It’s nice having a big city like Chicago only a couple hours away from Madison. You can make day trips, or when special events like the UW football team playing in Soldier field occur, you can make a weekend out of it. With that in mind, I thought I’d pull together a list of my dining to-dos in Chicago (this may take a few visits, actually):

• Enjoy some fried chicken at the Seasons Lounge inside the Four Seasons Hotel. What a pleasant surprise at such a fancy place. Even better: this month it’s all-you-can-eat fried chicken for $35, which includes a wedge salad and peach pie. (Source: TastingTable)
• Taste the Umami burger at BopNgrill in Evanston. The $8 sandwich is a beef patty topped with sun-dried tomatoes cooked with pork fat, mushrooms and mayonnaise seasoned with sesame and mirin. (Source: TastingTable)
• Have some pizza and a microbrew at Piece Brewery and Pizzeria. This suggestion came from one of my Twitter followers. What caught my attention is that the pizza is thin crust, perhaps an oddity in the land of deep dish. Might be good with the Hefeweizen?
• Savor the blueberry pie at the Rustic House. I love blueberry pie. This one ($10) is served in a cast iron dish and topped with a scoop of blueberry gelato. (Source: Chicago Tribune)
• Sample the bunny bao at Saigon Sisters. It seems like bao are being served everywhere now (definitely becoming trendy in Madison). This one, in honor of the upcoming Year of the Rabbit, is rabbit confit, pickled vegetables, cilantro and jalapeno in a steamed bun ($2). (Source: Chicago Tribune)