Chicago Foodies

Edgewater Dinner Crawl – This Thursday Night

Sorry I didn't get this up sooner. Tomorrow night Thursday the 26th is the Edgewater Dinner Crawl.
Tickets are $25 each and if you order online you get a free subscription to Timeout Chicago.  A portion of proceeds also goes to a charity that you specify online as well. In addition to food local theatre companies will be entertaining as well as historic home tours and hand/chair massages. Not to mention free Red Bull.

Participating restaurants:

Apart Pizza // Anna Held // Ben's Noodle & Rice //Bryn Mawr Deli // Cotes du Rhone
Flourish Bakery Cafe // Francesca's Bryn Mawr // Pepitone's // Sabai-Dee // Shinobu Japanese
Starbucks // Sweet Occasions & more // That Little Mexican Cafe // The Little India Restaurant

Order by phone: :  773-856-5191 or 773-506-4016 Or HERE on line

The event is put on by the local Edgewater Development Council

Dinner in 5 minutes.

Being a foodie shouldn't mean eating duck fat everything. Gourmet cooking is a treat but everyone should know how to make fast healthy meals. My big problem with pre-made meal programs is that I think they keep people from learning how to cook and thusly making them more apt to buy frozen dinners, and other pre-packaged solutions that aren't as healthy as some others.

Give the person a meal and they'll eat for a day, teach them how to cook and they'll eat forever...

You Think You're Nuts for Sushi?

This is ridiculous. It's a far cry from the Brewer's sausage racing....

The Politics of Soda-Pop

Here's the national breakdown of how we refer to fizzy liquids from Pop vs. Soda.com. Looking at the map you can see a cultural divide in this country that is not described in the legend on the right:

Red ="coke"

Blue = "pop"

Yellow = "soda"

Lois Loimer: Gruner Veltliner under $15

Austrian Gruner Veltliner is a fantastic, food-friendly wine, and after having tried a number of Gruner Veltliners (I'll skip the umlaut above the "u" due to laziness) there is one that I consistently find rises above the rest:  Lois Loimer by Fred Loimer.    Some shops will sell it under $15, and it never has disappointed.   Gruner Veltliners tend to have lemon and white pepper flavors, but more importantly Lois has the clarity of flavors and a crispness minerality that others are lacking.   

Stephanie Izard... Top Chef

So now Chicago has the James Beard nation's best chef, Grant Achatz, Presidential Democratic Nominee Barack Obama and this year's Top Chef winner – Stephanie Izard.

I thought it was a foregone conclusion for the past few weeks and for a change it turned out to be so.  Stephanie is hopefully going to open her restaurant here – Represent.

TVP: Textured Vegetable Protein

Who says eating healthy is expensive. TVP is the great equalizer. The problem is where to get it? Dominick's may have it but nobody seems to know what it is. The Devon Market? Of course they have it. I  was on hold listening to Ambrosia's "That's How Much" while they found it. It's 14oz of Soy Salud, "Textured Soy Strips" for $3.99  which hydrates to 3-4 pounds?  It's the most cost effective substitute out there. You read online about it and unfortunately get sci-fi descriptions...

Brian's Favorite Chicago Wine Shops

Given the number of neighborhoods, nooks, and crannies in Chicago I qualify this list as not being as comprehensive as it could be. Also, some of the shops I have visited not on this list deserve a second look—it may have been an off day or even an off-year but perception is reality in the eye of the consumer.  I’ve excluded Sam’s and Binny’s here; both chains are good for buying something if you know exactly what you want, but most of the time I find it much more fun to put your trust in the experts behind the counters of these wonderful independent shops. I am confident the shops on the list are truly worth going more than a little out of the way to visit. Further, some of you may notice nearly all places have appeared in past posts, though I felt some highly subjective rankings were necessary to augment these comments. Comments from readers recommending shops not listed here are truly welcome.

The Seattle Sutton Experiment

Having a desk job by day and being an avid foodie by night really packs on the pounds.  I’ve tried Weight Watchers in the past and it works – eat less, exercise more.  The only problem is that you have to write everything down.  I tend to start eating the same thing every day just to avoid looking up points. 

Obama on Check Please!

A reader pointed out that Obama was on an episode of Check Please! Here is a link to an audio interview on Chicago Public Radio with the shows creator, David Manilow, discussing that episode. Thanks Jima.

I Wonder Where He Likes to Eat?

I wonder where Obama's favorite eats are  in Chicago. It's a real privilege to think that the most impressive national politician I can think of comes from the town of Chicago. That's a wonderful thing. 

Fine Wine Brokers: Lincoln Square

We stopped into this shop after visiting the adjacent Mayfest on Western and Lincoln and enjoying the Bavarian music and beer.  Fine Wine Brokers has a surprisingly large selection of obscure varietals, blends, and regions.  They had a decent selection of Alsatian whites, as well as an impressive selection of bottles from Greece and Hungary, as well as some little known European varietals.  The person who assisted me had a genuine enthusiasm for wine, and I was probably in the shop for a good twenty minutes.

Fine Wine Brokers
4621 N. Lincoln
773-989-8166

Pass That Roach!

Shellfish is even weirder if you stop and think about it... so don't. Let's relish the weirdness that is eating bugs. From cicadas to sour cream and onion crickets we've looked at it with that OMFG lens so shall we peek at the Slate.com article about eating bugs. We are into sustainability, aren't we? It turns out that eating bugs is very green and very healthy. Not to mention it will do wonders for our restaurant health inspections...

I can see it now:
Health Inspector: "I'm closing you down for infestation!"
Proprietor, "But they're on the menu sir!"

The French Fry Diet

Weird food story from the UK's Daily Mail. This 15 year old eats nothing but fries... article says she has gastroesophageal reflux (acid reflux?). So she eats nothing but fries. But wait there's more! These are fries (okay chips) from the local chippie... she eats carry out all the time. But wait... there's even more! The good news is that she's FINALLY expanding her diet:

Faye has now started trying plain burgers, plain noodles from one specific Chinese takeaway and potato waffles.

Food in China: What's Taboo for You

Prince Philip of the United Kingdom once said "If it has four legs and is not a chair, has wings and is not an aeroplane, or swims and is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it."   I heard this quote repeated in our tour, and it's very true in China, especially the southern parts.   After returning from China and carefully considering what to write about, I decided not to share all the foods I have tried for fear of retaliation.  I decided my life is more important than to have People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals firing a paint gun at me when I'm walking down the street, or worse yet, firebombing my condominium.  Needless to say, for the adventuresome there's lots of things to try that can be found easily, such as chicken feet and pig's ears, and snake.  Some of the restaurants had horse, dog, and rat available on request.  Street markets had chickens and ducks in cages--talk about fresh!  Other markets had deep-fried silkworms and scorpion.   

2006 Quintas Das Maias Dao

When demand for certain varietals, like Pinot Noir, makes bottles of wine under $20 out of reach, it's nice to know that prices are still relatively low for many Portugese and Spanish blends.  Selections from newer vines tend to be under $20 and wonderful everyday wines, including reds, still go for under $10. 

Expensive Wine and Cheap Food?

I always am surprised at the BYOB folks who crack some insanely good wine with their cheap dinners. Not because good wine is too good for cheap food but shouldn't the quest for good cheap eats should go hand in hand with good cheap wine?