How Local?

One of the first things you are s'posed to do in the Local Food Challenge is define what local means. Now, before I give my definition, let me say that one can *really* eat local in Chicago. Protein, well, there ARE fish near the city limits. Start here. There are live birds for sale in Chicago, but they are not necessarily raised here. Here's a listing. There are people raising things, fruits and vegetables within city limits. In fact, with the amount of vacant land (and little use for all that old industrial space), it will not be long until a LOT of food is grown within Chicago. Growing Power stared in Milwaukee and were leaders in urban farming. They operate in Chicago now. You can purchase their stuff at the weekly Green City Market. There is also City Farm, who sells their stuff twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday, from a location on the near north side (1240 N. Clybourn). Of course, there is butter made on the south side, beer on the north side and Beeline honey on the west side. To drink, Filberts.

Alas, I will not keep myself to city limits. [ed. don't you live outside of city limits?]. I define local eating as roughly matching the "real" Big 10 (that is, skipping Penn State), but Ohio seems far away too. Mostly, it is Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan, although for milk, I HAVE to include Farmer's All Natural Creamery Milk from Amish farmers in Iowa 'cause it is SO good. Within these broad boundries are some of the best fruits and vegetables around. We are especially blessed with peaches, grapes, potatoes, cabbage, blueberries, cranberries, apples, and especially that greatest of fruits, the sour cherry. Plenty of other fruits and vegetables in season as well. Just scroll down.

While local fruits and vegetables have been very available, local meat has been a bit harder to come by until the last few years. Now, Farmer's Market's like Green City and Oak Park feature meats raised, typically on grass, in nearby farms. As I have remarked before, the Wettstein's are about the coolest farmer's around, raising pigs, chicken, turkeys, lamb and beef on grass and grains grown on their farm. The eggs their chicken's produce (sold at Henry's Farm in Evanston as well) will easily convince you why to eat local. The only problem with the local meat is that it is almost all frozen at the time of processing because of market factors.

Chicago is still a major center for the manufacture of food. There is a big (very) and secretive plant not too far from in the Galewood neighborhood of Chicago that turns out a Milky Ways, Mars Bars and similar. At the other end, Vosge tries a few new things to do with chocolate. Great cheese is around these parts like Wisconsin's Roth Kase, Capriole, which David Hammond hates, but sadly no blue cheese made any more in Nauvoo. Maple trees are tapped in Wisconsin and Illinois (where it's sirup). Lotsa jellies, jams and honey.

Way more fer sure, but the next post on this topic will be on my jealousy towards the state of Wisconsin, a state that really knows how to eat local.

Recent Chow
Assorted Mini Reports

A lot of this stuff has found its way into various Internet fora already.

Well, Chicago has an abundance of very good Eastern European places (and we live in close proximity to them). This is food that wows you with its elegant simplicity, its over-arching basicness, NOT its intense flavors. Still, it is very satisfy food. Klas is VERY old school a castle within a restaurant (or is that a restaurant in a castle). Lately, this remment of Cicero Bohemia has been pretty empty, and the food's been so-so (but the value outstanding). On Friday, they hosted a Czech art show/rave-up (look, real Bohemians!), and it filled the house. The food, breaded pork cutlets, potato dumplings, ligher than usual liver dumpling soup, assorted salads, kolachy's, was better than ever.

A favorite Polish spot is Halina. If nothing else, get the soups. Lunch the other day included cucumber soup and fried liver.

Grota is a Polish buffet, which serves much better food than you expect. Of course you get soup first. I got dill with soft dough dumplings. Then, you watch what's getting placed on the buffet and grab that first. Blood sausage, stuffed cabbage, fried fish. To fill in the gaps in the tummy, there's potato dumplings, boiled potatoes, blintzes, pierogis, potato pancakes, roasted potatoes and noodles with fried onions.

There is a LOT of great Mexicn food, including regional offering from Puebla, Oaxaca, Jalisco, Nayarit, D.F., Durango, Michohoacan, San Lois Potosi, and probably a few more I have yet found (although as far as I can tell, no true Vera Cruz and NO Yucataneo.) But the best Mexican food, week in, week out, is at Maxwell Street Market. Very pleasant event was seeing Rico Huarache* back. Perhaps it was the delay, but Sunday's hurache seemed better than ever. There is a level of effort in these things that makes them (almost) haute cuisine. They are folded around black beans, griddled, fried, topped with home made sauces. You get a range of textures and flavors. To steal a phrase from a SethZ, it was crisp where it should be crisp, pliant where it should be pliant (and suitably spicy where it should be spicey). The cooresponding dissapointment was the Aguascaliente birria people were missing. Swarming Jalisicans told me it must be good. It was. And I am almost positive the birria was either lamb or goat not the beef served at the Ocotolan stand nearer to Dominicks. Sunday only.

Or Maybe the best Mexican food is an hour South of Chicago in Joliet.

A fair amount of foodies will concede good Polish and good Mexican in Chicago, but good ice cream? Some will claim there aint any around here. Well, where's here? Go South young man (woman) to South Holland, Cunis Candy. To me, Cunis is an adult place. The home made peach ice cream tastes like peach, but like real peach, and the flavor is muted because it is ice cream. It is not some kinda hyped up peach that appeals to kiddies. Adults, much more than kidz, love the salty, fresh roasted pecans that go on the sundaes. And the winey, dark, near bitter fudge sauce is not so kid like either. It is really worth it for visiting foodies to Chicago to trek to Cunis or other far away ice cream parlors like Gayety or Mitchell's.

I met a friend at Freddy's in Cicero the other night for an early dinner. Freddy's is probably the best "small" Italian market around. On any given day you can admire all their house made salads, sausages, hams; choose from fried rice balls or similiar items with spinach, cheese, potato. There are entrees like roast chicken and pastas made in the 3 ingredient style found much more in the old country. Of course there is house made ices and ice creams. My purist kidz both got lemon ice the other day. Me, I got a slice of deep dish sausage pizza and took home one of their breads. Freddy's bakes about the best breads around.

When I pulled into the strip mall (small strip mall) near a bunch of office buildings for a party at Fabulous Noodles in Lisle, I immediately said to my wife, in a million years I never would have tried this place on my own. But the gentleman whose birthday we were celebrating loves this place, claiming to have eaten there over 1,000 times. And after 1 visit, I'd be happy to return. It is regular Cantonese food, but regular as in Chinatown Cantonese not suburban/chop suey stuff. We had a best of meal: crispy skin chicken with salt; stir fried ong choy with garlic, duck-taro casserole, egg noodles in broth with bbq pork; mock chicken; soft-shell crabs fried with spicy-salt (with a fair amount of jalepenos). The only dish I passed on was the ketchupy smelling shrimps. Lisle is probably a little further than Chinatown for me, but I'd go back if in the area fer sure.

McCormack's is a pure looking roadhouse at the intersection of US 41 and Illinois 176 in Lake Bluff (it's only visible from US 41). It is the kinda place that is either too good to be true or just plain awful. And our luck, find this place on the way to Milwaukee, too good. Ideal thick, red inside traditional burger.

Oh, and what did we do in Milwaukee? Besides run into Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and family at a used book store (no joke!), we ate the requisite frozen custard, this time Bella's Fat Cat, figured out what that Sunday ham/rolls thing was and visited the Wisconsin State Fair. We also had a grand Serbian dinner, but I'll (really) get around to a fuller report on that. So this ham and rolls Milwaukee thing we see advertised all over Milwaukee, it was, and you know what, not much. Regular, cheap deli ham (althought the rolls are good). The one positive, actually a pretty redeeming aspect of the ham is that it is seeped in an elixer, clove scented, honey, who knows, but it really makes this cheap ham good (or shall I say partially beyond tolerable). Then, it was on to the fair, which meant quarter glasses of flavored milk (thanks Sen. Kohl), Sheboygan brats, baked potatoes, and yes, freakin yes (Cathy2), giagantic globs of whipped cream encased in a "puff." The State Fair is a real foodie paradise. Not just for quarter-pounder sized (actually much bigger "patties") cream puffs, but Cedar Crest ice cream, honey tastings, pig roasts, corn done "elote" style (just fantastic corn it was too); elk jerky, micr0brews. Who needs corn dogs? It was damn hot and we could not last at the fair to dinner, but high tailed it instead, to the GWiv recommended, Zafiro's pizza. I would say that Zaffiro's thin is a lot better than Candlelite (based on the pizza-athon), but I am thinking that perhaps, I just am not a fan of the ultra crisp/thin school of pizza. The pizza had a lot more flavor, which I liked, but the crust itself still verges on bland like the other thin-thins I've tried.

*This is a little insider play on words. This particular stand that serves huarches (and seafood cocktails) has a big sign, "rico hauraches" or rich (or tasty) huraches (huraches are like a smooshed ball of corn dough, oblong, slighly bigger than a tortilla, but also thicker, like a sandal bottom, get it?). That sign is how most people know/find the place. Now, we joke that the owner is a guy named Rico (and yes I know if true, the place would be huaraches de Rico...)

Eat Local Challenge

I have the attention span of a gnat, and I take frequent breaks from my work to visit the online world. This afternoon, I decided to cleanse my brain-palate by seeing the fabulous life at Chez Pim. And I learn, as usual, I have no idea what's going on with the food blog world. Eat Local Challenge. That's me! Should have paid attention...

Well, I'm too late really, but I'll try to post some of my thoughts. Use these people for inspiration. And here's an old post with some resources.

11th Market
Oak Park Farmer's Market 8/13/05
Same As Before

Ok, this is one of those market's that worth bloggin' about only for the sake of completeness, the way people buy Charlie Parker CD sets with 5 takes of the same bop. Last week we bought apples, plums, peaches, raspberries, blueberries, apricots and melon. This week we bough plums and peaches, raspberries, blueberries, apricots and nectarines. Last week's peaches were peach, this week's peaches were white; tiny red-yellow plums instead of blue-black.

