On this recent trip to Chicago, my eating out was pretty even split between some delicious downmarket staples and a couple of higher end meals.   Chicago is a truly great eating and drinking town, and on this visit I booked restaurant reservations at a couple of places where the menus and reputations for inventive food excited me.  So excited in fact, that for my first night in the city I opted for the allure of a delicious meal over a Blackhawks – Canadiens hockey game.  That’s right – I chose eating over sports.  Maybe I’m becoming more refined as I age…

Night one: The moment the reservation window opened for the Girl & the Goat (I think it was three months before my planned visit), I grabbed one and started scouting the menu.  The idea of sampling a number of small plates was high on my list, and the restaurant’s ability to scale down dishes to suit a solo diner looking to try multiple things made me very excited.   One item that was personally recommended to me by Chef Stephanie Izard on Twitter was the duck tongues.   I’ve got to be honest, I didn’t even know ducks had tongues.  What a delicious discovery!   Here’s what will probably be the best thing I eat all year – duck tongues with crispy wontons, black beans and piri piri:

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