Yum Thai "Secret Menu"

One of the first secret menu's exposed on Chowhound was Yum Thai, a seemingly typical Thai restaurant in Forest Park. While many of the items on the Thai menu seem the same as items on the American menu, in reality it is all different. Different and better. Pretty much everything ordered from the Thai menu tastes MUCH better. Try for yourself.

Translating the Thai menu at Yum Thai into English was not quite as easy as expected. Finally, our distant friend foodfirst did the trick. Just as important, Zim took her translation and matched against the Thai words on the menu.

You can get your own copy of the Yum Thai secret menu here. Thanks to GWiv for hosting another menu.

More Great Reporting from the Chicago Sun Times
(Corruption in Chicago, who knew?)

As noted on this page before, the Chicago Sun Times has been doing a fantastic job in identifying corruption and organized crime influence in the City of Chicago's "Hired Truck Program". Here's the latest. (Use a VERY good pop-up killer before going to the link.)

New Chocalte Kid Coming to Town

A friend of mine is friends with Todd Moore, owner of the Chicago Chocolate Company. My friend passes on the following on the company (which I apologize, I have yet to try).

There's an excellent potential supplier for you or your company I am writing to make you aware of.

The Chicago Chocolate Company (CCC) opened in the fall of 2003, but it draws from over 14 years of excellence.

Eric and Todd Moore, long-time friends of mine, own CCC with Mark Tarner, who founded South Bend Chocolate Co. in 1989 and now has 20 chocolate cafes in IN, MI and OH.

They will eventually be placing a store in Downtown Chicago, but actively do business today on their website, www.chicagochocolate.com

The customer service is solid and all types of chocolate, which are made in South Bend are GREAT --I'm a toffee crack head.

Our company recently used CCC for all our client holiday gift giving. Pricing is very competitive, but what made it a home run for us is they uploaded our dist. List onto their secure server and now we can access it quickly for future gift giving. I hope CCC can be of benefit to you, especially with the closing of Fannie May. If you have questions or want to talk to them, call:


Todd Moore
The Chicago Chocolate Company
(773) 230 1602
todd.moore@chicagochocolate.com

Googling and the Limitations Thereof

Sunday's Washington Post had a good article on the ever-more omniscient Google. As the article notes, "to google" has entered the lexicon. "People keep finding new ways to use Google. It is now routine for the romantically savvy to Google a prospective date. "Google hackers" use the infiltrative powers of Google to pilfer bank records and Social Security numbers. The vain Google themselves." Still, the article points out some limitations to Google, and blogger Kevin Drum shows how searching remains an art as much as a science. Finding vital information requires more than googling.

WHY GOOGLE
There is no doubt that Google changed the way that people gathered information. The WaPo suggests that university library circulation dropped 20% since the advent of popular Internet search engines (how the heck anyone could really know that, I gotta wonder). Google did it three ways. First, it created a good algorithm, a way of getting more exact results from a search. This is usually the reason most ascribed for Google's success, but I think this reason is much less important than the other two reasons. So, second, Google's getting a LOT of stuff in their database. All search engines are only as good as the data obtained by their "spiders." The WaPo article states that, "Google initially searched about 20 million Web pages; the company's home page now boasts that it searches 3,307,998,701 pages." It is in those 3 billion+ (and growing) pages that Google finds what you want. Very often, within all those pages, only a couple of sites have your words. Thus, which page comes first hardly matters. Last, Google is good and people use Google. As Yogi Berra would put it, everyone uses Google because everyone uses Google. Once people realized they could easily search, well they did. The question stands, how good are their searches and should they be turning their backs on the library stacks.

GOOD SEARCHES REQUIRE GOOD WORDS
Drum notes that the success of your search depends mostly on your ability to put in the right words. I believe I am a very good researcher, and two of the biggest skills I bring to each research project are knowing what words to put into any search and then knowing how to adjust my search based on the results. Whether it is Google or more quaint databases like Lexis-Nexis, it takes the right words to get the right results.

WHEN WORDS FAIL
The WaPo article points out that googling can lead now where:

Hendler explains the problem this way: If you type into Google the words "how many cows in Texas," Google will rummage through sites with the words "cow" and "many" and "Texas," and so forth, but you may have trouble finding out how many cows there are in Texas. The typical Web page involving cows and Texas doesn't have anything to do with the larger concept of bovine demographics. (The first Google result that comes up is an article titled "Mineral Supplementation of Beef Cows in Texas" by the unbelievably named Dennis Herd.)

This is the other big trick of research, not just knowing which words but where to put the words. Google as good as it is, is not the end-all. One must go to the right source that has the available data. Finding data still requires knowing which source to use and which document contains the right information. Google gets you close but not all the way.

Thoughts on Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises

Someone from outside of Chicago asked me about a couple of LEYE places that were opening up near him. Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (LEYE) is the dominant restaurant group in Chicago. They are well known for creating more than just restaurants but restaurant concepts. Like Disney, LEYE attempts to assault your inner and outer mind in such a way that the experience is much more than it seems. In my e-mail on LEYE, I made a few comments about LEYE that I thought were worth blogging. I would be interested in comments.

First, do not count me AT ALL as a basher. Some of their places are too cutesy, too much concept over substance, but others work just right, both as concept and as food. Moreover, I do not buy the theory of some, like my friend GWiv, that the clone is always inferior. I think at times LEY has duplicated places quite well. It does not always happen, but it is not impossible.

