Doing My Part for Chowhound.com

Last week Chowhound.com let everyone know that it's broke. Now, you won't find me sending them any money as I am infrequent user of their site. But I will help. I was putting together post today and I realized that I had never blogged on Hugo's Frog Bar, one of my favorite places to eat in Chicago. So, I decided to re-post my Chowhound Hugo's posts. This way, you can read the stuff on the blog and save Jim Leff the bandwidth costs by engaging his servers. I hope to re-post more stuff soon and save Chowhound even more money.

Hugo's Post #1

It has been a good few weeks, providing vial information to manage risks, so feeling a bit flush we made a beeline to the place we love to drop our wad. Of course, we could have spent less money and had been in the wonderful company of the Chilean chowers, but sometimes, a mayor and his consort have to do their own thing.

We got to Hugo's pretty much on time for our reservation, the place was just filling up, but we got plunked in one of the gosh darn worst seats in the house. A comfy, circular banquette that was too close to the kitchen door. Every time it opened, we got serenaded by the crash of dishes and other assorted work-in-progress noises. They moved us easily, but it still rankles me a bit, why did WE get that booth? The new booth was just as comfy and circular and built for canoodling and before long all thoughts of noise were gone.

The Condiment Queen expressed pleasure she had been served pretty much her ideal repast: shrimp de jonge, the crab cakes with hot pink mayo and a veggie combination platter that included asparagus, broccoli, sauted mushrooms, creamed spinach and sauted onions.

The shrimp de jonge was true revelation on this Chicago classic. Very large shrimps not in the least mushy or possessing that certain cooked shrimp taste I do not like--imagine that poor rendition of shrimp creole you once ate. The twelve or so shrimps were covered in the de jonge, a mix of butter, garlic and breadcrumbs. It was a dryer mix, almost a paste, but I liked it better that way. The crab cake was still terrific although perhaps because I have spent some extra time with Evil Ronnie, I was a bit more discerning on it. I did not seem pure jumbo lump, rather a mix, with only nuggets of lump interspersed. I cannot say whether this is a trend or if it has always been that way, it is only recently that I have taken this keener approach to crab cakes.

Hugo's does a very fine job with the smaller things. Not too many people whip up a better blue cheese dressing, and that effusive hot pink mayo works awfully well. The three kinds of bread on the table were even better. We resisted mightedly before meal, just nibbling on the raisin, but faced with a plate of spare de jonge, we went carb crazy. We liked all the vegetables. The simple ones, broccoli and asparagus, prospered without treatment. The more fancy spinach was just as good, tasting of spinach and cream but not too much else.

Hugo's Post #2

On Saturday night we decided to spend a fair amount of money for dinner. Deciding to put my money where my mouth is, we picked Hugo's Well, first of all, we succeeded in spending a lot of money. With tax and tip and one drink, we hit a cool three figures. What did we get for that amount of money? Did we validate my constant call?

They push the seafood. Soon after sitting down, in an alternative to the morton/gibson's meat display, they bring a fish display. This is not necessarily good marketing. I mean it would work if they brought by sparklingly fresh, whole species with bloody red gills and ultra-clear eyes, but dragging an oxidized slab of fish meat to each table, what does that prove. I mean no one wants the fish they show. Still, the menu descriptions sounded good.

I was spoiling Ms. VI and I went along with two fish dishes, forsaking the lake perch deal I really wanted. For newcomers to Hugo's, I would highly advise on the perch. Instead, we got the giant slab o'tuna and a black grouper with wild mushrooms. On the side we ordered a big helping of greenbeans and to start, the crabcake appetizer with the hot pink mayo. Everything worked with its minimal garnish. When you offer high quality stuff, why muck it up anyway with sauces. The primo dish, as always was the crab cake. I know of no better version outside of Baltimore. Ms. VI's on an anti-carb thing, and she initially shied away from the cakes. No worry, barely any bread-related product in these crab cakes. The tuna came purely rare with just the right skin of crust. With the wasabi and soy sauce offered, it was like slicing your own sushi. The other fish had a very grandma like coating of paprika type spices, but underneath was perfectly done grilled fish. The greenbeans straddled expertly the line between trendy under-done and old fashioned mushiness.

We skipped any mondo desserts, but they are fun if you have a few more people.

1024 North Rush Street, (between Oak Street and Bellevue)
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 640-0999
http://www.hugosfrogbar.com/restaurant/homepage/

Eating at Home or Shopping in Chicago

As a unit, the VI family loves eating out. We do it often for convenience, for instance when Mickey's and its tasty Big Mickey's are right there between soccer games. We like the spectacle of a Todai or Fogo de Chao. We like the chance to dress up and feel like a high roller (like here or here). A lot of eating out I think comes from wanting to sample so many types of food. Indian today, Afghan tomorrow, Shanghainese during the week, Czech on weekends. Finally, I know some of it comes from the fact that no one in our clan much likes to clean up. So, we eat out a lot. But eating in, I am coming to realize, may be as good if not better.