There really is nothing new or gone at this time of year. It is all there from tomatoes to potatoes; lotsa peppers, sweet and hot. If there was anything that caught my eye, there was a lot of eggplants in all shapes and sizes. Again, I skipped all veg, as for the next two weeks we're "borrowing" a friends share from Angelica's Organics.

See ya next week even if nothing changes (actually we might be in Madison this weekend, so if anything changes, I'll get a guest blogger to update.

Someone Else is Getting Fat in Wisconsin

I'm not a big habitue of e-Gullet, but I'm killing time before a dinner engagement, and doing so, I ran across some really awful pictures (if you catch my drift). Solly's has been on my short list for a while, and with these pictures, it just moved up a notch.

Morning Toast

I went to bed last night in high anticipation of morning toast. I've been toast deprived this week, but that was not a bad thing as I had one of the few things better than morning toast: Racine Kringle. Yesterday, however, I stopped by Freddy's in Cicero. I was supposed to give Freddy's their LTHForum Great Neighborhood Restaurant award. Now, this will come to no surprise to people that truly know me, but the award got lost in my office mess. I still met DicksonD at Freddy's, enjoyed a well executed pan sausage pizza and ogled some sweatin' dry sausages. I cannot leave Freddy's without some bread. After Fox and Obel (and maybe Masi's), they bake the best bread in the area. As it was late in the day, bread selection was slim. The kidz steered me to a very conventional, highly old fashioned looking, Pullman loaf (a/k/a plain old white bread). Plain?

I think not. This bread has a fully developed, crisp-hard crust. It protects a dense, slightly damp interior with a tight crumb. Rather ideal toast bread (although rather ideal plain too). I toasted two slices. Both got Clarendon Hills butter, on got Rose Cottage Wisconsin strawberry-rhubarb jam, the other Les Confituriers de Haute Provence don't call it marmalade, clementine preserves. Clarendon Hills is to butters, what Freddy's is to Chicago breads, about the best. (As I note here, in a room filled with outstanding house-made sausages, Clarendon Hills butter stood out.)

Bloggin' Da Bomb

My family and I love to eat and shop along Devon Avenue on Chicago's far North side (in fact I've been doing some "research" on the fare of Good Morgen Fish for an upcoming post). Perhaps the area has special pull to me as my grandparents and great aunts and uncles all lived around there when I was in my Freudian period. Granted, I think none of them ever sampled nehari. Anyways, here's a blog focused on dining on Devon.

10th Market
Oak Park Farmer's Market 8/6/05
The One I Hate

I've said for a long time that I love the Oak Park Farmer's Market. I fetisize over local and seasonal food, and the market is the way to achieve local/seasonal. My market is especially grand because it has the ultra variety of Nicholl's market, local beef from Heartland, cool farmer's like Vicki, tons of Michigan fruit stands, speciality vinegar, macho melon men, cheese people, and the best darn farm in Illinois, Wettstein's. On top of all that, there is great donuts weekly, Hayes 18th century coffee (which I never understand) and a chance to run into bunch into all your friends and neighbors. But here's a secret. I hate the Oak Park Farmer's Market.

Well, I hate that it's on Saturday. I know, it is awfully petty of me, me who works in Oak Park to wish the market another day. I do not really seek the few squash blossoms all to myself, first choice of what the Wettstein's brought up, or the choicest apples. I just do not like the market on Saturday. See, we eat out a lot (well, we eat out a lot generally), but we eat out a lot over the weekends. The fruit can last through the week, but we cannot use as many vegetables as we can get. That's why I'd like the market to be on Tuesday, today.

Those squash blossoms on Saturday, passed them up. Same with the Turkish fire orange eggplants, the hot peppers, the heirloom tomatoes, the two kinds of cucumbers and the kind of intense, skinny celery I like to dress with anchovies. Passed it all up. What we got. All fruit. But what choices of fruit.

Summer apples: Macintoshes, state fair; plums, whose names I forgot, but the oblong deep blue Italian type and the rounder, harder large red; of course berries, black and blue; apricots, gosh darn amazing apricots. Today, I asked my wife, is there anything besides tomatoes that really, really (really) benefits from being local/seasonal, I mean not just better, but night and day better, and she said, yea, the apricots we got this week. Finally, we got big round, sweet clingstone peaches. Great, great fruit. Did I say I hated this market. Just kidding.

Harry Potter

I was a late bloomer to Harry Potter. Harry Potter Book 1 came out before my younger daughter could read (odd there was ever such a time, as now, she reads with the intensity of Evelyn Wood's valedictorian). This meant that Mom and Dad read the book a little each night, but Mom read a lot more than Dad (generally), and surely more of this book. Without reading all the pages, Dad got the basic gist of the story, which seems so quaintly straightforward now... Book 2 was read even more by Mom, and Dad learned less. Book 3 was longer and more involved, and Dad paid almost no attention. In fact, Dad did not know about the time turner until the movie. Then a funny thing happened. Dad stumbled across one of the Potter web sites like The Harry Potter Lexicon. Dad read some of the background books on his weekly visits to Borders. It was not so much Harry that lured me in, it was all the fascinating backstory, the total world, the conspiracies, the intrigue, the double agents. No one told me there was a bit of LeCarre buried in these kidz stories. I never read book 4, but learned all its secrets. Book 5, I finally tackled, in like 3 days of solid reading. And it only got better.

Something, I am not quite sure what, prompted my wife to pick up Harry Potter Book 4, the Goblet of Fire, as a book on tape. We became enchanted and addicted to long car rides. It really is a story suited for oral telling, and Jim Dale who tells the stories, just makes it even better, better. Every character gets voiced distinctly and separately (although Ginny and Luna sound a bit too much a like). On one level, Dale's got a handle on every accent in the United Kingdom (and Eire), going from London to Edinburgh in a blink, upper-crust to cockney. On another level, he's acting. You get not just words but feelings. We zoomed through the long, involved Book 4, then went straight to the even longer Book 5 (less complex than Book 4, but more meaningful). We had a bit of gap between Book 5 and the release of Book 6, but we had the pleasure of Wisconsin to hold us off. We purchased our tapes for Book 6 on the way home. Finished them this week, although to be honest, I snuck away from my family and learned all the good parts ahead. Knowing what is gonna happen, but then hear them on the tape is very helpful. You pick things up you might not ahead of time. And while I was learning my secrets, I had my doubts, but now, I am pretty convinced. Read below if you wanna know my thoughts.

Be warned, the post below contains spoilers to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

Harry Potter Book 6
Do Not Read Unless You Know or Wanna Know

Spoiler's Ahead

Spoiler Space
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Wanna hear what I have to say?
Wanna know if I think Snape's Bad?
Read On:

EVIL:
Snape TELLS Bellatrix and Narcissa he's evil and makes the vow.

He KILLS DD.

He calls Voldemort the Dark Lord, well who else uses that term, and he *really* freaks out when Harry dare sez his name.

In Book 1, he supposedly saves Harry and confronts Quirrel "whose side are you on?", but if he had suspected Quirrel, why did he not turn him into DD. DD seemed unaware that one of his teachers was after the stone.

In Book 3, he is quick to get Sirius back to the Dementers

In Book 5, he lures Harry with the memory and then does not teach him. Besides *seeing* him kill Dumbledore, this is the most convincing evidence that he's bad. Why leave that memory so handy for the curious Harry unless you wanted him to see it. If learning occulmancy was SO important, why push him away?

Finally, Snapes been an all 'round awful person in all the books.

GOOD:

DD has said time and time again, that he trusts Snape.

DD basically never argues. Why was he arguing with Snape. Perhaps because Snape did not want to do what DD wanted, like kill him.

He fixes a potion to heal DD after DD's hand get's fried from the ring horcrux. When DD drinks the potion in the lake, he WANTS Snape (presumably for another potion).

DD gives Snape the DADA position, knowing the holder only lasts one year. Where did he think Snape was gonna go after the year's position?

Snape tipped off the Order to the attack on Harry and the kidz in Book 5 (he sez he helped "get" Sirius, but I do not think the DE wanted a fight).

The events surrounding the tower attack are quite odd. If Snape has shown his true colors, why would he not be more rampant in his attacking? Flitwick does not remark that he was attacked by Snape, so it seems true that he did not attack Flitwick. Why would he just leave Herminione and others. Why would it appear that he is not attacking Harry but still teaching him at the end.

So, my general theory (which I actually had going into Book 6): Harry is gonna have to team up with all 4 houses to defeat Voldy. That has basically been the message from the sorting hat since book 4. Essentially there will be one big coalition of gobblins, elves, the 4 houses, the 3 schools--I think there will be something to do with the uniting that will be a powerful force. Now...

...what Snape was doing at the end was not scurrying Malfoy back to the dark lord, he was taking him to the witness protection program, so to speak. The whole set up in the tower was to save/redeem/convert Malfoy. And it worked. At the end of the day, he would not kill DD (and he felt bad about getting the werewolve in). I think the 7th book will start with Malfoy in hiding at Grimauld Place. Remember, DD told Malfoy he could be hidden in death. That's where DD is, hiden. In death.

Pal Do Kang San
Good Enough without Coals

I REALLY wanted to hit the frozen custard place on Rt 45 after the Lake County Fair, but we just did not time it right. I zig-zagged thru "downtown" Mundelein looking for a suitable place to get actual food first, but failed. We ended up on Rt. 21 and I cruised back towards urbanity. Thought for a bit that we'd hit the Pita Inn in Wheeling, then decided for Korean 'cause as much fun as the 1000th member LTH party was, it kinda left us needing more Korean food.
Since I took the slow way from Oak Park to the Lake County Fair, we had passed Pal Do Kang San on the way to the fair. It's on River Road right before it merges with Milwaukee in Prospect Heights. There was a big sign for BBQ, and that's what we wanted. We were highly dissapointed when they started setting up the gas grill. You do loose a lot of flavor when the meat is cooked on gas, and you also do not get the same degree of carmelization. That said, it was still a nice place (which is why it's worth posting about.)

