Feature Fri Jul 03 2009
After high school, I moved to the Bay Area with visions of enrolling at UC Berkeley. An older cousin of mine lived there that played Alto Sax. The plan was that I would use his address and get into school as a California resident for dirt cheap tuition. Instead, I ended up playing music gigs with him full time, so while I went to Berkeley, I never "went" to Berkeley. I was 17 and it lasted until I was 23.
The summer of love was a recent memory, Chez Panisse had just opened and we lived down the street from Patty Hearst when she got snatched by the S.L.A. In fact, we heard it going down. Across the bay, the Zodiac Killer was on the loose and Harvey Milk was in office. Quite a heady time for a ripe and impressionable manchild.
Oakland is directly adjacent to Berkeley and one of my cousin Steve's favorite haunts was Lois the Pie Queen, a legendary soulfood restaurant that became my benchmark for all soulfood to come. The world champion Oakland A's would hang out there occasionally delivering lunch orders (Reggie Jackson and Vida Blue in particular) as would the Pointer Sisters, whose father had a church down the street that they sang at. All were welcome and treated like family, from neighborhood characters to local celebrities. Lois was bigger than life and radiated warmth as did her staff, mothers to all.
Smothered pork chops, oxtails and greens, unreal fried chicken -- and then there were those namesake pies. So it was with slight apprehension that I stepped foot into West Side soul food restaurant Doggy's SS. Within moments I felt deja vu. A Lois-like vibe overcame me. To one side, older gentlemen discussed last Sunday's sermons, a waitress that was sweet, efficient and teasingly funny took orders and then there was the fried chicken. And what fried chicken it is.
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— Alan Lake /
Feature Thu Jun 25 2009
It's economical, ecological, and environmentally-friendly. In many cases, it's downright delicious. And there is a chance that you could die. This seems to be the main thesis of the new "field-to-kitchen guide," Edible Wild Mushrooms of Illinois and Surrounding States, by Joe McFarland and Gregory M. Mueller.
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— Andie Thomalla /
Feature Fri Jun 19 2009
HarvesTime Foods could be one of the best kept secrets on the north side. It's like the Millennium Falcon. From the outside it doesn't look like much. The awning is torn and a bit sun-faded. The LCD sign's functionality is sometimes spotty. The building is coated in a stark whitewash in a neighborhood where one side of the street is rundown and the other is neo-gentrified. So at first glance, purchasing even canned food from this market may make you cringe a bit and wonder if you're taking your life into your own hands.
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— Cliff Etters /
Feature Thu Jun 11 2009
Linda Long wanted to convince some of the best chefs to contribute to a vegan cookbook. If top professionals in the culinary world would endorse vegan cooking, it would be hard to argue against vegan food as legitimate cuisine. Twenty-five of the highest awarded chefs signed on, each contributing a three or four course vegan meal. The book includes chefs Charlie Trotter, Daniel Boulud, and Thomas Keller, each many time winners of the James Beard Award, the so-called Oscar of the culinary industry. Long photographed the book, Great Chefs Cook Vegan, inside the chefs' kitchens.
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— Chris Brunn /
Feature Fri Jun 05 2009
A couple of months ago, I enjoyed one of the very best dining experiences of my life at City Provisions (check out the post), Chicago's green, locally-focused catering company and monthly supper club. At the dinner, I had the opportunity to speak with the owner/chef of the company, Cleetus Friedman, and he told me of his hopes to open an organic deli within the next five years. Little did he know that in just two months his plan to open a deli would be underway.
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— Kaitlin Olson /
Feature Fri May 29 2009
With a grey and drizzly Memorial Day in our rearview mirrors, the official backyard -- or back deck alley, sidewalk, whathaveyou -- barbecue season is upon us. And sure, you could simply pull out the Weber and grill up some hotdogs and hamburgers. But if you really want to impress your friends, take it to the next level and start smoking -- meats, that is.
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— Andrew Huff /
Feature Fri May 15 2009
Next Wednesday, Whole Foods Market is scheduled to open their new Midwest flagship store at 1550 North Kingsbury Court. Eight years in the making and clocking in at 75,000 square feet, it will replace the present North Avenue store and be considerably larger in scope (the third largest Whole Foods in the world) with approximately 75,000 items, one-third more than what the average store contains to date.
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— Alan Lake /
Feature Fri May 08 2009
Some people may have booze flowing through their veins, but for husband and wife team Robert Birnecker and Sonat Birnecker Hart, it's also figuratively true--in opening Koval Distillery this year, the pair became third-generation distillers.
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— Jill Jaracz /
Feature Fri May 01 2009
These days I keep seeing increased attention paid to miso. However, my sense is that many in the United States are still a bit squeamish about venturing beyond the little bowls of miso soup served in sushi joints--which is a shame: Miso is a great condiment (historically more of an item to nibble on as is than a condiment, but anyway) that adds instant depth to almost any dish with minimal effort. There are basically three kinds of miso: rustic (yellow), white and red--and here's a litte primer on what they're like, and how to use them in miso soups.
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— Yu Kizawa /
Feature Thu Apr 23 2009
Ham and swiss, with tomato, on wheat. Peanut butter and jelly, on white. Roast turkey on toast with fries and cheese sauce. You know them, you love them. They're sandwiches. (Well, that last one is technically a horseshoe. But same concept, and so good.) Long the stalwart of the school day brown bag lunch, sandwiches are quickly becoming the vanguard of the new middle ground between traditional and trendy cuisine. Don't believe me? Look no further than the lobster dog, my friends.
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— Andie Thomalla /
Feature Fri Apr 17 2009
A coworker of mine ambled over to my desk and said "Please finish this," placing a blue and white paper bag next to me. I looked inside and saw an old friend: caramel corn. From Garrett's. After an hour, the bag was empty and I was headed to the bathroom to wash off the caked goo on my fingers, after which I was going to look up the nearest place that sold caramel corn. Just as a backup.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Fri Apr 10 2009
Easter isn't necessarily a holiday I associate with food. Since childhood, the thought of Easter has conjured the nausea that would set in after a morning spent eating jelly beans, chocolate bunnies and Peeps. As an adult, I've learned to temper my candy consumption before breakfast. Still, I've never been a fan of lamb (the name alone makes me squeamish), mint jelly or hot cross buns, items usually found at the Easter table. For the past few years, since moving to Chicago, Easter brunch for my family has meant a trek to Dunlays, with my kids' pastel Easter garb covered in layers of wool and down. This year, however, with the recession and a spring-break trip to California gnawing into our brunch budget, I'm planning an Easter meal at home.
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— Lori Barrett /
Feature Thu Apr 02 2009
Chicago lacks for little when it comes to food. Yes, there are better versions of certain items in other zip codes, but all and all, we do pretty well on any number of foodstuffs. Take pork for instance, which is exactly what we're going to do here.
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— Alan Lake /
Feature Fri Mar 27 2009
When the opportunity to write a post about City Provisions' March supper club event arrived in my inbox, the title of the email "Breakfast for Dinner" sold me on it right away. I love breakfast foods (who doesn't?) and really couldn't turn down the offer, even if I wanted to.
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— Kaitlin Olson /
Feature Fri Mar 20 2009
My version of traveling often includes some fumbling around with a map. I like to plot out the exceptionally appealing vegan-friendly spots before leaving home. In unfamiliar cities, I can then have some fun finding my way - and eating, of course.
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— Chris Brunn /
Feature Thu Mar 12 2009
I set out to research Depression-era cooking mostly by accident. I was thumbing through my recipe box and came across a card for a lemon dessert. It was an odd one, which used a bit of this and a bit of that, and I always had it stuck in my head it had been created as a result of Depression-created hardships. But what is true about American households during the 1930s is that while there were significant, life-altering hardships, most families did not suffer starvation.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Thu Mar 05 2009
Am I alone in feeling gleefully smug after whipping up an enormous batch of, say, pumpkin soup or meatballs, and then stashing half of what I made in the freezer for dinner a month from now? It's like I've out-smarted the What's-for-Dinner God.
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— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Feature Fri Feb 27 2009
When we heard about the Soup and Bread project going on at the Hideout, we all jumped to the task to contribute our time and cooking skills to feed some folks and to get donations to the Greater Chicago Food Depository (so that in turn, more folks could eat).