For one thing, the ingredients available to the home cook are far superior to all but what the best restaurants are using. Granted, I am not buying Waygu beef briskets too often, but I do have great local sources. I will write soon (really) about what's in the Farmer's Markets about now. Today, I want to mention a few stores we have recently visited.

Caputo's Cheese Factory

When we started visiting this store in Melrose Park, owned by one of the Caputo brothers, it was truly a factory. Then, it sold mostly cheese and served up cheap lunches including chicken sandwich that managed to be both grilled and fried. Over time, the factory has moved out and the space taken over by more and more stuff. For a while, they tried to sell fresh produce but that did not take. Today, Caputo's is mostly about cheese with a smattering of great deals on other products. They make excellent fresh mozzarella, and we nearly always buy some. They are also especially strong in grating cheeses and provolone. It is near impossible to walk out without some of the ricotta decorated with ridges from its molding.

Argo Georgian Bakery

Or the place with the oven in the middle of the floor. It's hard to believe that for a while, I did not like this place, victim of a stale bread that I was too dumb to realize was a fluke. Now, we visit every time we hit Da'Bomb. The breads, either round or long and skinny are about as primal a loaf as possible. You really taste the flour and yeast. For the kidz, we buy up all the hatchapuri's on offer. These are a flaky pastry encasing a blend of cheeses--a blend made to simulate fresh Georgian cheese. The hatchapuris are one of the few things we know daughter number 2 will always eat for breakfast. See here for some great Argo pictures.

Elliott's Dairy

What's with the dairy thing? The milk department is nothing special. Elliott's is a supermarket that competed with Jewel and Dominick's in like 1957. As they grew, Elliott's stayed the same. If I lived in the neighborhood, I might shop for a few things. Overall, it is not that special of a store. Yet, what is worth stopping in for, are a few items. Mainly, the corned beef. Chicago, since the demise of Winklestein's, is not a town of great corned beef. It IS a town of very good corned beef, and oddly enough, one of the best sources is this store just outside of Chicago on Nagle. Maybe because they know what they do well, Elliott's is set up for the full corned beef spread. They sell very good Chicago style (i.e., not so sour) pickles from a quasi-barrel and Rosen's premier rye, one with an actual crust. They always seem to find some kinda condiments not seen at Costco. Yesterday they had Da' Coach's mustards.

Avenue's Supermarket

If Elliott's long ago stopped competing with other supermarkets around town, it has come of late that the biggies have been eclipsed as well. Chicago is, in my opinion, receiving a supermarket renaissance. Of course there is Whole Foods for Amish milk and good bread, but the real action is in the hoods, massive A&G with its extensive selection of offal along with canned goods from every corner of the map, sparkling Mexican outlets like Carneceria Guanajunto, the various "Fresh Markets" and a host of Polish markets well below most people's radars.

Avenues is a true supermarket, with aisles stuffed with stuff, several varieties of jellies and jams, a whole section of wild Polish mushrooms in cans, the requisite quasi barrels with pickles, and three kinds of sauerkraut. The deli counter is huge. I was not sure if I could manage it when the numbers were being called strictly in Polish. But the turkey looked especially good, so I managed. Once I managed to "hear" my number by watching the ticker, the staff spoke enough English for me. Most of the stuff in the cases is clearly marked, although there are all sortsa smoked sausages and smoked ribs without labels. At another counter we got herring in both vinegar and oil for only $2.99 /lb for each kind. Like all Polish stores, it is a great source for dairy--here the dairy bar name would fit, and we got a log of Amish butter as well as farmer's cheese and kefir.

New York Kosher

When I wrote the section on Da'Bomb for the Slow Food Chicago book, I lamented the state of the kosher markets remaining on Devon. New York Kosher is not what I would call a stellar store. It nearly makes Elliott's look like Zabar's, but they have a couple of neat things buried in the dreck. They make a "Persian whitefish". I am not sure what Persian Whitefish is, Google left me bare. What New York Kosher sells is a white fish, like cod or haddock, breaded with a coarse crumb, then fried. It holds up very well though as cold dish, and there is something in there, perhaps the Persian part, that gives it a neat taste. At times, there are other fresh things in the case worth buying including grape leaves, a potato salad with something red in the dressing and a good beet salad. My wife likes the ample supply of Mantiowoc Farms breads.

