Girl & the Goat

Last weekend my dear friend Tsoni was in town from Boston (he's a medicine intern at MGH) so Adam and I took him to Girl & the Goat for dinner. This is a new restaurant near Randolph and Halsted, it just opened a few weeks ago. The chef is Stephanie Izard, an up and coming chef who won seasoson 4 of Top Chef. The restaurant is located in an old manufacturing building that has been renovated into a cute, modern-yet-rustic style restaurant that is, I think correctly, described as a "shared plates gastropub".


I thought the place was very cute, lots of exposed brick, exposed wood, nice flatware and attractive glasses. Wine by the glass selection was very good. Service was excellent. Our server made some great recommendations and was cheerfully present but non-obtrusive. As mentioned above the style is small plates to be shard so ordering is a fun free for all of picking what looks tasty off the menu. For this reason, I would recommend going here with a group of friends rather than on a date with just 1 other person. The menu was divided into 3 columns: veggies, fish, and meat. The food selections change on a daily to weekly basis, thus I'm not able to provide a link to a sample menu but here are some of the items we tried:

• Carrot bread, almond butter- They had a selection of 3 freshly baked breads. The carrot bread was warm and tasty- I'll bet all 3 are very good.
  
• Some spring veggie soup- can't for the life of me remember what it was but it was fresh and delicious
• Oysters
  
• Roasted cauliflower, pickled peppers, pine nuts, mint- This was a suggestion by our server. She told us that previous diners said it was "the best cauliflower they had ever had". It was very good and I'd recommend it but the best ever is a bit of a stretch.
  
• Rabbit rilette, crisp rice crepe, ginger giardinare, sweet garlic
• Seared scallops, braised veal, caponata, marcona almond butter
• Escargot and goatballs- The goatballs were, well, balls of goat. So good. So much better than last time I had goat which was in Mauritania, West Africa at my cousin's host family's house in the middle of the desert. That goat was not bad, to be fair, but I remember being mighty hungry at the time which may have given the goat there more credit that it deserved;)
  
• Goat cheese bavaroise w/ blueberries- Sort of a creme brulee meets cheesecake creation.

I can honestly recommend all of the above items. Each and every one was interesting and tasty. Looking at the list now, I see how eclectic it was- oysters, rabbit, scallops, and goat all in the same meal. But it worked! The kitchen chooses the order the food comes out in based on flavor profiles, which creates a cohesive meal. Above are 3 happy customers: Adam, me and Tsoni;)

It's not often that every single dish ordered at a place is a winner-

I think this speaks to the quality of ingredients and the skill of the chef. You probably can't go wrong with anything on the menu. I definitely recommend this place!

I'm on my 6th pair......

As even my most casual facebook friends know (thanks to my

dailymile postings), running has become a huge part of my life. I was a terrible cross-country runner for the first year or so of high school, an even worse hurdler, and then I didn't run again for many years. However in 2006, during probably the most difficult year of my life, I picked up running again. I'm a bit of a lazy bum, and definitely a wimp in terms of physical activity so I decided that I needed a goal if I was going to stick with running so I decided to train for and run the 2006 Chicago Marathon.



The most important step in preparing for my first marathon was getting fitted properly for running shoes at the Piper's Alley Fleet Feet. Most of the employees there do a great job of watching you run, and then deciding if you need neutral vs stability vs motion control shoes to prevent injury. Since I had lots of problems with IT band syndrome (causing knee pain), this was particularly important for me. My first pair of running shoes were a pair of Asics Gel Cumulus. There is a big sign in Fleet Feet that reminds everyone not to choose running shoes based on the color, and I didn't, but it didn't hurt that they were my favorite color, purple!

