Shalom Japan has been around quite a while, opening back in 2013. The chefs are a married couple, Aaron Israel and Sawako Okochi, and the menu is a collaboration merging their two respective culinary cultures – Jewish and Japanese cuisine. The result, of course, is remarkable. The restaurant remains at hit on tastemaking sites like The Infatuation and they regularly receive the Michelin Bib Gourmand.

I met up with an former roommate at Hill Country Barbecue Market and feasted on meats.

I’ve been to Rolo’s a few times every couple of months and each time I mean to write up the experience. The food is good, but also slightly different each time I visit, making it all the more interesting.

It was my wife’s birthday. We decided to have lunch at a new Chinese restaurant.

On our second night in Chicago, the wildfire smoke had started overtaking the city. The rich haze had turned everything pale orange and halos formed around the street lights. We headed out to Chinatown to eat some dumplings.