Caputo Cheese Market
1931 N. 15th Avenue
Melrose Park, IL 60160
708-450-0074
wisconcorp.com

Argo, Inc. Georgian Bakery
2812 w. Devon ave.chicago, IL 60659-1502
773-764-6322

Elliotts Dairy & Deli
4800 N Nagle Ave
Harwood Heights
(708) 867-9044

Avenues Supermarket
Somewhere west on Belmont, past Oak Park Avenue

Moshe's New York Kosher
2900 W. Devon
Chicago, IL 60659
773 338-3354

La Quebrada - New(ish) Menu

La Quebrada changes its menu nearly as often as Alinea. Perhaps like ChefG, the maestros at Quebrada stay up late seeing how they can stretch the envelope of salted dried beef (a/k/a cecina). Actually, the new menu seems all about trying to get the Quebrada customer to eat more. There are several combinations ranging from $8.99 to $35 mostly combing grilled meats, but there is also a combination Teloloapan, which is like a restaurant version of the famed Maroon vans, fried tacos and enchilladas in Guerenese sweet dark brown Teloloapan mole. I'd like to comment on these items more, but I have never tried them.

La Quebrada makes some exceptional sauces, the curry scented salsa India (no joke), the house warm molcajete, with roasted tomatoes and chiles (I believe guaijillo) and the extra spicy, one dimensional, but one brutally great dimension arbol. Still, I've mostly settled in, of late with the antojitos (tacos, sopes, gorditas, picaditas).

All the antojitos at Quebrada start with a mass of nixtamal or corn masa dough (but NOT instant!). One woman in the kitchen forms to order the masa into different shapes depending on what you want. Gorditas have a thick base and the thinnest of tops for their stuffings, I especially like to have them with the steamed goat (barbacoa de chivo). If you are feeling vegetarian, get the picaditas, think a gordita without its top. While a lot of places make gorditas and such from scratch, few places also serve their tacos on fresh made tortillas.

I have not found a better tortilla in Chicago than the ones La Quebrada makes, large and thick. Stack about five and eat them with maple syrup for breakfast. The taco de cecina is, with the tacos de barbacoa at La Ley, my favorite taco outside of Maxwell Street. The ingredients do not look like much, typical friojoles refrito, bits of drab cecina (a truly ugly product), a sprinkling of pico de gallo and a dab of guacamole. Because all of the materials, from the tortilla upward, are so well done, the taco is so well done. That's what sums up La Quebrada.

From the outside it looks like nothing special, certainly one of any of thousands of Mexican places around Chicago. Inside, they make the effort to make things better. Guacamole, salsas, pico de gallo are not difficult things to make, even tortillas are not THAT difficult, assuming ideal nixtamal, yet Quebrada coaxes the most out of these things. Over time, La Quebrada has spread. You have no excuse from finding your own location. Check the new menu because it may change soon.

4859 W. Roosevelt - Cicero
3818 W. 63rd - Chicago
5100 S. California - Chicago
2906 W. Cermak - Chicago
723 S. Broadway - Aurora

Lack of Posts

Sorry for the paucity in postings. Holidays and work combining against me. I have been to the Oak Park Farmer's Market the last two weeks, so I will post something on that soon. More importantly, the VI family is now scrambling to put away, so we can be local come November onwards. I do have one lead right now on a source for local vegetables for the winter which I will post on soon, any other leads in this area are appreciated.

The one great meal (although nothing compares with the Rosh Hashanah dinner made by the Condiment Queen) I've had of late was at Gene and Georgetti's. I'd like to say I am a long time regular there, but everyone has to start some time right. Good stuff about G&G, with some pictures and notes by moi, can be found here.

Cooking Skills, Present or Not

I'm sure everyone has certain odd memories that stick with them no matter what. One thing that has stcuk with me, is a drawing my friend Bobby Di did in 5th grade. He was one of the two or so "good artists" in our class, and I was always jealous with his ability to draw things that looked like they really were. So, I tried to pay attention to how he did it. One day, we were drawing hot dogs, that part I forget why, but I always remember how his hot dog looked so realistic, so life-like. He had added a few small lines at the end of the hot dog, showing the point where the sausage links come together. It gave the impression of bulk, of a hot dog. I realized that it was not so much a steady hand that made him the good artist, it was his ability to pick up on the bitsiest detail that made something look right. I could never draw like Bobby but I can cook.

Perhaps because I've eaten great food for so many years (thanks Mom, thanks CQ), I seem to instictively know how to make good food. I do not have a wide repotoire, and I avoid dishes that require precision. What I can make, most of the time, I can make very well. Like Bobby Di, I seem to know the right amount of seasoning or the right amount to cook something. I'm not bragging because I know a lot of people who can cook even better than me. I'm posting because, skilled as I may be, I have a real big problem in the kitchen. I cannot toss a salad.

