Yes, it’s that time of year again: time for me to visit the Midwest and love it but not be able to resist complaining about how freaking HOT it is. Because it is. As cold as Chicago gets in the winter, it gets pretty damned hot in the summer. And I’m taking “what WINDY city?!” hot – because, let me tell you, as hot as Honolulu gets in July, at least you can usually feel a breeze.

But I’ll get over it . . . because you know how much I love this city. So moving on . . .

Todd and I have been to the Taste of Chicago a few times over the years. Yes, the vendors are usually the same, but since we don’t really stay close to Grant Park and since we walk there (i.e., instead of taking the train), we’ll usually only go for one day and really only visit a few booths each time. The only booth I make sure we go to is the Original Rainbow Cone booth – because they make the best sherbet in the world – but other than that, we never know what we’re going to sample. Here’s what we tried this time:

Mustard-fried catfish, BJ’s Market & Bakery (8734 S. Stony Island Ave.).

This was, hands down, the best catfish I have ever tasted. The crunch was delightful, and you would never believe such a nice taste could come from such an ugly animal. ;o)

Gazpacho with avocado and chopped chives, The Grill on the Alley (909 N. Michigan Ave.).

The gazpacho was cool and refreshing on a hot day, and the smidgen of avocado was a very nice touch. I wish I could make my gazpacho taste this good without looking as, well, dull orangey-brown as my gazpacho often turns out.

Steak taco, Carbón Live Fire Mexican Grill (300 W. 26th St.).

What can you say, it was a steak taco. Todd liked it. I appreciated that the tortilla was not overly dry.

Key lime pie, JR Dessert Bakery (2841 W. Howard St.).

It may not look like much, but this was THE best key lime pie I have ever had. While it lacked that creamy consistency I tend to favor in the dessert, JR’s key lime pie struck the perfect balance between tangy and sweet, and the crust was nice and nutty.

Jerk chicken, Iyanze (4623 N. Broadway).

Holy cow. Good thing we only got the Taste portion of Iyanze’s jerk chicken, because not only was it generous (everything pictured above, with the exception of the key lime pie, was a Taste portion, btw), but it was SPICY. Flaming hot, actually, is how I would describe my tongue for a good five minutes after I insisted on gulping this down. I mean, it was good – and amazingly, you could still taste the spices through the heat – but man . . . Yowza.

Of course we had to finish off the evening with a Taste portion from the Original Rainbow Cone. It’s my favorite frozen thing in the world! I mean, come on: The pistachio and Palmer House (cherry/walnut) flavors alone make it worthwhile.

Shortly after we enjoyed our Rainbow Cone goodies, we, along with hundreds of others, were ushered out of Grant Park by a few dozen of Chicago’s finest (and about a half-dozen of their maned, four-legged friends), as the Taste and the park close at 9 p.m. – and thus we end this edition of The Kawamotos Take on The Taste. Tune in next time . . .