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Thu Feb 19 2009
I love beignets. This may not seem strange on the face of things. Beignets are delicious. They are tiny bits (scraps, lumps, balls... pick a shape, it'll work) of fried dough, most traditionally sweet and dusted with a heavy mantle of powdered sugar -- though occasionally, exotically savory and flavored with meat or fish. A French-inflected fried pastry particularly popular in New Orleans, the beignet is as much an American doughnut as a Krispy Kreme or Dunkin variety. Or the paczki.
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— Andie Thomalla /
Feature Thu Feb 12 2009
I've been using Twitter for quite some time now. About a year ago, I was still trying to figure out WHY anyone would use it (can't someone just call or text me if they want to know what I'm doing?), but then I began using it professionally and it all sort of clicked. I use Twitter to stay updated on my favorite blogs, news feeds and people.
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— Kaitlin Olson /
Feature Fri Feb 06 2009
A strange breed of tofu has been all the rage in Japan for the past few years.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Fri Jan 30 2009
I've been dedicating more time to cooking lately. The weather has made me a bit of a shut-in and a more strategic traveler, carefully planning my outings so that I can stop by a grocery store on my way home from work in order to get a few things for my kitchen experiments, which lately have been all soup. So far I've been pleased with the results (a nice lentil, a pureed potato and red pepper) but I'm always looking for shortcuts.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Fri Jan 23 2009
This year, I returned from my family's Christmas bearing a cooler full of individually butcher-paper wrapped and black-stamped parcels, in addition to my more traditional gifts.
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— Andie Thomalla /
Feature Fri Jan 16 2009
I grew up in the Chicago area, and when it came to snacks, my family was a Jays family. We always ate Jays snacks. Chips, Okee-Dokee popcorn, shoestring potatoes. Nothing came close to the salty goodness of a Jays snack. Not Vitner's, and especially not Lay's.
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— Jill Jaracz /
Feature Thu Jan 08 2009
Every cuisine, every culture, and every family has different holiday dishes that just seem to make the holidays special.
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— Cinnamon Cooper /
Feature Sat Dec 27 2008
Chicago had a lot of reasons to eat well in 2008.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Thu Dec 18 2008
by Linda Romero
I guess it's my imagination. But I thought I just heard my grandmother's voice
ask: "Did you make your potica yet?"
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Wed Dec 10 2008
Every home cook has a recipe she thinks belongs in a cookbook. For me, it's my Polish family's holiday cookie, rogaliki. Rogaliki are brandy-spiked, nut-filled pastries topped with a light coating of sugar-dusted meringue. They're not as well-known as kolacky, but in my opinion they're far superior and better-suited for holiday cookie trays because they have a longer shelf life.
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— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Feature Fri Dec 05 2008
Sambar is a South Indian stew that is tricky to get used to making - especially when you're not measuring. You need to get the right feel for how toor dal, the critical ingredient, helps create just the right thin, chowdery consistency. I'd been following my South Indian friend Vidya's fabulous instructions and meticulous step-by-step photos, logging my trials in a previous post, but something still wasn't perfect.
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— Chris Brunn /
Feature Tue Nov 25 2008
Last Saturday, five days before the official Turkey Day, I hosted my first Thanksgiving dinner.
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— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Feature Thu Nov 20 2008
I called my mom in Minnesota earlier this week to say hello, and I could tell she was preoccupied - the banging dishes and "mmm-hmms" and "uh-huhs" gave her away immediately. I asked her what was going on, and she told me she was making rice hotdish for dinner that night - one of my most loved and hated meals.
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— Kaitlin Olson /
Feature Thu Nov 13 2008
At his time of year, many stomachs and many home cooks turn their attention to comfort food. This year, especially, as food budgets shrink and panic hovers near the hearth, comfort food is being called upon to bolster our defenses. Amid all the mac and cheeses, soups, brownies and meatloaves spilling from stoves and take-out containers, the meatball often gets overlooked, even though it's a well-versed staple of comfort.
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— Lori Barrett /
Feature Thu Nov 06 2008
What is a benchmark of a truly great kitchen gadget? Or of any great tool, really? There may be a number of benchmarks, but one of them might be the tool's ability to change the way you live.
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— Yu Kizawa /
Feature Fri Oct 31 2008
As I think about Tuesday's election, change is on my mind. Not the change to a new presidential administration, but more of an internal job.
I, uh, am trying to eat healthier.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Fri Oct 24 2008
Earlier this month, Alinea, a cookbook collecting more than 100 recipes from Chef Grant Achatz's phenomenal restaurant, made its debut. Weighing in at 6 pounds and more than 400 pages, the hardcover book features essays by Achatz, his partner Nick Kokonas, and food writers Michael Ruhlman, Jeffrey Steingarten, Mark McClusky and Michael Nagrant. It is illustrated with more than 600 photographs of the food and the kitchen by photographer Lara Kastner -- some of the most luscious foodporn you'll see in a long time.
I had the opportunity to interview Michael Nagrant about the book, how he got involved and what it was like writing about one of the country's top restaurants.
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— Andrew Huff /
Feature Thu Oct 16 2008
Every October, the Brewers Association puts on the Great American Beer Festival (GABF), where hundreds of brewers and thousands of people descend upon Denver for three days of celebrating beer. The culmination of this event is the awards for the best beers in 75 categories, as well as naming the breweries and brewers of the year.
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— Jill Jaracz /
Feature Fri Oct 10 2008
The Drive-Thru staff met recently to eat and socialize under the theme of a Bodega in a Box Party. The Neighbors Project created Bodega in a Box to highlight the benefits of shopping at bodegas and to benefit their Food and Liquor project, which encourages corner stores to stock more produce on its shelves.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Thu Oct 02 2008
I'm no saint, but I've done my fair share of volunteer work through the years. I've picked up trash at a national forest, helped build a house and a park, and set up for Chicago's Bike the Drive in unseasonably warm weather - all fun and rewarding in their own way. Coming from the former Girl Scout, Catholic school alum, nonprofit employee school of volunteer work, I was wholly unprepared for how awesome it would be to volunteer for Chicago Gourmet.
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— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Feature Sat Sep 27 2008
I'd fallen in love with India over her beautiful food, accepting her dusty and sour streets as they were. Last year, a friend put me up with her family in Bombay and showed my hungry stomach around the neighborhoods she used to stomp around in. Then weeks ago, I flew to Delhi to tag around with another friend on her South Indian family's vacation.
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— Chris Brunn /
Feature Thu Sep 18 2008
While the past few days have been undoubtedly lovely, a chill is creeping into the evening air, the late afternoon light is a little more burnished and waters down into darkness a little earlier every day, and the next wedding I have on my calendar to attend is in May of next year. Just as summer slips silently away into fall, another wedding season has come to a quiet end, but not without its share of trends and manias sure to influence next season's brides- and grooms-to-be.
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— Andie Thomalla /
Feature Sun Sep 14 2008
When I told the Drive-Thru editors last week that I wanted to take them up on their last-minute offer to interview Food Network celebrity chef Sandra Lee, creator of the Semi-Homemade television and cookbook empire, their response was instructive: "You're not going to shred her, are you?"
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— Mike Doyle /
Feature Thu Sep 04 2008
The smell of simmering tomatoes often triggers some of my earliest memories of my mother's father, who canned homemade marinara sauce in his basement.
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— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Feature Thu Aug 28 2008
Several years ago I took a train from Moscow to Beijing. The eight day ride made me fall in love with train travel, but not with the train food. The dining car served primarily cabbage and salted cod, which they stored under the dining car seats. I survived on vodka, pickles, salty mineral water and, thanks to the samovar on our car, tea and ramen.
My cousin was married in Portland, Oregon a few weeks ago. While the rest of the family bought their plane tickets, my boyfriend Nick and I decided to pay a bit extra and reserve a "roomette" on the Empire Builder Amtrak line. Any private room reservation on Amtrak includes local newspapers and coffee in the morning, bottled water, bed linens and towels, shower access, and breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I'd spent my fair share of time on Amtrak, visiting Nick at the University of Illinois and eating rubbery bagels and burnt coffee when the train would stop for hours. I wasn't sure what to expect from the dining car on this 46 hour trip.
We arrived at our cabin to find a small bottle of cheap champagne waiting for us. It was a nice touch, that would have been ever nicer had we actually left on time. Instead, we sat on the track in Union Station for over an hour. Amazingly, this was the one and only delay.
The first-class car attendant came by to take our dinner reservation shortly after we departed. At 6:30 we made our way through half a dozen train cars to find our seats. The dining car is made up entirely of booth seating and, as a result, we were seated with a different couple at each meal. Nick and I often find that our travel pursuits put us in the company of primarily middle-aged couples. This was no exception. We met some wonderful people, but we were the youngest pair in the cabin area by about 30 years.
