Chicago Foodies

Dose Returns for First 2012 Market

Hopefully, Dose Market's absence from the River East Art Center in January didn't make you forget this high-end monthly bazaar. This Sunday from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M., the market is back, featuring an array of local food vendors, as well as housewares, jewelery and clothing. But back to that food part... This month, Mark and Liz Mendez of the new critically-acclaimed Vera will partner with Chicago-based importer JDY Gourmet to sell some of the Spanish products that they use at the restaurant direct to shoppers. That includes real, sliced-to-order Iberico ham, seafood salad, piquillo peppers, and saffron.

To wash down those ham slices, shoppers can pick up a cocktail from Pickled, a pop-up shop from The Bedford's chef Mark Steuer and Clint Rogers, bartender/mixologist for The Gage and Henri. The Pickled team will sell the Colonel Kurtz cocktail, a morning-appropriate drink made with gin, lemon, pickled ginger syrup, lemongrass-pickled chilies and soda. Of course, non-alcoholic preserves like turnips and pickles will also be on hand. Rounding out the food choices are baked goods from Celestial Kitchens, plus hot pastas and meals from Ripasso. If that hasn't whetted your appetite enough, check out the beautiful video below:

Dose Talk from Dose Market on Vimeo.

--Kate Bernot

Publican Quality Meats to Open Next Week, Minus the Meat at First

If you've dined at The Publican, you can begin to imagine what Paul Kahan and crew could do with a butcher shop. The much-awaited store, located just across from The Publican on Fulton Market, will open February 6, but won't begin selling prime cuts of meat, housemade sausage and charcuterie until mid-February. Though it's a priarily butcher shop, Publican Quality Meats has been relatively silent on what types of meat they'll be serving: Yes, it will be prime, but they haven't announced which farmers they'll source from, or whether they'll be using whole or quarter animals like Rob and Allie Leavitt do at The Butcher & Larder. (**See Editor's Update below.)

In the meantime, the shelves will be stocked with bread and groceries like eggs, olive oil, and milk. The bread will be made on premise by baker Ehsan Ganji, who has owned a company called Ahwahnee Bread since last year. As for what you'll find once the meat counter opens, Publican Quality Meats has released a teaser video of some butchery, but it's really only worth watching for the soundtrack:

Publican Quality Meats teaser #1 by Biz 3 Media from Biz3 Media on Vimeo.

 **Editor's Update: Paul Kahan tells Chicago Foodies that Publican Quality Meats plans to break down whole pigs, quarter steers and whole lambs, both grass- and grain-fed, including off-cuts of meat.

--Kate Bernot

The Myth of "Natural" Labeling

In the midst of a stream of Tweets about that overturned fumble during the Giants game and the merits of various Golden Globe fashions, a more substantial conversation was taking place on the Internt. (Yes, Virginia, it can happen.) Marion Nestle, Food Politics author and NYU professor, Tweeted a link to an August fact sheet from the non-profit Center for Food Safety, an advocacy group that lobbies and litigates for sustainable food production. The fact sheet, titled "What's In a Label? Natural: Another Name for Conventionally-Grown Food," is a simple argument against the use of the word "natural" in food labeling, alleging that the unregulated term unjustifiably raises the price of products and confuses consumers into thinking the package contains organic ingredients. The CFS is on a campaign to eliminate the word from packaging, and they're taking certain specific companies to task.        

Bittercube Bitters Rescue Blah Holiday Cocktails

Oh, Aunt Maggie's making Christmas morning mimosas....again? Nothing against the tried-and-true line-up of holiday cocktails (Tom and Jerry, anyone?), but because most people have a few days off this week, it's a great time to experiment a bit with drinks and whip up some new winter favorites. One barrier to mixing up new cocktails is the investment in alcohols and liquers, which can be a pricey move when you're not sure you're going to like the flavors. In terms of bang for your buck, bitters are a great way to use alcohol you already have, while allowing you to churn out new and different cocktails for your guests. If you want to keep it local, look no further than Bittercube, a line of small-batch, slow-crafted bitters from Milwaukee.

The Chicago Foodies 2011 Holiday Gift Guide

Because every magazine and website hawks their holiday gift guides this time of year, allow Chicago Foodies to convince you that ours is different. We promise not to endorse any brands of dense holiday bread (fruitcakes, panettone, etc.) that could pose choking hazards. We promise that these are products that we genuinely like; we bought them, and we'd be proud to give them as gifts to our friends and family. Lastly, these are gifts that could hopefully appeal to the die-hard food nerd as well as the average person with a love of good food and drinks. So unless you've already stuffed every stocking with the singing electronic Justin Bieber toothbrush on sale at Walgreens, read ahead to see what Chicago Foodies want most in our stockings this year.

Rethinking Reusable Shopping Bags

Take stock of your pantry, make the shopping list, grab the reusable canvas tote. This is most people's pre-grocery shopping routine, but it may be time to rethink that third step. A quick piece in New York Magazine uses statistics and a few selectively chosen facts to raise questions about the eco-friendliness and safety of those reusable bags.

