network because it’s the perfect recipe for relationship disaster. Think about it, you take a handful of successful, attractive people and put them into a luxurious mansion. You wine and dine them and fly them around the country and world for a couple months until two of them fall in “love” with each other. Instead, they fall in love with a fantasy lifestyle. I liken the courting session to be about as real as the Real World on MTV. If ABC wants to spawn a truly perfect match for one lucky guy and gal, don’t send them cliff diving in Trinidad and Tobago, put them in a 2 bedroom apartment for a weekend and have one do the taxes while the other does the laundry. Have the guy ruin at least two of her shirts and have her erase last night’s season finale of Entourage off the DVR. Make them eat leftovers for dinner and drink water from the refrigerator instead of caviar and wine. Make the guy go on a date with her after a 10 hour work day instead of 10 hours of lounging by the pool. Make her do her own hair and makeup. But instead, ABC creates an infatuated lifestyle for a couple that can’t sustain once the cameras stop rolling. And yet US Weekly pumps out “shocking” tales of why the storybook couple fell apart. No, I get excited when the Bachelorette comes on because I know I get an hour or two to unwide with the Xbox. Ironically, I am playing NCAA 11, where I created myself as an All-American quarterback for a top 25 program. Speaking of fantasy…