The tables were set with Amtrak service-ware, menus, and a basket of rosemary rolls. I ordered the "Vegetarian Pasta Special" and Nick ordered the salmon. Each entree comes with a small side salad, which very obviously comes from a bag.
The pasta was a cheese tortellini covered in a creamy pesto sauce with vegetables. It tasted pretty good and the generous portion size was quite filling. Nick said the salmon was ok, but that he wouldn't order it again.
For dessert we had our choice of a chocolate torte, strawberry cheesecake or Häagen-Dazs ice cream. I ordered the ice cream, but snagged a taste of Nick's torte. It was good, but sickly sweet after more than a bite.
We watched the scenery pass until the sun set. The attendant took our breakfast reservation and assembled our bunk beds while I used the shower. I was very impressed to find that it had excellent water pressure and hot water.
We went to breakfast at 7:30. Nick ordered French toast and I ordered a Greek omelette with feta and spinach. The omelette was fairly bland and dry. I'd recommend the French toast.
The distance we had traveled over night was beginning to pull us out of the plains and into the beautiful pines and rolling hills of Montana. The train goes directly through Glacier National Park, stopping at East Glacier Lodge in the summer.
At lunch Nick ordered a hamburger and I ordered a Gardenburger. I was very disappointed to find that they were out. I ordered the only other vegetarian option instead, a Caesar salad, which ended up being a slightly larger version of the side salad they serve with dinner.
I left lunch slightly annoyed and quite hungry. As we settled into our cabin our attendant made the rounds to ask if we would like to attend a wine and cheese tasting when the lunch traffic ended. We agreed and I dove into the bag of stadium peanuts I had packed along.
The tasting is a nice event reserved for first class guests. We sampled four cheeses from Wisconsin and Minnesota and four wines from Oregon and Washington. We didn't sample anything to write home about, but it was all higher quality than I expected.
That evening at dinner I ordered the "Vegetarian Pasta Special" to find that it was the same meal as the night before. Nick ordered the "Flat Iron Steak" which received a better review than the salmon. We both left with ice cream for dessert.
During the night the train splits in Spokane, Washington. Half of the cars head to Portland and half head to Seattle, along with the dining car. We received a boxed breakfast that left a lot to be desired. After a gorgeous ride along the Columbia River Gorge we pulled into Portland ahead of schedule. Nick and I promptly headed to my favorite Portland bakery to find a real breakfast.
The train ride was beautiful, and overall I was impressed with the food. Though the days of luxurious train travel are largely gone, Amtrak still runs a nice service that I highly recommend. (Though, I will admit that our stomachs were a bit out of whack for the following days.)
— Gemma Petrie /
Feature Thu Aug 21 2008
I know a Michael Phelps fetish is sweeping the nation, but I haven't exactly caught the fever. Of course he's won more gold medals than any Olympian in history. I get it, I get it . . . but I don't get it, in my gut, if you know what I mean.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Thu Aug 14 2008
It should come as no surprise that some of the best beer in the country (and arguably in the world) can be found in Wisconsin and that some of the best beer in the Badger State can be procured just a few hours from Chicago.
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— Dana Currier /
Feature Thu Aug 07 2008
There's something sort of delightfully hometown-y about Dairy Queen. In my experience, DQ's tend to be side of the road affairs, usually a shed or shack with two windows (dine out and drive thru), maybe a picnic table or two, and an interior eating area only in the fanciest of locations. Dairy Queen seems to be one of the most charmingly minor of the franchises dotting the modern American eating landscape. Maybe A&W Root Beer takes the ice cream cake for ultimate franchise frumpiness, but only by a sprinkle or two.
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— Andie Thomalla /
Feature Fri Aug 01 2008
I fell in love with cold soup the year I moved to New York City. My husband—then my boyfriend—and I had a favorite cheap Italian restaurant in the East Village that served a cold strawberry soup, made with Champagne and served with basil leaves sprinkled on top.
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— Lori Barrett /
Feature Fri Jul 18 2008
People have been talking a lot about hot dogs lately, and with the declaration of tomorrow being "National Hot Dog Day" by Evanston tube steak aficionados Wiener and Still Champion ($1 hot dogs will be sold all day!), we thought we'd take a minute to give props to some of the great places that sell our friend in the poppy seed bun.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Thu Jul 10 2008
The tiny latina lady approached me with an incredulous grin on her face, whipping her headphones off. "Oh my God! I only thought Mexicans did that!"
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— Shylo Bisnett /
Feature Thu Jul 03 2008
With every leap in technology and taste that professional chefs make, there are always some fearless home chefs looking for ways to make the same moves in their smaller spaces on their limited budgets. And the ones with time and energy to spare will sometimes blog about it as well.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Fri Jun 27 2008
My husband and I have been on our honeymoon for nearly two weeks; with a little over a week to go, we are fat and happy.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Fri Jun 20 2008
This year's grilling season is now in full swing. These days, I often come home to find my apartment full of wood smoke wafting in from our neighbors' backyards. The wood smoke reminds me of my childhood summers in Japan when we occasionally hauled out a rickety ceramic grill to our mosquito-infested backyard.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Sat Jun 14 2008
New York City is a fun place for anyone who's a fan of vegan food and also has a decent eat-out budget. One list for options in the Lower East Side alone scrolls and scrolls. I'd flown in to spend some time with some friends, with the intention of trying to get as much food into one day as reasonably possible. By the end of a Saturday, I'd tasted from eight eating establishments, plus a street pretzel. I had a bagel from H&H three times, and thought about a meal at Candle Cafe hours afterwards. It's also an expensive city, and to keep accommodation costs to a minimum without imposing on any local friends, sleeping quarters were closet-like tiny (no exaggeration).
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Fri Jun 06 2008
Chicago has a lot of restaurant options. You can eat on the cheap, on the high end, or somewhere in the middle and still eat well. While some focus on the best new places to eat in Chicago, the Drive-Thru staff is talking this week about the new, the old and the closed—the places we’ve all heard someone say “You have to eat at ______” for several months or years before finally making our own trip or a place that gets revisited after a long hiatus, the places that are newly opened but not exorbitantly priced, and the places that have dearly departed a storefront, but not our hearts.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Thu May 22 2008
Now that warmer weather is en route, the wedding invitations start showing up in the mailbox. Summer weddings, autumn weddings, holiday weekend weddings, destination weddings--now begins the months of Saturdays filling up on your calendar as you commit to being with your friends as they take the marital plunge. Which also means that you gotta eat what you're given.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Thu May 15 2008
If you’re non-Orthodox – like me (unorthodox?) – Greek Easter always seems to just pop up out of nowhere. If it pops up for you at all. While the Western calendar follows the lunar cycles and spring equinox to determine where Easter will fall, the Eastern Orthodox churches tie Easter to the Hebrew calendar and Passover. My first experience with the concept, let alone practice, of Greek Easter (or, Pascha) was during study abroad in Athens four years ago.
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— Andie Thomalla /
Feature Thu May 08 2008
I arrived Austin with a few friends – one, once a local, as a guide – ready to take on a near continuous sampling of vegan-friendly restaurants.
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— Chris Brunn /
Feature Thu May 01 2008
When I arrived at Dark Lord Day 2007, the Three Floyds Brewery parking lot was filled with people clustered around picnic tables. New to Dark Lord Day, my companions and I had neglected to bring any beer to drink that morning.
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— Gemma Petrie /
Feature Fri Apr 25 2008
FIG Catering isn't trying to be the hippest caterer in Chicago. They're not into molecular gastronomy, they don't dig Rachel Ray and other Food Network "personalities," and they are not the ones to call on for a family-style mostaccioli dinner for your next family reunion.
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— Abbey Gillespie /
Feature Thu Apr 17 2008
April 15 is a four-letter word to many people as they see their year’s wages summarized in divisions and multiplications that may end in a check written to the government for what is owed them, or a small refund amount that could cover the cost of a high-end item on the menu at Olive Garden. Regardless of where you stand on the scale, Tax Day is tough on everyone, which leads us to how you’ll celebrate: cheaply. This week, Drive-Thru staffers compile their best recipes that need only a few low-cost ingredients. Dine on.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Fri Apr 11 2008
One of the major perks of living in a big city is 24-7-365 access to any type of food imaginable. Crave Korean barbecue at 4:30 a.m.? Pizza for breakfast (and not the same pie that sat on your coffee table all night)? Chilean sea bass after a night of debauchery? You want it, you got it.