Dose – River East Indoor Market

One Sunday a month food and fashion have somethings in common. They're both trendy, fun to shop for and they're both featured at River East's Dose Market. The market showcases a handful of artisinal or organic eateries as well as a number of small boutiques and vintage shops.While there is a $8 fee for tickets, these aren't the types of vendors you'll find at just any street fair.

The food vendors seemed to be trying to upstage each other. After sampling a butternut squash tea cake from Floriole,  delicious, I moved on to  a candy bar from Mayana Chocolate. I still regret not buying one of their Dose bars,  a delicate organic Twix-style creamy chocolate bar. Homemade nutella marshmallows were roasted on the spot at 240sweet. With handmade graham crackers to boot, this is one vendor definitely worth checking out.

Get Introduced to Fall Wines at Kafka Wine Co.

Now that fall has officially begun, the bright, citrusy wines of summer are out, and it's time to try some different varietals.  What better place to prep your palate and your wine rack than at a fall wine tasting? While these can often be pricy, if you get a group together for a tasting, the prices at Kafka Wine Co. in Lakeview are more than reasonable. A huge selection of wine is provided, and it's Bring Your Own Food, which makes for cheaper prices and a larger choice of snacks.

Sazon's 1st Anniversary Special – Exclusively for Chicago Foodies!

Chef Ursula Adduci launched Sazon a year ago right here on Chicago Foodies. She's cooked for Princes, Presidents, Nobel Prize winners and Oscar nominees... but more importantly she will cook for you. Her meal plans are ravingly good. Somehow she stays on calorie with a dinner like lamb ragout with polenta. 10 meals a week lets you have a couple nights to cook or go out. It's prepared and delivered twice a week and even the snacks sound delightful, grilled pineapple with mascarpone? Heirloom mini-caprese?

And the best part is that for $75 you can have 10 meals of the 1200 calories plan. Just mention "Chicago Foodies" when you email Ursula. That's a saving you $25 a week. So for those of you who can't cook as often as you'd like to but still want responsible, flavorful, ChicagoFoodies-quality meals, there's no better time for a taste of what it's like to have a personal chef.

Congratulations on your first year Sazon and we look forward to many more!

Morningstar Farms Sausage Links vs. Johns All Natural

I've always been of the mind that if there's something that is the equivalent of meat, why eat the meat version? I've also had many conversations, mostly with non-vegetarians, about how odd it is that so much vegetarian protein is in the shape of and named for meat products. Sausage is a good example. It's a ground meat product that is stuffed, traditionally, into intestine casings... is "sausage" appetizing for a vegan? Or Tofurkey? Veggie Burger? Riblets? Chik'n nuggets? My argument is that it's a cue as to the texture and taste and on a base-level people want what they know. The other argument is what can you do? A burger is a handy, literally, way to eat and cook and that goes double for tubes as well... but frankly (pun intended) "tubes" may be even less appetizing than sausage. The sausages in question here are the breakfast kind. they are both frozen, pre-cooked and should be available in your grocer's freezer.

Out of the box they both look as expected. The Jones has a formed look and Morningstar has a tube-look. When frozen, the veggies don't stick together while the Jones linkes do. Per link the nutritional info breaks down like this:

Garlic Scapes – Scape Pasta Sauce Recipe

I was at the Edgewater Farmer's Market on Broadway and Norwood Saturday morning and saw garlic scapes. I've seen them on menus but never really think to cook with them. They come in beautiful long stems and smell, not surprisingly, like garlic. I tasted them raw and they have a very peppery flavor. The stalks are also very course. They would make one hell of a stir in a bloody mary! In any case I figured that I'd cook them up to mellow the flavor and then strain out the fiberous parts. I decided on a quick sauce, one that's fresh and not carmelized down into anything super dense. It's a pretty hot weekend after all.

First Pastoral Artisan Producer Festival – Recap

Chicago has more and more great food events.   Some are worth every penny they charge, others go to worthy causes, whereas a few of the high-profile events fall far short of the value neglected in the steep prices consumers are charged.   So it's refreshing when a festival can offer consumers great food and make it free.  

The folks at Pastoral Artisan Cellars pulled off a well-organized festival and brought in much-needed Saturday foot traffic at the French Market.   It's a win all around:  a win for the French Market and its vendors to get more visitors on Saturday, a win for the producers who have a vehicle to showcase and sell their products, and a win for the consumers to get exposed to a wider variety of artisanal foods.  

Kitchen Gadgets – The Bon Home Heat & Dry Dish Rack

At this year's Housewares show we ran into the company Bon Home. Considering the massive amount of random innovation we walked past, it was surprising that we stopped at a dish rack. The logic here is sound. Anyone who has china or simply anyone who cooks for a crowd has had the added hassle of washing and drying dishes between courses. Not to mention being overloaded with stacks of dirty plates by the end of the night. The promise of an auto-drying dish rack is that a quick wash and a press of a button and in 10-minutes you are reset and ready to go again.

If that's not enough to pique interest, think about glassware. A bar-brush is the missing ingredient and you can easily serve in balloons, flutes, tulips, and not deal with the drying hassle, one of my least favorite jobs in the kitchen. I'd rather clean a dirty stove. After a few minutes they offered to send me one free of charge. I couldn't say no.

