Last year I sampled some of the food at the Chicago Christmas Market in Daley Plaza, and to be honest I was not that impressed and was a bit rude and dismissive of their efforts. Well anyhow this year, not that I am promising to be any more generous but I thought that I would give them another chance. After all one has to get into the Holiday spirit.

Forgetting the food for the moment it is quite festive down there with the Holiday tree all lit up ,and the Picasso watching over affairs making sure that no-one cuts in line for the Glühwein.

In the interests of fairness and redemption opportunity I went to the same place as last year – the “German Grill Company”

Last year I tried the Kilometer sauasage and it was OK but not amazing by any means. This year I thought I would try something else, so I had a smoked pork loin sandwich for $8. It wasn’t that bad to be fair. The meat had a really nice smoked taste and there was plenty of it. The only critism really is that it was a bit dry. I think that would have been solved if I had not chosen to decline the sauerkraut. Still either way it was a better experience.

A couple of days later I made a second visit and went to one of the other vendors. After a quick hunt we ended up at the “Schnitzel House”

They had quite a few boring options like hot dogs and chicken. The only two that stood out on the menu as being worth any sort of effort were the homemade Goulash Soup, and the Curry Meatloaf. I didn’t choose the Goulash soup, but I had a taste and I wished that I had chosen that dish. It was full of beef, carrots and it had pasta added in, which thickened it up. Very tasty, I was quite jealous as I watched my Mother eat the whole bowl . My advice, get that it is probably the only thing worth making a special trip to the market to eat.  My choice was the Curry Meatloaf, which was good but not as good as that soup. The meatloaf was quite alright and the curry sauce despite being cold and having the threat of heartburn with each mouthful was quite decent. Overall this was the best of the stalls.

So to be far overall it was a lot better than last year, even though the stalls are exactly the same, which means that either I was more of a grumpy scrooge character last year, or that I was on happy pills this time around. Who knows.

The Christkindlmarket is in Daley Plaza between Nov 20 and Dec 24, check it out at the website: http://www.christkindlmarket.com/en/