Chicago Foodies

City Fresh Market – Sensible shopping off the beaten path

When it comes to buying groceries, Chicagoans know the usual suspects:  Jewel, Dominick's, Whole Foods.  In chains like these tomatoes can up to $5 per pound, packaged foods also come with their mark-ups, deli items add up to a pretty penny.

Then there is Trader Joe's and Aldi (Aldi Nord owns Trader Joe's), where either selection or quality may suffer.  Places like Costco favor a bulk buyer.  I have not yet been to Urban Fresh, but, from what I hear, it's Jewel items at Fox and Obel prices.

Espresso – Drink of the Week

I take my coffee seriously.  Well, to clarify:  I take my espresso seriously.  I call it coffee because that’s the only way I make coffee, and the only coffee maker in my house is a semi-automatic espresso maker.  Alongside it sits a powerful burr grinder, an essential part of good coffee (ok, espresso) making.

I truly believe that American coffee drinkers are no less capable of appreciating espresso than our Portuguese or Italian peers. Many of us already drink lattes, an American invention but espresso-based nevertheless, on a daily basis. 

Recipe: Challah French Toast with Brie

Ah, Sunday morning. Most days I run out of the house after scarfing down half a bowl of cereal, but weekends are a different story. I can lazily roll out of bed, dawdle and dally, discover forgotten leftovers, and still whip something up and respectably eat breakfast at 2 pm. Hooray for the extended hours of brunch.

This dish was inspired by the brie-stuffed french toast at Carriage House (Ithaca, NY). It is a fast, simple recipe that depends on the quality of its ingredients. I try to pick up fresh strawberries and challah bread, and top it off with real maple syrup. You can substitute another type of bread, but I've had great results with using eggy, absorbent challah. Feel free to use different kinds of fruit (mulberries? peaches?), or to dust the plate with some powdered sugar. The end product is a glorious intersection of sweet and salty, fruity and cheesy. This is one of the recipes I mentally file in the "Looks Impressive with Little Effort Expended" category. Who says you can't produce your own restaurant-quality brunch fare?

Miracle Fruit Flavor-Tripping Party

Ever since the NYT did a profile of the miracle fruit, I have been itching to attend a flavor tripping party. Though these are all the rage in New York, they unfortunately have not made as much of a splash in Chicago. Tired of waiting, I took matters into my own hands over the weekend and threw my own party.

For those unfamiliar with the miracle fruit, it is a berry of West African origins, and eating one temporarily changes the way you perceive tastes. Most strikingly, it will transform sour and acidic items into something sweet. For instance, lemons will now taste sugary sweet. To maximize your utility with the fruit, berries are commonly eaten at flavor tripping parties, where you can test the effects on an assortment of fruits, vegetables, cheeses, etc. The fun part is in discovering foods that now suddenly taste better or different. Berry + vinegar? Berry + bacon??

Taste of Chicago 2009

The Taste of Chicago is the city's largest draw in terms of visitors, and you either love it or hate it. Though many foodie cognoscenti turn up their noses at the prospect of Port-a-Potties, waiting in long lines, torrential sweat-inducing 90+ weather, and the possibility of people packing other kinds of heat, I say this is no reason to miss out on Chicago's celebration of the best deadly sin: gluttony. You simply need to have a little strategy and planning before attending.

To avoid the elbow-to-elbow crowds, I stopped by the Taste a little after the weekday lunch rush, at 1:30 pm or so. I was able to buy tickets in minutes, and never had to wait to buy food. This was a vast improvement over last year, when I showed up on a weekend afternoon, during the Stevie Wonder concert.

I recommend scanning the list of vendor booths beforehand, and jotting down ones to target. This year, the item with the greatest Whiz-Bang appeal is definitely Garrett's Popcornsicle, or a caramel & cheese popcorn ball flash frozen in liquid nitrogen. You can see the liquid nitrogen steaming off of your popcornsicle for a minute or two after receiving it. The popcorn ball itself is crunchy, cold and refreshing on a hot day. It will set you back 6 tickets.

Congee – Comfort is King

Spending a long weekend in Manhattan is something to look forward to... especially when it comes to food. 2 hours after landing, before I could even be homesick, I found myself at Congee Village on Delancy and Allen (1st). When the place has congee in the name and the yeasty scent of rice fills the room, you know what to make sure to order. Clue two is that when a table of Brooklynites, especially one in the city to photograph disappearing Jewish eateries, compare the medicinal benefits of congee to chicken soup you need to take notice.

