Category: Food

ELV Interviewed By Chicago’s Hungry Hound

In case you’re in love with ELV’s voice, and let’s face it who isn’t?, here is a recent interview of him by Steve Dolinsky (The Hungry Hound of Chicago), conducted as we were on our way to, and eating in, Lotus of Siam last week. Besides being a great guy and a man of impeccable taste (especially when it comes to dining companions and interview subjects), Steve is an official FOELV (Friend Of ELV), whose weekly broadcasts can be accessed by clicking on his name under ELV’s Friends In Food on the right.

And here are but a few of the dishes we shared at Lotus that night….along with some views of Dolinsky’s hand saucing a succulent red snapper.

POSTRIO, DELMONICO, and SPAGO – A Fish, A Steak, And A Choucroute

Yeah, it was just another day and night at the office for ELV, as he traipsed his way across our unassuming village’s better addresses, seeking the best in food and drink. And this is what he came up with in one weekend:

A Fish:

Postrio’s new design is a winner, and the re-designed menu (and smaller, less expensive, more eclectic wine list) should garner raves as well. Here was our modest loup de mer (“wolf of the sea”), grilled to a fare-the-well (by Chef Mark Sandoval) and filet’d tableside with the grace worthy of a Michelin 3-star.

A Steak:

We’ve known Chef Sean Roe since the early 90’s….when he first showed us around Emeril’s Fish House in the MGM. He’s still hard at the stoves, and now does a wonderful job keeping Delmonico near the top of our steakhouse food chain. This beauty was a bone-in rib-eye, dry aged (although not nearly enough to suit ELV), and as full of beef flavor as a carnivore could want. It was the perfect amuse bouche for ELV before he ventured into the netherworld of the Venetian Convention Center — to spend an evening listening to political speeches (and pushing rubber chicken around his plate) whilst pretending to care who was going to win this pesky election thing (that has been distracting us from our food and wine habit for much too long).

And A Choucroute:

After premium fish and a prime steak, sometimes a little pork is called for. That’s when Eric Klein’s choucroute garni at Spago really fills the bill. Choucroute garni stands for the spiced sauerkraut underneath the sausages, bacon, pork belly, chops and potatoes that “garnish” the fermented vegetable. Leave it to the Alsatians to “decorate” their veggies with two pounds of pork products….but the result is just delicious if you ask us…and surprisingly light and digestible.