When I left Key Largo in late January, it was 85 degrees and sunny. The people around me were sipping mojitos by the pool and working on their tans, or lounging around their boats. I filled my Fat Tuesday cup in Key West with unlimited piña coladas and partied with fun new friends in Miami nightclubs. Now that I’m back in Chicago, I spend my days wiping the snow off my car and trudging along icey pathways. The sky is gray and gloomy, the trees look like a stack of naked, dead sticks, and it’s not as much of an adventure being back in the same area you grew up. But I’m grateful–I have good reasons to stay for a little while, one of them being that Chicago is THE BEST foodie city in America!
Key Largo’s food was superb, although Chicago has so much more variety. I mostly ate seafood in the Keys. I ate fresh lobster, oysters, dolphin (that would be a type of fish!), crab, scallops, south beach salads, conch, calamari, squid, oranges, coconuts, key lime pie, clams, mussels… excuse me, I’ve got to pause a minute, because just listing off the local foods of the keys is gettin’ me hot and bothered. I may or may not be heading in the direction of a foodgasm.
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Okay, I’m alright. I swear. Although I really should quit kidding myself and just admit that as much Chicago pride as I have, I do miss Florida and its savory seafood. Upcoming post: a restaurant review of Chicago’s eco-chic Prasino.