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— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Feature Fri Apr 04 2008
With the weather getting gradually warmer, we need to remember the things we love about summer food, such as the desperate need for a butterscotch malt. In this week's Drive-Thru feature, we review a few recent additions to the city's ice cream scene in preparation for the months to come.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Thu Mar 27 2008
If Jacob Elster has his way, when you think of Uganda, you won't even dare think of Idi Amin. Instead, you'll conjure up the heady aroma of fresh-brewed coffee made from Arabica beans. Or, better yet, you'll think of your recent exchange with the farmer who grew your cup of joe.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Thu Mar 20 2008
It’s Good Friday, and I’m tethered to the computer at my office in the Loop, wishing I was 10 years old again. Back then, Easter Week was an enchanting confluence of religious mysticism and sacred food traditions, all swirling around the nucleus that was my Nana’s Formica-laden kitchen in Hammond, Indiana.
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— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Feature Fri Mar 14 2008
When Chicago Restaurant Week was announced earlier this year, I was ecstatic. A long list of local restaurants offered prix-fixe lunch and dinner menus at (comparatively) nominal prices, a move intended to attract some new diners into these places to see how the other half lives. The half that doesn’t bat an eyelash in the presence of upscale flower centerpieces and sommeliers. Several Drive-Thru staffers took advantage of the week’s festivities, and took a moment to write about their experiences.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Thu Mar 06 2008
Last fall I went to a dinner party hosted by a friend of my husband. I’ve been impressed by nearly every dinner party I’ve been to—it’s not easy to have a few dishes ready at the same time and to appear relaxed when serving them. But never before had I seen one person feed such a large group of people. This guy, this single guy, had appetizers ready when his guests, about 20 of them, arrived. He also had two entrees and dessert ready. As I was leaving, I told the host, Tom, that I loved to cook for friends, but I didn’t think I could ever cook for such a big party. “Of course you can,” he said. “I’ll help you. Let’s do it in February.”
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— Lori Barrett /
Feature Fri Feb 29 2008
It was around 2:30 p.m. in Lake Tahoe and I was hungry. I'd been up since 4:15 a.m. in Chicago, where it was now 4:30 p.m., and only eaten a peanut butter and jelly with tomato from the Potbelly's at Midway Airport, plus maybe some peanuts on the plane. (This reminds me of the hard time I had ordering peanut butter and jelly with lettuce and tomato at a different Potbelly's another time, when someone kept asking me if I was sure that's what I wanted. Yes, it's an odd combination, especially with the lettuce, but I assure you that the tomato contributes a friendly juiciness.)
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Fri Feb 22 2008
Three years ago I moved to "Little India," the neighborhood along Devon Avenue extending from Damen to California. Almost all of the restaurants and grocery stores along this strip are Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Afghani, etc. It's been wonderful, but its also been intimidating. All those menu items, all the vague and short translations, all the potential that I'd never remember the name of things I really liked.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Fri Feb 15 2008
Valentine's Day gives us all a solid opportunity to take on a box of chocolates. As we gear up for Thanksgiving, we mentally assemble a plate of turkey. But when is a good time to eat gumdrops? Empanadas? Surf and turf? National food holidays, as silly as they seem, serve as an eating schedule of sorts, and can settle the problem of having too many options for dinner. Let's review the upcoming week of food holidays to get some variety in our eating, and take some trips to places in the city to stay on target.
February 16: National Almond Day
What better way to celebrate this low-calorie protein source by throwing it into a dessert? Marche's Gateau cerise aux amandes is a delish sour cherry almond cake with Balaton cherries and cinnamon stick ice cream.
February 17: National Indian Pudding Day
Those of us who flock to the restaurants on Devon Avenue may think their rosewater- and cardamom-infused rice pudding is Indian Pudding, but we would be very wrong. Indian Pudding is a mushy custard made with molasses, spices, and cornmeal (aka "indian meal"). You could make it on your own; however, Crofton on Wells also makes a sleek, modern version of the dessert (Chicago Bites reviewed it as part of a recent visit).
February 18: National Drink Wine Day
I'm sure to a lot of people this holiday is EVERY day. GB contributor Sean Ludford of BevX is the place to go for this resource. Read some of their newest wine reviews to get some suggestions to celebrate.
February 19: National Chocolate Mint Day
Hello, Frangos! I defer to fellow GB Staffer Bobbi Bowers on this one, as she recently reviewed the Frango Cookbook: Simple Recipes and Sweet Ideas, which features such decadent sweets like the Flourless Frango Chocolate Cake. Yum-o!
February 20: National Margarita Day
This is where I get foggy. The last time I drank a margarita was in college at a sports bar called the Pitchers Mound which was located in a strip mall next to a Shopko. Eh, I miss Shopko. Anyway, I turned to Citysearch's Best Margaritas in Chicago list from last year, which hails Old Town's Salpicon as the city's best margarita makers.
February 21: National Sticky Bun Day
I usually stay away from vegan bakeries (I'm more of a Dolly Madison person if you get what I mean), but Bleeding Heart Bakery's pecan sticky bun is out of this world. Go see them at their Damen and Belmont location.
February 22: National Cherry Pie Day
Today is George Washington's 276th birthday, and even though there is no evidence that he chopped down a cherry tree and "could not tell a lie" when asked if he was the culprit, the cherry is symbolic of the country's first president. I know that I cannot tell a lie when it comes to brunch food: I get the savory, eggs and bacony meal but I always want the sweet dish on the menu. This weekend I will be living free (like George wanted!) and celebrating this holiday early by ordering Lula Cafe's vanilla custard stuffed brioche french toast with chocolate, goat's milk creme fraiche, and dried cherry chutney. I will then struggle home to watch old episodes of Arrested Development. Ah, the weekend.
February 23: National Banana Bread Day
I'm a big fan of banana bread, as it is a great way to use dying bananas and seems like a healthy alternative to the sweets I normally want to eat. While I am very happy with my mother's amazing recipe that can move mountains and possibly create peace in the Middle East, I highly recommend the moist, sweet banana bread at Logan Square/Avondale's Golden Rise Bakery, which is a tasty (and much-needed) addition to the neighborhood.
— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Fri Feb 08 2008
We can hardly believe it. Drive Thru turned 1 this week!
We've taken some time to look back at what we've blogged about in the past year and have come up with a condensed list of our favorite news, recipes, ideas, rants, and general observations. Consider this the birthday edition of "Mmm, Midweek Links."
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— Meghan Murphy Gill /
Feature Fri Feb 01 2008
Article by Chris Brunn.
Good restaurants should be able to take care of you. Even us vegans. Some chefs have told me that they enjoy a challenge. If you have dietary restrictions, you shouldn't have to limit yourself to places that cater specifically to you. In other words, vegans shouldn't be stuck going to just the places that call out items as "vegan" on their menus. With sufficient notice &mdash sometimes a day, other times a week &mdash upscale spots should be able to make something really special.
Friends and I were searching a restaurant for a special dinner for my sweetie's birthday. Our criteria: upscale and elegant with great service, ten minutes by taxi cab to Redmoon (1463 W. Hubbard) for a show after dinner, availability for ten at 6 p.m. on a Friday night ten days out and more than willing to serve at least two of us an all vegan dinner and everyone else all vegetarian without egg.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Fri Jan 25 2008
Eating is one of the top highlights if not the best thing about traveling. Any opportunity to take a plunge into the unknown is thrilling and exciting, even if what you experience doesn't match what you're comfortable with. Sometimes it's just good to get away and do everything you'd do at home somewhere else.
I recently took a day trip to Milwaukee and condensed a food tour of the city into fewer than 12 hours. My friends pointed out that we were like Hobbits, enjoying second breakfasts and third lunches in order to get it all in. We opted not to stay overnight and spread out our tour because this was more of an adventure, to see how much we could see and eat in one day. That the city is a mere 1 1/2 hour drive only helped our case. It's a cheap and fun way to spend a day and you don't end up losing your entire weekend by being out of town.
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— Meghan Murphy Gill /
Feature Fri Jan 18 2008
Browsing through the Broadway Antique Market this fall, I came across a thick book with a green cover. Embossed on the cover, it said, "The Chicago Daily News Cook Book" in gray art deco-ish letters. The 363-page (including index) book cost $1.00 when it was published in 1930. It was marked $8 in pencil on the endpaper. I knew I had to have it.