I've written before on my love of big salads or chopped salads, usually a mess of cubed fresh vegetables with something leftover, like today, rotisserie chicken. I've become adapt at the chopping, make a great mustard vinegriette, season very aggressively especially with cracked black pepper. It all tastes great EVEN if all of the good stuff gathers on the bottom. I have tried several copied or observed methods to toss my salads. I've used tongs, spoons, fork and spoon, the flip (OK, I've not quite mastered that one). At the end of the day, I have lettuce on top, stuff underneath. I wanted total mixture so that each bite is like the last and each taste is such powerful combination of ingredients it tastes like nothing I have ever tasted before. Can anyone help

Annals of the Discovered

Chicago Magazine's weekly e-newsletter, Penny's Morsel's [ed. I think they call it Dish now] mentions Honey1 Ribs. Some where in this big city, there's a skinny Asian man with a gift for languages crying into his Dalmation wine.

Need a Hand?

I know a trained chef from New Orleans who is currently taking shelter, with his family at the Madden Facility in Maywood, Illinois. If anyone has any job openings, contact me and I will give you his number.

GAF Hits NYC

GAF, a member of the Chicago LTH community, recently took shelter for a year in librul New York City. He writes with stunning detail on his gastronomic welcome here.

What's Interesting This Week at Joseph's Market

Well, everything at this somewhat off the beaten path on the FAR west end of Chicago, but something you won't find at most other Italian markets:

• Sea Urchin (called, oddly, "sea eggs")

Actually, as long as I'm on talking about Joseph's, I should mention a few other things of note. The pizza, what pizza, it's what I might call blob pizza. The base is free form in area like a very difficult calculus problem and awfully thick, almost two inches. Yet, unlike Chicago sheet pizza it has a crisp crust and a bit of weight in the dough. You need strong toppings to stand up to this dough and the ricotta-vegetable I tried really does.

Ok, there's more. Some of the best giardinara I've seen/tried, a mess of mostly pickled jalepenos, reminding me a lot of one of my favorite Korean panchan. There is another giardinara with vegetables. Breaded octopus to be eaten hot or cold, several kinds of salami and hams all in excellent state and cut attractively on the bias and a cheese I'm not sure the type but marinated in oil and covered heavily with spices and chopped chives. The mystery cheese is very salty. A few wedges of that, several slices of salami, both giardinaras, some marinated green olives, a bit of marinated eggplant, crusty whole wheat D'Amato bread, and my lunch went down a lot better than da Bears.

Joseph's

8235 W. Irving Park

Chicago, IL

Two Housekeeping Notes:

1. I was not able to make it to the Farmer's Market this week due to soccer committments. If anyone has any info, I'd be happy (really happy) to publish.
2. Neither I or the many deserving geniuses at LTHForum.com recieved a Genius Grant this year. Maybe next. Which reminds me, I'm late in posting on a very special achievement on of our community members got--hint he know's jack about Vesuivio. It's quite the honor and I want to give it full justice. Stay tuned.

From DishNews, Tips, and Inside Information from the Dining Editors of Chicago

Avec (615 W. Randolph St.; 312-377-2002), which pretty much single-handedly made charcuterie popular in Chicago, is not curing its own charcuterie at the moment.

Really? All those places up and down Milwaukee, Joe the Sausage King on Western, numerous chorizo hecho en casa, Saravele's Romanian, Thai sausage from Sticky Rice cited last week in Time Out Chicago, a whole festival built around brats made by hand at a place in Morton Grove, Freddy's hams, soppresettas and salamis, pigs, chickens, ducks baked in Chinatown, more than a few Greektown places with their own sauasage, a couple of Middle-Eastern places around Albany Park too; a very well stocked department at Fox and Obel, hell even Trotter's to Go. What else? But, of course, none of those places are popular.

15th Market
Oak Park Farmer's Market 9/10/05
In Which We Buy a Lot of Plums

Hardin Farms. All season long I have been talking about the great fruit the VI family has been purchasing at this certain stand at the Oak Park Farmer's Market. The problem was, I had no idea the name of the stand. There was no big banner, no truck, no signs, no nothing that could point you the reader to this outstanding fruit beyond my vague description, SE corner, on the inside, etc. Finally, though, last Saturday, I spotted a farm name written in small letters on an apron. Hardin Farms. Hardin Farms has been the source for the best peaches, apricots and now plums I think I have ever had.

