Restaurants and Transcendence in Champaign-Urbana
The other day I was reading some food magazine...I think it was Food & Wine....and there was a list of someone's recent meals in restaurants that had been transcendent.
Transcendent. That's a hell of a word.
So I thought and thought and tried to remember a meal I had thought was transcendent. Most of what I came up with though was at home.....the time my father had a bumper crop of raspberries and brought us a huge handful still warm from the sun....the time I made swordfish with cuban seasonings and wild Maine blueberries for Ernie and my folks as we stayed at a motel with a kitchenette in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. The first time I had homemade pesto....or the first time I made a classic vinaigrette....
Restaurant experiences....hmmmm. I gotta say that the crispy pork belly with watermelon at China Grill that we had recently stands out in my memory....likewise the mussels with almonds at Fore Street in Portland. But I gotta say, restaurant meals didn't really come to mind.
We don't go out to restaurants a whole lot....mostly because oftentimes I'm just not all that impressed. Perhaps if we went to a higher quality of restaurant I would be...... I tried to think of restaurants I've eaten at here in Champaign. I do remember the first time I had the fritto misto at Timpone's it was particularly wonderful....and I love the smoked chicken wings at Black Dog. Ate at Bacaro's for lunch one time and it was fine but not transcendant.
Thinking about all of that evolved into me lying in bed trying to fall asleep and instead naming all the restaurants I've eaten at in Champaign Urbana over the years....
Now mind you....this isn't a list of where I had good meals, or many meals....just all the places I can think of offhand that I have eaten in, or gotten food to go from, in CU....back when I was an undergrad, and after we moved back here in 1994 after living in Michigan and Chicago.
Now I know we're forgetting lots.....so let me know what I don't have on the list (I haven't included places I haven't eaten but you can) and what has been transcendent for you....
Alexander's
Allen Hall cafeteria
Apple Dumpling
Aroma Café
Aunt Sonya's
Autumn Tree
Bacaro
Bermuda Onion
Biaggi's
Black Dog
Boltini
Bonnie Jean's
Bread Company
Bubbie and Zadies
Bunnie's
Buttitta's
BW3
Café Kopi
Carle Hospital cafeteria
Carmon's the new
Carmon's the old
Chevy's Fresh Mex
Chipotle
Coslows
Courier
Cowboy Monkey
Cream and Flutter/Cakes on Walnut
Custard Cup
Daily Grind
Dairy Queen in Monticello
Deluxe
Dom's
Dos Reales
EC's
Eddie's
Elite
Espresso Royale
Esquire
Farren's
Flat Top Grill
Giordano's
Great Impasta
Greater Downtown Food and Beverage
Guido's
Gumby's
Hickory River
Hideaway
Hip Pocket
Holy Land
Homestretch
Hong Kong Gardens
Houlihan's
IHOP
Intermezzo
Iron Post
Italian Patio
Jimmy John's
Jupiter's
Kamakura
Katsinas
Kennedy's
KoFusion
La Bamba
Le Peep
Lil Porgy's
Lox Stock and Bagel
Luna
McDonald's
Merry Ann's
Miko
Milo's
Ming Garden
Minneci's
Mirabelle
Monical's
Moy's Tea Garden
Murphy's
My Thai
Ned Kelly's
New World Café
Niro's Gyros
Nitaya Thai
Office
Original House of Pancakes
Outback Steakhouse
Paglia's Pizza
Panera
Papa Del's
Papa John's
Papa Murphy's
Pekara
Peking Garden
Perkins
Pizza King in Villa Grove
Pizzaria Uno
Potbelly Sandwich Works
Prime Time Pizza
Provena hospital cafeteria
Radio Maria
Sam's
Sammy's
Sea Merchant
Seaboat
Seven Saints
Siam Terrace
Silvercreek
Subway
Sunsinger
Sushi Kame
Taffie's
Tang Dynasty
TGI Friday's
Thara Thai
Timpone's
Treno's
Trito's
Uncle Jack's
V. Picasso
Vinny's
Vriner's
Y Eatery
Yangtze
Zorba's