My biggest complaint I guess with Rich Melman is that he fiddles too much. Obviously, he has reasons, both the keep places fresh, and because he has the data of what sells, but I rarely approve his adjustments. Quite contrary, I like the way he starts. Melman, like me, seems to have a huge fetish with old fashioned dining, especially kind of a 40's-50's era archtype--e.g., that is the decor and style of Shaw's. Often, he will pepper the opening menu's with odes to this era, but as the longer the places are open, the more he seems to replace the classics with dumb contemporary style dishes. Think salmon and pasta. I wish he would stick to his convictions. Also, I believe he has had a mixed record in his re-vampls. I like Mon Ami Gabi more than Un Grand Cafe and I suppose Tru is much better than Avanzare even if I have been to the latter not the former, but I much liked Hat Dance over National 27 and Bones over L.Woods.

Valententine's Day at Ixcapuzalco
Upscale Mexican in Chicago Lives On!

Valentine's Day is not supposed to produce such exquisite eating is it? Like New Year's Eve, it is a night for diners who do not necessarily go out, and a night for restaurants to most take advantage of its customers. When we arrived at Ixcapuzalco and saw the prix fixed menu, we braced for the worst.

We were already bracing. One chowhound warned us before going, to expect good food but poor service. A very sloppy and artless greeting seemed to confirm this view of the service. And our suspicions only deepened when our server explained the drink program this night: or two glasses of wine. What wine I asked (Ms. VI was fine with the night's special drink, passion fruit margarita). Our server fumbled, "Cabernet, Merlot, Pinot Grigio..." Painful, as she raked her memory, and I held off asking for any details that were obviously not coming. But she then, almost offhand, mentioned a Rioja, even a producer (who gosh darn right now I cannot remember), and not only did it seem better, it seemed right for the night. A few minutes later when that very large pour of Rioja came, and my mouth filled with its pleasant fruit and earth flavors, I was quite ready to enjoy the night. As it turned out, the service hardly improved, but since they consistently delivered such outstanding food to us, we hardly minded.

The "Valentines [sic] Celebration Dinner, 2004" contained appetizer, soup, entree, dessert and a mug of hot chocolate. As mentioned above, the meal included 2 drinks, either wine or some form of margarita, including the cliche passion fruit. For $55, my wife and I found it a fine value. One problem with special occasion, set meals, is that you usually feel restricted by the choices. Hardly the case at Ixcapuzalco, the menu gave us enough to fight over. Neither of us though, had the guts to get the dish more appropriate to the night, "Laura Esquivel's infamous quail in exotic rose petal sauce." Besides, we quickly and easily zeroed in on key dishes.

Of the group of appetizers, we both wanted the seviche, but foodies in good standing that we are, we need to try something else too, so the other got the enchilada de champandongo. How fortuitous! This turned out to be the best dish of the night, AND the filling came way too cold. Ixcapuzalco takes two of their fresh made tortillas and stuffs them with a mixture of shredded pork and beef. It then bathes the folded tortillas in a savory red mole. My first bite contained jarringly cold meat, so cold, I had to hunt down the server to see if they erred. But here's a bit of a secret, as I waited, I continued to nibble. I tried to do it in such a way to disguise my efforts, you know who can return a mostly eaten dish, but my intention was partially to just get more tortilla and mole. Granted, it was not all chicanery, the inside did seem wrong. The waitress, however, explained that the filling was supposed to be room temperature and I did not want at all another dish. I just kept the taken out of the refrigerator too late dish. Anyway, this was a dish all about the sauce. It should not have even had a filling, just tortilla and sauce. Maybe the best thing I can say about the mole is, even now, thinking about the dish many hours later, I cannot really name the ingredients. I mean I know the ingredients of a red mole, but a list of ingredients would be meaningless to this mole. A sauce blended into one homogenous, balanced, vivid (and quite spicy) whole that no ingredient stood out. The seviche, by the way, was pretty darn good too and featured a fresh tasting, fruity green salsa.

After so many flavors in the first course, you would think the soup would notch things down, give the palate a breather. Hah! Unlike the appetizers, we more easily divided on the two soup choices. The Condiment Queen moved towards the sopa azteca, long a favorite of hers, I the oxtail. I much preferred my choice. The sopa azteca tasted good, but I found it too thick, almost a liquid mole. I find such soups excessively filling (and this soup with all its garnishes of chicken breast, avocado, and tortilla strips was nearly a meal). My soup, the oxtail was an amazing bowl of flavors and textures. On the surface it was a bright consommé, typically Mexican, very reminiscent of the goat soup at Maxwell Street. Underneath, an array of items that spoke well to its chefly origins. For instance, swimming at the bottom of the bowl were perfectly cooked multidimensional onions and other ingredients, a masterful sofrito. The small piece of oxtail was likewise masterful, soft, beefy and tight on the tooth without being stringy.

Within ten seconds of menu glancing, my wife knew her entree, chiles en nogada. A classic Mexican celebration dish, one requiring true kitchen skills and either a lot of time or several sous chefs. Mixing so many elements, fresh poblano chile, rich pork stuffing, intense spiced-cream sauce, bursting pomegranate seed, it was the kind of dish expected at a restaurant like this. The outcome met and exceed all expectations. My grilled duck breast could not come close in terms of history or complexity, but it sure tasted delicious. They left the duck just red enough to truly mimic red meat and the sauce described on the menu as a "swarthy guajillo" had fine bitter tones that complemented the richness.

