Speechless.. I have no speech

I think today I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves... there are a ton, so I’m only putting up collages, but I do encourage people who are either architecture fans or food fans to look at the expanded version with captions here (architects) and here (foodies).

We started the day with going to Oak Park, to see the home and studio of Frank Lloyd Wright. Unfortunately taking pictures of the interior is not allowed, but it was very impressive. I do have to say we were a little disappointed with our tour guide, who assumed everyone in the group knew everything there is to know about Wright and so neglected to out a little color and context into his talking points. Many of Wright’s neighbors hired him to build their houses so we also tool a tour of the neighborhood, so those are the pictures that we do have (again – they are here).

For lunch we went to a place that was both personally recommended to us, and that we saw on several food shows called Hot Doug’s, a very unique hot dog place. We got there at 3:30 pm, 30 minutes before closing, and there was a line out the door and around the corner. I stood in line, while Uri walked over to the next corner to get us tamales from a cart we saw, since we were very hungry and felt that we needed something to tied us over (also, meet stuffed tamale was on my list of things to try). The thing with Doug’s is he takes hot dogs really seriously and treats them with respect. So he has really good basic dogs, but also gourmet dogs (with fancy extras) and also dogs from unique meats.

So here is what we ordered: The regular Chicago Dog with everything (which means relish, tomatoes, mustard and a pickle), a corn dog, a tequila chicken dog with mango salsa and asiago cheese, and an elk meat hot dog with some sauce I don’t remember and a some cheese I don’t remember but was really good. From all of the above the elk was the best and the chicken probably was worst, but the place is awesome and it was worth waiting in line (I think we ended up waiting something like 20 minutes).

Then we went back to the hotel, and at 7 left again for another unique dining experience. We had made reservation at Moto Restaurant which specializes in making creative dishes that toy with the diner’s perception, using molecular gastronomy to do so. So things that look like a dish you know to be sweet but are spicy or food made to look like non-food. It’s really indescribable; you can see a collage below, or the full pictures here.

Just to be clear - it's not only that everything looked amazing, as far as taste dishes ranged from really good to absolutely amazing. Another special thing about this place is that there is a set menu (you can choose between a 10 course and a 20 course meal), so the pace is set by the chef. We were there for almost 3 hours! I don’t think I’ve ever sat at a meal so long without someone telling me of the exodus from Egypt.