Morning Ride

Somebody please explain to me the weather in this city! I was actually overdressed for my ride on the LFP. How is this possible at the end of November? I ended up rolling up my leg warmers and removing my gloves on the ride back north. This is by no means a bad thing but some consistency would be nice! Anybody who has some control over this please fix immediately, my morning routine would greatly appreciate it.

Weird thing about the path this time of year is the people on it. Summer is a mix of rich guys on their Cervelo TT bikes (getting aero of course) and joggers who only jog to prep for the Chicago Marathon. Winter seems to be a whole different crowd, and its great! The only joggers out are women (seriously), don't know why but more power to them. The cyclists out now are the real diehards. Like the older rider today in a full vintage Team Peugeot Kit on an late 80's Massi doing the only hill on the path over and over again. Gave him a nice little wave and he smiled and nodded while hammering up the incline (didn't stop me from passing him). I also had somebody go out of their way today to warn me of glass up ahead on the path! The cold weeds out the slackers and leaves a great ride for the rest of us. No weaving in and out, slamming on brakes or getting drafted for 2 miles by some jerk who won't return the favor. Just a nice pace, concentrating on form and speed. I know we only have a couple more weeks of riding out there, but I can assure I'll ride every chance I get.

On a completely different note, I've decided not to post anything about work on here. I tend to rant and complain and frankly that wouldn't be good for business! What I will try and do is post menus that I do and hopefully some pics of the food. I have a big xmas party coming up with some fun items that I came up with, we'll see how that turns out.

In other food news, I had my first experience at Hot Dougs! For those of you that don't know, Hot Dougs is an "encased meat emporium", ie he makes all his own hot dogs. Marco Pierre White (famous English chef) called it the best food in Chicago, even better then Charlie Trotters place!
I was having a real stressful day so I went on my own during the week (much to Leyla's chagrin) since the wait wouldn't be so bad, it was still bad. But holy hell it was worth it. The interior is small but set up like a 50's food stand with the waiting line curling out the door and around the corner. Some co-workers suggested I get 2 dogs one special and the traditional char-dog. For a special I ordered a Linguica sausage with herb and roasted garlic mayo, which was excellent! But the crowning achievement was the greatest Chicago dog I've had yet. Lots of celery salt, caramelized onions, and a damn fine piece of sausage (among many other ingredients). Needless to say I dragged Leyla out there on Saturday in the freezing rain to wait outside, actually I waited in the rain she stood under the awning. After we got in and started eating she declared it was well worth the suffering. Hopefully the Saveur magazine effect will wear off soon and the line will drop, but probably not.

Somebody with some talent please make me this stencil, it sums up so much in so few words!