Chicago Foodies

fRedhots and Fries

I'm not so much into hot dogs, per se (that's what happens when, as a student, you are forced to listen to lectures on how hot dogs are made), but I'm always up for a good burger.  The difference is all in my head, I know, but so be it.

Regardless, fRedhots and Fries is my current favorite.

Fish Guy at the Taste of Chicago

Well finally something regarding the Taste that makes me go hmmm....

This Friday , June 29th at 11 a.m. Bill Dugan from The Fish Guy Market will be kicking off the 2007 Taste of Chicago by giving a tutorial on lobster cleaning and prepping for the allmighty lobster roll. Considering how hot it's been his other demo on ceviches should be refreshing.

Aspartame = Cancer?

Isn't it safe to say that Diet soda is bad for you? A new study links Aspartame to cancer yet the US FDA says there's no reason to review the chemical's safety. From the Sydney Morning Herald:

A US consumer group has called for the review after Italian researchers published a new study that showed aspartame - widely used in soft drinks - might cause leukaemia, lymphoma and breast cancer in rats.

"This is the second study by the same lab showing that aspartame causes cancer in rats," Centre for Science in the Public Interest executive director Michael Jacobson said.

Their study of more than 4,000 rats showed a lifetime of eating high doses of the sweetener raised the likelihood of several types of cancer.

La Unica's Hidden Eats

Sitting on Devon, steps from the culturally rich grocery store of Devon Market and Thai eats, I found myself wandering the aisles of La Unica. This is a quaint Cuban grocery shop full of ingredients native to Cuba and other latin countries alike. Countless tropical juices, black beans and guava pastes line the shelves starting my head thinking of dishes I could create with them. Frozen yucca, tamals and exotic fruits I've never heard of can be found within the freezer section. Ginger beer, bottled mojo and pineapple sodas stand in glass bottles.

Turquoise: Good Turkish Eats in Roscoe Village

My husband and I recently moved to Roscoe Village after living in Lakeview/Wrigleyville for the past 5 years. We haven’t had a chance to try many of the restaurants around our new neighborhood, so I suggested we try Turquoise, a Turkish restaurant on Roscoe Ave.

Turquoise is a nice but still casual restaurant with some quaint tables for sidewalk dining. Since it was very hot and humid out, we decided to sit inside. Unfortunately inside was not much cooler, but not a big deal. To start, the servers bring you a basket of warm, delicious bread with a yogurt sauce, similar to Greek tzatziki. I admit, it’s hard not to eat the whole basket and the fact that I had a couple pieces more than likely contributed to the fact that I could not complete my dinner.

Red Mole: 5 Hours of Love

Mae West says "Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly."

I'm trying to think of other instances where you trade hours of toil and effort for moments of enjoyment. We wait in line for a roller coaster ride... that might be the best "bang for your buck" example. You work all week for the weekend... that's trite. I think cooking is a good example but in reality the time it takes to make that pain-in-the-ass recipe seems to be 1/2 of the reward – especially a mole.

The sauce is notoriously time consuming and needs constant stirring, mixing, blending, searing, straining, etc. It's in 2 parts for most of the process. It dirties every kitchen utensil you have and smokes up your entire house. My dog went into convulsions which brought my wife to hysterics and they both had to go outside. It was kind of funny.

Chipotle vs. Taqueria: A Tale of Two Burritos

Ha! Dickens reference! But seriously folks, today I’m here to relate my recent experiences with two chicken burritos, one from a big chain restaurant and one from my local family-owned taqueria.

The first burrito I grabbed from the Chipotle Mexican Grill on N. Sheridan. Chipotle, as you are all likely aware, is a large national chain that has its ingredients all laid out behind a big counter, kind of like at Subway, and you can pick and choose what you want from those elements.

World's Best Birthday Gift?

Okay, world peace... end hunger... but you could start to end hunger with this!
It's a BBQ Rotisserie Trailer... "The best one ever built!"
From the Ebay Auction

Well.......you've been asking for it and here it is!  It is our BBQ Trailer that we have just introduced!  We are one of the only true American Concession trailer builders on Ebay, please take note that you are not bidding on an old converted cargo trailer, but a Nice custom built Barbecue Trailer!  This is one of the few all metal constructed barbeque trailers for the barbecue enthusiast.  This is a brand new 2007 7 x 25 Concession trailer built to your specs!  It features a 16' Kitchen as well as a 9' deck to accommodate your nice Custom Built Rotisserie Smoker!   

