Takashi (courtsey of C.R.A.T.)

As the years go by, I've found that Xmas gift giving has become less about the adults and more about the kids (although I sometimes wonder how many more Star Wars Lego sets junior really needs). This holiday season, Mrs. Hackknife treated herself to a present by purchasing a very nice family photo taken by a professional photographer (I know that he was a pro by what he charged us, exponentially more than what we normally drop at Penney's for pictures, but I digress), thus eliminating the need for me to get her a gift. Of course, she still had to have a package from Santa to open on Xmas day, so I surprised her with theater tickets to see a live rendition of "It's a Wonderful Life" performed as if it were an old-time radio show. The production took place at the historic Biograph Theater and was really impressive, but the true star of the evening was our pre-performance dinner at Takashi (1952 N. Damen), Chef Takashi Yagihasi's fine dining establishment in Wicker Park. The missus and I were anxious to eat here, even more so after recently trying Chef T.'s izakaya cuisine at Slurping Turtle and also hearing positive feedback from our fellow foodies Phil and Karen V., who had been there just a week before. In fact, Phil's writeup of their meal on his blog (the incomparably titled Completely Random and Awesome Thoughts or C.R.A.T. - I highly recommend you check it out) is sufficiently detailed (plus, his photos are much better than mine) such that I'm going to simply direct everyone to his posting to get the low-down (yes, I fully admit I'm being lazy here). Of course, this ploy only works because we all happened to order the same meal (the omakase, or chef's seasonal tasting menu), which appears to have been duplicated for us dish-by-dish.