Urban Foraging – Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush

With the White House garden leading the way, gardening has become all the rage these days. But what about those yard-less city dwellers who yearn to create their own Edens, rather than simply driving on one? How about people interested in truly controlling the supply chain of their food, hunter and gatherer-style? Enter urban foraging, the latest buzzword for a practice that is somewhere between community sharing and petty theft. Using websites like Neighborhood Fruit and word-of-mouth tips, urban foragers pick and eat fruit from neighborhood trees, often heavy with fruit that the owner has no time to gather.

The two main tenets of the urban foraging counterculture are as follows: 1) it’s a shame to let good food go to waste, and 2) fruit tastes best when it’s free. You can invest energy into getting to know your neighbors to share in their bounty, or join a fruit-swapping alliance if you have an abundance of peaches and would like to trade them for pears. Or, you can look for “public fruit,” or fruit that is overhanging on sidewalks, alleys and other public lands, which can legally be picked by anyone.

Scanning Craig’s List one afternoon, I spotted a post for free mulberries. No time to pick them and tree is making the birds drunk, so come by and make use of these berries, it said. Clearly, it was time to put my primeval foraging skills to the test. This is how I ended up standing beneath an outstretched mulberry tree on Monday afternoon, pondering the best way to scale a story or so up the trunk.

Lockwood's Chicago Style Lobster Dog

...is a damned, dirty lie. But a lip-smackingly tasty one at that. Though the haute dog looks benignly similar to a regular Chicago hot dog, its innocuous appearance is a facade for daredevilish things. But fear not, there is nary trace of ketchup on this hot dog.

So, what do you get for your hard-earned $18? For starters, your hot dog wiener has been replaced with a delicate, slow-poached sausage of lobster mousse. The bright yellow is not mustard, but a vivid saffron-ginger sauce. In lieu of onions and a dill pickle spear, we have leeks and a cucumber spear. The entire ensemble is topped with cherry tomatoes and slices of green pepper, and served on a hefty potato bun. A Chicago-style hot dog this most certainly is not, as it does not evoke the bold, in-your-face chutzpah of the classic Chicago dog.

Gary Wiviott on Starting Fires...

Gary Wiviott Fire Starting Tips from Edible Chicago on Vimeo.

Tweets Week in Review 6/6 - 6/12

Here are this week's highlights from Chicago Foodies on Twitter...
Follow us on Twitter (@chicagofoodies)!

Pick up French cooking tips from Cafe des Architectes chef Martial Noguier's demo Saturday 6/13 at 10:30am

For Twitter Followers Only: Bodega Wine Tasting on 6/16 at Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba (2024 N Halsted) offered for $20! Apps included!

Top Chef Masters – Talent vs. Gimmick

Regarding the movies, Gene Siskel asks himself (and Roger Ebert often quotes him) “Is this film more interesting than a documentary of the same actors having lunch?”

One could ask the same question about Top Chef Masters. Would we be better off watching these award winning chefs shooting the shit making/having lunch? Or is it more interesting to watch Hubert Keller cook dinner in a shower?

The Many New Flavors of Pirate's Booty

I first tried Pirate’s Booty years ago while on Weight Watchers.  For three points per bag and natural ingredients of corn meal, rice, canola oil and cheese, the Aged White Cheddar Pirate’s Booty seemed like a healthy alternative to Cheetos.  Unfortunately, what happens to me on Weight Watchers is that I end up eating the same foods over and over again to the point of taste exhaustion.  With only two flavors on the market at the time, Aged White Cheddar and Veggie, I quickly became bored. 

2001 Rolly Gassmann Moenchreben de Rorschwihr Auxerrois

I bought this bottle at Lush Wine and Spirits in Roscoe Village, a haven for unusual producers and varietals.   Based on the number of my posts it perhaps is no secret I'm a huge fan of the Alsace region of France.   Rolly Gassmann's Auxerrois is somewhat heavy for a white, with a body eclipsing Chardonnay and almost rivaling the texture of a sweet wine without being sweet (if that makes sense).