Taste of the Nation - Benefit This Monday June 25th

Late notice for a Share Our Strength benefit this Monday. 100% of the ticket price goes to charity. Lots of talent donating time food and services including Graham Bowles, over 30 chefs, and 20 bartenders (take public trans) in an opportunity to honor Charlie Trotter.

The live auction sounds interesting. As does the 2 levels of food:

Green Gallery: Organic Cuisine and Wine
Global Gallery: World Cuisine and Cocktails
Grape Gallery: Blind Taste Challenge and Local Artisan Cheeses
Share Our Strength’s Sundeck: Alfresco Dining and Cold Gourmet Lagers
Silent Auction: One-of-a-kind packages to take home tonight!

Feaured Art Gallery Walk: Art for Sale with a Bubbly Toast!
Galleries will donate 10% of art purchased directly to the cause...

June 25, 2007 at 5:30PM to 9:00PM

River East Art Center
435 E. Illinois St.
Chicago. Il

To buy tickets go to: http://www.tasteofthenation.org/chicago_tickets

Coxinhas forever! - Brazil Legal

Coxinhas (little drumsticks) are soft, fried dumplings - filled with savory, shredded chicken and covered with a soft, delectable pastry coated in fine breadcrumbs. They are - by far - my favorite snack-bite in the world.

Coxinhas are so hard to make (see recipe here). They take forever. They take the touch of a seasoned Brazilian housewife, and a recipe that's been handed down for generations but never written down. I'd always considered this a blessing - because I knew that if Coxinhas were always readily available I'd be done for - I love them that much - I'd eat ten a day and gain a pound a day, and well, you do the math.

THEN we moved. Last month. From Lincoln Park to Bucktown. And on our corner, there just so happens to be a Brazilian grocery Store.

Braised Pork Belly - La Noisette

I know... Gordon Ramsay this Gordon Ramsay that but last January I enjoyed the tasting menu at La Noisette which, while a Ramsay restaurant, is the stage for New York chef Bjorn Van der Horst who came from Picholine. An empty restaurant was confused by us as an iffy restaurant. It was in reality a new restaurant and in the subsequent months I've been hearing about it little by little. It was fabulous.

Being the only people in the place for a half an hour was kind of nice but it filled up. As London restaurants go the pricing was good and the courses, preparation and flavors were spectacular. You're looking at the braised pork belly that was wonderful. The trouble with these tasting menus is that there's so much work and detail in every course that it's tough to keep them straight.

Memory serves that the salty meat was mellowed by a watercress volute and the crunch of the nuts
meshed with the salty and crunch of the pork sear.

Delicious.

Free Caribou Coffee... Thursday the 21st

This is Caribou Coffee's 3rd annual Coolerfest. All customers visiting a local Caribou Coffee shop between 2 and 3 p.m. on Thursday, June 21 will receive a free 12-oz. Northern Lite Cooler drink in a choice of chocolate, vanilla or caramel.

Thursday  June 21st
between 2pm and 3pm

Ride for Food... Hot Doug's

Sometimes you make good decisions and sometimes you make bad decisions and sometimes you make good decisions that start out good and end up being not so good. I woke up Saturday morning and decided to go for a bike ride, check out the local garage sales, see if I could find another Vita-Mix (I missed out on the first one). But unfortunately there was nothing good and I only saw maybe 5 sales all-told. So I kept heading south and before you know it I was at Damon and Montrose and figured I could go to Hot Doug's for a bite. By then it was 10:45 and I figured I could swing it and be back by noon. The day started out maybe high 70's and I had on jeans. It was what, 90+ on Saturday?

I was a sweat rag on arrival at Doug's. The line was out the door. I was starving and parched. I was also telling myself that *now* I can eat a hot dog (or two) and fries (duck fat) without any (or less) guilt. I waited in line.

