The Best Street Meat in New York

Dallas has been traveling for work since last week. In the beginning part of the week he was in Tallahassee. Then on Thursday he went to New York City and he’s still there now. Friday night I flew in to join him for the weekend. This was the first time we’ve ever been to New York at the same time, which I was crazy excited about. He’s met most of my friends that live in New York, but I was excited to be with the guy I love, in the city I love, with friends I love. Sappy, but true.

On Friday night, I got into New York pretty late. But not too late that we were too tired to meet Jeannette and Yvan for a few drinks nearby our Midtown hotel. Since Dallas and I hadn’t eaten since 3 or 4 pm, Jeannette and Yvan took us to the street cart at 53rd and 6th to get some platters. I never knew this, but 53rd and 6th is known to be the best street meat in NY. What other street meat cart actually has it’s own website?

I got chicken

53rd_and_6th_chicken

and Dallas got lamb/gyro.

53rd_and_6th_gyro

I can’t decide if those photos look disgusting or delicious.

I must admit that I liked the gyro better than the chicken. The white sauce, which was kind of like taziki, was great, but watch out for the hot sauce. It’s super hot. Even Jeannette and Dallas said so (not just wussy me). These guys serve on the corner of 53rd and 6th from 7:30 pm til 4:00 am, so check them out if you’re in Midtown at bar close! There were a TON of people standing around the plaza there eating.

North Avenue Beach

On Tuesday, Stephanie and I went to the farmers’ market. I don’t know if she’d ever been to a farmers’ market before. She wasn’t too terribly interested. Vegetables are not cool, apparently. Although, I must admit that she did try some things I doubted she would. Thank you baba ganoush for all of that. Back at the cookie party, Steph tried baba ganoush and loved it. I don’t think she knew what it was. So now when she doesn’t want to try something I remind her that she would never have wanted to try roasted eggplant if she knew that’s what baba ganoush was. So at Whole Foods they had free samples of some kind of carrot parsnip cake and I took one. She said she didn’t want to try it because it sounded “ew” and I reminded her of baba ganoush. She circled back for a sample. I don’t think she liked it too much, but at least she tried. You never know. She ate raw zucchini slices today and liked it.

Anyway, back to the farmers market. We bought a bunch of stuff. I remember at one point Steph said something along the lines of “this vegetable looks like crap!” I had to remind her that the produce at the farmers market is fresh, natural, dirty, right from the farm. It was picked ripe. It didn’t travel 1,000 miles, get sprayed with coloring and wax and made to look pretty so people would buy it in some super mega store. I tried to teach her a bit about buying local and direct. I don’t know if it’s possible where she lives… but we talked a lot about all the reasons to love a farmers’ market.

For lunch we went to Turquoise Cafe, Roscoe Village’s Turkish restaurant, where Stephanie attempted to get her gyro on again. Turquoise didn’t have gyros proper, but when Steph decided she loved gyros at Retro on Roscoe I told her other names they go by sometimes so she could watch for them at home. Names like… schwarma. So for lunch she ordered the beef schwarma. I got the lamb wrap. When it came we split both half and half. The lamb was more gyro-like than the beef, which oddly kind of resembled a steak burrito. I definitely like the lamb wrap more there. I’ve had it on several occasions.


Hamlin Park, Lakeview, Chicago

We were rushing back from lunch so we could get to the Hamlin Park pool when it opened. .. which turned out to be never. There are tons of big trees down at Hamlin Park from the storm and one was on the fence off the pool. The pool was closed for the whole day. Since we already had swim bags packed, we stopped home quick just to check the swim report and then we headed to North Avenue beach for a few hours. It was nice. The water was fantastic. I don’t think I’ve actually gone into the water at any Chicago beaches. I mean, more than ankle deep. We had fun. And Chicago beaches always freak me out how you sit on wide sand beaches and the lake is so big you can’t see across it. Then you turn around and there are skyscrapers behind you.


North Avenue Beach, Chicago


Rachelle & Stephanie, North Avenue Beach, Chicago

Coming home Stephanie and I got off the bus at Roscoe and Damen at the exact moment that Dallas got to the intersection from his walk from the Addison Brown Line. Kind of funny. For dinner we grilled chicken sausages. Later on Stephanie and I made zucchini blueberry bread with zucchini and blueberries we got at the farmers’ market. More on that later!