While I chickened out of the rose-petal quail--partially because I am not much of a quail guy either--I wanted the sides for that dish, wild greens and baby potatoes. I asked for a substitution. They would not comply. I was no worse the wear though as the mashed potatoes with my duck could accurately be described as butter, bound together with a bit of potatoes. I should add that the chiles en nogada came with a small (well can I keep on using the word perfect in this overly long report?) perfect dressed salad of exotic greens.

It is hard to wrap things up quickly. Tres leches cake, one of the few common denominators of Hispanic cooking, is a favorite of mine. While I am gonna like nearly any such cake, Ixcapuzalco's was nothing particularly special. On the other hand, after so much artistry above, the simple cake made lots of sense. Besides we ended the night with more flavors. We had to remind our waitress to serve us our hot chocolate, but again, it was worth the nudge. Made, I am almost positive, traditionally, with water instead of milk, the mug of spiced accented liquid chocolate was the PERFECT close to a gorgeous meal.

One final, final note, getting back to the wine. A certain amount of conventional wisdom says that only a few white wines stand up to spicy foods, but this was patently not the case last night. The Rioja, not very sweet, but very fruity and with tons of body, stood up to and well accentuated the food. I have, historically, been very skeptical of the "wine+food=sum greater than the parts" notion, but of the few times where I know the wine made the food even better, two of them have been with a Rioja. And speaking of conventional wisdom, it would suggest that a Valentine's dinner should be less good than typical. I do not have enough experience with Ixcapuzalco to say how this meal compared with others, but if this their version of banquet food, I am quite eager to return for the normal menu.

Ixcapuzalco
2919 N. Milwaukee
Chicago, IL
773-486-7340

Bourbon Tasting
Guest Notes from Harry V

[Bourbon is one the preferred beverage choices of the Chowhounds, myself included. Through the encouragement of the poster ab, and extra efforts of AaronD, a tasting was arranged at Delilah's bar in Chicago. I could not attend to my strong regret, but I am lucky enough to be able to share Harry V's detailed tasting notes.]

If no one else cares to weigh in, I'll take a crack at describing the
tasting. Samples were 1.5 ounces (i.e., one shot), poured into
straight-sided glasses tall enough to capture their aromas. The lineup was
as follows:

1. GEORGIA MOON CORN WHISKEY. Mike Miller, owner of Delilah's and emcee for
the event, began with this whimsical selection so as to demonstrate the
flavor of 100% corn whiskey (of course bourbons, to be labelled as such,
must be made of more than 50% corn). It was the color of pale straw, to my
senses it smelled of weak tequila and tasted like very light rum. A ringer.

2. W.L. WELLER 12-YEAR BOURBON. The first three actual bourbons sampled
represent those in which corn is supplemented with wheat, rather than the
more usual rye. To me this one had a bright, pleasantly acidic aroma with
hints of honey, and a very wheaty flavor suffused with black pepper. Very
nice.

3. MAKER'S MARK. Another wheated bourbon, this long-time favorite (of mine)
had a nice woody aroma, and a more well-rounded flavor than the Weller, less
wheaty and a little more .. well, "fruity" is what I wrote down, even though
there's no fruit in the stuff. (Surely I was still sober at this early
stage?)

4. DELILAH'S 10-YEAR SINGLE BARREL UNFILTERED BOURBON. I believe Mr. Miller
indicated that this bourbon was derived from the Van Winkle line of bourbon.
This was the last of the wheated bourbons we tried, with an elegant, well
balanced aroma (i.e., it smelled simply like bourbon), with a flavor that
was less bright than the previous two, but richer, deeper, earthier and more
well-rounded, with a much longer finish than anything we tried all night
except the two Old Potreros at the end. Excellent.

Disclosure: the next seven whiskeys, all featuring rye rather than wheat
(and most of them very modest amounts at that), didn't do much for me. So my
comments on them should perhaps be taken with more than usual dosage of
salt.

5. OLD FORESTER BOURBON. Strongly alcoholic, turpentine-like aroma; very
middle-of-the-road flavor (it should not have followed the Delilah house
brand).

6. WOODFORD RESERVE BOURBON. Aroma of apples plus turpentine; flavor was
much like that of a youngish, indifferent Speyside single-malt.

7. BASIL HAYDEN BOURBON. This had a mild, "fruity," slightly sweet aroma;
very mild, smooth flavor. Aptly described by Mr. Miller as a "ladies'
bourbon" (Joan: his words, not mine).

8. VERY OLD BARTON BOURBON. Aroma similar to the Basil Hayden, but not as
sweet, a little more turpentine (due, I would assume, to a stronger proof);
flavor was exceedingly mild, akin to Canadian whisky.

9. BUFFALO TRACE BOURBON. The least successful whiskey we tried, in my
opinion (apart from the leadoff corn squeezins). I thought it had no smell
at all, with a watery, corn-whiskey-like flavor.

10. WILD TURKEY RUSSELL'S RESERVE BOURBON. This was a good one, with a
strongly malty aroma (first sign of maltiness in the tasting; but stay
tuned) and a dark, rich, buttery flavor, slightly reminiscent of a superior
dark rum.