What made Pal Do Kang San special was its service. They could not have been nicer, from manufacturing a set of starter chopsticks for Sophia to the contsant re-filling of panchan, to the final gesture of tiny bottles of odd spritzy sweet milky something provided to us, their warmth made the night.

The menu is only partially devoted to BBQ. We tried kalbi, pork bulgogi in a spicy marinade, and chicken bulgogi with no marinade. Because the pork's marination was especially good, it stood out, but everything was good enough (for gas). The chicken and pork came with onions and scallions that grilled up nicely for relish. Other things we could have BBQ'd included pork neck and eel. But like I say, the menu has a bunch of other stuff too ranging from loanch tang (mudfish stew) to fish egg tang. There are also a few dishes for two including black goat stew. I might not run out to this place from the city, but if I lived close by or was passing by as I was, it seems nice.

Pal Do Kang San
1250 S. River Road
Prospect Heights, IL
847-808-8822

9th Market
Oak Park Farmer's Market 7/30/05

No data this week, although I would appreciate any reports in the comments (or you can e-mail them to me). We swept off to the Lake County Fair without time for the Farmer's Market. We thought maybe we'd pick up something up in Lake County, but we never did. Anyways, for what it's worth, I can imagine the market this time of year pretty easily: big truck of corn at The Farm, baskets of potatoes in 20 varieties at Nicholl's Farm, emerging tomatoes and tons of fruits. I wonder how cherries are holding but peaches have to be in full force.

See ya next week (I hope!)

Like Harry When He Get's a Whiff of Ginny

I am a real sucker for blogs like this.

Amanacer Tapatio in Joliet, Illinois
The Best Mexican Food I Have Tasted Around Here

I am gonna skip the Amanacer Tapatio back story. It's been told before. I am writing to say that in my humble opinion, AT, might be, could be, perhaps is, just maybe is the best Mexican restaurant in the area (and I have to use the term area loosely because Joliet is FAR AWAY). Now, I have been to Casa de Bayless y Casa de Bahena many a time, but I have not been to their tipy-top offerings, so I admit upfront that my sample is incomplete. And, obviously, there are a lot of Mexican restaurants around--too many to sample. Still, when I savored the carne de res entomates verde or beef stew in a green tomato gravy, I was convinced, like an epiphany, that this had to be the best Mexican food around Northern Illinois.

The other day, some foodie friends of mine were talking about a Vietnamese 7 course of beef meal they had in NYC. They remarked that in a meal that showcased beef, it failed because the quality of the beef did not pass muster. There are times that the quality of raw materials limits inexpensive dining. Then there is Amanacer Tapatio. And times that a $20 meal can be as good as anything. Amanacer Tapatio buys market produce, cheap meat, but through alchemy produce food that tastes just simply incredible. I am not sure. Is it that when they visit the vegetable wholesaler they just have a better eye than their competitors? Do the shop more often so that they maximize freshness from produce that is not that fresh to begin with (as compared to produce grown locally). I tend to think it is more to do with them knowing exactly how much to season their food, the perfect amount of chile to bring out flavor but not to overpower. I also think there is some raw power, some innate deliciousness to the ingredients that make up AT's cuisine. The stuff cannot help but be good. Good turned into great with the amount of effort, care and skill the staff of AT put into their daily offerings.

As it has been noted, you eat what they cooked that day (specials written on the board). It is like coming over to Mama's casa para comida. You nibble on chips with two table salsas, each as good as the other, both absolutely simple in recipe* while things are finished for you. The meal proper always start with fresh made guacamole and house made, fresh tortillas and then moves on to salad (which always stumps our Northern palates that seek dressing). Honestly, I really do not do much with the plain lettuce but others improvise using the green salsa. Last night, I did enjoy, like crudite, some sliced cucumbers and rose cut radishes that I gave a good hard shake of salt.

Although I doing a bit of a disservice to the guacamole to say the first real dish was the sopa, the soup, it was. We took two or three steps up in flavor, complexity and satisfaction with the soup. I did not bother the house for the soup recipe (they will explain nearly all), but it looked almost like a brothed up version of the green salsa, the soup also featuring simmered tomatillos. Inside this green potion were chunks of pork "spine" i.e., meat from the vertebrae, potatoes, string beans, and Mexican green squash (calabeza). Again, the vegetables seemed to rise from their origins. After soup it was platters of rice, beans made in house with a glorious amount of lard (whole beans and frijoles refrito), two entrees: the aforementioned beef stew, plus chicken legs mixiote or cooked in a wrapper (I'll come back to this in a sec.), plus a side dish of corn kernels, calabeza chunks, and whole jalepenos, drizzled with crema, Mexican sour cream that is plainly, richly better than "our" sour cream, and sprinkled with some fresh cheese. I clamored for a dessert to wrap this up, but that is just not the tradition.

The mixiote, mixiote is the Mexican version of cooking en parchment or steaming in a packet. Traditionally, banana leaves are used as the wrap and often fresh herbs play a big role. AT compromised with aluminum foil and dried hoja de santo. The chicken still tasted plenty infused with a licorish-y liquid from the herb. My dear, foodie daughter, loved the beef, saying it reminded her of cholent. She just finds any delicious soft beef thing to be like cholent regardless that no Bubbe would produce anything like this intense stew.

It IS a long ride to Joliet, but there are stretches along the Des Plaines River that are a lot more scenic than generally found in these parts. There is even a stretch that amounts to a bluff. Right before hitting AT, there is the now abandoned, movie-set worthy, 20 foot high wall of Joliet limestone, old Federal Pen. That alone makes the drive worthwhile. Dinner at the best Mexican restaurant in the area just makes it better.

Amanacer Tapatio 573 Collins St Joliet, IL 60432 (815) 727-4001

*Monica, Mama's daughter and our hostess, gave me the directions for the salsas. Green is made from simmering tomatillos and jalepenos in water, then blending with garlic and a bit of salt, surprisingly, no lime. The red salsa substitutes red tomatoes and chile de arbol. The chiles are not re-hydrated but sparked up on the griddle; the red tomatoes also simmered in water.

Phil Vettel Game

I've generally been impressed with the food writing in the new At Play section of the Chicago Tribune, but do you think that we have a winner in the Phil Vettel game with this week's effort.

8th Market
Oak Park Farmer's Market 7/23/05

Well, it poured five minutes after we arrived, which meant I did ate my donut on the run and just did not have the spirit to "take-in" the market. It's a shame my timing was so off, as things are really bloomin'. Just one glance at Nicholl's, where the Condiment Queen already shopped while I got a soggy donut, and I saw something as interesting as Armenian cucumbers. I did also see that The Farm, a local truck farm made their first apperance. They sell their corn from the same trailer they harves it from, and this vehicle really "completes" the market. It is no longer a parking lot. Still, it was mostly a fruit market for me this week.

There was exotica, white currents, and Americana, sweet and sour cherries; berries in various shapes and sizes and all the stone fruits. I relished it all and wonder why anyone would want fruit hauled in from distant states.

See ya next week.

Getting Fat in Wisconsin
Part Two

I warned you last time that you get fat in Wisconsin because even something as seemingly healthy as spinach-feta pie comes with a little extra buttah, but I did not warn you of some of those more insidious uses of butter. Surely, to prop up the prices, support the family farmer, Wisconsinites make sure that everything is buttered. I told you that the Manitowoc made brat and Little Penny at Penguin were nice. I did not reveal the secret that made them nicer. Butter. Both sammys get served on a buttered Wisconsin “semmel” roll. I love the way the semmel is dressed for the brat brown mildly spicy mustard on the bottom, buttered on top. It is not just your sandwiches that come buttered. Nearly all the bread in Wisconsin comes buttered for you, relieving the stress of such physical activity (actually relieving the stress of dealing with often cold butter, no?). At Penguin Drive-In, the Chowhoundintas got the chicken finger deal; which included, buttered bread slices. All the time, our meals came with buttered bread. At the end of the line at the Washington Island Fly-In Lion’s Club annual fish boil (see below), after getting our fish, potatoes, onions doused with melted butter, we were handed tiny slices of cocktail rye, slathered, of course, in butter. KK Fiske’s house made bread underneath the butter was so good; I had no choice but to consume butter. I am this week, much fatter than last.

You get fat in Wisconsin because you visit a fish fry on Friday. We did. A tough call. Washington Island has a surprisingly number of good restaurants. What makes eating fish on Washington Island especially good is that the fish on your plate was in the water not that long ago. Boats bring in daily catches of perch, whitefish and burbot, more commonly called lawyers. OK, perch may not be there every day, but KK Fiske offers nuggets of fried lawyers daily. This is a fish that purportedly cannot last in the market more than 2 days, nor can it be effectively frozen, and the rest of the nation’s loss is Washington Island’s gain. Since we ate at KK Fiske already and Findlay’s Friday fish fry featured nothing but fish (and the kidz sadly do not want to eat fish), we decided to try Carly’s Cellar. Fine, fine choice. Carly’s expertly deep fried the perch, offering it up with sweet cole slaw and hash browns. I never reported on my last Friday fish fry in Wisconsin, at Historic Turner Hall, in the gentrified in a good way, 3rd Street area of Milwaukee. Turner Hall perch cannot reach the sweetness of Washington Island perch, but the highly preserved 19th century hall makes this a Friday fish fry worth trying.