The wine had a crisp minerality and gravelly finish, with flavors of peaches.    I did quite like this wine, but the $32 I paid would have been something I would have rather spent on a wonderful Grand Cru Riesling or Gewurtztraminer.  At $20 I would have felt that the wine offered some value, but unfortunately the price was a bit too steep.  Although I appreciate the fact that it is a heavier wine, it could have used a bit more spunk for the price.  

Swanson Vineyards – Summer Winemaker's Dinner

Here's another great example of a fun, educational and tasty evening. For $95 a person, it sounds expensive but when you realize you get 4 courses, pairing with each course, and pre-dinner drinks and it includes tax and tip, it's actually a steal.

Next Wednesday at 6pm join Napa's Swanson Vineyards winemaker , Chris Phelps and Chef James Wescoe at Ember in the Westin for what sounds like a great event. The food sounds lovely, from the pike to buffalo and boar and the white truffle-honey on the ice cream. The pairings sound great as well beginning with the Oakville Napa Rosato before dinner and finishing with a wonderful sweet dessert late-harvest Semillon.

There are a few seats left but I'd jump on this if you're interested – it's a great value.

Call 312-321-7140 for tickets. Full Menu below...

Grill Envy... Fuego the Anti-Weber

I'll admit when I hear Fuego I think Renault. It was the first 80s sports car that, as far as I knew then, used a turbo. It was cool when you were in 3rd grade. Super cool actually. So now I can think "grills" when I think Fuego. They might not stick, the Renault didn't, but they look good and, honestly, I find paying big bucks for a big old grill kind of pointless in the first place.

My mental-mansion has a giant steel oil drum torch-cut into a long silly grill. But these are at least neat looking. The Vikings, Webers, Aussies, etc. all kind of look the same.

Ribfest Chicago - Friday the 12th-14th

From their website:

`Averaging 65,000 pounds of ribs and featuring 25 bands in 25 hours, more than 50,000 people are expected to kick­off summer at the three­-day long Ribfest Chicago. Proceeds of the festival are utilized to fund community activities, area greening efforts and local outreach programs such as the innovative School Grant Program.

Organic Gardening How-To

Scott Meyer, editor of Organic Gardening magazine.
Thanks to

Burger King – "Global Warming is Baloney"

What you'd think is a Photoshop gag actually is not. Across the states of Mississippi and Tennessee you'll be seeing this.
(image from the Memphis Flyer)

Now it's likely just the franchise owner's (Mirabile Investment Corporation) sentiment but how many people can split those hairs.

At least it isn't the typical vulgar character omission from their "Angus Burger" sign. But I digress.

While BK might try to divorce themselves from this lousy PR situation, they also seem to have divorced themselves from Global Warming as well.

Climatecounts.org gives them a big ZERO on their scorecard. To see what that means look at the link.

I have always like Burger King because they have tried new things. Maybe it's that they're forced to take more risks to try to match McDonald's but their Veggie Burger was a great menu item and way back they were ahead of the game when they switched their fry oil to all-vegetarian.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that while they haven't publicized their efforts to win over every .org on the net, they do have methane emissions and Global Warming on their radar. But then again, I'll be paying closer attention now.

Tweets Week in Review 5/30 - 6/5

Here are this week's highlights from Chicago Foodies on Twitter...
Follow us on Twitter (@chicagofoodies)!

Wine Fest at the Chicago Botanic Garden 6/6 & 6/7 starting at noon. Sample from a selection of 250+ wines, gourmet food etc. http://is.gd/Ppr6
 

Fuku Fridays at Ra Sushi (1139 N. State), starting 6/5. Score a 12oz Sapporo beer for 1c if Fukudome hits a home run! http://is.gd/PpdJ

Oval – Structured Vodka

I read about structured vodka online a few weeks ago. It sounded good... a reknowned homeopathic scientist, Valery Sorokin, has determined a way to build vodka where the alcohol is surrounded by water. This results in "the soft clean taste of pure water" as the first thing you taste.

I love the idea. The more I read the better it sounds. The process has been reinterpreted by this guy who not only is a nuclear physisist (which I don't think I even spelled right) but his day job is as the Deputy Director of GEOSCAN, an agency that monitors global disasters and crises... this man is like a Tom Clancy character who, on the side, is out to save vodka.