On my first run, I made it 0.5 miles without stopping. That's it. I slowly but surely added on mileage each week and 20 weeks later ran my first Chicago Marathon! Each week, I was running longer than I ever had before. First 3 miles, then 5, then 9, then 10. 10 miles, double digits, was a huge landmark for me. Then 11, 13, 15. I couldn't believe that I actually ran 15 entire miles! Then 18, finally 20. The longer the runs, the more difficult, the more seemingly insurmountable the task but I kept going. I told myself that if I could run a marathon I could do anything which, to be honest, I feel like is true!

While I trained in my purple Asics, I actually ran the race in my 2nd pair of shoes, pink Asics this time. Running shoes should be replaced every 300-500 miles, so for the average runner running 25 miles a week, new shoes are required every 20 weeks. I definitely wear my shoes longer than I should. Especially the pair on the right! I kept wearing them despite a hole that developed during a trip to Patagonia in South America.

Running my first Chicago Marathon was such an incredible feeling. It was a few years ago, and I've run 4 other marathons since, but I definitely remember a few key moments like they were yesterday. The start was pretty incredible. Over 30,000 people lined up waiting for the gun to go off. For about 40% of us this would be our first marathon. When you are slow like I am (middle of the pack), it takes 20 minutes or so to cross the start line since about 15,000 other people have to cross it first. The excitement during that 20 minutes is palpable. People are nervous, excited, stressed- everyone is bouncing around either to keep warm, to keep from peeing (it was pretty cold that year) or just to expend pent up energy. Everyone cheers as they cross the start line, and then off we go North on Columbus in a wall of cheers from the fabulous Chicago spectators.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Chicago Marathon has the largest number of and most enthusiastic spectators of any running race. I hear the spectators at New York and Boston are pretty good too, but let's face it, Chicago is a sports town through and through. I've run the Marathon in 40 degree rainy weather and in 90 degree humid weather- our spectators are deterred by nothing! I've been handed donuts, beer, water. I've been given high fives, pats on the backs, loud yells--> the enthusiasm of the Chicago spectators makes the race worth it every year.

Even more important than the 1.5 million general spectators (really, 1.5 million- AMAZING!) are my personal spectators. My family has been so supportive of my marathon running. I'm not fast and probably never will be. I'll probably qualify for Boston one day and that will be the fastest I'll ever get. But that doesn't stop my family from coming out to support me. Any way you look at it, 26.2 miles is a long way and looking forward to seeing my family and friends at certain points on the course is hugely motivating.

The pictures on this blog are all from my first Chicago Marathon. That was a cold year for spectators, but my Mom, Dad and Grandma were such troopers. Not to mention Adam who made his office home base and organized all the logistics of trying to spectate at such a huge race!

That first year, my family was posted at Mile 15 and then again at Mile 17. Those are some rough miles in any marathon, and in Chicago they happen to correspond to areas with fewer spectators, so it was great to have them there. My goal in that first marathon was just to have fun, and fun I had! With fun as the goal I was able to stop and take pictures along the course.



I was on a runner's high for about two weeks after that first marathon. I was so proud of myself for finishing! And was so amazed that it was actually fun! And thus I continued running.

I've now run through 5 pairs of running shoes. I had my initial Asics phase, then switched to Brooks Ravenna's for a bit. Over the past year, I've increased both my weekly mileage and my speed, almost unintentionally.


I guess I must be starting to be a "real" runner because I'm now on to my 6th pair of running shoes. I switched brands again- this time to Saucony ProGrid Guides- which makes me a bit nervous since I made such improvements in my running with my 3 pairs of Brooks. I have high hopes for these shoes. I'm officially starting my attempt to run a marathon in all 50 states. I also am hoping to improve my marathon PR by over 20 minutes (goal=sub 4:15) at the 10/10/10 Chicago Marathon. As Adam keeps reminding me, if I don't like this pair of shoes, I can just buy another pair but for some reason, breaking in a new brand of running shoes seems risky- what if I get injured? What if they slow me down? Ridiculous, I know. I guess I should just get out there and run in them- they look so silly all bright white and unused, don't they?

