Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Ed,

First off, congratulations on your weight loss! What you are doing is a great example of what our nation should follow suit in... be responsible for their health in what they eat and their activity. It will not only make a your life that much better, but it will be a benefit to the healthcare crisis in the U.S. currently. Keep up the great work!

With regards to the whole body mass index measurements and weights, just know that these standards are put together by insurance companies, thus they tend to err on the side of "overweight" so that insurance costs can be elevated. It's just a basic measurement, and does not take account muscle (which ways more than fat). Weight isn't the best weight to determine fitness and health... the better alternative is to make measurements with measuring tape (waist, belly, chest, arms, etc).

Finally, like many others have mentioned, it sounds like you've plateaued. Your body has gotten use to the intake versus your activity, and has found a balance. If you're truly looking to lose more weight, you'll need to trick your body into more changes... Take a look at Tabata training, High Intensity Interval Training, and possibly adding weight lifting into your regimen... inevitably, you will plateau again, in which you'll have to do something new to trick your body into burning calories all over again.

I wish you the best of luck, and look forward to your continued success!

Fav restaurant in my city - Honky Tonk BBQ

I've been working on improving my smoking for pulled pork and chicken, so I've gotten some compliments that many of my guests' fav BBQ is in my apartment. But it's far from perfect yet.

Nick,

Nice find. If you're a fan of steak sandwiches, may I suggest you try Papa's Cache Sabroso in Humboldt Park area... there is a sandwich which is very Chicago centric known as a "jibarito" which uses pressed/fried plaintains to replace the bread, and then tender cuts of steak or chicken as the meat. There are a few other places that serve up a jibarito, but we've decided that this is likely one of the best in the city.

2517 W Division St
Chicago, IL 60622

I think you'll be blown away...

Michael,

This is by far one of my favorite places to enjoy good BBQ in the city. Willie really has done it up well! My fiancee and I are thinking about having him cater our rehearsal dinner next summer, but until then... we continue to make it back to enjoy some delicious Q.

Nice find!

You know, I totally fell for it... for a generation that grew up with McDonalds everywhere, it was a "treat" part of my childhood when we were allowed to go. And I really related to the part of the first memory of "graduating" to a Big Mac.

Granted now as a "foodie", we've experienced far better burgers, there is something about a Big Mac or Whopper that brings us back to the easy days of childhood... it's more the nostalgia of enjoying the food than enjoying it for the high quality... it's like reliving an experience again.

Sadly, after reading your post, I do now crave a Big Mac and was thinking about stopping into McD's for dinner... I haven't had a Big Mac in years!

I would have to agree. While I didn't seem them on Check Please, Ed's has some tasty food for a good price, and without the need to fight for Chinatown parking.

The "hand pulled dough" (sao zhwai bing) is quite good, and their soup dumplings or "Little Dragon Buns" (shao long bao) are really what I come here for.

As with most restaurants, knowing what to order plays an important part of the experience there.

A simple baguette is likely what I tend to make.
Favorite to make is crossaints, as the trouble of making/folding the butter block really is worth it when the crossaint puffs/flakes up perfectly.
Still working on naan (indian bread) and figuring out whether I can get my oven somehow hot enough to make the naan come out texturely correct. This one may never work...