Now let me say that I felt the pricepoint, packaging, uniqueness of the message and the scientific explanation of the product are all compelling. So much so that my semi-blind tasting pitts it against Belvedere and Chopin... two steady super-premium favorites. I would like to have included Ketel One and Finlandia, the former as a frame of reference as it's my martini vodka and the latter as a stellar vodka that sits just below top-shelf – in my opinion. But since I don't have a cabinet filled with vodka I'm making do... and frankly 3 vodkas are enough for my tasting purposes. I did leave out my flavored Skyy and my home made flavored vodkas.

Bring it on! Chopin is potato vodka, Belvedere is rye and Oval is grain. I'm not sure which grain. The two Polish vodkas are 80 proof while the Austrian Oval is 84 proof. It has something to do with the structuring. It only works at 48, 84, and 112 proofs. While Oval is an award-winning vodka it is for the design of the packaging and not the flavor.

Daily Deals: $4 Burgers & More at 160 Blue

One SixtyBlue (1400 W. Randolph) has a rotating lineup of $4 brews w/ $4 juicy burgers every Thurs 6-10pm. Try the $10 dessert sampler too!
-For more deals and current info chicagofoodies on Twitter

Mint Ice Cubes

This one is really easy... You have lots of mint but not sure what to do with it? Grab an ice cube tray, put a leaf in each section and cover with water... done. Now you have pretty mint ice cubes. For a more minty flavor soak the mint in the water overnight and then fill. The trick is to cover the leaf as much as you can to keep it from turning brown/black. If it turns it should still taste good but aesthetically... not so pretty.
I feel like Martha Stewart.

Blackberry Mojito Tart

Recipe courtesy of Chef Matt Bishop  at 1st & Fresh
1st & Fresh uses seasonal ingredients, often working with local farmers to get the freshest food possible.
This seemed like a nice spring dessert. Sounds like it's worth the trouble. Who doesn't like pastry? Blackberry Mojito Tart – mint, berries, whipped cream... need you say more?

Recipe follows...

El Bulli – $1250 Just for the Reservation?

It's the #1 restaurant in the world and the likelihood of getting a table there is 1-in-3 annually. In better words it can take years to get a table.

Not only that but you need to book a hotel, airline tickets and transportation to the out of the way restaurant, not to mention pay for the meal and tip!

So, what do you do when you can't make the date you get if you're lucky enough to get a table? Sell the reservation? Naaaah. That's so California.

Well someone is selling their reservation on Ebay and that someone sure enough is from California.

No. There are no takers yet.

A Sustainable Meat Source – 'Vampire' – Fried Blood

BBC News has an article up about a dish that's getting popular, or repopularized, in Chad.  It's called Vampire and is fried blood. It's nothing new however. The Congo Cookbook has a recipe and a quote from Papa.  Ernest Hemingway mentions it in his African travelogue,  The Green Hills of Africa:

I had heard and read that the Masai subsisted only on the blood of their cattle mixed with milk, drawing the blood off from a wound in a vein of the neck made by shooting an arrow at close range. 

The BBC article corroborates this method of getting the blood. Unfortunately the title and slant of the article sensationalizes it by playing the vampire angle too much.

Hearty Boys Brunch in East Lakeview

I've written before that east Lakeview seems to have a dearth of really good brunch places.   The closest I have found, so far, is Nookies, which as a diner is not saying much.   There are some "popular" brunch places in the neighborhood, though I've not managed to really find out what gives these places broad appeal.

I think I've found my calling in Hearty Boys, though.  I'm a big fan of HB Home Bistro, though I unfortunately missed my chance to eat at the old Hearty Boys.   Currently most of their energy is spent on hosting team building exercises in the kitchen, as well as catering and even taking a course on hosting a cooking show.   Thankfully they have, since February, been hosting brunch.  Unfortunately I waited until now to discover it.

Tweets Week in Review 5/23 - 5/29

Here are this week's highlights from Chicago Foodies on Twitter...
Follow us on Twitter (@chicagofoodies)!

Former Top Chef contestsants, Radhika Desai and Antonia Lofaso will be doing cooking demos this weekend by the Green City Market in Lincoln Park. More information about the Top Chef tour can be found here: http://thetour.bravotv.com/ 

Lucid Absinthe – Busting the Ban on Absinthe

This past week I was lucky to be introduced to absinthe by the men who are responsible for lifting the near century-old ban on the drink. They are the men behind Viridian Spirits LLC, a company dedicated to absinthe.  Company founder, Jared Gurfein and their resident absinthe scholar and chemist, T.A. Breaux gave me a great history of the spirit and made a terrific presentation of their products. Lucid is the specific absinthe in question with the ban-proceedings.