Not all fish in Wisconsin comes fried. They broil whitefish all the time. Granted, at the Sister Bay Bowl (supper club) they top broiled whitefish with yummy crunchy fried onion bits (which combine nicely with the paprika fish coating). Broiled whitefish in Illinois seems like an afterthought, something old Jewish couples still order for some long forgotten reason. It is not a fish with young fans. Today’s Chicago Tribune food section notes that at Shaw’s Crabhouse, whitefish does not sell nearly as well as Atlantic salmon. While I doubt this is explains it, but if you eat broiled whitefish in Wisconsin, you get spoiled to other broiled whitefish. At Sailor’s Pub on the southern harbor on Washington Island, the broiled whitefish is as thick and plump as a swordfish steak. You might stay thin(er) with this fish, but Sailor’s Pub serves some pretty good crinkle-cut fries with the broiled fish.

Boiled fish seems safely dietetic, but who eats boiled fish plain. Everyone sez that Door County fish boils are excuses to drink in vast quantities of melted butter. At the LTH 1000 member gala, a few people talked down the fish boil. A New England clam bake without the benefit of clams or lobster they said. Well, let me tell you. I happen to like fresh lake whitefish better than clams (a rather over-rated foodstuff in my opinion). And I think the fish boil was unfairly maligned, at least the fish boils we tried. They, the mythic they, also say that fish boils are strictly for tourists. I think not. KK Fiske on Washington Island boils fish a few times each week. I would not call this place touristy at all. I also noted at some point, that we had the VERY good fortune of being on Washington Island the week of its annual Island fish boil held at the Island airport (nothing more than a big patch of mowed lawn with pylons delineating the runway). A lot of people gathered under big tents for fish, potatoes, sweet onions (the boil really brings out the sweetness in the onions), potatoes, cole slaw, and assorted cakes baked by the moms of Washington Island.

You know what fish boil reminded me of? Don’t laugh…Texas BBQ. Surely they differ in approach. One is cooked with extreme violence, water so hot it explodes in famous flames, the other cooked low and slow, some Texas brisket taking over a day to finish. Yet, both products are elemental yet complex in flavor. Each method of cooking makes the product exactly right, and the butter enhances just right as BBQ sauce enhances Q. Of course, watch out for bones with the fish boil.

You get fat in Wisconsin because you eat dessert. The Washington Island annual fish boil ended with cake, a surprise. Mostly you eat pie or pie-ish things. KK Fiske had a cherry crisp and Carly’s Cellar had cherry-raspberry pie baked, so we were told, a few hours earlier. On the way home on 42, we stopped at Sweetie Pies, which sells whole fruit pies, pie slices and mid-sized “cutie pies.” All the pies featured butter-shortening crusts. You get fat in Wisconsin because if you skip the pie, you stop for frozen custard.

Several months ago, we tried Gilley’s and Leon’s in Milwaukee. Gilley’s was good, a little too much like softserv. Leon’s was greatly dense. Now, it does not have to be frozen custard. Wilson’s has been serving large scoop ice cream in Ephraim for almost 100 years. We wanted to try, but our motel proprietor in Sister Bay suggested Not Licked Yet custard in Fish Creek as better. We pulled into Not Licked Yet’s troll guarded lot at a bit after 10:30 on a Sunday morning just as Al Johnson’s Swedish pancakes were moving past our gullets. Custard would make a nice mid-morning snack. We thought we heard them say 11 as the opening time, and we waited, feeding ducks. When it turned out that it was 11:30, we decided to move on to lunch. After lunch we custarded at the closer to where we then were, Malibu Moo’s. Malibu Moo’s does the “granite griddle”, their version of the cold stone. Cutesy but effective as I really enjoyed the plain vanilla custard with Door County tart cherries. The night before we tried Door County Ice Cream Factory, Door County cherry, cherry ice cream. Another reason why I got fat in Wisconsin, although as good as this cherry ice cream was, I preferred the interplay of plain custard against plump cherries compared to cherry ice cream.

Perhaps I’ll spend the rest of the year dieting, making room to get fat again on Washington Island, in Door County, and all over Wisconsin. There is the Norwegian restaurant to try in Sister Bay, supper clubs to compare. Carly’s Cellar had the requisite relish tray with dill dip but Sister Bay Bowl did not. What is THE supper club? I will make it sooner than later to Charcoal Inn and pronounce my judgment on Sheboygan brats vs. Manitowoc brats. I’ll get to Not Licked Yet when it is open and try Wilson’s fer sure. I like getting fat in Wisconsin.

Getting Fat in Wisconsin
Part One

We did not eat our last meal in Wisconsin as planned. Leaving the Door peninsula for the near perfect farmland (yes EVERY barn is red) and occasional industrial town that is Wisconsin 42, we passed a couple of good looking and seemingly crowded supper clubs, but I was supper clubbed out. We also passed the good looking and seemingly crowded Kewaunee Custard shop, but I was oddly enough, frozen custarded out—well, I had eaten frozen custard not that much earlier at Malibu Moo’s in Fish Creek. And while the Condiment Queen pined for a drive-in offering bison burgers right across the street from a bison farm, I asked for the favor of moving on to Sheboygan. I wanted a quick brat, a Sheboygan brat, at Sheboygan’s famed Charcoal Inn. I figured, how often does one pass through Sheboygan during dinner time, or even make it a point to drive through Sheboygan at any time (and having now driven through Sheboygan at dinner time, I can see why it is off the radar, a sadly deteriorated town). Yet, I will return one day to Sheboygan because the Charcoal Inn closes on Sunday. This forced us to the next closest eating place, Annabel’s Family Restaurant.

I did not think much of Annabel’s, but it provided me with the perfect dish, the dish that perhaps sums up eating in Wisconsin. I knew for a while that the theme of my Wisconsin report, the theme of four visits to Wisconsin this year: Getting Fat. Now, many people have seen me at various Chowhound/LTH events over the years, and they know that I am surely on the Hardy side of Laurel and. If I spent more time up there, I’d look even more like Ollie. Why? In Wisconsin if you go to Annabel’s Family Restaurant, a “local greek” with the standard big menu and ordered the local greek with the big menu standard, spinach-feta pie, you would get a pie, compact from being pressed and cooked on the griddle like a burgers. The griddle adds a bit of flavor, however, it would not be enough flavor to make it Wisconsin worthy. In Wisconsin, your flattish, spinach-feta pie comes with a golf ball sized knob of melting butter on top.

You get fat in Wisconsin because when you visit Findlay’s Holiday Inn on Washington Island for breakfast, they point you to a bar for fresh made donuts to relieve the morning pang (before ordering). Of course, you may be like me and have already snuck a donut from a small stash of buttermilk donuts sold once a week at the Washington Island’s Washington Hotel (more on this in another post). You get fat in Wisconsin because it is quite hard to resist eating either of these two sets of donuts. And you get fat in Wisconsin because after finish your donut you eat a breakfast of farm fresh eggs cooked in Wisconsin butter, and with your butter-eggs you get outstanding hash browns. Hash browns with the wonder of being equally greasy and crisp. Or, you try the special of the day, French toast with a Door County cherry sauce. If you want instead, to have Swedish pancakes with lingonberries on Washington Island, there is Lenny’s, which is also an arcade and pizza parlor. (Island commerce is a lot like that, the liquor store doubles as the appliance vendor.)

Not that bad these pancakes, but it was the only food we ate on Washington Island that we’d skip next time. The pancakes needed a few more minutes on the grill. It also bugged me that while maple trees are tapped in Door County, Lenny's served up some tiny packages of “maple flavored” crap. I did not expect anything on Washington Island like an air hockey emporium that dabbled in Swedish pancakes, let alone something as delicious as Findlay’s Holiday Inn, as posh as Washington Hotel, which nightly served a six course gourmet dinner featuring local products (expect a full report soon). I did not expect fresh lawyers and fresh whitefish and fresh perch served up within hours of their being caught.

My request for information on Washington Island produced nada. I expected three days of pleasant seclusion as the kidz swam in Lake Michigan. On the drive up we stocked, in fear of starving, at all the farm stands we passed. We'd survive on berries if nothing else. We detoured just north of the Milwaukee suburbs to Saukville, to an olde tyme butcher, Blaus, who sells a bunch of kinds of blood sausages and headcheeses, bison and brats. Also, as they note, will clean, dress, grind and otherwise deal with anything you catch (taxidermy included if you want). In the interest of honesty, I should point out that Blaus Saukville Meats sells mostly frozen stuff. And we never got around to cooking any of it because we enjoyed too much getting fat at Washington Island’s restaurants.

We did eat for breakfast and lunches, our smoked fishes we got from Charlie’s Smoke House, on Gill’s Rock, just about at land’s end. Go for the aroma. Go for the affordability. Go for all of it. Charlie’s smokes whitefish from local waters, chubs caught near Milwaukee, lake trout from Superior, farm raised Atlantic salmon and wild Pacific salmon. We got one of each. Needless to say, it was all good. We could contrast it to Bearcat’s, a smoke fish shop along the river in Algoma because the Fish Creek General Store, where we picked up lunch on the way home sold Bearcat’s fish. We sampled whitefish and whitefish-cream cheese spread. Bearcat’s whitefish was much saltier, intense, but not really in a bad way, the spread ideal. We hear Bearcat has some great pickled fish, and hopefully next time we pass Bearcat’s store, it will still be opened. Except for those cold meals, we were getting fat on restaurant food.

We tried the Swedish pancakes at Al Johnson’s in Sister Bay, no goats on the roof at 7 AM. Better cooked pancakes than those we had a day earlier on the Island, slightly less good lingonberries and still no local syrup. Lousy meatballs though, gummy and excessively salty after the cardamom taste wisps off. I’m convinced I’d get fat next time at the Sunset Resort on Washington Island that offers, for breakfast, Icelandic pancakes and something called barkram pankaka (which produced zero hits on Google).

