#12 Elk Grove Village Portillo's

I’m a bit behind in posting.  On Friday 3/19, I met my friend Bob at the Portillo’s in Elk Grove Village.  What’s interesting about this location is that it’s in an industrial area and consequently, I think, it’s the only Portillo’s not open on the weekend.  However, by the looks of it, it doesn’t need to be.  It was so busy that Bob mentioned something along the lines of it being a, “gold mine”. I agreed. Considering it is still Lent, and despite the fact that I don’t follow the “no meat Friday” thing, it’s a good time of year to order seafood.  I ordered the grilled tuna sandwich and I was glad I did.  It was delicious and I’d recommend it to my permanent, and occasional, non-meat-eating friends.  Although I still like to question the logic of fish not being  meat. Something must have gotten lost in translation, because it’s obviously not a plant.  Bob obviously doesn’t follow the annual meatless sacrifice either since he ordered a Polish sausage.  Isn’t it funny that if you capitalize that word it not only changes meaning, but it changes pronunciation.  And, more important, it changes taste, since I don’t think a polish sausage would taste very good.  Although, that just gave me a great idea for a new cleaning product, the “polish sausage.”  Go ahead and run with it, I’ve got a million ideas.  If you make any money on it however please send me a check.  It really is a wonder that anyone can speak English.  There are way too many homonyms, not to be confused with hominy, which by the way is corn and not a bean.  I once informed a lady of this at the Jewel, which, for my friends just learning English, is a store (because it’s capitalized), not a precious stone.

To completely change the subject, you won’t find a picture of Bob below.  He prefers to maintain his privacy.  That sparked an interesting conversation during lunch.  We discussed how we “older” people like to protect our privacy.  It’s an interesting phenomenon since the trend has been to gravitate to social networking sites.  Here people divulge their personal lives in public forums, even their personal goals … like visiting all the Portillo’s in Chicago (plug).  I wonder however if the current generation will regret divulging so much information and attempt to regain some of their privacy.  Or, has the mindset changed completely?  Well, this is way too deep of a subject for a food blog.

Jeff:
Grilled Tuna Sandwich
Vanilla Malt
Bob:
Polish Sausage
Fries