On Saturday, now knowing their names, we became fast friends. And we mentioned the best apricots ever, which segued into something the wife and I have been talking about for a while. Why did we not buy more at the time. Partially because, obviously, one does not always realize that one has had the best apricots ever at the time. It can take of summer of fruit buying to realize what you had earlier was so special. Moreover, we have just not been the kinda family that thinks too far ahead in its produce buying. We fall into that category of people that are scared of canning--if you cannot keep your house tidy, can you can? Yet, with our attention to eating local, and my pledge to stay local even come winter, we were amiss that we did not take more advantage of the short apricot season. If nothing else, we realized that we could dry the apricots. Even idiots can dry fruit right? We conveyed all of this to Hardin on Saturday. They responded by offering us a bunch, read bushel, of plums for $25. It will be a winter of local plums. We figure on drying some, making freezer/fridge jelly with others, just plain freezing some, and perhaps a bit of infused vodka with some laggards.

If we do not eat them first. Like everything else from Hardin this year, these plums are incredible, almost too sweet. The last of the season's peaches from Hardin were incredible (as usual) as well, with an intense taste of vanilla in the peaches. We got lostsa grapes from Hardin, Nicholl's and Skibbes, and heard about Chad Nicholl's attempts to make wine from his grapes. It was a turning point market. Still very well stocked with tomatoes, bell peppers and sweet corn, the items of summer, but everything else was thinning out. We are now on the downside of the peak. That does not mean things are bad. There are all sortsa apples to try, and posting so late, I have forgotten the varietals we purchased. Fall is appearing. Farmer Vicki already had some pumpkins. Nicholls has all sortsa sexy looking root vegetables including shotput sized rutabagas. I know things will look even more different next week.

See ya there.

On a roll

If you do not read Atrios regularly, today is a great day to start.

Drink Local Cont.

High end restaurant Tru serves still water from Genesee Wisconsin called Century Springs.

Open your hearts—and stomachs—as Farm Aid battles dual disasters

Katrina and eating local, what can be more interesting to me. Read how you can participate here.

Drink Local

Recent tastings conducted during a statewide tour of the major winemaking regions showed a number of drinkable wines out there, from decent to extraordinary, from as dry as any posh Napa bottling to as sweet and homey as Grandma's berry pie.

The Chicago Tribune does a nice run down on the local (meaning Illinois) wine business. Especially nice, they focus on vitners using grapes GROWN in Illinois.

But one of these days he and the Rovians really ought to take a stab at trying to solve other people's problems.

Billmon (and others) report:

Firefighters say they want to brave the heat, the debris-littered roads, the poisonous cottonmouth snakes and fire ants and travel into pockets of Louisiana where many people have yet to receive emergency aid.

But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas." (emphasis added)

Salt Lake City TribuneFrustrated: Fire crews to hand out fliers for FEMASeptember 7, 2005
(Via Talkingpointsmemo.com
and Daily
Kos)

For All You State and Local Blame Folks

AP (via MSNBC)

WASHINGTON - The government’s disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security workers to support rescuers in the region — and gave them two days to arrive, according to internal documents.

Read the whole thing. You too Mickey Kaus.

After 21 Years, Overnight Sensation
Flamingo Ice Cream

Scooped. I was scooped. One day not that long ago I drove past Flamingo #2 on Cermak near Oak Park Avenue. It had enough neon in the signs, that impressed me that there would be capital for a decent product. I made a mental note to try soon. Then, the Chicago Tribune scooped me. Reporting on this place. Discovering too a place that actually has another branch in Chicago for over 20 years. 20+ years of offering 101 flavors of Mexi-Italian style ice cream made with natural fruits and flavors. Flavors include agave, avocado, cheese, rice pudding, mamey and elote (corn). That's the ice cream. There are also a range of ices including several with boosts of salt and chile. Do not expect a lot of butterfat in the ice cream. Do not expect gelato like smoothness. The thin ice cream, however, is an excellent carrier for the flavors. Go to taste.

We got around to trying the ice cream last night. As told in the Tribune, the owner, Guadalope is part of the appeal. She spends a lot of time explaining her ice creams and offering tastes. In fact, I tasted so many, with the flavors so intense, that I got palate fatigue. She told me that the Trib tasters had water lined up between tastes. I needed some bits of bread or something.

The bad thing to say about the place is that, as I imagined, 101 flavors is too much to handle. Even an apparently fresh looking vanilla suffered a bit from freezer burn. Ice cream really benefits from freshness, and I wish they slash their daily inventory greatly.

OK, that out of the way, everything is interesting in its own way. All of the flavors come from natural sources, meaning sometimes the flavor itself may be muted, but it will always taste like something. One of my scoops was cajeta. As noted by a poster on LTHForum.com, this is not a creamy caramel. Yet the flavor of the cajeta, sugar, burnt sugar, carried the scoop. Guava was especially good as the flavor is strong. Then again, some of the ices, especially the ones with salt and spice were, as I noted, too intense.