If you take the obvious turn-off to 42 at Manitowoc (and most people seemed to skip this for highway all the way up towards Green Bay), you will quickly find yourself at the Penguin Drive-In (a real car-hoppin’ drive-in by the way), home of the ½ pound “Big Penny” burger. I skipped the burger for the local brat. Seems Manitowacans compete with Sheboygan over bratwursts the way certain towns in Southern France battle over cassoulet recipes. In Manitowoc, you eat the Cher-Made brat, a brat with a strong dose of nutmeg. Alas, as noted, I failed to make the direct comparison between brats made in Sheboygan and brats made in Manitowoc. At Penguin, I did get a taste of Ms. VI’s small penny burger. But people get fat in Wisconsin because with their brats and penny’s they eat a side of fried cheese curds (yes quite good). And frozen custard, we sampled two cups of Penguin’s custard, not the best I’ve had in Wisconsin, but is that like saying Veuve Clicot was not the best in Epernay.

A mistake. If one is in Manitowoc Wisconsin, valuable stomach space should be reserved for Beernsten’s. In a mildly thriving downtown Manitowoc, just north of the river, stands the ancient Beernsten’s candy shop. Even if the high ceiling is covered in acoustic tiles instead of tin, the place remains classic. The booths are walnut and the walls are paneled with the same. The lights seem to glow with museum quality yellow. We were too full to try any of the sundaes and sodas elaborately described in the “Sundae News”, but we did buy some candies. Did I mention that we skipped the ice cream at Beernsten’s because we custarded at Penguin? Well, we fudged at Cook’s Corner, world’s largest cookware store, so they say, located in downtown Manitowoc, and also home to some pretty good fudge.

You get fat in Wisconsin because there is some pretty good fudge. Of course no one is forcing you to eat fudge in Wisconsin. But it seems that people vacation in Wisconsin simply to have the excuse to eat fudge. And we were helpless to resist the call of thousands of candy shops along 42. In Fish Creek I thought I put my foot down. No more candy for us. Until we saw the charming Sister Sweets that stood in obvious contrast to the corporate Door County Confectionary (and I use corporate somewhat loosely). Just a look, no? A taste. More fudge, more caramels, some home made bars with chocolate and raisins and nuts, some almond toffee added to our collection.

To be continued, in which we learn that your fish don’t have to be fried to get you fat in Wisconsin.

Except for Annabel’s in Sheboygan (which you will have no need to try), everything mentioned above, not on the penisula, that is not on Washington Island, is on or right off of Highway 42 in Wisconsin. For the stuff on Washington Island, well, if you go there, you should easily be able to find anything mentioned. Oh, and Blaus is easy to find too. Get off of I-43 at the Port Washington/Saukville exit. Go west just a bit, and it will be there on your left.

7th Market - Hat Hammond reports
Oak Park Farmer's Market 7/16/05

As I noted last week, I was outta town for this week's market. Thus, I recruited David "Hat" Hammond to report. He submitted a nicely coded report for me to copy and paste into the blog, but I could not get one thing to work, his expandable images. As the pictures are a big part of the "fun" in his report, I decided to just link instead to his write-up on LTHForum.com

Hammond Pulls An All-Nighter

Shop Whole Foods Now!

I have (very) mixed feelings about Whole Foods. There are a few things I really like about the store, mainly the milk and bread. The value of Whole Foods is, that on any given day, I can get the outstanding milk produced by Amish farmers from Iowa called "Farmer's All Natural Creamery", and I can get a pretty decent loaf of bread (not the best but as they say, more than decent). What I almost always skip is, the produce.

While I want organic produce, I really deplore the way that Whole Foods does it. I know it is not accurate to call it faux organic as organic is organic, but the corporate and imported fruits and vegetables that make up Whole Food's inventory surely violates certain ideas behind "organic". For one thing Whole Food's produce does not support "regular" farmer's. For another thing, another thing, how good can all of this shipped in produce really be? It aint farm fresh. Yet, there is hope.

Yesterday at Whole Food's in River Forest, they were selling Illinois peaches. I know, I know, where exactly do we define local? Is something close to St. Louis local food for Chicago? Well, for me, yes. My boundaries for local basically follow the Big Ten Conference. Alas, I digress. Whole Foods was selling peaches from Eckert's Farms in Bellevue, Illinois. I grabbed a bunch just to help convince the Whole Food's powers that be that there was a market for this stuff.

But you know what really infuriated me? An employee was poo-pahing the peaches to another customer, essentially, as far as I could tell, because they were still mostly hard. He decided to offer samples to this customer, and then since I was there, to me too. Turns out he was quite wrong. I thought he should have been pitching the peaches just to get people to eat local. Seems he should be pitching these peaches because they are pretty good too. Shop now, who knows how long they will be there.

6th Week, For P.A.D.S.
Oak Park Farmer's Market 7/9/05

We got cherries, deep red bing and pale red Queen Ann; tart and fresh and tart and slowly thawing IQF (individually quick frozen). We got berries, blue and goose and rasp and something pronounced liked moosh (a maroon variant on the goose with a Germanic name I soon forgot). We got summer sauce apples practically before the first peaches appeared, but there are a few of those too (although a bit hard to chew). Same with the apricot, all quite large but also not quite to their prime. We got massive beets and massive cucumbers because that's where Nicholl's Farm pointed their irrigation. And we got a lot of other things at the Oak Park Farmer's Market, but I was not really paying attention (?!?)

I have a great excuse. Donuts. On Saturday night we attended the gala LTHForum 1,000 member celebration, and after having been entertained by the Mayor's Mouth, sated by gobs of grilled meats and (two) slices of cake (well I had to try both), and lubricated with a few shots of soju (thanks Shirley!), we made a relatively early exit. I told SteveZ that my wife, the Condiment Queen, was exhausted from having rose at the crack of dawn to make donuts. Steve said, "that's so nice of her." I said, "not for me, for the entire village of Oak Park." She mixed batter, twirled the cutting-plopping machine, and gingerly flipped each donut with a giant set of chopsticks. Of course she also lifted each finished batch with a large metal screen and then squeegeed excessive oil back into the fryer. A day later she said she never wanted to eat a donut again. Not me. I was donut boy. Runner. Slave. I brought fresh donuts to the sellers, tossed out garbage, filled up coffee urns, stayed on top of the cream and sugar and otherwise personally made sure all the parts hummed. Finally, the chowhounditas, Hannah and Sophia, assisted in the sale of donuts and drinks.

We and a bunch of others did all of this for the benefit of West Suburban P.A.D.S., an organization that serves men, women and families who are homeless or are at risk of homelessness in west suburban Cook County. All donut profits this week went to P.A.D.S.

So, if I did not pay too close of attention to what was there this week, I had a reason.

Note, I will be out of town for next week's market. I will hopefully recruit a guest blogger to document the 7th market. Otherwise, see ya in two weeks.

Oak Park Farmer's Market 5th Try
7/2/05

It was a very good day to be in Oak Park. At 8:30 or so, the market teemed with people, circling the stands, gathered around the musicians, sitting at the metal tables. Across the street the little league played their all star game, and with banners hanging and a roaring crowd, the whole area felt alive. The early season heat dissipated but left behind a reward of fruit and vegetables.

Blink, and the market will look very different. Although one vendor carried big water-logged left over strawberries, those things were of the past, as was asparagus. Replacing the early season crops were tons of cherries including dark bing and paler Queen Ann (with no shortages of sour cherries in this market) plus blueberries, black raspberries, red raspberries, tayberries, and quite surprisingly, white peaches. On the vegetable front, Nicholl's Farms had the first, fresh dug, new, new potatoes. I got a basket. (Although when I got home I realized I had only enough 'taters to accent some dish.) Nicholl's was also showcasing their variety with three colors of cauliflower. Around the market, there was bundles of zucchini, baskets of fava's, bunches of beets. Green beans piled high. Even jalepeno peppers to buy. Blink and it's summer in Oak Park.

See ya next week.

4th Market
Oak Park Farmer's Market 6/25/05

Once again I am woefully late with my market report. And I had all sorts of things to say. Funny how a week's worth of cleaning in anticipation of the in-laws visiting takes the spark outta blogging. But now that the bungalow is absolutely sparkling, I can at last chronicle (very quickly) the news of the market.

Good News
The first berries. Skibbes Farm had tayberries, looking like mutant raspberries and tasting a bit like what bug juice was made from (but better!) and Berry's Berries from Michigan had the first blueberries I've seen. Also, lotsa cherries, including sour cherries. In fact the aforementioned Skibbes Farm was marketing cherries as sour and tart. When I asked, they said, "well some are sour, some are really sour." Nicholl's Farm winning strawberry of the week was Ovation, but the best berries came from Farmer Vicki's Genesis Farms. There was the last of the asparagus and the last of the spinach but the first of the fresh favas. It's funny, favas are considered the archetypical spring veg, but they do not show up fresh (as in local) until late June. The very hot weather was rushing to market stuff like zuchini and cabbage. On the cutesy front, Nicholl's Farm stocked carrots in five colors and varieties including fat Tom Thumb. We bargained and got one bunch of each for $6 total. They also had oh so gourmet baby zuchini with flowers attached. Still at 3 babies for $3, I passed on those.

Bad News
The donuts were pretty crappy this week, not the least bit of crust.

Best News
Well, who should just make my day? Totally un-expected, I found my favorite farm family at the market. The Wettsteins now appear once a month in Oak Park, carting coolers of organic pork, chicken, beef, lamb and eggs. We got the eggs and some chicken livers. We wanted a whole chicken, but they were sold out. Instead we got a bag of chicken backs and necks for stock making.

See ya in a few days.

If you found yourself in Valparaiso on Tuesday...

