Chicago Foodies

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.

iCream

Continuing the trend of indulgent restaurants that allow you to "have it your way," iCream brings an experiment in free will and independent choice to your ice cream selection. A recent addition to Wicker Park, iCream turns the traditional ice cream shop model of a dozen static flavors on its head by giving you the option to engineer your own frozen concoction.

And I do mean engineer. With a sleek, soft white interior and staff members in white coats, ordering at iCream takes on the air of a grand scientific endeavor. Your first step is to choose a base of regular, light or soy ice cream, or frozen yogurt or sorbet. Then, pick one of the 30 or so flavors; there's a wide variety of choices, including burnt sugar, cinnamon and pomegranate. For an additional 50 cents, you can opt to add mix-ins like heath bar, granola or nutella. My final choices were regular hazelnut ice cream with cookie dough. But wait, we're not done yet, because you can color your creation any number of vivid hues! As I hesitated, the woman behind the counter encouraged me to add a fun color to my ice cream. I went for green.

Free Ice Cream at Ben & Jerry's on April 21...or try Village Creamery in Niles or Skokie

Ice cream-good ice cream- is usually on my mind when the weather starts to warm up a bit more than it is now. Today in Chicago it rained, and hailed! Yesterday it was also rainy and cold, but we still decided to try out a homemade ice cream shop that hides inside a small shopping plaza of mostly Oriental stores. It really can't be seen unless you're stopped at only one of the four corners of a busy intersection.  I pass it all the time and wonder if it really is homemade ice cream. It's true, I'm a skeptic. It's not so often that food advertised as homemade or handmade is purely so.

Everest: Alsatian food temple in the sky

Those who know me well know that I love Alsatian wine, and Everest has Chicago's largest Alsatian wine list (and, reputedly, the largest Alsatian wine list in America).  Chef Jean Joho is a native of France's Alsace region, and he brings his region's cuisine in one of Chicago's most venerable white tablecloth restaurants.It is a Lettuce Entertain You restaurant that has been around for 23 years atop One Financial Place on South Lasalle.    Getting up there is a bit confusing:  you first of all have to ask the security guard of the office building to let you inside, then he takes you to the thirty-ninth floor, and then you have to switch elevators to the fortieth floor.  The next thing you notice are the "JJ" logos on the carpet and china, ostensibly an homage to Chef Joho.

Mediterranean Oasis Mart in Naperville Not Just a Grocery

I'd heard of the famous dish "Imam Biyaldi" before, but never really knew what the hype was all about.  Being a Sicilian who also loves Turkish and other Mediterranean foods, I thought I had tasted just about every dish where peppers, eggplant and garlic were smothered in olive oil. For some reason, the one I've just tasted was different- in a totally delectable way.

Tomato Bread Pudding Recipe

Among the other things I did while in D.C., I was lucky enough to attend the annual Culinary Historians of Washington potluck. This year's potluck was themed "Presidential Favorites," so we were treated to a wide array of historically notable dishes. These ranged from the familiar macaroni and cheese (served at Jefferson’s inauguration, and considered quite fashionable at the time), to more exotic items like pickled watermelon and Harrison-era sliced tongue. There was a White House garden-inspired violet soup, garnished with freshly picked violets, and a Johnson-era canapé “cake” constructed of hors d’oeuvres on toothpicks. President Obama’s affinity for Mexican foods was celebrated with pork loin and homemade molé sauce. Amy Carter’s favorite peanut butter cookies were available, and a veal & bacon pie modeled after Martha Washington’s recipe was on display.

Matzo Pizza – Not Just for Passover

There comes a time at every Weight Watchers meeting where the moderator asks, “What foods do you miss the most.” Unanimously the group will shout pizza and a discussion will follow as to ways to enjoy a lower fat version. Most of the suggestions however tend to be unappealing like leaving off the cheese, using an English muffin as the crust or just having one small slice.

Mercat a la Planxa

Adjacent to Grant Park and the Blackstone Hotel, Mercat a la Planxa is a recent addition to the South Loop's ever burgeoning roster of swank restaurants. In particular, Mercat a la Planxa brings a taste of Barcelona to Chicago, with a Catalan-inspired tapas menu. Chef Jose Garces has garnered critical acclaim for his nuevo Latin cuisine while cooking at tapas restaurants in Spain and on the Eastern seaboard, but does Mercat live up to the hype and the price tag?

Michelle Obama's Outrageous Organic Garden...

Michelle Obama planted an organic garden at the White House. While this doesn't seem like a big deal, corporate agribusinesses see it somehow as a threat. From The Hill:

“Fresh foods grown conventionally are wholesome and flavorful yet more economical,” the Mid America CropLife Association (MACA) wrote the first lady last month a few days after she and fifth-graders from a local elementary school planted the White House Kitchen Garden.

Seriously? They took this as a threat? Don't forget to spray these chemicals to ensure you get bug-free tomatoes!

Ben's Chili Bowl - D.C.

Recently, I was in D.C. for a visit and thought to stop by Ben's Chili Bowl. A prominent Washington establishment in business since 1958, Ben's Chili Bowl got an additional splash of publicity at the beginning of the year when (you guessed it) President Obama stopped by for lunch. Unfortunately, while there he inadvertently ruffled some feathers by asking "What's a half-smoke?" Ah Mr. President, if only you'd consulted your Blackberry before stepping foot into the city's most famous purveyor of half-smokes.

To explain, the half-smoke is a plump hot dog that has a spicy kick and is often made from equal parts pork and beef. It is found primarily in D.C., where it can be easily obtained from hot dog carts and street vendors. Curious, I showed up at Ben's one sunny Saturday afternoon, and was dismayed to find a lengthy Hot Doug's-worthy line wrapping around the building. However, with a much simpler menu, the line at Ben's moves about twice as fast. After about 25 minutes of waiting, I made it to the counter and dutifully ordered the chili half-smoke for lunch. Dozens of charred half-smokes lay on the adjacent grill and staff members shouted and sang as they bustled in the open kitchen. My meal was ready within a few minutes, a gloriously sloppy sausage topped with chili and served with chips.You can also opt to get fries instead, doused with cheese, chili or both.

Monday Night Dinner Deal – Vines on Clark

There are so many great deals to be had during the week that it makes economical sense to go out big on a Monday night.  Walking up and down Clark street recently most places were dead or closed pre- baseball season except Vines on Clark, who was in full swing due to their Monday “neighborhood appreciation night” where you can enjoy three dollar drinks on just about anything – your call.