Look Bsck - Time to Talk to Purple & Food

We are taking a look back once again to something that happened while I was not blogging...Back in September I attended a conference outside of Chicago and it was a lovely hotel that had just gone through a major renovation.  The primary colors used were black, white, silver and purple.  I am sorry but I could not help but laugh at some of the things I saw as I walked throughout the hotel lobby area.  One thing that no one could miss were these (yes there were two) purple thrones for no better term.  They were just odd, not only in that most of the lobby was so modern, but how the cushion leather style fabric is the exact same color as the painted wooden frame. 

While I opted out of the "buffet" cattle call for the provided meals at the conference, I did enjoy ordering from their room service menu on several occasions.  Above was my staple of the week, their Spinach Salad with Grilled Cheese Crouton, Warm Pancetta Dressing, Yellow Heirloom Tomatoes.  Delicious.  By the way, if you notice the jar at the top left in the photo is how the dressing arrived and you shake and pour.  So the salad was warm, yet not wilted.  That is what made it so special.

Above was an amazing Chicken Marsala with Sauteed Mushrooms, Garlic and Sweet Marsala.  It was served on a bed of Linguini Pasta.  You can see here if you look at the top right of the photo that my order always came with a requested two glasses of water.  By the third time or so, I was getting a pitcher of water almost automatically.  I would say that half my meals were via room service in that I had a much more controlled food intake rather than the various buffets offered by the conference as well as the restaurant down in the lobby.  The closest restaurant to the hotel was over two miles away.  So choices were limited.

Yes, you see another Spinach Salad on the right of this photo, but what I finally had to break down and try was the Pancetta Bacon Ice Cream - I kid you not!  I had heard of bacon ice cream, heck I have heard of bacon everything, but this was a first for me.  It was surprisingly good to be sure. 

During the course of my visit I also got to try Steak & Frites which came with a Wedge Salad which was also quite amazing.  I did a dinner one night of appetizers and that included a Crispy Eggplant Stack that had some greens and tomatoes on the side.  I also tried the Scala's Hot Italian Sausage.  Spicy and served with a Roasted Red Pepper Pesto.  Quite different.  It was during this visit I learned a very important lesson if you are on warfarin.  You never want to eat a Spinach Salad five times in a week.  It totally throws off your reading because it causes vitamin K to soar out of control.