...You would know this county seat of Porter, Indiana offers not one but two places that offer Serrano ham. In fact one could get a full blown Spanish meal at Don Quiote, whose owner, I learned has inhabited Valparaiso for 20 years but has also opened a shop importing Spanish goods. Valparaiso is also a town where one could get a bottle of Montalcino de Brunelo at the corner drug store, cupcakes with towering spirals of real buttercream, and visit more than a few espresso parlors. It was tropical night at Old Style Inn, with all that implies, but it should be noted that if one wanted to skip the pu-pu platters, there was genuine Northern Indiana fare there like buttered perch and pan fried blue gills. Still, if one wanted to really taste the taste of Valparaiso, one would skip all of the above and head a mile or so east of town to the Strongbow Inn.

Strongbow Inn was at one time, really an inn or at least a motel with a restaurant or at least a turkey farm with a motel and a restaurant. One inspired the other which inspired the other. Still, over time, the restaurant has won the attention of the third generation of family owners.

Say chicken at the Strongbow Inn and they cringe the way witches and wizards cringe at the expression of Lord Voldemort. If you organize your existence around turkey, you stomach no mention of her squatter cousin. And if you organize your existence around turkey, you sell not just year round turkey dinners, you sell turkey soup, turkey pate, turkey pies, turkey wings and turkey legs. You get cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and bread dressing and gravy because these things go with turkey. You can, of course, jump ranks, and have chautebriand for two. I have never known nor seen anyone visit the right side of the menu, the evil non-turkey side.

I cannot vouch for the turkey pate. I can say everything else is satisfying in exactly the way it should. As a food writer might say, it is a true expression of its locale. I can also nip around the edges. The gravy is mostly just there, a moistener but not at all interesting or robust. The noodles for the soup are so clearly and visually homemade, and they have that toothsomeness that I love in homemade noodles, but they are also a bit mushy. The crust for the turkey pie lacks the structure or crispness of crusts made with butter or lard, but that does not mean it lacks for flavor. The potatoes are real as that implies but a bit on the bland side too. The house rolls are yeasty and soft, not at all like white bread. Luckily they require no lubrication because I'm not a lover of the margarine served along side. I must confess that my favorite thing at Strongbow is actually their salad dressing. The house dressing, a mysteriously simple garlic vinaigrette with crumbled blue cheese, is gosh darn nearly the best salad dressing I know. Lest you think I am overly critical, I will tell you that I'd be happy to return to Strongbow Inn next time I'm in Valparaiso on a Tuesday.

Strongbow Inn
2405 E. US 30
Valparaiso, IN 46383

Dick Durbin should have checked with Erik Zorn First.

Sane advice.

Third Market
Oak Park Farmer's Market June 8, 2005

Thursday, Thursday, there was a time when I tried to report on the market as soon as I got home. Let me just say that certain members of my family did not appreciate a detour in the middle of an otherwise busy weekend, so I am left to blog the market when I get around to it. Luckily, I have the steeltrap memories of the Chowhounditas to remember what we bought.

Strawberries. This was another week of strawberries. Nicholl's Farms gave out tastes of about six varieties of strawberries. We liked the intensity of Noreastener, but as we were taking samples from the last available pint, we did not want a short stack. We settled on two: Idea and Sparkle. Idea had a distinct and strong undertone of funk, what sophisticates call plummy, what realists call barnyard and what those without subtly say, tastes a bit like sh*t. But of course, all in a good way. Complex. Special. The guy at Nicholl's said they were considered the closest to the wild strawberries of France. Sparkle were much opposite. Super-sweet like bubble gum but with enough nuance that they did not seem cloying.

While strawberries dominated the market, the first sweet cherries appeared at a couple of vendors. Fresh local cherries sing the way cherries trucked in from long distances cannot, but the first of the year are less than juicy, harbingers for what will come. Otherwise, pretty much more of the same, a lot of lettuces and related greens, snow peas, sugar snaps, shelling peas, rhubarb, spring onions. I should report that Nicholl's Farms had a few small containers of fresh red currents, perhaps to show they can then because there is a real market for fresh currents. The first crops of fresh flowers gave the market a much fuller look.

The bad news of the market: I spoke too soon on the faux vendors. Buried in the plant shop at the Southeast corner of the market is the dreaded supermarket produce. I guess it makes people feel good about buying consumer level stuff at a farmer's market, but these buyers are really not supporting the Farmer's Market. The good news: The donuts were better than last week, a real nice crisp crust against a light and fresh inside. I do note that we got to the market much later this week, after 9 AM, and the donut line was huge. I wonder, however, if the donuts get better as the day progresses. Maybe the oil gets seasoned?

See you next week.

Second Market
Oak Park Farmer's Market June 11, 2005

Sorry for the delay. I've been eating thin crust pizza and otherwise getting bogged down in various foodie forums.

Week two brought slight but distinct incremental changes in the market. In fact the whole point of blogging weekly is to capture these slight but distinct changes, because I think otherwise they get lost easily.

By week two, the market looks bigger. Empty spaces fill with Michigan fruit vendors who now have a crop to sell. Strawberries or asparagus. In fact if you went around to all the vendors, it was Christmas in June in Oak Park. Pretty much the entire output of the market was green or red. Of course Oak Park's premier vendor of variety, Nicholl's farm, offered a wider range of spring items. There was the first sugar snaps and shelling peas of the season. Nicholl's Farm, as they are wont, offered not just strawberries, but varietals of strawberries including "All Star," "Prime Time," "Honeyoye" and "Jewel." Amongst the other vegetable vendors, one could find the first broccoli, lotsa greens, radishes, snow peas, and these. We actually got these turnips the week before, but they are wallowing away in the fridge as I cannot decide what to do with them.

We went to a dinner last night for the group, Seven Generations Ahead at 312 Restaurant. This dinner featured dishes from Oak Park's market: a tart from Nicholl's Farm's garlic shoots and greens, roasted Nicholl's fingerling potatoes (keeper potatoes!), a dish of Nicholl's beets with goat cheese (what an advertisement for beets), another salad featuring Genesis Farm's asparagus and mizuna greens and a final salad of Nicholl's peas over lettuce. I joked that there was about $100 worth of peas on my plate given the high price of farmer's market peas. For dessert there was strawberry tarts and rhubarb cobbler and a rosemary panna cotta (which was gone by the time I got there). If you all do not believe that there is a significant taste advantage in fresh, local produce, well you should have been there last night to try.

I should digress to point out that while Seven Generations Ahead is an Oak Park based group, and the farmer's who provided the produce for the dinner, Nicholl's and Genesis Growers, are at the Oak Park Farmer's Market each week, the food itself was donated for the event by the Green City Market, where Nichols and Genesis also vend. Also, the dinner featured roast pork from Wettstein's Farm. Again, what an endorsement for non-commercial stuff. Chef Dean Zanella roasted the pork with nothing more than salt and pepper. Really allowed the natural pork flavor to shine. The pork was actually a bit leaner than I would have expected, but as I said, it was much more delicious than typical pork. Chef Zanella also served on side, the crisped up skin. Crisped up natural pork skin. Obviously, I took seconds.

OK, let me return to the market with this important note: the donuts were better this week. There was a clear layer of crisp against a softer donut, just what I like in this breed of donut.

See ya next week.

Blogging the Market
Oak Park Farmer's Market June 4, 2005 - Opening Day

Editor's Note: Three years ago (and I cannot believe it was really 3 years ago), I attempted to report weekly of the Oak Park Farmer's Market, capturing why I wanted to go each week (as well as what was there each week, which was not always the same thing). Here's an example of a weekly report. I had a lot of fun doing it, but it also became a bit of a chore. By the end of the season, I actually felt that I was not doin' the market justice. The next year, I started bloggin' the market again, but for a variety of reasons, my heart was not into it, and by last year, I was not doing it at all. I am gonna try, however, to do it this year. On one hand, I want to try to invigorate some of the things that made the summer of 2002 special for me. On the other hand, I am not gonna sit down and try and write a essay each week. I'm aiming for the something is better than nothing approach. Also, the VI family is planning a few summer excursions, including, hopefully, to Indianapolis, so I do not expect to get to every market.

On to the market:

The first few weeks of the Oak Park Farmer's Market always have a slight feeling of incompleteness to them because several vendors do not yet appear. Especially glaring, is a big space in the middle of the market where The Farm will later park their corn truck. Still, this seemed the biggest opening day I remember. The market was full of stuff already: early strawberries, the first sugar snap peas, bags of baby lettuce, turnips, mustard greens, left over keeper potatoes, asparagus, smaller beets, hot house tomatoes. One Michigan fruit vendor supplemented their meager offerings with dried fruit and another Michigan vendor brough along a full range of canned goods. Nicholls was selling tomato plants. Oak Park now has Heartland Beef. The is the local, ultra-light Beeline Honey instead of Oak Park's own Avedon famous beekeper. So, all in all, it did not seem vacant at all. One could spend a lot of money on Saturday. We did.

We pulled in three versions of the strawberries. I would say poor, OK and darn good without revealing all the vendors. Well, I will say that Mr. Skibbes near the donuts had some darn good strawberries. We picked up lettuce and argula from Farmer Vicki and Japanese turnips from Sandhill Organics. At Stovers, we got some asparagus they assured us was picked just the day before. And to show support, we got a chunk of meat, sirloin roast, from Heartland. Oh, and some cheese from the cheese people.

Local lore has it that the famed donuts need a few weeks running to get out the kinks, to perfect the recipe, but this week's donuts were plenty fine if not quite as close to the grease (i.e., had been sitting a bit too long) than ideal.

One more thing to add, the market police seem to have finally nipped the faux vendors, the vendors whose merchandise never quite seemed to match the seasonality of the other vendors and whose produce looked a bit more uniform than the other vendors. There will be no bargains this year.

See you there next week.

Scafuri Bakery

Scafuri is an Italian bakery in the heart of the old neighborhood on Taylor Street. And for something this old, it has recieved scant attention on LTHForum. I put it into the search engine here and only a few mentions, and really nothing of the fare--as if people *knew* about the place, but no one knew about the place. Perhaps, I can correct that.