Block 2: The Dreaded MICU

Well, I can't put it off any longer. My month as a senior in the MICU is upon me; in fact I'm almost half way done! It is uniformly agreed upon among residents that the month as a senior resident in the MICU (medical intensive care unit) is the hardest, most stressful and most exhausting month of our 3 year residency program. Why? So many reasons I don't even know where to start.

But first, by way of explanation for the laypeople among you......

The MICU is where the sickest of the sick patients come. In order to come into our world on the 9th floor of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, a patient must be too sick to send home and too sick to go to a regular "general medicine" floor. So what kind of patients do we have? They generally fall into a few categories:

1. Sepsis or septic shock: These are people who have an infection somewhere that is serious enough that they are no longer hemodynamically stable- their blood pressure is dropping, or their heart beat is going way too fast- and we think they need more intensive support such as central lines (big IV's that go almost to the heart) and sometimes pressors (medicines that bring up blood pressure).

2. Respiratory distress or failure: These are folks who can no longer breathe for themselves for a variety of reasons such as pneumonia, extra fluid in their lungs from heart or kidney failure, drugs or infection causing confusion such that they can no longer "protect their aiway" to prevent themselves from aspirating their own saliva, or actual lung disease such as COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) or asthma. If they are sick enough to come to the ICU that usually means that they need to be intubated, i.e. a breathing tube is inserted into their throat so a ventilator can breathe for them.

3. Large GI (gastrointestinal) bleeds: These patients generally have lost a few liters of blood and their blood pressures are dropping as a result. We support them, give them blood products and fluids as needed until they either have a scope such as endoscopy or colonoscopy or they stop bleeding on their own.

4. Post-cardiac arrest: These are the scary calls that no one likes to get. Well, maybe some adrenaline junkies like to get them (ER peeps, I'm talking 'bout YOU!), but most of us internal medicine people are pretty cerebral thus emergencies are NOT our thing. Sometimes these patients had cardiac arrests (i.e. their heart stopped, or began to have a rhythm not compatible with life) out of the hospital, at home or on the street thus they come through the Emergency Room which is less stressful for me as the MICU resident, because they are intubated with central lines (nicely packaged w/ a bow) when they get to my floor. The scary ones are the cardiac arrests on the other floors of the hospital.

5. All around disasters: These are people with any number of problems from cirrhosis (liver disease) to overwhelming cancer to mutli-system organ failure from the disease of "my organs are telling me I'm not supposed to be alive anymore, but my brain or that of my loved one hasn't gotton the picture". We have a few of these tonight that I'm worried about. These are folks who wouldn't still be alive 10 years ago, but our advanced medicines and interventions are able to keep them alive. These interventions are miraculous when performed on relatively young, healthy people with only 1 major problem that is reversible but seem absurd to a lot of us when performed on older people with lots of medical problems or even younger people with some really bad medical problems that we are never going to cure. I believe in dying comfortably and going through a cardiac arrest with chest compressions (that are only done "right" if they are forceful enough to break bones) and shocks is NOT comfortable.

So, as you can imagine, being in charge of the management and treatment of any of the above patients can be terrifying. And as the senior resident, overnight you're it. You are the code (i.e. cardiac arrest) responder, and the person who evaluates patients in the ER and on the regular floors who aren't doing well. When I'm on call, I live in fear of the code alarms (if the code is in the MICU) or the code pager (if the code is out of the MICU) going off.

We are "on call" from 7am-7am, so a full 24 hrs, every 4th night. "We" consists of me and my two interns. One of the key benefits of doing the MICU rotation early in the year is that we all get 2 interns. After the full 24 hrs of call, we then have to round with the extended team. This includes our sister team (1 resident, two interns), our fellow (a person training to be an ICU doctor), our attending Pulmonary/Critical Care doctor, our pharmacist and the nurses for each patient. This, as you can imagine, takes f---o---r---e---v---e---r. Next to living in constant fear of an emergency, and being up all night, spending 4 hours standing on our feet post-call is a pretty miserable aspect of call. Imagine trying to explain critically ill patients to the team after getting absolutely no sleep. Not fun. Good thing that's the job of the interns;) I just sit back and make sure they don't leave out key pieces of information. Ah, to not be an intern anymore:)

I'm afraid I could go on and on about the MICU and then this blog would never get posted so I'll stop now. Tomorrow is call 4 out of 7 or "hump" call. Hopefully it will all be downhill from there!