11. ELIJAH CRAIG 18-YEAR SINGLE BARREL BOURBON. Sweet, appley aroma with a
mellow, slightly clove-like flavor.

Last came the two Old Potreros. Initially Mr. Miller planned to serve only
the Single Malt Whiskey (from toasted barrels); but in the middle of working
himself, and us, into an ecstasy of expectation while he described its
glories, he noticed that his assistant had poured out the other Old Potrero
(from charred barrels). After a parliamentary exchange of ideas between
ourselves and he, Mr. Miller eventually came 'round to providing a sample of
the toasted-barrel Old Potrero as well.

12. ANCHOR DISTILLING "OLD POTRERO" STRAIGHT RYE WHISKEY (CHARRED BARREL).
Not much finesse here but what a blockbuster! Intense aroma of pine cones
and pine forest; a rye plus black pepper flavor of intense fullness, depth
and length; kind of like drinking a liquid Ry Krisp (but better).

13. ANCHOR DISTILLING "OLD POTRERO" SINGLE MALT STRAIGHT RYE WHISKEY
(TOASTED BARREL). This, in my opinion, was undoubtedly the finest drink
tasted. A very well-rounded, sweet, fruity, piney smell (but not
monochromatically piney like the charred Potrero); flavor of intense
maltiness - sweet, rich and peppery - just great! (And strong!)


SUPPLEMENTARY TASTING

After the official tasting was over, a few of us decided we needed to
supplement (ahem) our findings.

S1. BAKER'S. Gary Wiviott's bourbon of preference entering the tasting,
Baker's was smooth with nice flavor, a fine all-around bourbon.

S2. EVAN WILLIAMS. Aaron's preferred mixer bourbon - and I can see why.


*********

Harry V

P.S. It's too bad Mike Miller did not himself participate in the tasting, or
else by the end he might have been willing to pass around shots from his
semi-legendary 1916 bottle of Old Mock. Maybe next time.

On the Same Page as the Chicago Tribune

Sometimes I do agree with the hometown news. From the lead editorial in today's Chicago Tribune:

..."Why a jurist of Scalia's extraordinary intellect won't exercise simple good judgment is a mystery. Maybe he has concerns about setting a precedent that could overly constrict other justices.

But as is, he risks being part of what many Americans will view as a tainted decision. That can only undermine the respect and trust citizens invest in the Supreme Court.

Without question, Scalia and Cheney are entitled to a warm and loyal friendship. Under codes of conduct in other courts, Lubet says, they still could spend time together and dine at one another's houses--even with Cheney's case before Scalia's court. But an elaborate hunting trip is too tight and valuable a bonding experience for citizens to discount as simple chumminess.

Scalia needs to embrace a basic axiom of public life. An apparent conflict of interest has one thing in common with a duck: If it walks like one, it is"

Eat Fire
Thai Avenue


When I was lucky enough to hook up with the LA hounds, I was most pleased with the restaurant choice proposed. Renu Nakorn. While no longer considered the most worthy of Thai restaurants in LA, it was still considered a top choice. More importantly, I eagerly anticipated my chance to eat fire. Food God, Jonathan Gold told me the Issan specialties at Renu Nakorn would sear my nostril hairs. I would eat fire. Oh how wrong he was. Renu produced a few fine dishes but not an overall great meal. And I did not eat fire.

Chowhound Zim, however, had been hot on the trail of a newish Thai place in Chicago, Thai Avenue. Zim sussed out that the people behind Thai Avenue were Issan. Well, I was convinced I could pull out of them, an entirely Issan meal. A meal that would burn down my goatee. During the course of a meal by me and a meal by the brilliant one, and several phone calls, I did manage to arrange a small banquet dedicated to eating fire. The brilliant one, though, added an especially interesting aside. While the owners of Thai Avenue were Issan, from the Northeast of Thailand, the cook was from the North. Our final menu was to include dishes both North and Northeast.

On our night of eating fire, Thai Avenue delivered three categories of dishes. Dishes on the English menu but sometimes not translated from Thai, dishes on a menu with Thai script and dishes made for us. A lot of the food featured heavy doses of red chile, but no one walked away from a dish crying. Eating fire served a bettor purpose. It woke us up to a full range of flavors, bits of sweet, near rancid, quite-pungent. Also, the fire came fast and furious early, so later in the night, as course after course came by, it seemed a something that never really happened.

From the menu written in English but not necessarily translated, we had the following spicy dishes: beef salad, exploded catfish salad, chicken laab, bamboo shoot salad, and papaya salad with preserved crabs. The crab gives the salad a taste almost of bilge water, but actually, unlike other times when having the dish this way, the sea did not overpower. Instead, looking like a bad case of measles, the papaya salad's cover of red chile made it too hard to focus on any other taste sensations. I really liked Thai Avenue's exploded catfish salad, Thai Captain Crunch as we have come to call this dish of crispy catfish essence. At Thai Avenue, the crunch seemed to float above the salad and dressing, so that you got both parts but at separate moments. I also liked the beef salad totally intertwined with fresh mint, a great duo.

From the menu written in English but not necessarily translated, we had the following non-spicy dishes: fried chicken, grilled pork neck and Issan sausage. Some of the other reports of the dinner on Chowhound say the meal was not really spicy. I think it was just the changing in dishes mid-meal. After so many dishes infused with so many herbs and spices, we took a big turn to dishes of fat and chew. All three of these things were fantastic, but I liked best, the pork neck. It combined the best features of pork, the fat of bacon, with a muscular chew of a good chop. The fried chicken, nearly all wings but a stray leg, was good but not quite as good as Spoon Thai.

