Chicago Foodies

Burr Grinders and French Press

I've been using a Braun burr grinder for a couple of years. I bought it for a dollar at a church rummage sale and have always wondered why the course grind never was uniform. There were always large chips and a clumpy powder mixed in which led to grit in the mug, see the pic.

One upside to the french press is the crema you'd get was really nice and espresso-like.  The flavor is also great and mellow but the fine powder seeps through the mesh in the plunger. I prefer the press, small pots are quick and the machine's easier to clean than a drip.

Since I really only drink french press coffee, I figured it was time to get a better grinder.

Pizza Hut Commercials

I don't know why the new Pizza Hut commercial where the woman pretends that she made pizza and then says she was lying and it's really Pizza Hut. It's a weird commercial because it implies that Pizza Hut pizza sucks. I used to work for Pizza Hut and have many reasons to hate the pizza but surprisingly crave it at times. It was my first restaurant job. But that was a long time ago when they ran commercials like this:
 

More Great Wines from Alsace for the Holidays

I've written a lot about Alsatian wine, mainly because I have a strong personal bias toward it.  Its food-friendly nature, as well as the region's ability to produce extraordinary white wines keeps me coming back.   The drawback is it's tough to find great wines under $20 (there are some, which I've written about before).   At $30, the quality is usually amazing, and while I know plenty of folks who will only spend less than $20 a bottle, they may have to bypass much of Alsace.     

The Un-Holiday Brunch

After a month of roasting, stuffing, and gravy-ing, it is about time to switch gears and start the post-Holiday slimming down. But before we get there, let's cook up a quick and easy brunch without the lines (think Lula, Over Easy, Flo, etc). 

Your Soy Sauce Might NOT Be Soy Sauce!

I was enjoying my Wing Hoe takeout the other day and for some reason I was looking at the soy sauce packets. I noticed the MSG and then looked a bit closer. It didn't even register but then I tasted it again and immediately grabbed the Kikomann from the cupboard. Hmmm.

It's an MSG salt water packet. WTF? It's even made in Chicago. Not to get into the whole MSG thing, isn't it weird that salt, MSG and food coloring (caramel color) passes so easily, and for so long, as soy sauce? Granted, I usually don't use the stuff but a simple taste of the genuine article and you see what you're missing.

I don't know really how they can call it "Soy Sauce" either. Granted duck sauce isn't duck and oyster sauce isn't oyster so I don't think they're trying to pull a fast one necessarily, but come on.

Bottom line is that in addition to the ketchup, mustard and mayo, get yourself a nice bottle of Soy sauce, you might end up needing it.

The packet ingredients: water, salt, caramel color, sugar, monosodium glutamate, 1/10 or 1% sodium benzoate.

Real soy sauce ingredients: water, soybeans, salt, alcohol, organic wheat.

Or is this just news to me?

'Wicked-Tasty' Tomatillo & Green Olive Salsa

I don't know about everyone else but I am in some wicked need of a little "brightness" in my food to help ease the transition to winter. On a side note, how is it not officially winter yet?

Nothing says summer to me like salsa--and no salsa screams "bright" more than something tomatillo-based. The recipe I make has some tomatillo, a little red onion, and some manzanilla olives--tangy, some bite, and salty.  On Saturday, I threw a kicking "ugly sweater" party and the following salsa was successfully devoured.

Flat Bottom Taco Shells

Growing up my favorite thing for dinner was Mexican taco night and it still is one of my favorites, especially in the wintertime.  If I’m enjoying a taco and margarita I start to feel warm and sunny, even though it is 20 degrees outside.  I saw a commercial on TV recently for a flat-bottomed taco shell and commented, "Genius." 

One of the major issues for hard-shell taco lovers is that they fall over and spill out their contents, usually turning your meal into a taco salad.  Being 10 cents cheaper then the other taco dinner brands I had no excuse not to try the Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff Taco Dinner Kit.

True to its name, the shells stood perfectly vertical on the plate and were extremely easy to stuff.  Being wider than traditional shells they could really hold more of everything so I didn’t have to eat so many to feel full.  That’s really where the differences to traditional shells ended and actually the design became more problematic.  Because of the flat bottom it is an uncomfortable shape to get your mouth around.  More importantly, once you bite into it the bottom immediately cracks down the middle.  Although they did stand, they didn’t hold their shape once I started eating.  I think it was a great marketing attempt. It got me intrigued enough to try it, but in the end I’m going back to my traditional taco shells. 

Apart Pizza

    After a night of holiday drinking we came home to find nothing in the fridge and a hankering for pizza.  Knowing that our favorite deep dish from Guillivers in Rogers Park would take much longer than our hunger could stand we decided to go in the opposite direction (both in location and pizza style) and order traditional Italian style pizza from Apart Pizza in Andersonville.  Since we had never ordered from there the guy on the phone was very helpful in making recommendations as they have 24 different varieties on the menu to choose from. 

Lao Sze Chuan

So I've been confusing Lao Shanghai with Lao Sze Chuan. It was really embarassing when I wanted to take friends to try soup dumplings and arranged dinner at the wrong place. I actually wrote Lao Shanghai up as Lao Sze Chuan... talk about editorial error. It's since been corrected but the upside was that I got to try another great spot in Chinatown.

The Vinturi: Lets Your Wine Hyperventilate

When we were in California this past year we got to play with a cool gadget that mixes air into wine in a crazy vortex-style fashion. I didn't look too closely at it but commented about the "neato" factor. Needless to say I was surprised with one for my birthday.

Trying it out with a Barolo proved to be a great demo. Simply pouring straight into one glass and Vinturing the other provided a great comparison. The ventilated wine was well rounded and more complex than the other. It was just like decanting. It's supposed to work well with whites, reds... I wonder what it would do to a bubbly.

Aeration is the point of the device and it certainly works.

It's available at most retailers... Crate and Barrel and Binny's both come to mind and it costs between $35-$45.

Real Tenochtitlan Restaurante: Dining, Catering, Classes and more

Here's a reader submission from Paula:

I recently had the pleasure of dining with friends at Real Tenochtitlan Restaurante, located at 2451 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago, IL.  Jorge Piana is the President of this restaurant which does catering, consulting and provides cooking classes.

This restaurant was a real find!  I had duck in mole sauce with garlic mashed potatoes served in a colored taco shell.  It was absolutely perfect!  The mole sauce was smooth, sweet, and chocolaty and the duck melted in your mouth!  The service was impeccable and the waiter described the dishes perfectly and was very accommodating with substitutions.  The duck with mole sauce actually came with rice, but we asked if we could substitute mashed potatoes, and he said, of course.  

Wine Clubs... From Williams Sonoma to your local Wine Shop

Williams Sonoma is offering a wine club that seems pretty cool. As a commodity wine's nice because some things you simply can't get locally. While that adds value to the bottle it doesn't necessarily give you a better bottle of wine. That said, exploring is fun and it’s nice that Williams Sonoma offers bottles that you can’t get locally. However, if you are that interested in wine you should also make friends with a local wine shop too! It’s nice to know that if you really like something you can always get more of it. Then again you could order most stuff online these days...  which takes me back to wine clubs. I keep meaning to join one.