Edited by Edith G Shuck, home economics expert for the Daily News, and Dr. Herman N. Bundesen, Cook County coroner and health editor for the Daily News, the book claims to be "a practical guide on hot to balance a diet, meet a budget and prepare a tasty meal for the average urban family."
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— Andrew Huff /
Feature Fri Jan 11 2008
Developing a taste for the range of delicacies Chicago restaurants have to offer can take a long time, especially if your roots are in plain turkey sandwiches and chocolate Yoo-Hoo. Drive-Thru editors Meghan Murphy Gill and Robyn Nisi reflect on the culinary milestones that tried their palates.
Chicago turned me into a picky eater.
Ever since I transplanted myself out of a small college town in Virginia, my once up-for-anything palate has taken on a personality of its own. While it didn't morph from easy going to total snob it has become downright discerning, to a point that an impromptu Friday night out can easily transpire into a back and forth discussion, in which my talking points dominate, about what and where to eat.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Fri Jan 04 2008
Article by Chris Brunn.
Big cities like Chicago and San Francisco come to mind when I think of eating out vegan style. Small progressive cities are good, too. Take Asheville, North Carolina: number one in PETA's list of America's Best Vegetarian-Friendly Small Cities. In Logan, Utah, I didn't expect much beyond our own vegan family cooking. Maybe there would be accidentally vegan fare like hash browns and grits at diners, burritos at Mexican spots, pasta, and the occasional Indian restaurant offerings.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Fri Dec 28 2007
Making end-of-the-year lists of superlatives is my one of my favorite things to do in December. I love looking back at the past three hundred and sixty-five days and listing my favorite TV, food, music and movies because it forces me to recall a year's worth of memories. For example, the songs that made my best of lists in 2006 were picked largely because of the way they sounded when I was driving through Wisconsin over Labor Day weekend with my husband and pal, Angela, or of how they could fill the dance floor at my wedding or how they made me feel when I had the apartment to myself for the weekend.
I'm known around my house for always commenting, "X doesn't exist in a vacuum, you know," and I definitely think it applies when recalling your favorite meal of the year. Don't agree? Just read how so many of the Drive Thru staff's favorite meals occurred thousands and thousands of miles from Chicago, some across oceans, others across the country. How can you not be haunted by fresh fish in Barcelona or "Auntie's" upma in India? And those of us who did enjoy our favorite meal right here in town share recollections of simplicity or special details. An amazing meal doesn't exist in a vacuum, you know? What makes it a favorite is usually all the surrounds it, the experience of it.
With that in mind, the staff of Drive Thru shares our superlatives of 2007.
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— Meghan Murphy Gill /
Feature Fri Dec 21 2007
If you haven't bought your holiday gifts yet, you may think that now is the time to head to the nearest chain store and pick up a unremarkable gift card for your special someones. But if that someone likes to cook (or think about cooking), you can give them the gift that keeps giving: a cookbook. Even with the billions of recipes that you can find online (often for free), cookbooks still are important to developing skills and knowledge. When I crack open a cookbook and look at a recipe whose page is streaked with ingredients from past meals, it's a neat time capsule; the recipe doesn't change, but your ability to make it does. Food is ultimately timeless; the red sauce recipe that my thick-ankled grandmother brought over from Sicily in 1916 is the same recipe that I struggle to reproduce a few times a year; the notes I made in my notebook about how to handle the pork neck bones needed to make the sauce meatier are almost laughable ("Note to self: where can I find pork neck bones?") and a great chronicle of how I've improved (or deteriorated).. Cookbooks are a wonderful gift and resource for the cooks in your life. The Drive Thru staff took a moment this week to review some new titles, as well as older favorites in their collection.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Fri Dec 14 2007
If you ask me, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a batch of gingerbread or sugar cookies and a sticky mess of frosting. This kind of cookie is far from being the best-tasting treat you’ll eat this holiday season; in fact, making these cookies is much more about the experience of decorating than about taste.
And while it’s perfectly acceptable to let your creative side run wild - channeling Jackson Pollock or Monet is encouraged – it’s also fun to pick a theme and impose some discipline on your decoration.
So what better theme than our fair city? This year, I decided to attempt cookies modeled after Chicago landmarks and team logos, and here’s what I came up with.
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— Dana Currier /
Feature Thu Dec 06 2007
It all started innocently enough when Katherine, my office buddy, suggested we organize a holiday cookie contest for staff. Early on, a cooperative vibe prevailed. Lunchtime conversations revolved around warm and fuzzy holiday baking memories, and we even flirted once or twice with the notion of submitting a joint cookie, a symbol of our shared belief in the power of the baked good to bring joy to our harried comrades.
Our coworkers’ wild enthusiasm for the contest buoyed our spirits in those early days, the days when cookies were cookies and coworkers friends.
Things began to unravel as we established the rules of the game.
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— Mandy Burrell Booth /
Feature Fri Nov 30 2007
There is something special about December. Gap and Old Navy ads would have you believe that it's their striped and fair isle sweaters, but I tend to think that it has to do with all the gatherings and get-togethers concentrated into one month. Seeing so many friends and family members in such a short amount of time leaves me feeling exhausted, but exhilarated. And then there's the food. The combination of the two, and it's no wonder most of us emerge on the other side, in January, about five pounds merrier.
Some people complain that the holidays are stressful. For me, it's the obligatory gift-giving and the gift-getting. Financial beatings aside, its the sheer amount of stuff that ends up in my possession (and others') that gets me frantic, especially knowing that in a year's time, we'll just be adding to the pile. Hosting a gathering for friends or family, however, is one way to avoid all that. Plus, getting creative with a centerpiece and a menu is way more fun than being subjected to lame Christmas music performed by even lamer bands while you stand in a long line waiting to purchase a gift card so your office BFF can go back and pick out a striped turtleneck sweater.
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— Meghan Murphy Gill
Feature Fri Nov 23 2007
It’s the day after Thanksgiving. Your food coma is in full-force and you’re still rockin’ the sweatpants that you changed into at about 5 o’clock the night before. The last thing you want to think about is cooking—didn’t you just do enough of that? Admittedly, you did enough eating too, but there’s always room for leftovers.
First, let’s discuss how to get the most life out of your leftovers. It all starts with proper storage. Here are a few tips from the editors of Bon Appétit:
- Refrigerate all leftovers as soon as possible.
- Be sure to spoon the stuffing out of the bird right away and refrigerate immediately.
- Pull the turkey meat off the carcass before you refrigerate it.
- Cover the turkey tightly so that it stays as moist as possible.
If stored properly, turkey, stuffing and gravy will last about three days. Cranberry sauce and other acidic foods will keep for about a week.
Three days worth of turkey is a lot of turkey, but your post-Thanksgiving meals don’t have to consist of everything smashed together between two pieces of bread (although, I realize this is a popular option—even Cosi has its own version). A little work and creativity can produce dish that could be (dare I say it) even more delicious than the original.
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— Bobbi Bowers /
Feature Fri Nov 16 2007
The holiday season is approaching, which means that you're going to be at a party or holiday celebration staring at food. A lot of food. You will be expected to make hard choices between what you want to eat and what you should eat. The holidays are often a time for letting go and having that extra helping, but if you're surrounded by vegan dishes, you'll likely eat good-tasting food that won't require use of a defibrillator afterwards. Chris Brunn, our resident vegan chef, weighs in on how to innovate gourmet holiday recipes.
Reading the November 2007 issue of Bon Appetit, which includes a slew of Thanksgiving recipes, I thought of ways to renovate the dishes that require dairy or meat. If you skip the turkey in the first chapter, "Turkey and Gravy," the guide is quite vegan-friendly. I see a recipe like Three-Mushroom Dressing with(out) Prosciutto (Chapter 2, Stuffings), and think, "Mushrooms, tasty." I'd follow the recipe, just omitting the meat, eggs and changing the butter for margarine (non-hydrogenated of course) or a good olive oil. I don't see how I could go wrong with rosemary, white wine, sautéed onions and three types of mushrooms. The wild rice and roasted grapes and walnuts recipe is vegetarian straight away (at least after changing to vegetable stock). Again, substitute out the butter for vegan.
In Chapter 3, Cranberry Sauce, all four recipes are vegan by default. In Chapter 4, Potatoes, take out dairy and you'll be laughing through five recipes: a bourbon-walnut sweet potato mash, red potatoes with ancho chiles, a wasabi mash, a hash of sweet potatoes, and a recipe for roasted fingerlings. Vegetables, in Chapter 5, are an obvious score, from Brussels sprouts with caramelized shallots to smashed rutabagas with ginger-roasted pears, green beans and almonds to parsnips with carrots and rosemary to roasted fennel.