The Last Supper (I Don't Know Who David Burke is...But I Like His Primehouse!)

The night before I started my MICU (medical intensive care unit) month, Adam took me out for one last supper. We knew we wouldn't see each other much for the next 28 days, and that I would be exhausted the little time I was home, so we wanted to spend some quality time together. Adam chose David Burke's Primehouse, as part of our continued quest determine which is truly the best Chicago steakhouse. I'm really glad we did, because I can remember how great this meal was when I'm stuck in the ICU eating ABP (Au bon pain) for breakfast, lunch and dinner on call!

The meal experience was great from the start. Adam had scoped out the menu ahead of time, and he already knew they had a nice New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, so choosing my first glass of wine was an easy decision:) The first time the waiter stopped by Adam ordered "cake in a can". I came to find out that "cake in a can" is a David Burke's Primehouse special- made to order red velvet cake. More about this delicious treat at the end of the post.

The pre-dinner bread and butter was really good. The bread was warm and fluffy and the butter was just perfectly warm.

We had the Waguu beef sashimi appetizer pictured to the left. It was fantastic!





Ordering at steakhouses is always easy for me because I get the same entree- the filet mignon, petite if they have it. I've finally gotten into the habit of ordering the meat "rare" which is definitely the way to go. I certainly couldn't have white wine with steak, so I moved on to a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon. (Twist my arm, if I have to have a second glass, I will;) )



Adam had the Dry Aged Greshburger that consisted of a 49 day dry aged burger with shaved prime rib on top. It was served w/ beer battered onion rings and Moroccan ketchup. We had the swiss chard and summer squash as sides- they were fresh and delicious. I've always said that you can judge a restaurant by how well they cook plain veggies.








This "cake in a can" dessert was quite the production. They make the cake fresh so it takes 45 minutes (thus the immediate ordering at the beginning of the meal). First, they bring out the mixers w/ cake batter for us to lick off. That's my favorite part of making cake in the first place- eating the batter over Adam's admonishments of "but the Salmonella!". So I got to enjoy that part without the hassle of baking. A few minutes later, they brought the cake out, in its can, and applied the cream cheese frosting tableside. A couple near us was having their ceasar salad tossed tableside- didn't compare to our delicious treat- I think they were jealous. Rightfully so, the cake was warm, the frosting was perfect, a scrumtious end to the night. And I had it for breakfast the next day. (Hey, I'm in the MICU, I can eat whatever I want, right?)

Tonight, on my overnight call in the MICU, I actually get to have a wonderful dinner prepared by my generous husband who took the time to make this delicious tomatillo-lime pork shoulder soup w/ cilantro rice. Just as good as anything at David Burke's because it was made with love;) (And he's a damn good cook!)

Planet Earth in the Park!

Last Wednesday, Planet Earth Live played in the Pritzker Pavilion. Planet Earth is a 2006 BBC documentary, the most in-depth, expensive nature documentary ever made. It took 5 years to shoot with over 1000 days worth of time in the field. They were able to document animals and locations never before seen on film. For example, after 7 months (literally 7 months!) of trying to find a snow leopard in the mountains of Pakistan they got the first ever footage of a mother and her cub. They even got the mother hunting, chasing down a deer-like animal. 7 months! One film guy was out there for 3 months, didn't get anything, a second went for 4 months and got some footage on the last day!