There are two impressions one gets upon entering Scafuri. One, what, the pessimist impression, might be put off by the enormous spaces between offerings. And the Italian bread does look a bit sad. They might not get anything at Scafuri. On the other hand, the bright-siders, will notice that there are two or three pastries that are so intensely hand made, so real looking. And the Italian woman, house dress and all running the show, straight from a cameo in a Scorsee flick, makes you feel quite at home. Be an optimist.

I've only tried a few things so far, but they are all as special as they look. Scafuri makes a bunch of pastries with a very short dough, do not tell the trans fat police, but this stuff is highly delicious. As I note above, it tastes like Momma made it, not a professional baker. Inside this dough comes various packages including a light sweet cheese. I've found the "strudel" highly addictive. I note this strudel is shaped long like a strudel, but the package is not a true strudel (i.e., from filo type layers). Still good.

Scafuri is a long way from being the best (surely not the best stocked) bakery in Chicago, but should be on your short list of places to try.

Scafuri Bakery
1337 W. Taylor St.
Chicago, IL
312-733-8881

Market Follow-Up
The Season's First Bitter (Big) Salad

Salt, sweet, sour, bitter. Eaters tend to rejoice with foods full of the first three basic flavors. Yet, how many diners do you see, pushing themselves back from the table, satisfyingly wiping their lips and say, "boy that was bitter." I mean, how many people just winced at the word bitter? Do not fear bitter. Two of the best things to consume are dominated by bitter flavors: chocolate and coffee. And lettuce, dressing tends to tame lettuce's bitterness, but underneath that dressing is some pretty bitter stuff. At Green City Market the other day, we picked up a bunch of mixed seasonal lettuces from Growing Power, the farm located in the midst of the city of Milwaukee. I was a bit skeptical of this lettuce because Growing Power had a lot of hothouse tomatoes. They insisted though, that the lettuce came from the ground. I believe them now.

This was lettuce to tame your fear of bitterness. And of course, high advertisement for farmer's markets. I made my first big salad of the year. I love big salads. I take a bunch of items found in the kitchen, typically farmer's market produce and leftover meats, then chop it as well as my poor knife skills allow. I confess that what I love most about the big salad is just shoving all the minced stuff in my mouth like a squirrel and enjoying the way it interacts. In fact, I do not think I could eat a big salad in the company of others because the puffed out cheeks would be so impolite. OK, I am getting off subject. This big salad featured leftover pollo rostizado from Carnercia Jimenez (not the best I've had from them, too salty); Costco miracle bacon (i.e., their pre-cooked bacon that lasts for 8 months and is really, really good); Caputo's roasted red peppers, the Condiment Queen's famous tapenade (so good the chowhounditas demand it for breakfast, with goat cheese, at least once a week); and some crumbled blue cheese, with mustard vinaigrette. Oh, and that Growing Power Lettuce, at the end of the day, with all those things faded into the background. I mostly tasted the lettuce, a deliciously bitter lettuce. I finished that big salad, pushed myself away from the table, wiped my lips, smiled to no one, and said, boy was that bitter.

Additional follow up: We made the Wilmont Milling polenta last night. It took a long time, much longer than promised, but at the end of the day it was worth the wait (if you like your polenta heavy, intense and tasting like corn.)

Chicago's Green City Farmer's Market
Always Gettin' Better

We missed the first couple of weeks of Chicago's Green City Market, but it took only one visit to convince me that it is better than ever. From its start, Green City has included vendors selling produce both organic and unique. That makes it a very good farmer's market. Yet, it did not stop there. Over the last few years, Green City has added several vendors offering local, organic meats such as Piedmontese style beef. And we are not talking a few chickens and a bunch of eggs. One could get bratwurst made from Illinois pork, bacon, parts including liver and kidneys, heritage turkeys, etc. More, more, more. A couple of years ago, Traderspoint, an organic dairy based in Indiana began offering their freakishly good milk and yogurt. How could they top it in 2005?

How 'bout stone ground organic grains from a water-run mill? 2005's Green City Market now has an array of products from Wilmont Milling Company (est 1840!). Grits made from white popcorn, polenta from yellow corn, even a grind made from Indian corn (also oatmeal, bread flour, rye, etc.). I found, that at $8 for 24 ounces, it was not a bad deal at all. I have yet to make it, but it looks great (and I doubt I will ever do a direct taste test with some of the mail order stone ground grits guys out there). Still, it adds to the completeness of the Green City Market.

Of course, I like my Oak Park market the best (which this year will include meat and eggs), but I like it for reasons not just food. I am most impressed with Green City.

NB: Wilmont Milling will only be at the market on Wednesdays. On Saturdays, they will be at the Indianapolis market.

What's Interesting at Caputo's This Week

Black radishes, roughly the size of turnips, looking like something used in the filming of Schindler's List. Got look carefully though. They are in a bushel basket underneath the bananas.

Why Go to Reuters Bakery Tomorrow (Saturday)

Every morning at Reuters, the fresser gets confounded with wonderful choices: multiple versions types of coffee cakes, seasonal rhubarb tarts, strudels, sweet rolls, but on Saturday morning, the choice is that much harder. On Saturday's Reuters bakes a kinda coffee cake loaf (in four varieties!). It is a yeast dough, ever so slightly dry, like a coffee cake, but overcome by various fillings like fresh blueberrys or pie cherries and topped with either icing or sugery crumbs. Slice it like bread. Toast it. But do it in a toaster oven with a tray 'cause the sugar will melt all over every thing.

Ripped Off!
Lunch at Osteria via Stato

First, let me note that the Condiment Queen did not hate Osteria Via Stato quite as much as me. Second, on a dinner visit, Mr. Barolo wrote on LTHForum that he had a more pleasant experience. But I got the keyboard in front of me.

Did I mention that I hated Osteria via Stato? Aside from accusations of deliberate food poisoning, I s'pose that calling a place a rip-off is about as bad as you can say. No?

Granted, to be ripped off, one has to be willingly gullible, to expect something nice from LEY places (and I have defended them over the years), and to buy into this "more Italian" experience they were promising at Osteria via Stato. So, maybe it's my fault.

I expected to be impressed with lavish platers of attractive antipasti: vibrant salads, luscious meats. I expected the pastas to be deliciously simple, emphasizing the grain as much as the condiment, and I expected a good if small main course or secondi. Of course, based on all the hype and such, I was also expecting a price fixe menu. (I also expect in a pretty empty restaurant to not be led to a table in the corner abutting the computer, but that I remedied with a bit of vocalization.)

It turns out at lunch they do not really serve the price fixe anymore. It was all ala carte, but I made a little stink (called threatened to leave), and voila there was still a two course set deal for $19 (give or take a dollar I forget now). Should have stuck with the ala carte. Here's what we got. Two bowls of asparagus soup--I mean two bowls with a little bit of asparagus soup in them; two playing card thick slices of baked fennel; and an overdressed green salad. That was our wow-us first course. We were then allowed to pick from the pastas or entrees. I chose the "homemade" paparadelle with meat ragu, and my wife chose salmon with green sauce.

The soup was good enough, it was more a chicken veloute with a few slices of asparagus than a soup that really brought out the spring flavors, but it was very much wrong as the first thing served. The fennel tasted fine, but the way it came, so tiny, on a tiny plate, made eating it seem so joyless, and the salad, surprisingly enough was pretty bad, you would think green salad how can they do that, but it was overdressed and overdressed with a too sweet dressing. But c'mon, where was the house cured salmon I've heard about, the salumi, the proscuitto*. I've had glorious antipasti in Italy, and this felt more like what a place would give you as nibbles with a glass of wine.

And you know I am not gonna like the pasta. It may have been made in house, but I suspect it was done either with an extruder machine or an Atlas machine (if really made in house), because at the end of the day, it had none of that toothsomeness, that feel of real home made pasta. Like so much of the lunch, it seemed lifeless and joyless. And (of course) it goes without saying that it came way over sauced (and the sauce was nothing special either). My wife did enjoy her small piece of fish. I did not taste it, but visually, it did look well cooked.

Perhaps because they sensed my misery, they decided unannounced, to bring us some sides near the end of our meal. We got a polenta that was cooked well but was exceedingly bland, and some nice local asparagus that even they could not ruin.

On top of all of this, we were dumb enough to go with the bring us wine program (abet at the piker $15 option). It was an especially dumb call, cause they offered us a glass of wine with the set lunch. Instead, we got three mediocre glasses of wine. The first, a Sicilian white from Cusamano had a nice floral nose, but was vapid on the tongue. The second, a red Sicilian (Nero d'Avola) also from Cusamano was just vapid, and the third, a Puglian wine (Uva di Troia) from Santa Lucia had that bubble-gum-y taste of a bad Beaujolais noveau. We left most of the reds un-drunk.


*One of the first visual cues that things were not all they should have been at Osteria via Stato, is that when you walk in, you see a display of a bunch of the antipasti (as well as a few of the raw materials with labels of origin). I'm not gonna comment on the wrinkled eggplants, but the ham. It is displayed prominently, shown off. Yet, it is shown off in a machine slicer, actually a show-off machine slice with a vivid paint job. It's really meant to catch your attention, show off. But all I think is, who really wants to show off machine sliced prosciutto. Would not a place that aspires to what they aspire to, hand slice the ham? Is not prosciutto SUPPOSED to be hand sliced...

Al Pastor es La Ley

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that my luck in chowhounding has a lot to do with the eagle eye of the Condiment Queen. There are times, however, when I do OK as well. As we have discussed on these boards before, a good signifier to me has always been home-made-y looking signs advertising regional/obscure specialities. La Ley at the intersection of Grand and Austin has several big hand painted signs telling the passerby of their barbacoa de borrego estillo Durango (steamed lamb as done in Durango, in the north of Mexico). I've been wanting to go here for a while. And as so often the case. What took me so long.