From the menu written only in Thai script, we had a very interesting and different dish for me. Northern style laab, done with pork. When I ate this dish, I said, in a good way, it was weird. It really had a spicing I could not quite put my finger on. I looked in Thompson's book. He has a recipe for this dish. He notes that Northern Thai cooking uses a spice from the Ash shrub that gives a numbing flavor like Szechuan peppercorns, and he actually suggests Szechuan peppercorns as a replacement in the recipe. I wonder if Thai Avenue used Szechuan peppercorns to produce that "weird" flavor. The other characteristic of Northern laab is the lack of lime in the marinade. While people scoffed at me, I call this dish, Thai sloppy joes.

Finally, Thai Avenue cooked for us, a few dishes not normally on any menu. I prodded them into "kha-nom-jean-ngyow." This is a most typical Northern Thai dish. Served, I understand, mostly as street food. It was the last dish served that night, and because of that, it lost some pizzazz. It is something that could stand on its own as A meal, like some skewed Thai version of cassolet of something. The dish consists of three components. First, there is plain, bland vermicelli noodles, a base. Second, there are assorted garnishes included flash fried chilies, tiny shreds of preserved mustard, bean sprouts and cabbage slivers. Last is the dish itself, a large pot of alternating shades of red and reddish gray. Ground pork, rectangles of pork blood, squishy cut-in-half cherry tomatoes, and the chile soaked witch's brew that bound it all together. The overall taste was mostly sour notes, the pork chunks had tang, but also, each spoonful was dominated by whatever condiments you grabbed that time.



Pic by Gwiv

The other made for us dishes, were two nam priks or chile dips. One was green from roasted jalepeno, the other red nearly entirely of shrimp paste. The former dip was served with expertly carved raw and steamed vegetables including long beans and bamboo shoots; the latter came with small fishes. Vegetables with dips are a most standard part of Thai meals, Thompson's book has a whole chapter on them, but they are something rarely seen and ordered in Thai places in Chicago (at least). A few things, I believe, limit their availability on menu's. These are hard dishes to make. The require a lot of roasting and grinding and such. Then, I think eaters often just look at these dishes as basically crudites, party food, not as something serious. Last, these can be the most aggressive, hardest tastes to handle. While the green chile dip was surprisingly mild, the red was intensely stinky. For me, these dishes are really make the meal, "Thai."

 

Pic by Gwiv

We finished with two desserts, one hot one cold, as our waitress suggested. Thai Avenue brought us two large punch bowls. Cold was a mixture of red jello, water chestnuts and soon-to-be-watery condensed milk. Seemed easy, but it was surprisingly good. Hot was the classic dish of steamed taro balls in coconut milk, the balls possessing that, chomp- your-gums-many-many- times-texture, that I find about ideal.

Thai Avenue clearly joined the ranks of great Thai places in Chicago. Lots more reactions to the dinner can be read starting here.

Thai Avenue
4949 N Broadway
Chicago
773-872-2222

It's not all chow

Even though someone who shares an abode with me wishes I'd take some of my rantings and ravings about politics and such to the Internet, to make for quieter breakfasts, I am highly resistant to talk too much politics. Still, I am really, totally outraged by the following, and I do not see how anyone else cannot, regardless of your political orientation.

Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia is hearing a case involving an individual, an individual who took Scalia on an extended hunting trip. How can Scalia, at all, not recuse himself. Where is the outrage?

The following is from the LA Times. The full story is here (registration required).

PATTERSON, La. — Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia traveled as an official guest of Vice President Dick Cheney on a small government jet that served as Air Force Two when the pair came here last month to hunt ducks.

The revelation cast further doubts about whether Scalia can be an impartial judge in Cheney's upcoming case before the Supreme Court, legal ethics experts said. The hunting trip took place just weeks after the high court agreed to take up Cheney's bid to keep secret the details of his energy policy task force.

The Good Word

The big spread in the Chicago Tribune (registration required) surely has a bunch of people saying to themselves, hey that's me. As DougK once famously put, I've found my tribe. Not all of the people, in the tribe, however, like to shout their tips. My friend and neighbor, Mark, has been reading Chowhound for a while. He follows suggestions. He he's eaten at El Barco, Islas Marias, Garden Buffet, etc., and he has his own tips too. He turned me on to La Piazza in Forest Park. A great tip.

I've only been once, for lunch, but I can already tell it is a welcome addition to the greater Oak Park food scene. If nothing else, Piazza plays as well to parents as it does to kids, something nearby kid friendly places like Pronto Roma and Leona's cannot claim. For the kids, make your own pizza's. You start with a slab of dough which you stretch and toss; then sauce, cheese and your choice of toppings. They bake it for you, and viola, it is good too. Really nice pizza with a crust both crusty and pillowy soft--at least the way the chowhounditas made it.

Mom had a rolled and stuffed eggplant with house made pasta. Fresh mozzarella and a short cooked tomato sauce expertly garnished the dish. Dad had a sammy of chicken Milanese on fresh baked foccacia. Not a sandwich to grab. Too big and sloppy. I needed to deconstruct the chicken and its toppings, basil and above average winter tomatoes, but I still enjoyed it. Piazza breads their chicken breast with something coarse--almost like corn flakes (hey do not laugh, in yesterday's New York Times, (registration also required) it was reported that super chef David Burke coated foie gras with corn flakes). I liked the crunch, but I would have preferred a slightly thinner, pounded chicken breast.