If you're still with me on the vegan tip, skip over to the November/DecemberVegetarian Times for cranberry-cherry lattice pie and upside-down apple-cinnamon pie (both vegan). They have Thanksgiving meal plans, too, and a short feature on sage with a mention of flash-frying sage leaves for a "potato chip-like garnish." Crispy sage leaves sound fun.
If you're wondering how you'd go without meat on Thanksgiving, or at least how my family is going to do it, Chicago Diner has posted the tofu roulade recipe that I've been cooking for the last few years and it's brilliant. When the roulade is rolled up inside plastic wrap, just before baking, I love to twirl the ends of the plastic around and around to smooth any edges (or more honestly, primarily to amuse myself).
— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Fri Nov 09 2007
I was gone 18 years.
Now I'm back and know how to get "there" but don't always know what's "there" when I do. Fascinating.
Quite a detour. The city is as different as I am. I've returned home and see things in a different way. When you leave for a while and come back many years later, you view and appreciate things differently.
Wisdom? Maybe.
I'm glad to be here instead of yearning to leave. There's an energy that I feel here today as opposed to back in the day. It's palpable to me. Some of the streets vibrate with it... like Michigan and Wacker. I have a Mary Tyler Moment every time I walk over the river going north. That view down West Wacker and the river and up Michigan Ave. If I wore a hat, I'd not be able to resist tossing it in the air as I whirled dervishly around.
That view is special to me, Mr. Grant. It makes me happy to have some association with it and I swell with pride and do a little dance each time I'm there. Or behind the Planetarium looking back at the City. Or Diversey Harbor looking towards downtown. Big smiles.
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— Alan Lake /
Feature Fri Nov 02 2007
The day after Halloween is always grim. The streets in my neighborhood are littered with the remnants of the foot traffic from the night before, with chocolate bar wrappers and forgotten parts of costumes dotting the sidewalks and lawns. Partially blackened and molding carved pumpkins sit on doorsteps, their one-night job done.
The worst part of this day, however, is figuring out how to use up leftover candy. Even the most seasoned sweet tooth can’t take eating four pounds of the stuff before it becomes a gooey, dusty mess sitting on a pantry shelf. Here’s where the Drive-Thru staff comes in: several of us have contributed recipes for transforming your candy into dessert greatness.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Fri Oct 26 2007
As the weather becomes colder, my thoughts turn to apples. Whether baked into a sweet pastry, slathered in peanut butter, or paired with a hunk of cheese, apples are a versatile, healthy fruit that is emblematic of the season. Fall is also the time to make the Mecca-like trip to an orchard to pick, buy and taste apples in their natural habitat.
My favorite place is Edwards Apple Orchard, located in Poplar Grove, a small town east of Rockford. Edwards is a picturesque, sprawling property located in an area dotted with farms and endless county roads. A country store sells a large variety of picked, packaged apples and cider from the Edwards orchards. If you are an apple connisseur, I highly recommend the Jonagold, which makes a wonderful applesauce when your one-person apple-eating contest goes awry and you're racing to use up your supply. A separate candy kitchen manned by a gaggle of local teenagers makes fudge. The store also sells a range of jams, honey, ornaments, candles and preserved beef (no lie). The place also smells like fir trees and cloves.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Tue Oct 16 2007
The word "artisanal" is rapidly replacing "organic," which suddenly seems so... twentieth century. Unlike the term "organic," federal regulations do not govern the use of "artisanal," though most definitions refer to "hand-made" and "small-batch," which would apply to most of the food our grandparents ate.
At Chicago's Green City Market, I talked to artisanal cheese-makers and -mongers who satisfy consumers eager for the honest flavors and pleasures of traditional cheese.
Many American artisanal cheesemakers started into operation just a few years ago. Leslie Cooperband and Wes Jarrell opened Prairie Fruits Farm outside Champaign, Illinois in 2005. Though new to the business, their old-style artisanal cheesemaking techniques recall a much earlier era, a time well before large-scale computerized cheesemaking and quick service restaurants.
Cooperband explains that "Historically, there have been numerous small cheese plants dotting the landscape in the US. Even here in Illinois, there used to be a lot more small dairies and small cheese plants."
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— David Hammond /
Feature Wed Oct 10 2007
The origin of the sandwich is mysterious. The oft told legend is that the name came from the Earl of Sandwich (John Montegue) who asked to be brought a piece of meat between two pieces of bread while he was playing poker He didn’t want his hands to become soiled, as he was holding cards. Whether this is true or not, we do know that the Earl did not invent the sandwich. The earliest form of a sandwich (though not by that name) was mentioned by Hillel the Elder in the first century B.C.E. As the story goes, he placed charoset between two pieces of matzo, a practice which would become a Seder custom at Passover.
Despite elusive beginnings, sandwiches can can be found in every culture. Each has its own version of some kind of filling eaten inside some kind of bread. The sandwich is multi-cultural and the varieties are endless. From hamburgers to reubens to veggie gyros, we here at Drive-Thru love all kinds of sandwiches. This week a few of us thought we’d share some of our thoughts on sandwiches, including where to find the best ones and how to make our favorites at home.
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— Meghan Murphy Gill /
Feature Mon Sep 24 2007
Chicago. The Windy City, The City of Big Shoulders, or The City That Works; these are just a few of the common Chicago monikers. Chicago is a city of icons; some made of stone or steel while many more are made of flesh and blood. It’s a city of heart, soul, and above all - passion. You can hear and feel passion in the legendary Blues Clubs or in the fans that pack Wrigley Field each and every game-day to support a team that perennially disappoints cursed by fate, a goat, or an infamous black-shirted and walkman-wearing man known simply as, Bartman. Above all, Chicagoans are passionate about community. In Chicago, community is self evident and best understood in the city’s ten thousand-plus restaurants and bars. In each of these establishments from big to small, renowned to unknown, Chicagoans can often be found sipping, swirling, and shooting an unctuous amber Spirit known as Whisky.
A near perfect storm of circumstance has conspired to make Whisky part of the fabric of the Chicago scene. A city of immigrants, Chicago saw its first Irish community in 1837. Many of the Irish had come to work on the Illinois and Michigan Canal and by 1844 they comprised 10 percent of the city's 7,580 residents. Separated from their homeland, the Irish in Chicago remained connected to their elixir of choice: uisce beathe, Gaelic for water of life – Whiskey. Add to this the fact that Chicago enjoys four seasons, and often to extremes. Just as tropical breezes and warm sand inspires slushy Rum drinks; cold and blustery evenings demand Whisky. Further, you must wrap history and climate in the communal attitude. Chicago has always been a no nonsense city largely unimpressed by trends. Time spent in Chicago instructs on the differences between being cosmopolitan and being hip; which is embracing sophistication whilst rebuffing its contemporary trappings. No beverage embodies this ethos as perfectly and timelessly as does Whisk(e)y.
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— Sean Ludford /
Feature Fri Sep 07 2007
Taste of Melrose Park – a year younger than Taste of Chicago – is smaller than its big city cousin, but size is only one difference. At Taste of Melrose, 74 of 76 vendors are not restaurant owners but simply neighborhood families who come together every Labor Day weekend, drawing upon homegrown recipes to sustain and celebrate the shared heritage of what was a predominantly Italian-American enclave.
At this fest, everything is two bucks, which means you can taste a lot for a little. There’s something besides food going on here, though: there’s the vibrant collective memory of the local community, reinforced by rituals like the yearly reenactment of a Rat Pack performance. Joe Rosa, who sells some of the best tiramisu you’ll ever have, remembers when Sinatra and his crew would come to Slicker Sam’s, his dad’s old restaurant a few blocks away.
So I had to ask, “What did Sinatra order?”
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— David Hammond /
Feature Wed Aug 22 2007
My feet hurt.
Even with the best sole-supporting footware, in this case Klogs (their spelling), and specially fitted insoles that were a gift from a thoughtful friend... my dogs are barking.
After working at the Sherbourne in Dublin nearly nonstop for the last couple weeks, I have a bit of R&R coming and have chosen to spend it in Barcelona checking out two things: tapas and Gaudi. I've been interested in both for years.