The first thing I saw upon entering was a very robust cone of al pastor pork. I knew what to have with my barbacoa. When the CQ opened her menu, she knew what she would have (after seeing a tiny piece of paper advertising carne en su jugo). My ony decision, get the al pastor en gordita or not. With a bit of half-assed Spainish, I learned that the gorditas were hecho a mano, handmade, and I was set on lunch. Truly great al pastor. Ideal al pastor in the sense that the meat was throughly crisped up from the spit cookery, not hung to dry and fried on the griddle. The gordita was huge, like a masa sammy. The two tacos de barbacoa were just as good, the kinda fatty, near gelatonous taste that leaves your lips greasy (but in a good way).

All the stuff was enhanced by a trio of salsas, each hotter than the next. I was especially keen on one made mostly of charred jalepenos, but a thinner green sauce, and a red sauce with a strong smokey element were about as good. The carne en su jugo was not quite as complex as some I've had, but what it lacked nuance, it made up for with muscle. A very strong bowl of meat, bacon and beans. Ms. VI gave it the esteemed comment, "it does not taste like restaurant food." Unlike most carne en su jugo I have had, the meat was soft and rich instead of grilled. They had no take out menus, so I do not currently have the address or telephone number. I cannot vouch for anything else on the menu, but I was pretty blown away on this, my first visit.

After eating here, I was most interested in the opinion of Rich4, a hound rather obsessed with tacos al pastor. Well, it seems he likes the place.

Taqueria La Ley
6000 W Grand Ave
Chicago, IL
(773) 385-9878

What's Interesting This Week at Reuters Bakery

A yeast coffee cake made with fresh rhubarb. A bit pricey at $7, but surely a repersentation of the season.

What's Interesting This Week at Caputo's

Organic "mini-watermelons". Also available at Goodness Greeness (although I do not know this place). See here for details.

Also, fish. I've been very impressed with the looks of Caputo's fish department. Right now they have whole "toto" fish. Beats the heck out of me, and sea snails too.

Missing Information

Cynics might suggest the lack of posting stems from two weeks of drubbing in the Phil Vettel game (e.g., review AND mother's day listings...). No, I can and will give Phil credit for his victories. Rather, I have been bedeviled by the twin demons, work and wrecked computer. Work's still there, but the computer problems have been mostly fixed (for the time being). Look forward soon to plenty of vital information:

The Czech paradox...opinions on three leading Midwest deli's; the strata of Milwaukee dining...Michigan style coney dogs and coney burgers...a like new version of the ice cream listing (with data on the superb south side ice cream gems like Gayety and Cunis)...reviews of Apple's America and the Stern's Roadfood (neither hits the sweet spot)...lunch with the big shots at Gene and Georgetti's...

Stay tuned and sorry for the missing information.

Bourbon Blogging

I'm the last to know all the cool blogs. Learn about whiskey from Chuck.

Bourdain and Bulli

Apparantly Tony Bourdain did a one hour program on Ferran Adria, but it's been embargoed from US consumption.A Chicago foodie got his hands on the tape though. He gives a re-cap here.

A link for people with BitTorren familiarty is provided at the end of the post.

What's Interesting This Week at Caputo's

Onion sets. Very, very tiny baby onions, white.

James Beard Food Journalism Awards

The nominees are out (via SauteWednesday). Sad to see my favorite food piece missed the cut. Anything else left out?

Do We Have a Winner in the (CTrib) Cheap Eats Game?

Every Wednesday right before I unwrap our Chicago Tribune, I regale (or torment depending on your mood) the family with the Cheap Eats game. Each week, the Tribune's food section publishes a "Cheap Eats" review, or shall I call it a "review". I'll leave for another rant, the heading dominated format that leaves little room for actual remarks on the restaurant, and talk today on the basis of the Cheap Eats Game. Is it a restuarant worth reporting.

Because there is one Cheap Eats review each week. And there are a lot of cheap eats in Chicago (or as noted on LTHForum, in the furthest suburbs as well.) So, each week, I wonder, could it be a undiscovered but interesting taqueria, a well regaded Persian place run by an Assyrian family from Iraq, or god dang it, That-a-Burger. What comes each week? Endless faux Irish pubs (who knew Buffalo chicken wings were so popular in Eire), corporate outposts, and best of all, corporate outposts of Irish pubs (or is that Irish pub corporate outposts?). Play along.

I cannot figger out if we have a winner this week with Let's Go Bistro in Downer's Grove. It's not faux Irish and it's not a chain (I do not think), but it is also faux French (it aint a bistro). Actually, my first thought when I saw the restaurant name was, bistros should be the domain of the main Trib reviewer, Phil Vettel. Since this is really a cafe, really a diner (so it seems), I can see it outside *his* domain. Anyway, in the bungalow this morning we split on whether this was a winner. Care to cast a vote?

Proud Papa

It was one of those rarest of days. A special day. Daddy-daughter. Solo. Actually, even rarer, it was Daddy and older daughter. We made great use of our day together. A day of great chow. A day to make Pop proud.
After dropping off Mommy and other daughter for their camping trip, we faced the first hurdle of the day, breakfast. Chinese she said, and Dad pointed the car in that direction. An unusual Saturday morning traffic jam forced us off the highway at Independence Boulevard, but it gave Dad a chance to point out all the ex-synagougues. I had been happy before with Seven Wives before, for something breakfasty, but different. It was a little hard at Seven Wives because early in the day the seem to have a limited selection.

Limited. Did I mean different, odd? The standard breakfast is pick one from A one from B. A is mostly "regular" breakfasts like waffles and eggs and B is various kinds of noodles. Nothing there sounded appealing. We decided instead for the congee combo. It is firstly a bowl of congee; secondly some soft rolled rice noodles. And did I say I was proud, the chowhoundita had two bowls of preserved egg/fish congee, although she later confessed, she did not want to know what the fish was until after she finished. While it is unglamorously served in a small styrofoam cup, the coffee that is included with the congee deal is very good. Also, the heavy lacquer furniture and artsy-fartsy wall decorations belie the low prices here.

From there we meandered up Michigan Avenue and Clark Street, talking about architecture and stuff, ending at Tower Records. (You know things have changed so much in this hood by how easy parking is.) She made me proud by seeking out (and requesting for gift) Green Day's American Idiot. What's more, the title song, especially, makes me proud that there is something around still called rock n' roll.

Not quite hungry but there, we took our first dip into the waters of Hawaiian cooking, Chicago style, Aloha Grill. We got a big old plate of fried chicken breast, very, very crisp; two sauces, the curry and the sweet katsu sauce; and a lot of rice. Our plate did not include the mac salad, which I think is a good thing. From there, we checked out the Austrian Bakery on Clark. I know it's gotten pretty good reports, and the Brilliant one raves about it, but nothing looked too good. Instead, we had a crepe and mint tea (well mint tea for Dad, crepe for daughter) at Crepes and Coffee. It is an interesting place, apparently run by some Algerians, which of course means you can get merguez in your crepe. But there are a lot of choices that especially appealed to me, with cajeta and dulce de leche and nutella and Belgium chocolate sauce (an international array of goo).

We spent a fair amount of time playing with cats at P.A.W.S, then hooked up with my parents. For more looking at orphaned animals--this time Anti-Cruelty and an early dinner at Marcello's Father and Son. Dad always likes their broasted chicken and especially their cole slaw with a strong suggestion of horseradish (cole slaw tasting anyone?) Of course, she made me proud by scarfing down a big ol' steak sammy.

All during the planning of our special day, we talked about what would be our crowning touch, dessert. And to make me quite proud, she passed, saying she had enough for the day.


Seven Wives
2230 S. Wentworth
Chicago, IL
312-842-7888

Aloha Grill Hawaiian BBQ
2534 N. Clark St.
Chicago IL 60614
773-935-6828

Austrian Bakery and Deli
2523 N Clark St
Chicago, IL
(773) 244-9922

Crepe and Coffee Palace
2433 N. Clark
Chicago, IL
(773) 404-1300

Marcello's (A Father & Son Enterprise)
645 West North Avenue
Chicago, IL 60610
312.654.2550

'Nother Blog

I've had food blogs on the brain of late. I do not know Tana Butler, but I always loved her avatars on Mouthfuls. Turns out her blog on farms is pretty great too.

No Value Blog

I came across this blog, Anchored Nomad, via a comment on EatChicago. I'm not sure if there's any redeeming value, but it sure is a fun read.

Chowhound

It has been about a year since I and most of the other people who posted regularly on Chowhound's Chicago Board departed to LTHForum.com. Us foodies now have various opinions of our old hang-out. A lot of people could care less about what happens there. To a large part, I agree with that sentiment. It was clear to me and a lot of other posters on Chowhound, that the 1,000's of posts we made that added value to the enterprise were hardly appreciated. The view essentially was, someone else will just take your place. Have they?

My bone is with Chowhound. What bugs me is, there are people out there like me that want to grow as foodies, want to be with people who pang as they pang. The want to be with their tribe. Chowhound just does not serve them well. One of the biggest liabilities of Chowhound is that there is no way to create identity. People can be who ever they want, even from day to day. The only defense a system like Chowhound has, is to have long time posters who are willing to be accountable, be who they are.

Honestly, it was this post on Chowhound that drove me to blog on Chowhound (and it is a post already moot). Someone trying to give a tip on Chinese food suggested a long dead restaurant. I read the post and I did not know if the post was serious or a troll. And it just summed up, to me, so many of the issues with Chowhound. Wonder about the motive of the poster, and Chowhound would step in, correct the poster, and you get attacked for not allowing alternative viewpoints. The whole Chowhound system fails to do what it claims to do, be a resource for people who live to eat.

I am glad I know about other sources. I just want others to be as lucky.