Dinners are more expansive, not the sandwiches. I think the kid's pizza option is always there.

La Piazza
410 Circle Avenue
Forest Park, IL 60131
708.366.4010

Next Culinary Historian Meeting
(Tell 'em VI sent ya)

“A Valentine Day’s Menu of Culinary History”
presented by Chef Fritz H. Sonnenschmidt

Author, and Culinary Dean (retired), Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park New York

Saturday, Feb. 14, 2004, 10 a.m. to Noon at The Chicago Historical Society, 1601 N. Clark St., Chicago, Illinois

Please join us as the distinguished Chef Sonnenschmidt shamelessly regales us with his four-course menu of culinary history spiced with the kind of love and lore our organization allows only on Valentine’s Day:

1st Intercourse: History of food and how it relates to our food thoughts.

2nd Intercourse: Food legends and belief of sexual powers.

3rd Intercourse: Involvement of food in the rise and fall of nations and empires.

4th Intercourse: Food and the biggest love story of the century.

Certified Master Chef Sonnenschmidt was employed at the CIA from 1968 until his retirement in 2002. He served as a faculty member, department chair, associate director of Continuing Education and Culinary Dean. He began his culinary career as a teenage apprentice in his native Germany. He has won many awards in his long career, among them: The Escoffier Chair for Culinary Excellence; The Jerusalem Gold Medal for Culinary Excellence in Jewish Cooking; and several gold medals representing the U.S. in the Culinary Olympics.

Chef Sonnenschmidt is also the author of several books, including: “Dining with Sherlock Holmes;” “The American Harvest,” and “Taste and Tales of a Chef,”’ the latter of which he will be signing at our meeting. In addition, Chef Sonnenschmidt has appeared on PBS in two series: “Cooking Secrets of the CIA,” and “Grilling Maestros.”

This program is hosted by the Culinary Historians of Chicago.

Cost of the program is $10, $5 for students, and no charge for members of the Culinary Historians. To reserve, please call Susan Ridgeway, CHC treasurer at (815) 439-3960. Or e-mail your reservation to: rsvpchc@yahoo.com.

Please leave your name, telephone number and the number of people in your party.

Regional foodfest

I've said before, that unlike Chowhound, I am more than happy to give people a place to post good things. Cathy2 sends this quick bit of info on a foodfest near the Mississippi River--I cannot vouch otherwise for the event.

Kaiserhof Annual Jagerfest
Wild Game Feed
Feb. 8, 2004 12pm-8pm
170 West Main
Bradford, IL
All you can eat
Kaiserhof Restaurant
(309) 897-2505

Guest Post - MikeG
NOW THEN! ON TO THE BEST GUATEMALAN RESTAURANT IN NORTH AMERICA! Or
at least, Logan Square.

I promised yesterday that I would go eat something new and report back
today. Actually I think the place I went has at least been mentioned
before, as a Guatemalan bakery, Delicias Guatemaltecas Bakery, 2901 N.
Kedzie. However, I noticed some new signage on it including a new name
(La Luna del Xelaju), which suggested perhaps new ownership and/or a
fuller menu, and decided to see what they had.

The menu behind the bar was a typical all-things-to-all-people mix--
carne asada, Cuban Sandwiches, cheeseburgers and hot dogs. Instead of
ordering off it I told the lady of the establishment that I had eaten
at the Guatemalan restaurant (El Tinajon) on Roscoe but wanted to know
what they had that was different and better. That turned out to be the
best question I could have asked, not because she immediately told me
what to have but because she then gave me the full story.

El Tinajon, she said, makes city food (I assume meaning Guatemala
City). They are from Xelaju, a rural area on the Pacific coast, 90
miles away, and so their food is quite different. Initially they had
just been a bakery, making typical Mexican bakery-looking stuff, but
they had added Guatemalan and Mexican food over time, in their region's
style, and now they were about to get a complete menu change, hopefully
by this weekend if the printer finally finishes the new menus. It
would have considerably more than the menu has now, but even now it
represents a good sampling of their regional choices.

She talked me through a number of dishes but I decided to try multiple
smaller, more peasanty dishes to increase my odds. (By the way, oh
fans of sausage at Brasa Rojas and such places, there is a Guatemalan
sausage platter to be had.) I ordered a cheese pupusa (they also have
chicharron), a chicken tamale in their style, and a pache with pork,
along with a homemade limeade.

The first to come was the pupusa, accompanied by a goodly amount of
cortida (is that how you spell it? I only know it by sound from the
Maxwell St. video). My first bite seemed a bit too crisp, I would have
liked it a bit fluffier, but then she turned up again from the kitchen
with a salsa-- and what a salsa! A brick-red salsa as deep in color as
an artist's mixed oils, full of chunks of different shades of tomato
and pepper, seeds and black bits. I wept at the beauty of this salsa,
in which I could almost taste the instant that igneous mortar scraped
against volcanic pestle and released all the honesty and truth of
Mesoamerica's most noble vegetables. Any qualms about the crustiness
of my pupusa vanished in an instant, and it was only by conjuring up
thoughts of the dishes yet to come that I didn't leap up, race into the
kitchen and yell "Five more pupusas!"