The point is, this documentary has some amazing, breathtaking, never-before-seen footage of the natural world that no one should miss. It is narrated by David Attenborough, who also narrated 'Life of Mammals' and other great nature films. I would highly recommend buying the series (Adam and I have watched our copy at least 7 times), but you can also rent it on Netflix. One in 30 American households owns the DVD series, so if you don't have it, you are behind the curve, my friend.

So, given that this is my favorite documentary series of all time, you can imagine how thrilled I was to find out they were playing a show at the Pritzker Pavilion! The show is called Planet Earth life and Chicago was its 3rd of only 6 stops on its Summer Tour. The show is in LA this weekend and Philadelphia later in the month so those who live in those towns should drop what they are doing and find a way to attend the shows! It is really a not-to-be-missed experience.

The show consists of a huge movie screen that shows select footage from the documentary series, and the score of the show is played live by the professional orchestra from that particular town. So, for us, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra played the score which was composed and conducted by Emmy Award winning composer, George Fenton . Before each of the show's 13 segments, Mr. Fenton described some of the behind-the-scenes stories as well as his thoughts on composing for each section. A couple of my favorite segments were:

"First Steps" : This segment showed two baby polar bears emerging from hibernation to take their first steps as well as a few Mallard ducks taking their first nose dives from their nests to the ground. Super cute and the music matched very well.

"Snow Leopard": As mentioned above, the snow leopard is super rare, super endangered, and super hard to catch on film and I am excited every time I see the footage.

"Journey to the Okavango": This segment follows the migration of an elephant herd from the desert to the Okavango delta, an amazing seasonal swampland in Botswana with a huge diversity of animals during the wet season including elephants, zebras, water buffalo, hippos, etc. The delta is so large that you can see it from space. The area is on my "Top 10 places I need to see" list.

The live music really added to the viewing experience. Watching the footage with live music from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, outdoors on a beautiful summer night, w/ some good wine, listening to the live cicadas during the intermission--> it made for my favorite night of the summer thus far!

Here are some pics from the documentary. They don't come close to doing the show justice, but are still fun to look at!

"Pole-to-Pole"

"Ice Worlds"

"Ice Worlds"



"Caves"

"Deserts"

"Deep Oceans"

"Freshwater"

"Shallow Seas"

"Forests"

"Jungles"

"Great Plains"

The Purple Pig: Bone Marrow Anyone?

Last week, my friend Sara and I took an impromptu visit to a relatively new restaurant on Michigan Avenue called The Purple Pig. As the restaurant name suggests, we ate cheese (a nice Camembert), swine (in the form of a pork blade steak that we were delighted to find tasted like bacon) and wine (a key upside of this place is they have many good wine bottle options for under $40).

Overall, the place was good. Very convenient location for us (just steps from work), the inside is cute and they have an outdoor patio. Service was good, wine options great, food about what you would expect for this sort of place with lots of fatty foods, fried foods, and just generally unhealthy though upscale and tasty fare.

Besides spending quality time with my dear friend, Sara, which is always filled with laughing at the state of the world and the state of our lives in particular, we also had the opportunity to try something very unique: pig bone marrow. It was delivered to us as pictured below and we basically ate the marrow out of the bone with a tiny fork. (As Sara wittingly put it, this was my first bone marrow biopsy!) It was served w/ crostinis, capers, onions and cilantro. The best way I can describe the marrow is soft and rich. Sort of like butter or aioli, but completely flavorless. Hence all the sides served with it. People tell me it's supposed to be a spread- a butter substitute- but the way I see it, if I'm going to eat a fork-full of fat, I'd rather it just be butter. Butter>marrow, I guess is what I'm saying. But I'm always up for a new experience. (If you find yourself talking to some hipster who thinks bone marrow is "great", they probably are just trying to be cool, because I'm telling you, it's flavorless.)


So, what are the benefits (if any) of eating bone marrow instead of butter or mayo? Well, I was curious myself and here are some key lessons I learned about the nutritional benefits of bone marrow:

--Three and a half ounces of bone marrow contains 488 calories, 51 grams of fat, and 7 grams of protein.

