Fish AND the City
I’ve never been a fish person, let's be clear. Sure, I love sushi, but that's raw. Cooked fish, on the other hand, is not my thing. I was slightly worried when I got invited to RPM seafood with a few friends. What was I going to eat? What if I don’t like it even though it's one of the best restaurants in Chicago? All of that felt like a blur after the first few dishes came.
Just like Portofino (you should read my article on that), it's right above the river. There's music, tall and beautiful buildings, people going out and about. It's one of the things I love most about our city, the livelihood and excitement. The first few dishes were a salmon crudo, a crab cake, a chop salad and a caesar salad.
The salmon crudo was cured in a citrusy dressing, making it a refreshing bite. With this insanely hot summer weather, it was just what I needed.
If you go to my family and ask, “what's the best crab cake in Chicago,” they will always reply “Hugo’s Frog Bar”. But, since that night, I’ve changed my mind. The RPM seafood crab cake was so flavorful and delicious, and I’m not always for crab cakes. This one was life changing.
The first salad was a chop salad, packed with chickpeas, tomatoes, and a delicious dressing. It was a great salad that I could have ordered for my meal. The dressing was super peppery, taking away from the rest of the salad. I loved it.
And last, probably the most basic of them all, but still certainly delicious was the caesar salad. I laughed when I saw the large block of bread, or a crouton you may think, sitting isolated on the side of the salad. I seriously don’t understand why they don’t just crumble it up and throw it on the salad. But yet, still delicious. The caesar salad was great and again, refreshing. I didn’t find it to be overly dressed, or too rich.
Boats passed by, some picking up pizza from Portofino. One boat caught my eye, a paddling bar. Basically, to move the floating bar, everyone had to pedal, no matter how tipsy. As a friend and I stared at this strange boat, a young man standing at the stern blew a kiss at us, wtf. But you know, it's Chicago, and I love it. Wouldn’t change it (except maybe the violence aspect). However, I was slightly concerned when the man continued to point at us and blow us more kisses. Actually, what is going on? Well, luckily the moment passed when our meals came. I went pretty basic and ordered some fish tacos. Yummers. They were slightly hard to eat, but the fish and the salsa verde were great.
For dessert we went with a salted caramel chocolate gelato and a blood orange crème brûlée. Instead of ordering one scoop, we went with four, massive scoops. But holy cow (no pun intended), that gelato was like frozen pot de crème, or chocolate mousse. It was sooooo rich, but soooooooo good. I was slightly nervous about the crème brûlée, but it was really good. It might be my new thing. The top was really crispy and the inside was soft. Although I didn’t try the blood orange sorbet, I did hear that it was pretty amazing.
Because of RPM, I am now a fish lover.