(By the way, later on when she was talking about their clientele, I
asked her about the cortida. She said what I had today was the
Guatemalan style, but on the weekends they get more Salvadoran
customers and so they make it Salvadoran style, which has oregano in it
but is otherwise the same. Did anyone know that? I thought there was
a little cinnamon in the Salvadoran, but oregano?)

The next dish was the odd one out. It was a tamale, with a whole
chicken leg in the center, a very hot red pepper salsa mixed into it
and wrapped in banana leaf. But the stuff around the chicken leg was
closer in texture to the custard in banana leaf at Spoon Thai than to
the Oaxacan tamals at Maxwell, for instance. Clearly not masa, unless
it was whipped with a tremendous amount of egg or something (but no
corn flavor). I thought it might be potato (but the next dish was
supposed to be potato-based). So I asked-- it's rice flour. To be
honest, it was interesting to try but I found it too bland and slightly
icky after multiple bites (maybe because I suddenly realized it was the
exact consistency of my kids' first solid food, a rice cereal). It
needed the toothiness and flavor of something like masa, this was just
mush.

The next dish, a pache, which is basically a tamale made with potato
instead of masa, more than made up for it. The prep was largely the
same-- mashed potatoes with the red pepper salsa, chunks of pork and a
jalapeno, all boiled in a banana leaf-- but the savoriness of the
potatoes, plus a little squeeze of fresh lime over the pork, made this
outstanding. (And even better when I added the salsa.)

So, nice folks trying hard and growing in ambition, artisanal
Slow-Food-worthy homemade salsa, solid regional variations on a lot of
things we know folks 'round here-- this place is a winner and looks
likely to get better yet before they're done, if I were Cheap Eats I'd
jump on it and hand over at least three forks, maybe four pronto. (All
of the above came to the whopping sum of $8.50, by the way.) Check it
out, write it up, let's pack it, they deserve it.

Mike

The Best of the Best
Making subs at Riviera -- How do you?

Just below, I talk about the great sub at Riviera. After reading this, a Chowhound poster, Ponzu, mentioned he was anxious to try--thank Will not me. As I noted, there are no standard subs at Riviera. You just invent. So, I am interested to see what Ponzu invents, and I am curious how others get their subs made at Riviera.

Kalbi in the air
Garden Buffet

There has been much talk about Korean grilled meats on Chowhound of late. See here and here et seq. Totally independent, we've been planning a trip with some friends to the Korean buffet, Garden Buffet. We had a very nice dinner on Saturday.

I think, perhaps because Garden Buffet is, well a buffet, it might rate much higher on the hip-o-meter. I for, though, never sneer at all you can eat. Still, no sojutini's, just big bottles of OB beer that made a fantastic accord.

I really think a buffet format accentuates this form of eating. At non-buffet places I sometimes find myself begging for more lettuce, a mysterious hot sauce at another table or some other accoutrement. At Garden Buffet, you just help yourself. More lettuce, more scallions, more chunks of raw garlic, just grab. Which hot sauce, try 'em all. Mix and match the sesame oil, vinegar, soy, and salt-mixture to a 101 slurries. Want to try one piece of Korean chitlin', toss it on the grill. If the panchan or meats are not quite as elegant, these other features make up.

The other key features about Garden Buffet: excellent ventilation and tongs. The lump wood charcoals are ventilated down not up. Your table remains relatively smoke free, and the next day, aside from the garlic burps, you may not realize as much where you ate. I am reasonably adept with chopsticks, but I find it so much easier to work the grill with the tongs. So, good ventilation and easy handling of the food make Garden Buffet a great place.

I never touched any of the sushi at Garden Buffet the other night, but the selection was more than usual. I tried one fried wing, but it tasted too much like a McNugget. Mandoo (dumplings) did look good, but I was too full by the time I got to them. I do very much like the traditional close to Korean BBQ, the cold soba noodles with the do-it-yourself saucing.

I'll give Garden Buffet, because of all user-friendly features, a 5.4 on the hip-o-meter.


Garden Buffet Restaurant
5347 N Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60625-2307
(773) 728-1249

More OC Books

My friend Art Bilek who knows a LOT about organized crime in Chicago, recently published a book on the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. While those interested in more current affairs of the Outfit may think the events in this book too ancient, it is amazing how much this criminal action affected the entire history of Chicago criminal enterprises. Much of the current Outfit holds its ties to the old Capone gang, and knowing this history lets you understand a bit better, what is happening today. You should really give this book a shot.

The Best?
Riviera Italian Foods

I and a lot of people have been intrigued over the last several months about the idea of the "best." I cannot speak to other's motivations or inspirations, but I clearly got thinking about the idea after being confronted with about 12 breads any time I shopped at Caputo's in Elmwood Park. Which of the breads was truly the best? Eventually, this question morphed into the bread tasting party. The bread tasting failed on a couple of levels. Mostly, it failed because only a few breads came even close to the consensus winner, Melissa's home baked/ancient starter country loaves. It also failed because, confronted with too many things including such non-bread things as excellent Wiv-cured gravlax, we kinda lost our tasting rigor.

Dickson coordinated the next search for the best, a survey of several Italian beef stands. Dickson imposed some structure to the process, and it produced, if nothing else, a more scientific outcome, even if I felt that the scientific approach ever so slightly caused us to value the parts over the whole. I mean try it. See how different a beef sandwich can taste when you eat each part separate. Finally, the tightly focused crowd have done a huge and exhaustive survey of Chicago BBQ. See here and here for the results to date. Taking an opposite approach from the beef tasting, the rib tasters have generally provided singular opinions of places tried. Perhaps it is easier with BBQ to settle in one opinion vs. Italian beefs, where people seemed to have assorted ideas. All in all, I enjoy all these quests whether participating in the process or not.