--Native American hunters back in the day would eat bison bone marrow because it is so rich in fats and calories. Fat and calories for early Native Americans=good. Fat and calories for modern humans=BAD.

--Some researchers think the fats in bone marrow were key in the brain development that helped us evolve into homo sapiens.

--One very "pro-eating bone marrow site" (who knew there would be such a thing?) claimed that bone marrow helps maintain a "healthy" (though I read this as "high") cholesterol level and acts as an anti-inflammatory and anti-spasmodic agent. I'm dubious.

--One man wrote on his blog that he tends "to rely on marrow as my main source of fat - I also get fat in the form of raw suet, raw tongue or raw brain, and occasionally raw eggs (it's a good idea not to overdo raw egg consumption) - but raw brain is very difficult to get hold of in my country, and, while I don't mind it as such, raw suet just doesn't compare in taste to marrow.". Hmm...I can't add much to that, except to explain what the heck raw suet is: it is beef or mutton fat, "especially the hard fat found around the loins and kidneys" according to Wikipedia.

If you'd like to learn more about eating bone marrow, I'd recommend a blog I came across called Adam's Daily Apple: Primal Living in the Modern World. At the very least, it is entertaining!

Sara enjoying our bottle of wine in the sun!

The Final Visit

While "The Final Visit" is probably a bit melodramatic, that was how this weekend visit with the family felt since I will soon be entering the MICU (medical intensive care unit) as senior resident thus probably won't see or talk to any of my family members for a month or so. In anticipation of this, Adam and I spent the weekend in Rockford (or more correctly, Loves Park and Cherry Valley) with my family. It was a whirlwind weekend of seeing all kinds of folks, which was great. On Saturday afternoon, after our long runs (my hot 20 miler), we drove out to Rockford with the top down on Elly.


Saturday evening we had dinner at my Dad's condo. In attendance were my Mom, Grandma Nelson, Uncle Paul, Aunt Trish and the 3 tasty bottles of wine pictured above. The left most bottle was a great Zin my Dad had. He has quite the wine collection and I always look forward to the bottles he has to share when we visit. The middle bottle was a Late Harvest Riesling from the Chateau Grand Traverse winery (the one we stayed at on our recent trip to Michigan). It was a bit too sweet for me but everyone else seemed to like it. On the right is a wonderful German Pinot Noir Paul and Trish brought. Thanks to my Mom and Dad for the delicious dinner and to my Grandma for her amazing blueberry cheesecake for dessert!

True to form, the evening involved good food, good alcohol, and all kinds of jokes. Many of the members of my family are hilarious without even realizing it. Case in point, my Dad trying to kill a fly with a rubber band. Seriously? Does that ever work? Well, it did this time!

We had initially planned on kayaking the Kish (Kishwaukee River) the next morning but there were supposed to be storms and Adam and I were really tired, so we lounged around watching a Nat Geo special on Zion and Bryce National Parks instead.

After the show, I ingested some liquid energy in the form and caffeine and enjoyed a delicious brunch at my Mom's house with my Grandma and Grandpa Monson. My mom made the biggest fruit salad I've ever seen with tons of variety including blueberries, strawberries, mango, and cantaloupe. It was delicious! (I really should say "is" delicious, because it was so big that I'm still enjoying it for lunches here in Chicago!) We also had quiche which was quite tasty.

Since it was my cousin Anna-Lisa's birthday, we sent her a picture message wishing her happy birthday. After multiple technical and organizational failures, we finally produced the above picture on my dad's cell which we sent to her. I think she appreciated the thought even if we are all completely blurry and she couldn't read the "happy birthday" sign I labored over for all of 5 seconds that my mom is holding in the picture!

All in all, it was a good weekend. From the family perspective, I feel better prepared to become MIA for a month in the MICU. However, I still have quite a bit of running, blog posting and general life maintenance to accomplish before Friday at 7 am!