Joe's Crab Shack ~ Schaumburg, Chicago

I guess Joe's Crab Shack is quite popular in the USA and thus I found one when I was in Schaumburg. The reason why I wanted to try this place is because they have those giant crabs aka Alaskan King Crabs which is made so popular by Discover Channel's Deadliest Catch. I mean, eating these King Crabs in Malaysia will cost a bomb so I seek out this place and was thankful that you can get a nice piece of this crab for less than USD30. Quite a good deal it seems and thus thats what I ordered. Come to think of it, I should have ordered something more, maybe throw in a lobster or what not. Anyway, I went to the one located at Golf Rd and its a building on its own colored in some really bright colors that makes it stand out. 

I was really surprised by the size of the place once you step in and its tastefully decorated. I'm not sure why their mascot are sharks though and its really cool that I managed to grab a miniature shark back for my daughter! To the waiter who served that Asian dude in March, cheers to you for making my daughter really happy!

So back to the place, yeah its all wooden deco and I chose to sit by the window for some better lighting for my food shots. So I'm happy to report that when the crab pot came, there were a few monstrous legs of crab and 2 potatoes and a cob of corn. Overall, the crab tastes pretty fresh and the lemon butter dip works well together. You are suppose to eat with the supplied tool, but I wish they gave out scissors instead as the shell of the crab is not very hard, thus using scissors would be ideal to get pieces of the crab nicely peeled.

Anyway, I thus had to work extra hard as I like to eat my crabs in as big chunks as I can after peeling and I did succeed to some extent! Well, I do recommend this place as its affordable and I guess value for money. Do check the place out!

This is the place!

Lou Malnati's ~ Deep Dish Pizza from Chicago

Its nice to have buddies in places that you visit and Bill was nice enough to bring me to sample one of the legends of Chicago food which is the deep dish pizza from Lou Malnati's! Well, I would guess this is really some famous as even my sister asked if I tried it, and I'm very very glad I did. Besides not having been to Italy, I find that the pizzas in the USA overall are really good and way way better than any fast food or pizza joints available locally in Penang.

So apparently Lou's started way back in Chicago and actually now have quite a number of outlets spread out across the state. They even do mail orders if you are in the USA and I was really tempted to see if they will ship it to Penang, but they mentioned its USA only :( Bummer.

Anyway, so what is so different with a deep dish than a normal pizza? Well, for starters, the deep dish is over 1 inch thick, so imagine your normal pizza toppings being really thick, almost lasagna thick. This is thus what a deep dish is. A very thick pizza! 

I was told the original filling is cheese with spinach but we ordered a custom one with lots of sausage and bell peppers and of course loads of cheese! It was a 12 inch pizza just nice for 2 person, but can you imagine, I actually managed to eat half of this monster with Bill devouring the rest! Not bad for 2 person, I don't imagine me able to chow down the bigger one though. 

The pizza was very flavorful and I find the crust to be pretty edible too. Not overly hard. Also the filling was just delicious and as I write this, the hunger pangs is making me drool over this now! Anyway, if you are in Chicago and have a love for pizzas, don't pass up the offer to try this!

A note, the place was packed by 6pm, and its a good thing we reach just before the crowd as it takes awhile to bake this monster! Comments welcomed as always.

 Oh my, what a beauty

The exterior of the building. This one is a historic building and supposedly over 50 years old, or was that 100?

Shaw's Crab House ~ Schaumburg, Chicago

So, with limited time I had in Schaumburg, what should I have for dinner? Well, what better way than to search Google and get some hints right? Well, I wanted to taste some good food of course and stumbled upon this place called Shaw's Crab House. Well, the first thing I thought would be it would be great for crabs, but upon looking at the menu, golly, it was mightily expensive!

So, I ended up there during their happy hour where oysters were going at half price, and I ended up ordering 1 dozen. Sadly, well to my disappointment, the oysters were tiny! Yes, the bucket of ice which it was served on was huge but they oysters were tiny. I was told that it was going to be small and these were sweeter or on sale, can't remember which it was, but you don't even get a decent bite out of it. Well, so much for that.

I also ended up ordering a salmon fillet served with some asparagus. This was pretty decent, but again, as a main meal, you really are half full. With that, I proceeded to order a seafood gumbo though this was pretty decent with lots of bits of seafood in there, it was abit watery to my liking. But then again, I haven't had much gumbo before but thats just me. Thus for me, Shaw's Crab House has the ambiance and all, but the value for money is just not there. They do have some oyster day special where the oysters are like 0.50 cents each but you need to check their website or Facebook often to see when it is.

Well, do check out the photos, and as always, leave a comment if you have been to this place ya.

Cheers

The 2 bucket of oysters, well should say bucket of ice with oysters on top

A view of the interior