Prior to this evening, this picture by Edgar Degas is pretty much the context I had of the spirit, and considering that the Viridian absinthes are all over 60% alcohol it begins to show how I was starting to feel by the end of the evening.

Here's the deal with absinthe. There is a by-product of distillation called thujon. This was the hallucinogenic substance which is the active ingredient of legend. Based on actual product testing which T.A. Breaux, among others has performed, and wikipedia verified, original bottles of absinthe had little-to-no actual thujone. Considering the alcoholic content and easy-to-drink nature of the product, the woman in the picture could simply be really cockeyed-drunk. This doesn't mean that there were no absinthes with actual amounts of thujone. Their conclusion is that  out of the range of products from that time frame, very few of them actually had either significant levels of the substance, or even any at all. Breaux explained that  properly distilled grand wormwood leaves all the thujone in the mash. It shouldn't even make it into the bottle. Lucid has no thujone.

Now when this was explained with a powerpoint deck, lists of ingredients, and personable lawyer, Jared Gurfein, what else could the Feds do? With no thujon, there was nothing illegal. They reversed the ban. Fair enough.

On to the fun part. Absinthe is neat in many ways.

Pairing Food with Music: The Sound Opinons Dinner

It's touted as "The Ultimate Gastronomic Pairing: Food and Music".

A special five-course gourmet dinner inspired by music hand-picked from two of the nation's most celebrated music critics. WBEZ's Sound Opinions co-hosts Jim DeRogatis, critic for the Chicago Sun Times, and Greg Kot,  critic for the Chicago Tribune, will select five albums as the basis for a gourmet five course meal. Chef Efrain of Chicago's community dining project Clandestino will create five dishes based on each album. Plus wine will be expertly paired for each course by Chicago's Candid Wines.

Money raised helps support Sound Opinions and Chicago Public Radio 
(A portion of this amount is tax deductible)

When: FRIDAY, JUNE 19TH AT 7PM
$250 per person.
Come as you are. Seating is limited.
Dinner will be held at an undisclosed atypical dining location.
Sign up now!

1999 R. Lopez de Heredia Vina Gravonia Blanco Crianza

I have written before about Lopez de Heredia before, but for those who are unfamiliar with this I just want to provide a brief refresher.   First of all, R. Lopez de Heredia, producing wine in Spain's Rioja reason since 1872, has been proudly not giving in to contemporary pressure to change its style of winemaking. 

 Traditionally, Rioja producers have aged their wines in old oak barrels for a number of years, followed by more years of bottle aging, a style that was brought over from Bordeaux in the late nineteenth century.  One extreme example is Marques de Murietta, which released its 1942 red gran reserva in 1983.   

2007 Jorge Ordonez Botani Moscatel Seco

Muscat, called Moscatel in Spain, is an amazingly versatile white grape taking many different forms, from being light to viscous.  From sweet sparkling Moscato d'Asti, made in the Piedmont region of Italy, to bone-dry Muscat in the Alsace region of France, it is not unlike Riesling in its flexibility.

I was in Binny's one day looking for Rene Mure Muscat from Alsace, and unfortunately they were sold out.  The man behind the wine counter did point me to a Spanish muscatel with what he said were similar characteristics.  

Lincoln Park Whole Foods is Now Open

To much buzz and ballyhooing, the new Lincoln Park Whole Foods is now open. At 75,000 square feet of space, it is the 3rd largest Whole Foods in the world (behind London and Austin), ironically on par with the size of many Wal-Marts. But let me put aside the question of whether Chicago needs such a monstrously large Whole Foods for now, and say that this one is Awesome. I will admit that I was hoping for a sushi conveyor belt (like the Bowery Whole Foods in NYC), but I quickly got over my disappointment when presented with a vast array of in-store take-out options.