In the annals of undiscovered, it should be noted that this place has existed on the South Side for 21 years. I'm glad it is being discovered.

Flamingos #2
6733 W Cermak Rd
Berwyn, IL
708-749-4287

14th Market
Oak Park Farmer's Market 9/3/05
Win Some Lose Some

I love my farmer's market. I love nearly all farmer's markets. I do, however, recognize a few flaws with markets. For one thing, they aint cheap. I spend around $50 or so each week, and I've been a bit more careful this year, less vegetables, less flowers, not as much meat as I'd like to buy. The other thing, though, is that money-schmoney, there's a crap shoot angle to the market. Now, I am looking for puffball mushroom segments, or Piedmontese beef, I do not have many choices. Either it's good or not. For most things, I have multiple vendors to choose. Sometimes I make the right choice...

...And sometimes, not so good. You go by several things. You pick up, smell, poke, inspect, taste. That works sometimes. Other times, with apples that reveal very little or peaches that are not quite ripe, reputation plays a big part. Sometimes, you rely too much on reputation. Skibbes Farms is the biggest "pure" fruit vendor at the Oak Park market. They combine better than necessary prices with outstanding fruit. They also do a great job with variety, and most weeks I visit them last to supplement whatever seasonal fruit I still need. For instance, they will have blackberries when no one else does. This week, perhaps because the donut line was too long, I started with Skibbes. They had a great price for local grapes. Without doing much, I snagged a bunch (or bunches so to speak). Turns out these grapes taste as sour as currents.

I wished I waited for Nicholl's Farm. They had green Niagara grapes that, six more hours, would have been on the vine too long, but the result was incredible sweetness against the musk of Northern grapes. I did get a basket of Champagne grapes for the freezer again. Also, a bunch of apples including the pink Dayton and the classic Cox Pippen. I skipped the cannonball sized Wolf River, but my daughter zeroed in on one variety, I did not catch the varietal name, that she wanted for her teacher. It was the teacher's apple. So exactly appley apple-red, so apple-curved apple shaped. It even had a distinct, woody, thick, Pisa leading, visible stem. It will grace a desk very well.

Besides grapes and apples, I picked up green Bartlett pears, yellow flesh peaches and raspberries. I admired the selection of heirloom tomatoes at Nicholl's, especially the dark Cherokee Blacks, but I have a ton of tomatoes still. I admired those puffballls mentioned above at Nicholl's, but I had no desire to buy. More things I admire around the market including palm sized mini-cabbages, multiple brands of melon, cheddar cheese colored cauliflower. Everything else is great and worth the money. Nothing beats local fruit in season.

See ya next week.

America's Grandma

Barbara Bush speaks her mind:

What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overhwlemed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle)--this is working very well for them.

All the details, including audio here.

State and Local

As predicted, the Bushies are now splitting the blame between an especially mean Mother Nature ("we did not know") and state and local officials in Louisiana. Par for the course, they lie. What is also especially interesting, is that those closest to the scene ARE NOT blaming state and local officials. Broussard did not. Read what the Times-Picayune sez:

OUR OPINIONS: An open letter to the President

Dear Mr. President:We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our
devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we’re going
to make it right."Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise
before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.

After three months, Russert Watch is officially speechless...

Did you see Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussaard's gut wretching performance yesterday on Meet the Press (just the antidote from hearing that is was really the fault of state and local officials). Well, if you saw it, you wondered too, how the hell could Tim Russert live with his performance. Arianna Huffington explains.

Corrections

The Washington Post makes a few key corrections. See here.

First, they note that the first levy breaches were reported on MONDAY MORNING. So, quit all this, we did not know stuff.

Second, they note that LA. Governor Blanco had declared a state of emergency on August 26, despite efforts to report the contray.

Remember, I predicted the sliming of Blanco and Nagin several days ago!

Billmon on the real Bush (link):

Likewise, for the conservative ultras to accept Bush's failures now would be to admit the patriotic demi-God constructed after 9/11 by the White House propaganda machine (and, ironically, by the mainstream media ) doesn't exist. All that would be left would be the real Bush: the incompetent, arrogant rich kid who's failed at every significant job he's ever held -- from CEO of Arbusto Energy to commander in chief of the planet's most powerful military machine. For many Bushistas, this is equally unbearable.

Ever wonder why New Yorkers detest George Bush?

Steve Gillard explains (and I thought I was angry). 'nother must read.