Radish Sandwiches and Lemonade: Light as a Summer Breeze

Lets face it, its hot out there.
And in here, too, if you are like me and without air conditioning. This is no time for hot food. You need something light and cool and easy to make, because you definitely don't want to be moving around to much. I offer a solution: radish sandwiches and concentrated lemonade.

Fino Sherry: Underappreciated Treasure

Many of us have had sherry before...perhaps a super-sweet cream sherry or a super-sour dry sherry, perhaps as a result of the bottle being open too long.  Fino sherry is the driest--drier than most wine..period.   Within Madrid fino sherry is nearly ubiquitous in restaurants and cervezerias, and what a wonderful apertif.   And the clean, crisp, dry taste. 

The wines used to produce sherry are predominantly made from the palomino grape and are enveloped by a special type of yeast called flor that comes from barrell-aging in the port down of Jerez on the southern coast.  This is after the wine is fortified with brandy from the same grape varietals.    The taste is very complex, a result of the flor and the mixtures of aged wines from different vintages.

Homemade Cold Press Coffee: Buzz Worthy

I apologize for starting out with a bad pun. I was at work talking coffee and was told about a great cup of cold pressed coffee had in Minneapolis. Of course I looked around and found the Toddy coffee maker... A-hah! I have had experience doing this when I worked in the small Milwaukee coffee shop Ro-cham-bo. Talk about short term memory loss. Anyway I remember it being unruly and overall a fairly nasty process but with a flavorful result. Imagine large scale coffee-bean oil everywhere and having to stir floating grounds to keep the mix uniform. The first thing that came to mind this time is my french press pot. So I tried it out 1 cup of grounds and fill'er up. (the liter pot).

Then I gave it the press to circulate and leaving the filter all the way up, keeping the grounds just submerged, I sat it on the counter and went to bed. In the morning I looked at the black murk out of which little light escaped, the picture is with the sun directly behind it... that's dark.

Heartland Cafe – Almost Health Food!

Last night I stopped in at the Heartland Cafe with a good friend of mine who had just moved to town.  In many ways it was a perfect welcome-to-the-neighborhood dinner, soaking in the Rogers Park summer from the shade of their front patio and quenching our thirst with their fine local beers.  For the main course, my friend tried the buffalo burger, while I went for the grilled cheese sandwich with avocado and tomato.

Reality Chef Roundup: Top Chef/Hell's Kitchen/etc.

 
The reality cooking season is underway. Hell's Kitchen started last week, Top Chef this evening... My season started a little early as I finally caught Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on BBC America. It gave me hope. I was very interested seeing near-failure chefs get a makeover courtesy of Ramsay and his profanity. It was nice to see Gordon in his tough-love mode where he actually has chemistry with his masochistic victim.

All that was blown however with this new season's Hell's Kitchen where our tough exterior yet well-intentioned chef transforms into the ignoramus cheap-shot artist that completely ruins his show for me. I love him calling people names but making fun of someone for something that's out of their control is uncalled for and I don't mean Aaron – why that guy's there and how he even got there we'll never know.  The constantly crying, nearly passing out Aaron dude needed to go home... he wants to go home. The show is rigged simply because this guy even got on. But Eddie didn't deserve the treatment he got even though he deserved to go home, and I even forgive Gordo for his "fat boy" comments...

Sweet Maple Cafe: Best Omelette, Hands Down

In the mood for some good breakfast eats?  Sweet Maple Cafe will cure that hangover and then some.  This southern style breakfast/brunch nook located in the UIC neighborhood on Taylor Street will win you over once you sit down and sample the goods.  The small space is not conducive to those who wait--and most likely you will wait, but when you are among the chosen...to sit down and peruse the menu, all of those negative vibes you felt when you awkwardly stood pressed between the wall, door, or tables disappear!

The Oldways Table: Essays and Recipes

I notice sometimes that I come across simple and nutritious recipes and my response is - well that's a no-brainer – I'll make that for dinner. The Oldways cookbook is a whole book of recipes that we all take for granted. In the rush to use our gadgetry and the most complicated fusion of flavors and ingredients we forget that simple really is better. Instead of masking flavors leave them alone. Let the ingredients have enough room to combine their flavors on their own. These are terms that contradict traditional French cooking but align with how the Japanese eat.