Publican: Part Beer Hall, Part Gastro Pub, Part Fill in the Blank

What Paul Kahan touches seems to turn to gold, and it is largely because whatever he sets out to do he does very, very well. .  His first restaurant in the West Loop, Blackbird, has been wowing diners since 1999, and avec, which was really supposed to have been a wine bar, typically has a very long wait (and always well worth it).   His hidden retro cocktail place in Wicker Park , The Violet Hour, makes amazingly delicious cocktails, and keeps the number of patrons down to a minimum in a very relaxing atmosphere (unlike avec and Publican, ironically).  

NRA Show: Panel on Social Media Marketing

In addition to traditional booths and exhibition displays, the National Restaurant Association show offers over 65 educational seminars on various aspects of the foodservice industry. The talks cover everything from the practical "How to Surf the Economic Tsunami and Stay Afloat" to niche topics like "The State of School Nutrition: School Meals Under Financial Pressure." Of course, the presentation that caught my eye was on "Word of Mouth Marketing for Chains and Multi-Concept Operators." In essence, how are chains increasing revenue and building customer loyalty through blogs, viral marketing, and all the social networking tools that internet users have come to know and love?

Wally & Agador's Gourmet Cafe & Take Away

East Lakeview has plenty of places to grab a hot dog, a submarine sandwich, or a hamburger, but what it lacks is a truly good sandwich place.  Wally & Agador's is a place that seems to fit the void.  Newly opened on Halsted just north of Belmont, it offers such creations as a lobster and scallop sausage sandwich with tarragton mayo and Old Bay, as well as a duck pate sandwich  with chicken liver mousse and brie.    

NRA Show: Rick Bayless Demo

When you are tired of wandering through the 2,000+ vendors at the National Restaurant Association show, the Culinary Pavilion offers some respite for aching feet. This year's convention features a number of celebrity chefs, many of whom are hometown stars, like Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard and Lockwood's Philip Foss. Several other famous names are on hand for book signings, including Daniel Boulud and Art Smith. And naturally, the indisputable patriarch of Chicago's culinary scene, Rick Bayless, was on hand to give a cooking demonstration.

I had never seen Bayless cook before, on Iron Chef, PBS or otherwise, and was impressed at the amount of food history he packed into a 45-minute demo session. For those of you who love reality cooking shows, Bayless will also be competing on Bravo's Top Chef Masters (alongside Art Smith and Graham Elliot Bowles), which debuts on June 10 at 9 pm.

For this demonstration, Bayless created an old favorite at Frontera Grill, grass-fed flank steak marinated in salsa with fresh corn tamales and grilled knob onions. Though the menu at Frontera Grill changes every month, this dish is a constant staple. The salsa rojo recipe is also available online. Some Bayless thoughts on Mexican cuisine follow below:

Latte Animals

2001 F. H. Trimbach Cuvee Frederic Emile

Trimbach is a hard label to define in the world of wine.   Some of their lower-priced wines have not been high on my list, though their Clos St. Hune, typically over $100 a bottle, is considered the finest wine in all of Alsace.

Cuvee Frederic Emile usually retails for around $50 a bottle, and is difficult to find, though some locations (Howard's Wine Cellar and Andersonville Wine and Spirits) stock it.    I ordered this particular bottle on line, and I have to admit that it took me a while to really understand what makes this wine special; in fact, I was expecting something more powerful the first time I tried it.   The one thing I did notice is that the wine needed to be out of the bottle for some time and served above roughly 50 degrees to show it's true power.  (White wine, in general, tends to be served too cold, but that's another story.)

Inside the National Restaurant Association Show

The National Restaurant Association (NRA) has arrived for their 2009 trade show and convention, which means a flood of convention attendees into Near-North restaurants and more importantly, a massive concentration of restaurant industry knowledge and superstars in the Windy City for four days (May 16-19). The show is geared towards restaurant operators and related businesses, and thus it is closed to industry professionals. However, there is much to pique the interest of anyone looking to learn about new product developments or gauge upcoming trends.

As I entered the labyrinthine halls of McCormick Place, a sea of color-coded name tags marked each of the (70,000+) registered attendees. The most prominent were exhibitors (blue) and the backbone of the convention, restaurant/foodservice representatives (red), with a smattering of distributors (yellow), lodging (orange), press (green) and affiliated (purple) attendees like students. Next, hundreds of booths vied to attract my attention, with all manner of flashing lights, food displays, and dancing mascots. The crowds were particularly heavy at the Anheuser-Busch booth, where several beers were available on tap.