Just Amazin'

Charles Smith, of the foodie forum, Opinionated About, pointed me to this CNN story showing the TOTAL disconnect between the Federal government and the happenings in New Orleans. Must read. It's a start, but maybe I'll take back all the bad stuff I've said about CNN...

And the Band Played On

I do not get many comments in my comment boxes, so I should not take the one or two people who comment to task. Yet, this Bill chided me for questioning where were the Democrats. This entry by Steve Soto makes the same point (and then some):

Watching the disaster that started with Katrina unfold over the past few days, I have been filled with a rage. A rage that makes it difficult for me to think. Leaves me inarticulate and unable to express it in more than a simple sentence or two. A rage that encompasses every aspect of our government, every elected official and a large swatch of my fellow citizens.

Hundreds of thousands of people have lost everything. And what Katrina didn’t destroy, the sheer incompetence, neglect and indifference of this country will. Either in body or spirit. People are dying while Condi Rice shops for a new wardrobe. Congress remains on holiday. GWB talks about destroying Social Security and attends a birthday party for McCain. The communication systems among first responders failed just as they did on 9/11 – four years and billions of dollars later and we can’t even get this one right for one of only three identified locations that were at the highest risk for a disaster. See Krugman. Thirteen years after Andrew struck and FEMA is no more, and maybe less, effective than it was back then.

Please read the whole thing. Also read the Krugman piece embedded.

A slightly different perspective (Via Salon--click on the ad)

Dewey, 23, of Washington, is one of countless tourists trapped in the city amid the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. Dewey said she has no idea when or how she'll be able to leave, her best chance lost Wednesday night when she learned the buses would never come. "No one really knows what to do," Dewey said. "The people who are left are just going and breaking into stores. ... ( Read the whole article link)

Hey, I hate the way it is being covered, a bunch of "them" stranded, people more interested (and disgusted) with the looting and security. I think if the media covered a bit more of those "real" 'mericans too, perhaps there would be more understanding.

Someone on the inside:

Link

I Predict

At least some of these things will happen

• Drudge, the Washington Times, or other useful tools will start the character assasination of Governor Blanco or Mayor Nagin -- After they start blaming the Feds.
• New Orleans will turn into some kinda Mad Max land. Left to those looters and shooters. The city will essentially be given to them.
• Bush will use the coming disorder and collapse to seize power.

What else?

• That it will be as long for a major Democrat in Washington to step up and show some leadership. I saw Clinton on TV namby-pamby. This is not the time to rally around der leader. This is the time to seize leadership.

Plans and Plans

I had a bit of a chat with me Mum this afternoon. She questioned where was the plan in New Orleans for the hurricane. There was a plan. Get out. For those that could not get out, they said get to the Superdome. Now, some question the latter, but what else could they have done. How could they have gotten people with no other means outta of the city? That plan was ok.

Here's what really (really) bothers me. I turned on the TV on Tuesday morning to see what was happening. I saw the bridges from New Orleans to the east completely destroyed and I heard the levees were being breached. I knew then and there that things were fucked. Like 7:30 Tuesday morning. They say that they could not have known the magnitude of the after-effect, but it takes no degree in civil engineering to know once you got the facts. When the levees break (any levee), New Orleans will flood. Not maybe. Surely. It will flood. That's why there are levees. So, I can accept the plan up until 8 or so Tuesday morning, but what was the plan from then on. That is where leadership really failed.

“On the other hand, you got to do what’s right.’’

I have been hypnotized by Katrina and spend gobs of time searching for news. This may be one of the few pieces of good news I found.

From the Time-Picayune (a/k/a NOLA.com):

Robert Eckels, who as judge of Harris County presides over the Astrodome, said he knew about the “renegade’’ bus and that the indoor stadium wasn’t ready for evacuees – particularly the unexpected arrivals.“

That bus that arrived earlier was a young man who had loaded up a bunch of kids and just gotten into the bus and driven here,’’ Eckels said. “It was not one of those (official) buses. At this point, our plan, our agreement, is to take the Superdome buses.’’

But shortly after Eckels left, the judge was overruled.

Margaret O’Brien-Molina, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross, discovered the school bus sitting outside the entrance and gave the orders: Let them in.

Really the best source for news outta New Orleans is the venerable Times-Picayune. (I take back every bad thing I ever said about you!).

Does Bush genuinely not know this? Or is he just so comfortable lying about stuff like this that he doesn't give it a second thought? And which is worse?

Kevin Drum provides more evidence.

Choices have consequences. And bad consequences require accountability.
-- Josh Marshall

Farmer's Market Reports

Maybe I can draw some mental attention to write more, but I so caught up in the destruction and failed leadership.

