Trying this new pictorial and interactive blog format, with more text than a Facebook album, much less than a usual blog post. Really appreciate any feedback, will decide format of future posts accordingly. Thanks.
They suggested this amazing brunch place,
Marmalde on
West Montrose Avenue and it more than lived up to its expectations. The place seemed to have a loyal following of its own, especially on a balmy Saturday morning. After waiting for for a few minutes we spent the next many in a state of utter confusion and temptation trying not to miss one amazing dish for the other while ordering. Safe to say we were far from disappointed. (You can click on the images below for a closer look)
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Ethan's brunch - Chef Efrain's Texan Bennie
Potato rosemary flatbread with our slow-cooked pork shoulder, marinated in Marmalade’s own secret-recipe house brine, topped with pineapple chutney, poached eggs, drizzled with pesto hollandaise
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Veni's Order - The 'Shroom' Benedict
Two poached eggs, sautéed spinach, roasted tomatoes on top of breaded Portobello within a bed of our house potatoes topped with sundried tomato hollandaise
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Jamie's dish - Red velvet french toast
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My brunch - Smoked Salmon Omeletta
Smoked Atlantic salmon, capers, dill, scallions, red peppers, cream cheese, topped with lobster hollandaise |
After that hearty brunch, which even by the standards of my healthy appetite was well and truly more than a (breakfast + lunch) we decided to indulge a little in the finer things of life and headed to
The Art Institute of Chicago.
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| The AIC is on Michigan Avenue also known as Swami Vivekananda Way |
The Bengali in me was filled with pride seeing this great cultural institute on the main road of the city named after one of Bengal's & India's most brilliant sons - Swami Vivekananda who had the city of Chicago enthralled by his
oratory skills and intellect in 1893.
And if that was not interesting enough, we were in for a surprise to find that one of the exhibitions being held presently by the AIC is that of Rabindranath Tagore's paintings. Some days are just born more coincidental than others.
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| Seeing the familiar face in a whole new setting was quite nostalgic |
The AIC itself is a marvelous destination for all sorts of art form such as oil paintings, pastels, photography, sculptures and needlework. We were welcomed by this stunning city scene which almost gives a feeling of waiting to come to life at any moment.
It seemed like a group of ladies and gentlemen had assembled at the museum to replicate some of the masterpieces and they sat patiently in front of the canvases and flawlessly recreated the scenes and murals on their own equipments such as the ones I photographed below.
The next few photographs are from the many hours we spent admiring the works of Monet, Van Gogh, Pabst and many others.
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| The miniature city dwellers |
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| The Knight in Shining Armour |
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| The spectacular self portrait by Van Gogh |
We ended the thoroughly stimulating tour at the Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room
and the curio shop which displayed this clock which gave me a feeling of deja vu from one of the social media viral photos doing the rounds.
11 comments:
I like your new format Suhel, however was happier with the verbose version, simply for the pleasure of reading .
wowwww....the paintings are soooo nice to see. If through these photographs they seem soooo nice, I wonder how the experience must have been first hand...
Beautiful as usual....your new format is nice. And Bong pride as well...
Smoked Salmon Omeletta and Tagore stands out. Lovely photos and nice format. But do sincerely hope that this does not imply that you will treat the elaborately-written pieces in the manner Test Cricket is treated by BCCI. Bhalo legechhe :)
Always happy to hear that someone likes to read what I write! Thanks.
It took me a while to realize who this is:) Yes, the experience was splendid. Seeing Tagore at the museum was like running into a 'parar dadu' in distant lands.
Thanks for the feedback. So you prefer this over FB albums or regular blog posts?
The smoked salmon was a thing of beauty, perhaps at par with kobiguru's masterpieces. Okay, I exaggerate, but only slightly:) I, promise to uphold all formats of the game - long blog posts, FB albums and this new format. Happy?:)
Haha! Parar Dadu..okkk, thats a new addition for the 'Daariwala'...Okhane 'Dadu'r' boi kemon pawa jaaye? I mean bangla te pawa jaaye? naki translated version eei mon bhorate hoye?
Lovely Post Suhel, feels like I was there too.
Suhelllllllllll,
I cant take it any more man. I read this 10 minutes ago and I am still shivering like a man in a tank top in Antarctica. A great Bengali at the place where another great Bengali made his mark. I wish I could follow you in the Art Institute. You walking on snowy roads en route to NU, getting on and off the red line, changing trains and getting on the purple line and digging into Ghareeb Nawaz biryani are sights that I wanted to see! Alas!!!
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