2009 Great Chefs Tasting Party

In general, I hate attending charity events, what with being surrounded by tear-jerker video presentations and the constant pressure to donate more money. I would much rather help a cause by volunteering my time and energy, so that I can see direct results. On the other hand, the prospect of scoping out over 40 of Chicago's best restaurants at the 17th Annual Great Chefs Tasting Party for Cerebral Palsy was very enticing. As it turns out, I, along with at least a few hundred other people, thought the Great Chefs event was well-worth the price of admission. In essence, this is the Taste of Chicago, with fewer lines, no porta-potties, high-quality food not on a stick, and the addition of an open bar. The Sheraton did an excellent job catering the event, with a live band, ample seating, and friendly staffers (the bartender knew my drink by round 2). And most important, you have the comfort of knowing your dollars are going towards fighting disease with United Cerebral Palsy.

Concurrent with the tasting party, a silent auction was taking place with a wide variety of goods and services. You could donate funds to purchase art supplies for Toylend, or bid on a tour of Napa Valley that included a bottle of wine signed by Mike Ditka (one of only 30 produced). Other items included framed Picasso sketches, White Sox tickets, bundles of restaurant gift certificates and other themed packages ("6 Date Nights," "Mother's Day").

HB Home Bistro: Fantastic Value in East Lakeview

HB Home Bistro is in the same location as the much lauded "Hearty Boys", and one of their cooks bought the place after they stepped aside.   HB is one of those great Chicago restaurants that serves gourmet food and has a BYOB policy.     Situated in the Boystown strip, HB has increasingly received recognition, and we have been turned away twice (whereas we used to walk in and get a table on a Friday night).   

Lately, HB has embraced the mysterious world of Dutch cooking.  Despite having been to the Netherlands I am hard pressed to identify a Dutch specialty, other than maybe their pancakes, their beer (Heineken, Amstel, and Grolsch) , and cheese (Gouda and Edam).    Chef Joncarl Lachman has enthusiastically thrown his Dutch roots into the kitchen by setting HB apart with its unusual offerings.

2007 Berco do Infante Reserva

The Portugese make great wines, and if I drank wine every day it would be more realistic for me to sample more of them.   Unfortunately time and health do not permit me to imbibe daily, and thus, my palate sometimes becomes limited to the regions of the wine world about which I am passionate.

 Portugese wine tends to stump people a lot:  the grape varietals and regions are unfamiliar, and sometimes the low prices of Portugese wine causes people to assume the quality is lacking.

Free Kentucky Grilled Chicken

In a break from tradition, KFC recently rolled out grilled chicken, and they’ve now teamed up with Oprah to bring you a coupon for two free pieces of grilled chicken, two sides and a biscuit. The coupon is available until 9:59 pm CDT on May 6th, and it is valid through May 19th.

http://www.unthinkfc.com

Mia Francesca: Popular Transitional Italian

I moved back to Lakeview recently, and one thing I remembered from before was the perpetually long line outside Mia Francesca.  Somehow my group was able to snag a table at 7:00 on a Friday after a Cubs game with only a twenty-minute wait, for which we were very grateful to the maitre d'. 

Despite living in Chicago for almost five years I never managed to eat at Mia Francesca's flagship location.  I tried Francesca's at Bryn Mawr in Edgewater a couple times, and the food was quite good.   The Francesca name appears to have branched out, and it piqued my curiosity to do some digging:   I counted seventeen restaurants on their web site, thirteen of which are conveniently located in the suburbs.

Great Chef's Tasting Party – Thursday May 7th

This Thursday is the 17th annual Great Chef's Tasting Party at the Sheraton on North Water St. Cocktails begin at 5pm with dinner starting at 6. A ton of restaurants are participating and it should prove to be another in a season of wonderful deals that showcase the variety of Chicago restaurant talent for a good cause. ChicagoFoodies.com readers get a $15 discount on tickets $100 to $85. Enter "foodies09" in the coupon code area here.

Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers
301 East North Water Street, Chicago

COCKTAIL RECEPTION
5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
SILENT AUCTION
5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
DINNER
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m

Please Pass (on) the Tuna

By now, most people have read or heard about Fast Food Nation, an indictment of the modern factory farm, where cheap meat is produced at an all-too-high, hidden environmental cost. The recent emergence of swine flu has once again put the spotlight on factory farming and how the industry encourages the proliferation of disease. With that in mind, I began investigating the complementary industries of fishing and aquaculture. Taras Grescoe's Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood provides an eye-opening, informative guide to the state of the world's seafood supply, and is a must-read for anyone who eats seafood, if only for reasons of self-protection.