Still, the best is a problematic issue. My biggest problem with the quest, is that I am too often happy with what I know to be great, compared to the effort to be comprehensive. Every so often, you hit a place so, so far better, so special, so great, you know it is the best. The question of best Italian sub comes up fairly often on Chowhound, and I have been highly unfamiliar with some of the sub contenders in Chicago. I have been wanting then, to visit Riviera ASAP. Best?

I did. On Friday. Can we cancel the contest? I find it hard to imagine a greater sub than Riviera. The Riviera sub gets so great possibly, because when you enter the store, there is NO indication of subs offered. But this means a purely custom sub. First, you pick exactly which roll you want. One of the choices is Mazza's, pointed at both ends, wide in the middle, thing, my favorite of this kind locally. Only great bread can produce the best sandwich. Second, you pick whatever else in the display case you want inside your sandwich. It is a not exactly easy process. How do you know which of the fresh and tasty looking meats and cheeses will work best together. OurPalWill suggests this combo. I, almost randomly, picked an intense looking capicolla, one of those 12 inch diameter mortadella, silky prosciutto and fresh mozzarella. Luckily, it worked. For garnish, I took both the house's home-made eggplant salad and the house's home-made hot giardinara. Since it would be a while until I ate, they packed both accessories separately for me. The house giardinara is surely one of the ways that makes this the best. On the deli counter, always stand several jars of what they have canned, including the made with jalepeno's, hot giardiana. It looks so raw, so pure, so real, I know these are the best, and any sandwich with them, is the best. All of this, less than $3.50.

Before picking up my sub, I grabbed an espresso at Bar Nazionale next door. The coffee was OK, say slightly behind a decent pull at Starbucks. I found it excessively winey with no heady coffee aroma necessary for a great cup.

On the other hand, stopped for a cup yesterday at Caffee Italia, also on Harlem, but more south, and this remains, by far, the benchmark espresso in Chicago. Rich, dense, and as Steingarden expresses so well, actually achieving a taste close to that of the gorgeous coffee aroma. This place, with its intense haze of smoke, its groups of men gathered around various tables speaking in a 100 languages and its most real espresso around, is like a worm-hole to Europe.

Riviera
Imported & Domestic Italian Foods
3220 North Harlem Ave.
Chicago, IL 60634
773-637-4252

Tapeheads go legit

I ran across an interesting item in yesterday's Sun Times(note, the Sun Times Web site is rife with pop-ups, do not execute this web site without a very good pop-up killer). A company called Pirate Entertainment is doing real time recordings of Buddy Guy concerts while he does an extended stay at his namesake club. You can walk away from each show with a souvenir. In addition, on the Pirate Web site, you can view set lists of past Buddy Guy shows, and I believe over time, other artists.

I have seen Buddy Guy several times, but have not visited any blues club, probably since the birth of the chowhounditas. Just hard to have the baby sitter stick around to 2 or so in the morning. I am intrigued by this product as much for the set lists as for the actual recordings. Buddy Guy is widely known for his eclectic tastes and over-the-top showmanship. His mimicking of other's style and techniques, especially rockers and his extensive shtick--I mean, I bet, having not seen him in 7 plus years, he's still stopping his show at some point to have someone bring him a glass of cognac--keeps Buddy low in the eyes of purists. Yet, he is exactly what people want when they want to be entertained. Just seeing the set lists give me enough vicarious thrill I need.

Rapini Run
(Paying for the blog)

Last week I mentioned Bertucci's, the barely discussed Italian restaurant in Chinatown. The post got Seth's mouth watering. Now, everything right in this blog (surely the things not prone to argument) are the handiwork of Seth. He's cleaned up a lot of bad HTML on my part and even gave me permalinks (waiting patiently for someone to use). Lunch at Bertucci's seemed the only way to express my gratitude.

And I guess I am pretty darn happy with this whole system. I loved Bertucci's. We benefited greatly from some name dropping by Seth. Much to my chagrin, my highly touted recommendation of veal with rapini was not on the lunch menu. But Seth threw out the word Mayor, and given the high population of city workers there, is it our fault that Mayor's were confused? When, I did agree to pay the dinner price for the veal, they agreed to make it.

This may be my favorite plate of food in Chicago. No one else combines the things I like so expertly like this. Divide the plate into thirds. One third gets a flat, crisp circle of breaded veal, much better than your local greek, not quite provimi; another third gets thick discs of fresh made cottage fried potatoes, a little greasy and a little crunch less than ideal; the last third gets the memory inducing rapini. All thirds get drenched in garlic. I suppose it is not on the lunch menu to protect those on their way to meetings. The magic of this trilogy is that each of these flavors and textures blends into the one next to it, similar but different, complimentary yet distinct.

Bertucci may be wholly cool, but it is not perfect. Baked clams were too soggy, and some of the clams chewy. Too much dressing drowned the salad (even if I smiled at the non-canned olive). Still, do you really expect or need a place like this to be perfect? With a couple of waitresses asking youz guys what you want, a variety of entertainment machines to occupy you if you got bored and this much garlic, who needs perfect.