Most cultures have a version of tapas: dim sum and panchan. Chef's degustation or tasting menus. Small plates and mezze. Antipasto or kiyaseki. It's a way of eating I embrace entirely.
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— Alan Lake /
Feature Wed Aug 08 2007
Kenosha, Wisconsin seems like the last place on earth you'd find amazing cannoli. Or prosciutto. Or a good bottle of Valpolicella. But nestled in this city, 50 miles North of Chicago on the state border, is Tenuta's Deli, an impressive Italian food and wine store that rivals (and exceeds) stores of its kind in far larger cities.
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— Robyn Nisi /
Feature Thu Aug 02 2007
What’s up with those Activia commercials that claim yogurt can make you “regular”?
I got an email from a friend of mine who had seen the Activia commercials about bowel regularity and was wondering what kind of crazy story Dannon was trying to sell. “How does that Activia keep you ‘moving’ without fiber?” Well, I responded, “Dannon includes a special strain of live bacteria that promotes bowel movements by decreasing intestinal transit time.” When my friend was more disgusted by the thought of something alive in her food than my explanation, I knew I had to write something about probiotics. Although the product is new people have been consuming probiotics for centuries.
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— Holly Maloney /
Feature Thu Jul 26 2007
[Note: a version of this story can be heard on Chicago Public Radio's 848, 91.5 FM, July 27, 2007]
Jainism is one of the world’s oldest and smallest religions. Though it started about the same time as Buddhism, there are in India only 4 million or so practitioners of this peaceful, militantly vegetarian faith.
Last Saturday, the Culinary Historians of Chicago sponsored a Jain lunch at Village Hut in Glendale Heights. I pulled up a chair.
Around the table, people were eating crepe-like rolls of griddled chick pea flour called “khandvi,” remarkably tender and subtly flavored, each sheet delicately separating on the tongue and satisfying with simple textures. Another favorite was the walnut “halwa,” a rich mixture of ground nuts, oil, and brown sugar, one of several sweet dishes, accompanied by green and red sauces packing some serious heat.
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— David Hammond /
Feature Tue Jul 10 2007
This week's feature is the first in series of a collaboration between Chicago Public Radio's Eight Forty-Eight and Gapers Block to bring readers and listeners stories about food. You can listen to the 848 piece on the Veggie Bike and Dine here or by listening to 91.5 on Thursday, July 12 from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. or from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
While you're vegging out on your couch this Saturday, 50 bicyclists will be literally vegging out on meatless foods at the fourth annual Veggie Bike and Dine. If you're not lucky enough to be participating this year, don't fret. Ironically enough, Drive-Thru has the inside scoop on just where to find vegan and vegetarian fare while biking through Historic Pullman.
Our very own Drive-Thru contributor and co-founder of the Veggie Bike and Dine, Chris Brunn, and accomplice Arline Welty of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation are both kind of the Sherlock Holmes of vegan food finding. They act on "hot tips" and clues that lead them to unlikely locations such as Pit-Stop BBQ at 65 W. 103rd St. Pit-Stop is a car-themed spot featuring a giant hog outside who raps about meat. "The meat is so tender you don't need teeth," the hog proclaims.
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— Meghan Murphy Gill /
Feature Thu Jul 05 2007
Taste of Chicago is an event I've avoided for years (paying four bucks for a slab of pizza to be eaten in the hot sun in a crowd of hundreds of thousands... why?). That said, it is possible to find some good chow there (I'll make some recs at the close), but I think where the Taste generally stumbles is by featuring mainstream places that don't require much imagination to find on your own. I mean, you need to go downtown to the Taste to eat Lou Malnati's?
Right now, I'll cover some food items that are all available in Chicago and do, I think, challenge the imagination. All involve some conceptual hurdles that make them unsuitable for the Taste — that's why I'm calling this listing the Alternative Taste of Chicago.
These foods are unlikely to be found on the dinner tables of Gapers Block readers, but they're eaten — and eaten with gusto — particularly in some of Chicago's ethnic communities, where there has been a traditional tendency to eat head-to-tail, the whole animal.
So let's start simple, with the head.
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— David Hammond /
Feature Wed Jun 27 2007
(Read part 1.)
Friday the 13th gets off to an ominous start.
Service begins badly enough and deteriorates throughout the day and into the night. One man short on the hot line and the person enlisted to cover it moves like a snail with an attitude. He's a bit pissed off because he's worked five doubles in a row, was supposed to be off but was pressed into duty instead and doesn't want to be here. He's the one that likes to remind me what city we're in, or not in.
"Dublin, mate, not Chicago."
"As if I need reminding, mate. "
The raw bar isn't set up and there's already people sitting there ordering. In an open exhibition kitchen there's no hiding anything. Every itch scratched, every epitaph hurled, every sweat bead wiped is in plain view of all to see or hear.
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— Alan Lake /
Feature Mon Jun 18 2007
A week ago, in the start of the month-long strawberry season, I set out with two friends, Rose and Meleah, on a very short road trip to pick some. Later, I came home with some 17 pounds and made a tart with 7 cups of them. I took the almond tart shell from The Millennium Cookbook, from the famed fine dining and all-vegan restaurant in San Francisco, rewriting the recipe in my own words below. The book's suggested filling, red wine and pear cream, provided some inspiration for my strawberry cream filling. I attribute the key to Meleah, who showed me by pancake-example how lovely balsamic vinegar enhances strawberries when cooked together for a sauce. Freshly sliced strawberries and shavings from a bar of extra dark chocolate finish the tart.
Continue reading this entry »
— Chris Brunn /
Feature Wed Jun 13 2007
I arrived in Dublin and took a shuttle into the city to the Shelbourne, my home for the next month. The hotel just completed a 250-million-Euro remodel (a third of a billion American dollars) over the last two years and had reopened less than two weeks prior to my arrival. A private Irish consortium purchased it from the Bank of Scotland as a faded, aging dowager with the intention of refurbishing it to its former splendor.
Since these are investors with little or no experience of running a Five Star Grand Hotel, a condition of the sale was that they needed to bring in a management group to oversee day-to-day operations.
For 20 years.
Marriott got the contract and they in turn subcontracted the food services to Myriad Restaurant Group out of New York. Myriad, which was created by renowned restaurateur Drew Nierporent, owns Nobu, Tribeca Grill, Rubicon, Montrachet and numerous other restaurants of note. In addition to running their own restaurants, Myriad offers "a full menu of hospitality services on a consulting basis," and Drew had asked my buddy John Mooney to take over the Shelbourne Hotel as his next executive chef assignment.
John is a former Chicagoan I'd met in India at the Taj Hotel Land's End Mumbai (another Myriad client) where he was executive chef for Michel Nischan's restaurant, Pure. When he asked me if I'd be interested in being part of a "task force" for the reopening, I jumped at the chance. Over 30 specialists from all areas of hotel and restaurant operations were brought in from all over the world to help.
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— Alan Lake /
Feature Wed May 30 2007
As I watched "Chicago Tonight" on Tuesday evening, I was humbled to be featured on a program that hosted a panel of experts who intelligently discussed gambling in Illinois, the author of a probing and important book about public defenders, and me, a guy who eats bugs.
I've been rather gratified by the copious interest in cicadas — and my interest in cooking and eating them.
It all started when I posted on Yelp.com about how I planned to cook up cicadas; a few weeks later, I got a call from Tara Burghart, a journalist who had read the post. This started things rolling with an AP story that ran in many regional papers, as well as on Comcast, MSNBC and Yahoo.
Then I got an email from Barbara Pinto — an ABC on-camera journalist — about appearing with Marilyn Pocius on "Good Morning, America." This was a riot — it was fun talking on-camera about the taste of bugs, and this was my very first sampling of the creatures. I had never had them before that evening; up until then, it was all conceptual. Like many that night, I was surprised how good, or, let's say "non-yucky" they were.
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— David Hammond /
Feature Tue May 22 2007
The word "cocktail" first appeared in print in 1806. In 1862 Jerry Thomas published the first book on mixing drinks. I have yet to find a recipe in it calling for vodka. The Savoy Cocktail Book, written by Harry Craddock, a New York bartender who fled to London during Prohibition, includes very little in the way of vodka recipes. Vodka's ubiquity in this country didn't come until much later. It enjoyed wider growth in Europe in the first half of the last century. Pablo Picasso named it one of the three great discoveries of the 20th Century, along with the Blues and Cubism. (Say what you will about the arrogance of including the latter.) But vodka didn't really even begin to gain an American following until the 1950s, and it wasn't until the 1970s that vodka outsold bourbon to become the top selling spirit.