The oceans have long been credited with inexhaustible supplies of seafood, but a combination of industrial-age fishing techniques and a burgeoning human population has wiped out many fish stocks to levels of commercial extinction. Bottom-trawling, or dragging a net across the seafloor, essentially destroys and levels hundreds of square miles of seabed each day. Dynamite and cyanide are commonly used to stun reef fish (grouper, Napoleon wrasse); it is estimated that a square meter of coral reef is killed for every reef fish caught. Meanwhile, people have been consuming more and more seafood, from the newly affluent Chinese to the explosion of all-you-can-eat shrimp and crab specials at American chains like Red Lobster.

Green City Market Meets Alice Waters – Honey Crisp Apple Pie Recipe

We made it to the farmers’ market last Saturday just in time for, Chez Panisse chef, Alice Waters' book signing to begin. I was a bit surprised to see how small the market was, but soon realized that not all the produce farmers arrived yet, due to the limited availability of items during the early spring season. That could be why the market will move to a new location soon- to make room for more vendors. Actually, the next outdoor market opens on May 6 and moves to Lincoln Park. 

After a short wait and chat with another Alice Waters fan, I stepped up to the plate, so to speak, and asked the genteel Ms. Waters to sign my local library’s copy of Edible Schoolyard (I had prior permission). I then pressed my luck by asking her to sign personal stationary I decorated with cutouts of the beautiful Chez Panisse Foundation logo and artwork just for the occasion. If she thought it strange or was annoyed by the request, I couldn’t tell- she just kindly asked how I wanted it signed. I could tell she was as sweet a person as I’d seen on television years ago when she made a fennel salad for Julia Child.

Recipe: Carrot Cake Cookies

Carrot has always been my favorite kind of cake, so when I needed to bring some sort of dessert to work recently, my first thought was to go to my standard carrot cake recipe. Upon second thought though, I wanted something that would be readily portable with a minimum of fuss, and sans cake box, a double-layer cake with delicate icing seemed more trouble than it was worth. So, I turned to my usual source for innovative ideas: FoodGawker. Sure enough, I was soon eyeballing a promising recipe for carrot cake cookies. A hybrid between whoopie pie and carrot cake, these cookies pack the flavor of carrot cake with the convenient, fuss-free format of a cookie sandwich. Parfait!

Lao Shanghai

 Previously Reviewed May 18th 2008

For the last week or so, I've been seriously jonesing for some xiao long bao, or soup dumplings. What's that, you say? The xiao long bao is a Shanghai specialty, a bite-size morsel of fatty pork in a semi-transluscent dough wrapper. These are typically steamed over napa leaves in bamboo steamers, and as a result, the dumpling contains a rich, meaty broth that explodes in your mouth as you bite in. The trick is to carefully pick up the dumpling and place it in a soup spoon, so that you don't lose any of the broth inside. Cut with vinegared soy sauce, I could easily make an entire meal out of only soup dumplings. By far the best dumplings I have tasted come from Joe's Shanghai in New York. (If you stop by Joe's, I recommend braving the crowds and going to the Chinatown location.) Hoping to find a substitute closer to home, I decided to stop by Lao Shanghai to check out their offerings. How does Lao Shanghai hold up against its East-coast competition?

Eating Greek in Evanston

I’d never think to eat Greek in Evanston but I’ve been to two places so far that have proven you don’t have to go to Greektown to get good Greek food.

The first place I was taken to was Cross-Rhodes Restaurant, which has been an Evanston staple for years.  Gyros are the thing to get here.  My dining partner (who had been coming here since she was a kid) impressed me with the vegetarian salad that she easily made non-vegetarian by topping it with Gyro meat.  The salad came piled high with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, olives, oil and vinegar dressing, Greek fries, Tsatziki sauce, Feta cheese and the added Gyros slices.  I had never seen Greek fries before on a menu so we decided to get an additional side order.  They were steak cut fries topped with a lemon-herb dressing that despite the dressing were very crispy.  A great twist on the common fry.