This NY Life

Troubles up and down the road
And trials all the way around
Never knew what trouble was
Till my honey threw me down
With nothing but old ragged clothes
My heart strings broken to shreds
Blues creeping over my body
Queer notions flying in my head

The easiest thing I ever done
Was loving and drinking wine
The hardest thing I ever done
Was paying off a judge’s fine
I’ve never worked for pleasure
Peace on Earth I cannot find
The only thing I surely own
Is a worried and troubled mind

If men and wine don’t kill me
There’s one more plan to find
Soak up all the old rub-alcohol
Ease all trouble off my mind

The Fiery Furnaces

A few weeks back we went to Chicago for our anniversary, saw lots of buildings, ate a ridiculous amount of food including this meal.

Behold the chocolate chip/banana pancakes from the Original Pancake House. Always being written about as the best breakfast in Chicago, we noticed when we checked in that it was right across the street. Sunday morning we got there around 9:30 and there was a line of course, no big deal. Stood in line and endured stories from people from Massachusetts about how they bought their cottage and it came with a Land Rover and they got it for $1 because when the owner tried to start it, the key wouldn’t turn it over, blah blah blah… ugh. It almost made us lose our appetites, but we weren’t about to let some Kennedy wanna-be’s ruin our mid-west pancake experience.

The menu had all sorts of delicious delicacies such as the Apple Pancake, “Oven baked with fresh granny smith apples and pure Sinkiang glaze” or translated, imagine a hat covered in caramel glaze, then baked and turned out onto a 12″ dinner plate, now imagine the hat is made out of apples, and you’d be close. I looked up “Sinkiang” and other than referring to the original pancake house, most of the hits referred to a part of China. Another thing they had was a Dutch Baby which looks like a small loaf of bread hollowed out with a scoop of ice cream in the middle, when in actuality its a flaky powdered sugar covered shell with a scoop of some sort of lemony curd looking substance in the middle. The Apple Pancake actually looked good, but seemed a bit heavy. Cathy ordered the Pumpkin pancake seasonal special and I ordered the chocolate chip pancakes. As the waitress was walking away I said “Actually, can you combine two different pancakes?” Of course she said “Sure, hun.” So I give you the picture above, Chocolate Chip/Banana Pancakes from the Original Pancake house in Chicago.

Incidentally, the pancakes were excellent. They were light, fluffy, didn’t feel heavy at all, even considering the crazy toppings. Original Pancake House is a chain, and I don’t know if we would have gone if we were in a different city, but something about this location pulled us in. Also, yes, that is whipped cream in the dish on the plate.

Original Pancake House

Montag turned and glanced back.

What did you give to the city, Montag?

Ashes.

What did the others give to each other?

Nothingness.

Granger stood looking back with Montag. “Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child, or a book or a painting or a house or a wall build or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there. It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime”

from “Fahrenheit 451″- Ray Bradbury