As with country music, the '70s marked the sharp, sudden decline in the cocktail. Elegance and class virtually disappeared, being as they were overrun by saccharine and soulessness. I blame Alabama. (The band, not the state. And even then it wasn't really their fault. The brimstone was in the air. Alabama just came galloping on their four horses taking advantage of the situation.)
Vodka, by its very definition, is supposed to be tasteless, colorless and odorless. (This is why the market is flooded with flavored vodkas. How many different ways can one possibly sell nothing?) Vodka is by its very definition boring and innocuous, making it extremely mixable. It adds little to a cocktail beyond a buzz. Vodka is the mixological equivalent of plain chicken breast. (The Cosmo is, by far, the worst offender. No matter how well made it is, that drink is, frankly, pretty fucking boring. There. I said it.)
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— Tim Lacey /
Feature Fri May 18 2007
My life seems to be one long menu or song.
Wherever I go, whatever I do, it's nearly always food or music related. It's been that way since I was a child and continues through today; both are my careers. Depending on when you meet me, I'm either a player who cooks, or a chef who plays.
Some people eat to live. I live to eat.
Growing up in Chicago on a street in a neighborhood like mine, the smells and sounds wafting from the windows would seduce me. I tried and loved nearly everything offered and later on when I couldn't get it or afford it, I made it myself. I'm fascinated by other cultures and often incorporate things I find in them into my own life.
I've never been impressed by the things I can do, it's the things I can't do that get my respect and attention.
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— Alan Lake /
Feature Tue Apr 17 2007
This week there was a big change in the cafeteria at Louisa May Alcott public school in Lincoln Park. The chicken nuggets, syrupy fruit cups and peanut butter and jelly on wafer crackers were set aside, and in their place is a new menu from the Organic Schools Project.
Alcott is the first Chicago public school to have the program in its lunchroom, though there are two other schools also participating, Hammond Elementary and McCorkle. David Domovic, Alcott’s principal, said he read an article about Greg Christian, the OSP's founder, in a South Loop newspaper a few years ago, and "I couldn’t get to the phone fast enough," Domovic said. Christian, a local chef with his own catering company, became interested in organic food after he saw how a change in diet helped stave off his daughter’s chronic asthma attacks. He now wants to help other families understand and become more connected to the food they eat.
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— Lori Barrett /
Feature Tue Apr 10 2007
We wound up with a bottle of it at home rather accidentally. It, along with a few other things, were bought as a gift for someone. Come gift giving day, the entire package was too heavy to lug downtown on a rush hour train. The bottle was sacrificed. Really, the decision to leave this bottle behind wasn’t a difficult one, and the decision was made before we were aware it was made.
We finally opened it a week later when we had an unforeseen evening together and made gimlets. I had told her about the killer gimlets this gin makes.
“This is good. It’s really good. And it’s the gin that does it,” she said, adding for my ego, “But, good for you for figuring it out.”
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— Tim Lacey /
Feature Fri Mar 30 2007
For both Jews and Christians, it's a big week for a big meal. Whether you're hiding the afikomen or stashing plastic eggs, we've got plenty of ideas for Chicago folk to dine out or in on the holiday.
If you must dine out for one of these holidays, get on the stick and make reservations now. Easter Sunday brunches are booked up notoriously early. Your Mother in Law spent three days shopping for a new hat and if she doesn't get to wear it, it will be all your fault.
This one is available on eBay if you'd like a bonnet for yourself.
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— Christine Blumer /
Feature Thu Mar 29 2007
I had the good fortune to work at "Izakaya Hiwatta" in Ichinomiya, Japan. That would be a traditional eating and drinking establishment, similar to what we would call a pub.
It was owned by Jiro and Akemi Iwata, old friends of mine.
Many years ago, shortly after they'd arrived in America, I had taken them under my wing. They worked at my local sushi bar in Chicago. He as a sushi chef, and she as a waitron unit. As our friendship developed and we began to know each other, I basically taught America 101 to my willing students. They returned the favor tenfold. Early on JIro told me in fairly broken English the reason for our friendship was that "many people hear me, but very few listen."
I evidently had a golden ear.
Chicago. 1980-86. Trips to the deli to lecture them on which meats may never touch mayonnaise. My new friends truly were aliens and I was trying to prevent a sacrilege upon corned beef or pastrami. How to not wait in line at hip nightclubs, and once in, how to not buy drinks. How to buy a car... a Toyota Camry, but of course. And insurance. Cool music or neighborhoods or stores to check out. What Doctors or Vets or shoe repair to use. Assorted happenings about town. Whatever.
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— Alan Lake /
Feature Tue Mar 20 2007
While it looks to be warming up some, it's still not quite gin and tonic weather yet. With their weight and more overt complexity, brown spirits are still the order of the day. While Knob Creek is a fine enough whiskey, if you dig a little deeper there are certainly some more interesting spirits out there. To find the following one doesn't even really need to dig all that deep. These are all available at Sam's and Binny's.
Rant: Knob Creek is, along with Booker's, Baker's and Basil Hayden's, part of a "small batch" collection. This I think is misleading. How small batch can Knob Creek be when it's available at most of the bars in town? They're also all made by Jim Beam.
Elmer T. Lee, though, is made by Buffalo Trace. Now, Buffalo Trace is by no means a small operation, but its production doesn't come close to matching Jim Beam's. Additionally, Buffalo Trace may not have the legacy that Beam does, but its whiskeys have the reputation of being some of the best. In addition to Elmer T. Lee (which is named for their master distiller emeritus), Buffalo Trace distills the esteemed Van Winkle and Blanton's.
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— Tim Lacey /
Feature Mon Mar 12 2007
There will be no shortage of green food and green beer on Saturday. You can start the day with a plate of green eggs and ham, and then spend until the wee hours of the morning sampling corned beef and emerald cocktails. If the Irish peasant food grows old, there are some more eclectic offerings: a Leprauchan maki roll at Wildfire, or vegan shepherds pie at Chicago Diner.
We've compiled a sampling of dining specials and events for St. Patick’s Day. The list is in no way complete. Your corner bar is probably pouring dye into their kegs at this very moment. Slainte!
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— Lori Barrett /
Feature Thu Mar 01 2007
These are a couple recipes from my old neighborhood in Chicago. In fact, they're from one of my oldest and dearest friend's mother, Lolita. She gets a kick out of the fact that I grew up to be a chef, considering I used to hang out in her kitchen as a kid.
You can't beat that recipe.
It was a natural for me. Ask anyone who knew me then and they wouldn't be surprised at all. I always knew where to find the best food. Chicago had plenty of it, and I had my finger on the pulse.
Once I actually left someone 20 miles from home in the middle of a snowstorm, when he dared to order incorrectly. "A hot dog at Al's? Sorry... I warned you, see ya."
Blasphemous.
A legendary move back in the day.
Early interests firstly with food, and later with cooking, began in my friends' and neighbors' homes observing the "best cooks in the world."
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— Alan Lake /
Feature Tue Feb 20 2007
In happy-go-lucky Gourmetville, everyone has a lovely boutique wine shop with their own savvy salesperson to help them select just the right wine to go with tonight's tea smoked duck and soba noodles. Sadly, most of us don't live in this rosy world of unlimited time and funds. It's far more likely that we grab a bottle of something at the Mega Mart after we sweep through the deli section for a pre-roasted chicken and two sides. Now it's not just the Uber-Fud gourmet joints that have a big wine selection. Your big chains and bigger box stores now have multiple shelves of hooch staring you and your rapidly cooling bird down. What to do?!
Don't panic. While it's generally preferable and more fun to get a bit of expert advice when you're wine shopping, there's no reason to be afraid of flying solo. Here are a few hints for making you an informed shopper.
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— Christine Blumer /
Feature Thu Feb 08 2007
I didn't grow up here. I'm from Boston originally. After college I moved to Seattle. (It was 1994. Back then they handed you a one way ticket to Seattle with your diploma. What else was I supposed to do?) After a few years in the Pacific Northwest sandwiched around a year back in Boston I moved to Chicago. I'm realizing as I write this that I don't even talk about going back home to Boston anymore. I did for a long time, but haven't for a few years. This is my home.
The point of all of this is that I chose to live here. But, man, that weather kicks my ass sometimes. There isn't much one can really do about it except shiver and bitch and dream about going all Gauguin.
There are options other than taking after an alcoholic syphilitic.
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— Tim Lacey /
