My girlfriend and I went to the Taste of Chicago yesterday and for the first time I didn’t catch fire. It was a very nice day, temps in the low 80’s and a decent breeze. Perfect eating weather! This year we attempted to stay away from the classics and try the somewhat bizarre and exotic. So the first thing we tried was coconut rice with roasted goat. Sounds really out there, but it was actually very simple. The rice really didn’t have coconut flavor, and the goat was comparable to a beef roast with some spices. Without a doubt though, the most exotic food we tried was grilled shark. Not surprisingly, it was very thick and tough; much more like pork chops than any normal fish fillet. The shark was topped with some kind of tomato-olive red sauce.

Here’s a list of what we ate:

• Roasted corn on the cob with Cajun/Creole spices
• Stuffed sausage pizza
• Cheesburger from Billy Goat Inn
• Coconut rice with Goat
• Italian Beef from Buona
• Gazpacho with avocado
• Chicago-style hot dog
• BBQ Pork and teriyaki chicken Bao
• Tiramisu gellato

As you’ll notice, we didn’t completely stay away from the classics, but we sure tried some different foods.