Eating: Pre-Treatment

Between the time of diagnosis to the start of treatment, I assiduously followed my doctor's orders to "enjoy yourself. In fact, feel free to put on a few pounds. A high-calorie, high-protein diet will be good for you." With no restrictions on my diet and a license to indulge, this was an opportunity not to be wasted. I wanted to re-visit places I really enjoy and do my best to experience and remember those flavors, as there is a chance they may not return in the same way after treatment.

Here is a partial list of the places Aiday and I went to eat in Chicago:

Alinea: special thanks to my friend Rob, who originally made the reservation. While it was an experience, it was not the tastiest meal we've had
Boka: our favorite restaurant (more on this in a different post)
Fat Rice: reliably tasty and interesting. We made sure to get a large order of chili prawns
Au Cheval: Aiday and I finished off a burger, General Jane's chicken, and foie gras scrambled eggs
Somerset: the smoked beet tartare and the desserts are amazing
HaiSous / Ca Phe Da: very good Vietnamese food
Oyster Bah: they have an AYCE Alaskan King Crab special. The restaurant probably did not anticipate that our table of 4 (with Andy, Nina and Aiday) would take down 35 crab legs, a burger, two orders of fries and two orders of broccoli. I'm looking forward to a return visit, as crab legs and clarified butter would be an excellent source of easy-to-eat protein
Jake Melnick's: buffalo wings are a weakness for me, and these are excellent
Boston Fish Market: worth the drive to Des Plaines. With a group of 5, we still couldn't finish the seafood gumbo
Pizza at Piece, Pat's: this will become very challenging to eat later
Tacos and burritos at Birrieria Zaragoza (goat taco soup), 5 Rabanitos
Asian food at Cai, Dolo, Mango Pickle, Serai
Sandwiches: fried chicken from Budlong; Italian beef from Portillo's; McSpicy from the McDonald's international menu

Simple, yet crave-worthy chili prawns at Fat Rice

Au Cheval does not skimp on the flavors or calories

There are surely more of these Oyster Bah Alaskan king crab legs in my future.  I didn't even have to use a cracker that night — There are surely more of these Oyster Bah Alaskan king crab legs in my future. I didn't even have to use a cracker that night

You need at least 4 people to realistically think about finishing the seafood gumbo at Boston Fish Market

In addition to eating out, we made some of my favorite recipes. I'll expand on some of these later. If you have any questions or need the links in the meantime, please let me know.

Chicken tikka masala from Rasika
Lamb popsicles with fenugreek cream curry from Vij's
Vietnamese caramel salmon from Melissa Clark / NYT
Japanese beef curry from Amy & Jacky
Grilled steakhouse kebabs from Serious Eats

My efforts to (finally) start drinking cellared wine yielded mixed results. I should have started this process much sooner. On the positive side, we had a very nice evening drinking through some sweet wines, from Sauternes to tokajis to ports and others with good friends at Birch Road.

Sweet wine line up at Birch Road Cellars

White burgundies are some of my favorite wines, and my first associations with them bring back great memories. These were wines that paired exceptionally well with some tasting menus. In addition, my brother and I spent some time in Beaune in 2006. It was the same trip in which we ate at El Bulli, watched the Tour de France at Alpe D'Huez and Champs Elysee, and biked around the vineyards in Burgundy.

During his recent visit, I was very excited to pull out a 1er cru from Chanson that I had bought during that trip. Sadly, it was past its prime. Even worse, two bottles of 1996 and 2000 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Crus were prematurely oxidized. Guess that should teach me to not wait for the "perfect" moment to open the wines and just enjoy them when I can.