Uptown Festival & Suze

A couple of us went to the Uptown Festival last weekend while the guys were playing golf.

Anyway, that's the trolley that goes up and down the McKinney Ave. It's mostly a tourist attraction, hah, but coupled as a useful form of transport during festivals when parking is somewhat limited. (Emm, actually it's still easier to find parking at such occasions than a normal day in UChicago campus/ downtown. Hah.)

I am quite happy that I finally know how to use the photoshop function to create those blurry black border. :D

I quite like this photo, haha, though the baby had this "I am being manhandled" look.

Creamy chicken crepe.

I got the canoli. I was a bit upset that the canoli shelf was rather hard and inedible, and even felt more cheated that the cream filling did not fill up the whole shelf! It was puffed up at the side, but empty in the middle ;( Nowhere near the standard of the Italian pastry store that Ruoxi brought me to in NY.

They were giving out free food (like yummy crab dishes) at the food demonstration!

We went a bit too late, so we only got the devils egg. Still, that's better than nothing :P

They were also conducting various free historic/ cemetery tours around Dallas.

A shot of the Freedman's Cemetery Memorial that honors former slaves buried in compound.

For dinner, Minghao and I went to Suze, a warm and cozy neighborhood bistro not too far from our place. The reviews for the restaurant were pretty good and it was noted that the restaurant specializes in meals based on the freshest, locally available ingredients. The menu also changes seasonally with daily specials based on recipes from around the world. I was so looking forward to dining there and was mighty pleased that we did ;)

The focus of the shot should be the bread dipping and not the bread. The dip/sauce was so very very good. So, we happily got the server to refill the bread and the sauce a couple of times. I think they put sundried tomatoes, grated cheese and herbs in the olive oil. I should try it at home and see whether that works.

Seeing that we (or at least me) have been putting on weight, we decided against ordering the quails (sigh) and seared foie gras (double sigh!) for appetizier. We shared the caesar salad instead. I really apreciate the sugared pecans in the salad, which gave a sweet crunchy texture to the dish.

The porcini papardelle pasta with veal bolognese that I ordered. It was quite yummy, though I think there was a bit too much meat. It got a bit boring after a while. Maybe they could add some real mushrooms to it?

Minghao's seared espresso cured venison who was very well flavored. The meat could be a bit more tender though.

We also had the pear and apple tart for dessert, which came with an interesting roquefort cheese icecream. We enjoyed the sweet caramel-ish dessert, which at the same time was not too heavy :D The smoky and saltish roquefort icecream, while needed some getting used to, was a nice accompaniment to the tart.

Overall, the dining experience at Suze was pretty good. I like its small and unpretenious setting (though it could be a bit more well lit). Given that the menu is supposed to change seasonally, I can definitely see us going back a few more times.