Chicago Foodies

Drink of the Week: Wheat Beer

As promised it's the wheat beer taste-off! I'm not sure if it was the sixer of Spotted Cow my wife brought back from the New Glarus brewery, the fact that I wasn't included on the trip to the brewery or the repeated viewings of Beerfest, specifically the Donald Sutherland character on his death-bed drinking Prost! every 2 minutes and finishing glass after glass... followed by belching.

For whatever reason if I've been drinking beer, I've been drinking wheat beer. In addition to the New Glarus, I picked up Capital Brewery's Island Wheat, both more Belgian style and Trader Joe's Widmer Hefewizen more of a traditional German wheat. As expected the Wisconsin brews rocked but the Joe's did quite fine.

Wheat beer is a top fermented beer that's creamy and sweet. It can come with a lemon or orange wedge and sometimes reminds me of bubble gum. It also is often served in a giant glass. Portland gave me a great selection of wheats from the Deschutz Brewery. Something I really enjoy is the local beer varieties. The best in the area is in my opinion New Glarus' Spotted Cow. It's more or less well known but not available in Chicago.

Blackbird

I always wonder whether or not to write about places like Blackbird. It's a Chicago mainstay. Everyone knows about it. But having eaten there recently it would be a shame not to wallow in the near-perfection of the restaurant. Even sitting at the bar, I had a terrific dinner.

The bar location means sitting on tall hard wooden chairs versus the short wooden chairs at the regular tables. Neither are cushioned (boy, do I need special treatment) so it's not really an issue. However service is not the same. If you want constant attention get a table.

It's on Randolph and the decor is very formal and clean – definitely not homey or casual. The appetizers I tried included the scallops, quail and sweetbreads.

The scallops were perfect with and eggplant puree was a nice way to include a dense pseudo-starch where I might expect a potato-type thing in an entrée. The scotch quail and egg was also terrific. I had the quail app at Custom House 2 nights before and while I enjoyed Custom House's more it was also the best part of my Custom House meal.

The sweetbreads were cooked twice, finished in the pan with a crispy dusting. The earthy beets were a perfect combo. Considering the foie gras ban - sweetbreads are really the next best thing. Pictured are Kahan's passed sweetbread appetizers from a benefit dinner with Mario Batali.
(I think those were the sweetbreads)

Alice and Friends

Alice and Friends is a vegetarian restaurant on the north side in Edgewater. I've been there several times and have never had a bad meal. I'll go as far as saying that it's not only my go-to veggie spot, it may be my favorite restaurant in Edgewater. It's also almost entirely vegan.

The un-meat selection consists of beef, duck, chicken alternatives and my dinner companion questioned how it was possible for someone who doesn't eat meat to make food that tastes like meat. How can the chefs be vegetarians? Who knows but the bottom line is that the different pseudo-meats are disturbingly close to the genuine article.

Hardee's Breakfast Burrito – 900 Calories and 60 grams of Fat

It sounds like a joke. Like Homer Simpson deep frying his shirt. Hardees is offering a breakfast burrito that may be the absolute worst thing you could eat first thing in the morning.
From the Kansas City Channel.com:

It is a two-egg omelet filled with bacon, sausage, diced ham, cheddar cheese, hash browns and sausage gravy, all wrapped inside a flour tortilla....

...Hardee's marketing chief Brad Haley said the burrito offers the sort of big breakfast item normally found in sit-down restaurants with an added advantage -- you can eat it in the car.

That's no excuse is it? Here are some things that you could eat within the 900 calorie / 60 grams of fat limit.
That's about 6 doughnuts worth of fat and 2 Quarter Pounders worth of calories. My question is how much sodium.

Breakfast burrito of champions.

The Craziest Dinner I Ever Made... 8 Courses

When I decided to make dinner for my father-in-law's birthday I started making a list of things I wanted to make and somehow never crossed anything off of the final list. Hence a dinner with 8 tasting courses, + 3 alternates, so that really means 11 courses, no?

I didn't really think that I would begin preparing this in my kitchen and then do most of the work in their kitchen in Milwaukee. It wasn't until that day two that I decided I would never do this again. And of course that is what I always say.

The best news was that my mother-in-law had a new set of cool square plates in all sorts of sizes so all the courses looked great. I should have snapped a pic of at least something.

How To: Seal A Bag of Chips Properly

A really neat trick that seals a bag of chips without a clip...

Close A Bag Without A Bag Clip

Top Chef Post Mortem

I was 89% sure that Levitsky would win. I think that was 50% editing on the show's part. The episode was taped in Chicago... Levitsky was the nice guy (I ignored the saying). He wasn't obsessed with technique. That being said Hung was incredibly proficient and I thought he brought lots of passion to his cooking even though he was criticized by the judges for not showing it.

All in all I was very entertained by the most recent Top Chef. I think the contestants were head and shoulders above almost any other reality TV show. It's now a competition for the industry and that makes for very good TV. That quality shows in the way the contestants deal with criticism and with each other. There were very few blow-ups, just enough to be interesting, and while I disapprove of the cracking down on fighting in hockey, I guess I like cleaner reality shows.

Saveur and Chicago

So to add to the litany of national press that Chicago has been getting the cover of the current issue of Saveur has a nice slice of pizza and the issue is dedicated to Chicago. Where GQ focused mostly on our destination restaurants, the Saveur issue covers a wider range of foodie opportunities.

To highlight the issue's theme, the Chopping Block will be hosting an event on Wednesday the 10th at the Merch featuring Bruce Sherman from North Pond, Tim Graham from Tru, Randy Zweiban from Nacional 27, Gary Baca from Joe's Seafood, Izola's Fried Chicken and to cap it all off a "Build your own hotdog" with Hot Doug!

St. Supery Vinyards and Goose Island will provide beverages. The even goes from 6:30-8:30.

Tickets are $60 per person and available online or by phone at 312-644-6360.