Art Institute, Millennium Park, Retro on Roscoe


Art Institute, Chicago


Art Institute, Chicago

After visiting the Sears Tower, Stephanie and I used some free passes I had to check out the Art Institute. I think she liked it, but got her fill fast. Also, a lot of the paintings I wanted to show her were pulled because of the new wing they’re building. We were tired from walking around a lot that day and the day before at Retro on Roscoe, so we decided to take a break.


Wrigley Square, Millennium Park, Chicago


Stephanie, Millennium Park, Chicago

At the Retro on Roscoe the day before we’d gotten two coupons for free smoothies at Starbucks, so we got those, a cookie and a rice krispie treat and rested in Millennium Park. It was a beautiful day and felt really good to sit down. We just sat and chatted for about 45 minutes.


Rachelle & Stephanie, Millennium Park, Chicago

Feeling a bit rested, we headed over to State Street to look at the cheap accessories at H&M. Most of them were pretty ridiculous or not Stephanie’s style, but she did find one pair of earrings she liked that were only like $4.95. Next we headed up to Borders. Apparently there’s this young adult book series called The Twilight Saga that’s all the rage these days. It’s some kind of vampire love story. There are four books out and they’re already making a movie. Anyway, when Steph was visiting with my cousin Kelly she got the first book in the series and was hooked. We were planning on going to the pool later in the week, so I got her the second book to read poolside. Of course, she couldn’t even wait for the train to pull out of the train station before cracking it open! All the talk of Twilight Saga and Jonas Brothers this week has made me feel a bit ancient. FYI, Miley Cyrus is totally not cool.


Steph wearing new earrings, reading a new book.

For dinner we went to Retro on Roscoe. Dallas got polish food (surprise, surprise). Steph and I split a margherita pizza made on a mobile brick oven and another gyro.

Retro on Roscoe 2008


Retro on Roscoe, Roscoe Village, Chicago

Retro on Roscoe was this past weekend and we all attended, of course. It’s hard not to when it’s so close. There’s a stage about 3 houses from ours, so even if we didn’t attend the festival, we’d be listening to the bands anyway.


Stephanie with empty chili samplers, Roscoe Village, Chicago

Steph and I walked around Retro on Roscoe starting at about noon or so. We sampled all of the chilis in the Windy City Chili Cookoff. There were a few unique ones like the pork chili verde, but most of them were red, slightly spicy and very meaty. We tried 9 or 10 different chilis and both agreed that we liked one called “Nikki’s Revenge” the best. We probably could have stopped right there and just had chili samples for lunch, but we decided to go to the polish stand where we ordered one of each flavor of pierogi and a blintze. Steph had never tried either. Funny thing is that neither of us really like sauerkraut, but we both really liked the sauerkraut pierogi. On a side note, Dallas loves the polish stand so much that he had it for dinner two nights in a row and I think he did the same thing last year too.


IRS, Retro on Roscoe, Chicago


IRS + Random Groupie, Retro on Roscoe, Chicago

After lunch Steph and I sat on the grass by the Hamilton stage and watched a cover band called IRS (Independent Rock Society). They played a lot of popular songs and the crowd relaxed and sang along. Jen and Chad hosted their annual Retro on Roscoe party since they also live so close to the festival. After IRS was done playing, Stephanie and I headed over to their house. Dallas and a bunch of friends were already there. Chad and Limey tried to introduce the Pimm’s Cup as the new Summer of Rachelle drink, but it didn’t work because I didn’t like it. We all played ping pong (beer pong for some) in the garage and urban horseshoes (sometimes called washers) in the alley. Trent and I were on fire as an urban horseshoes team. Steph had fun watching the ping pong action, playing with Drake, Cortez, and Quinn and even got in on some urban horseshoes action on a team with Cousin. Inside the house TJ taught Jill and Steph how to make homemade Mexican/Puerto Rican rice like his mom used to make. Oh, and Limey tried many times to convince Steph to be a Cubs fan. He said he would give her tickets for the game the following day and all she had to do was swear off the Brewers, but she refused. When he gave up on baseball and said “well, at least say you’ll like the Bears,” we walked away. Not a chance!


Pimm’s, Rosceo Village, Chicago

For dinner Stephanie was all for trying more new food so we headed back out to the festival and split a gyro, which she was in love with. I wasn’t sure if she’d like the lamb, but she thought it was delicious. It’s fun to have her willing to try anything and even more fun when she likes it! We watched a bit of a band called Dot Dot Dot because Kristin and Cousin’s cousin plays keyboards in the band. At about 10 pm we called it a night and went home. It was about a 3 second walk home. Awesome.