Eating our way through the Taste of Chicago

Some regard the Taste of Chicago as one of the country's best summer food festivals so Liz, my good friend and food reporting classmate, and I ventured out to Grant Park this weekend to see and taste what it had to offer. With 36 tickets in our pockets and our journalism gear (cameras, pens, notebooks and recorders) we were able to taste and analyse a few delicious and other not so great dishes.

It was overwhelming at first. The sweltering heat was upon us, and the crowd made it hard for these two 5-foot-3-inch eaters to find their way through the strong smells and numerous tents. So many dishes to try and not enough tickets.

Deciding what to eat was easier, since each restaurant tent had a reduced "taste" menu with only two or three of their best items. These options were also cheaper; they went for four to five tickets compared to the others that were closer to 10.

In good brunch fashion, we went for the avocado toast from the Farmer's Fridge first. It was a nuanced sample-sized avocado toast of pumpernickel bread topped with a smashed fresh avocado, pickled onion with hibiscus flowers and Mexican Cotija cheese.

"We just stick to really whole ingredients and try to keep things as natural as possible," Culinary Director Christy Alvarado said.

The dish was indeed fresh. The bread was crunchy and the avocado mesh was soft but a bit bland even though there was a good contrast of textures. What made this avocado toast special was the balancing of sweet and salty flavors which was showcased by a light and limey, almost sweet pickled onion, paired with the heavier cheese sprinkled all over.

We talked to other diners at the event to see what their thoughts were on all the food. Rachel Mihulka and Paige Lyham were trying the Puffs Doom's Sweet and Savory Puffs.

"It's like a volcano of flavor bursting in your mouth," Rachel said when she took a bite of the Sweet puff, which was made with banana, coconut and Nutella. "It's a little bananaey," Rachel noted.

Liz and I were intrigued by a vegan option from Beat Kitchen. The dish was a vegan burger the restaurant's Chef and Manager Benny Avelar said he created on a day when he was hungry but didn't feel like eating meat.

"We try to give everyone good flavors so they can keep trying different types of foods," Benny said.

Unfortunately, the dish was not what I expected after talking to Benny, who seemed happy with the latin-cuisine inspired recipe. The bread was not toasted at all and the patty was missing some umph. I appreciated the crunch from the lettuce, tomato and onion but it wasn't enough to compensate for the dish's lack of taste and complexity. As a latin myself, the bean and rice-based patty reminded me a bit of the creole food I eat back home in Panama. However, this vegan burger was in dire need of some latin spice and flavor.

Our not so great vegan experience took a turn turn for the worse when we decided to try Mango Kefir. The kosher, 99 percent lactose free, frozen yogurt wanna be was the worst taste of Chicago of the day.

It was was a strong encounter with aspartame that left a bitter aftertaste in our throats.

Liz was reluctant to try it since she's lactose intolerant but she took a spoonful since it only had one percent of lactose, which she quickly regretted and said she would never bring it into her kosher household.

I was was so thirsty I ate the rest hoping the mango flavor in it would taste less artificial. It didn't. The frothy texture and cold nature of the mixture gave me some relief from the summer heat, though.

Rachelle Hernandez was also trying the Kefir for the first time. She and her boyfriend said they considered the Kefir a refreshing option to frozen yogurt.

"It's a bit heavier," said Rachelle. "I feel like it's denser because froyo is kinda lighter."

We quickly forgot about the Kefir when we took a bite of the Seafood Ceviche from Mad Kitchen; happiness in a plastic cup.

The small cup with shrimp, calamari cooked in lemon zest with corn, tomato, basil and onion was the real deal. And this coming from a person who's been eating ceviche made with seafood from both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans since the age of three. This ceviche tasted liked the whoever cooked it just caught the important ingredients (shrimp and calamari) just a few hours before we ate it, perfectly fresh.

It's complementary ingredients gave the mix a crunchy and moist texture that balanced the protein and the lemon's acidity. This ceviche's flavor was not overpowered by spicy sauces, which is what I feel some recipes do to hide sub par ingredients.

This Seafood Ceviche dish hands down takes my Chicago Does Brunch Award for the Taste of Chicago.

Lastly, we closed our tasting spree and cooled down with strawberry and watermelon paletas from La Mexicana. For some reason, Liz got excited with the paletas.

Just look at her!

These two were sweet and fresh. I liked the strawberry one better because you could really both taste and see the strawberries, even the seeds were frozen within the popsicle. I thought the watermelon had too much added sugar and missed some genuine fruit flavor to it.