1st Annual Pastoral Artisan Producer Festival @ French Market Saturday

On Saturday, April 30, between 11 and 3 at the French Market on Clinton Street (and under the Chicago & Northwestern railroad tracks by what is now called Ogilvie Station), there will be over thirty-five artisanal producers showcasing their wares, from preserves to honey, cheese, beer, and confectioneries.    Some of my favorites include Half Acre Beer Company from the North Center neighborhood; L. Mawby, which makes an excellent blanc de blanc sparkling wine from Michigan; Brunkow Cheese, maker of the lovely brun-uusto baked cheese; and Bennison's Bakery, baker of what is probably my favorite bread in the city (well, okay, if you include Evanston).

The event is organized by Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread, and Wine, where I go to buy probably eighty percent of my cheese.   Check out their video:  

 

Is Fox & Obel On Their Way Out?

Chicago lacks really, really good grocery stores.  There are a few specialty shops scattered throughout the city that do a decent job of supplying hard-to-find items, but Fox & Obel is really it when it comes to good gourmet food.   They have an incredible cheese selection, a good bakery, and, in my experience, possibly the widest selection of charcuterie in Chicago in a retail store, save for maybe Paulina Meat Market.  You can get  jamón ibérico de bellota, white truffles, and caviar, and it also offers a great wine selection, as well as a deli and a restaurant where you can order wine from the supermarket.  

Unfortunately the Chicago Real Estate Daily has reported on late rent and vendor payments.  Hopefully the store will weather the current economic situation and emerge victorious in a city dominated by Jewel, Dominick's, and Whole Foods.

--Brian Ziegler

Butcher and Larder: A First Peek

Having been open less than a week, I couldn't resist taking a peek inside Butcher and Larder after taking a long walk down Milwaukee from an earlier engagement at Filter coffee.   The first thing that struck me about the place was an almost old-school butcher feel not unlike visiting sparsely-furnished shops in northern England.   The display case was very small, featuring a few homemade sausages, liver pâtés and beef hearts (regrettably, I had to pass on the beef hearts after getting into trouble for pan frying beef liver and onions the week prior), and there was a small selection of hot and cold sandwiches, such as beef-and-cider, as well as a soup of the day.  Feeling full, I opted for the cold cuts instead of the ready-made offerings. 

Hendrickx Belgian Bread Crafters

Consider it not being up on my game or just plain laziness, but it took me eight months to visit this specialty bakery that has been open since May of last year.  Operated by the husband-wife (correct me if I'm wrong?) team of Renaud Hedrickx and Dominique Schewebach, I instantly got the feeling of this place being a labor of love.  I ordered a tuna salad sandwich on a croissant roll, which was simply tuna mixed with homemade mayonnaise on a very soft, dense, and fresh croissant role where you could see the layers of dough like rings of a tree, not the fluffy types where everything seems to congeal together in one big lump with a few air pockets.

Butcher and Larder: Opening Day awaits

Because I live in East Lakeview (or Lakeview East), going to Wicker Park to buy meat is a bit of a trek.  I usually can't be bothered to go to Paulina Meat Market, which is only a little over a mile away from my home, preferring instead to go to my local supermarket.   The suspense is killing me, and perhaps it is also true for the 600-plus fans of Facebook and 500 Twitter followers, despite the fact that the place is not open yet. 

Rare Bird Preserves

I always find it a pleasure when local producers provide more options to food shops around town, especially when what is produced is an artisanal craft product.   It's even better when you are devouring craft food well beyond its intended use.

Oak Park-based Rare Bird Preserves jumped out at me when the Chicago Reader wrote up an article about Elizabeth Madden and her maddening desire to make the freshest, purest preserves.    I was able to produce a couple jars of  lavender peach about a year ago, and I was especially excited when the Whole Foods on Waveland and Halsted started carrying it a few months ago.

Capriole Mont St. Francis cheese

Being from Wisconsin I have regional bias when it comes to cheese, and I really want to believe that Wisconsin products are inherently superior.   The state, though, has tough competition from neighboring states, and one of my favorites is Capriole from Greenville, Indiana, a producer specializing in goat cheese and around for over thirty years.   I've always been impressed with the O'Banon, wrapped in brandy-soaked chestnut leaves and capable of aging.   The brandy and chestnuts infuse the goat cheese, brining a strong complexity that is already a part of its goat cheeses.    Other favorites include ash-coated Wabash Cannonball, which is a surface-ripened creamy ball of young cheese (ripened through the growth of mold); and paprika-dusted Piper's Pyramid, a creamy mountain of goodness.

My latest favorite from them is the Mont St. Francis, a washed-rind semi-hard cheese named for a local monestary.  It has an earthiness and a deep character.  The batch of cheese I got didn't quite have the funk to which Capriole's web site had alluded, but it did have the depth of flavor expected in a washed rind cheese.

Capriole goat cheeses are available at the Green City Market, though they do tend to run out of their selections.  You can also find Capriole in Whole Foods and Pastoral.