Eat Arkansas

Ninja Poodles went to a blogger conference in Chicago and brought back a food report. It follows:

The catered meals and cocktail parties at the BlogHer conference in Chicago this past weekend were very good, so we didn't have need to wander off for much, but I did have a couple of dining out experiences, including my first-ever meal at which the bill's total included a comma.  That distinction belonged to a dinner at Fogo de Chao.  The "salad bar" was impressive, the meat well-cooked and continually offered, but the sides served to the table were nothing spectacular.  Garlic mashed potatoes, polenta that would have been nice had it not been deep-fried, and fried bananas.  WHOLE fried bananas.  Whatever.  On the whole, I would have preferred a more modest meal of just the parmesan-encrusted pork tenderloin. 

Oh, and my tablemates found it surprising that we have this type of restaurant in Arkansas.  Ahem. 

What we unfortunately do NOT have in Arkansas is Giordano's, and their deep-dish, Chicago-style stuffed pizza.  This was something my BlogHer roommate and I enjoyed via delivery to our hotel room, because it was close to midnight, and we were exhausted from the long, busy weekend.  We ordered the stuffed spinach pizza, and the pie arrived piping hot, and too beautiful for words. 

The actual food-shot at the top is courtesy of my BlogHer roomie and friend, Shash:

And if you're stuck at home...and you don't mind blowing $25 to ship a couple of pies, they'll ship them, partially cooked and then frozen, right to your door!