Anyways, because we missed Saturday's Oak Park Farmer's Market, we got the chance to try out two other markets, Sunday's Wicker Park and Tuesday's downtown Federal Plaza. I got to say that I was especially impressed with the downtown market. Both Nicholl's and Green Acres are there and the amount of things between these two vendors was incredible. Six kinds of eggplants, Asian greens, all sizes and colors of tomatoes, watercress sprouts, fresh soybeans and fresh sunflower seeds (in flower!). I just wish some local restaurants, ethnic restaurants, would shop at these stands.

Some interesting things in the markets now. Nicholl's had strawberries (!), a second planting strawberry I never knew about. Really weird, but last night I ate a bunch of delicious sweet, real strawberries...on the last day of August. On the other hand, local grapes seem a bit early. Nicholl's had a variety called champagne--no not the grapes used for Champagne which is mostly Chardonay and Pinot Noir grapes. My daughter Hannah had the idea to freeze these grapes, and this is an awesome treat. The iced grape balls taste nearly like ice cream. We also got regular ol' Concord grapes, seeds and all. These grapes may make awful wine, but outta hand, they one of the all time great things. It is the grape flavor, not just sweetness or juiciness that makes this fruit. I know back in Wisconsin I was leaning towards sour cherries, but the difference is sour cherries need to be cooked/sugared. Concord grapes are best raw. In fact, they loose a lot of their specialness when cooked. See grape jelly. Tons of great tomatoes still as well as plenty of summer veg like sweet corn, peppers, and eggplants.

Todd Gitlin notices:

Well, everything begins as tragedy and ends as politics. All the
greater is the burden on the press to blow every whistle in sight and keep
blowing. Others at tpmcafe.com have been sounding this horn and rightly
so. This is a time for journalism to shine--or go dark.

"I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." (Via Atrios)

Anyone remember this from Sunday (top story on Drudge that day):

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005
..DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED

HURRICANE KATRINA
A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969.

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL. PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT. AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION.

PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK. POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS. THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED.

AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEAR HURRICANE FORCE...OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE...ARE CERTAIN WITHIN THE NEXT 12 TO 24 HOURS. ONCE TROPICAL STORM AND HURRICANE FORCE WINDS ONSET...DO NOT VENTURE OUTSIDE!

"I would think that yesterday they could have flown in," said Myers. "Everyone was flying in. Put it this way, FOX and CNN are there. If they can get there ..."

The "MainstreamMedia" is noticing (via Kevin Drum). As is the "librul" New York Times*.

*Although I got to say this "news" story from the Grey Lady: News Analysis: Hard New Test for President is pretty pathetic. It starts out fairly strong, with some veiled digs at W, but then denigrates into a series of quotes from "longtime aids and friends". For balance, should not they asked a few longtime opponents and enemies?

I'm sorry. I know we're supposed to be observing an accountability free moment for the president.

More from Josh.

More People Noticing

No Coordination.
-- Josh Marshall (link)

UPDATE: Him too.

I Guess I am Not the Only One Who Noticed

See here.

I know one of the five stages of grieving is anger, and right now, that's where my anger is directed.

Someone Named Chris Rose Checks In

I know I should not copy the whole column, but I have the feeling he won't mind. (link)

Chris Rose column

Tuesday, 6:30 p.m.

By Chris Rose

I got out.I’m mystified by the notion that so many people didn’t even try,
but that’s another story for another time.We left Saturday, my wife, kids and
me. We went first to Picayune, Miss., thinking that a Category 3 storm would
flood New Orleans and knock out power, but that we’d be dry and relatively
comfortable in the piney woods while the city dried out.Sunday morning, of
course, Katrina was massive red blob on our TV screens – now a Cat 5 – so we
packed up and left again.

We left my in-laws behind in Picayune. They wouldn’t come with us.
Self-sufficient country folk; sometimes you can’t tell ‘em nothing.We don’t know
what happened to them. My wife’s dad and her brother and their families: No
word. Only hope.Like so many people around the country wondering what happened
to those still unaccounted for; we just don’t know. That’s the hardest
part.

If you take the images you’ve seen on TV and picked up off the radio and
internet, and you try to apply what you know to the people and places you don’t
know about, well, the mind starts racing, assumptions are made and well … it
consumes you.The kids ask you questions. You don’t have answers. Sometimes they
look at me and though they don’t say it, I can see they’re wondering: Daddy,
where are you?

My 6-year-old daughter, she’s onto this thing. What is she thinking?We
spent Sunday night in a no-tell motel in a forgotten part of downtown Vicksburg;
a neighborhood teetering between a familiar antiquated charm and hopeless decay.
Truth is, it called to mind my beloved New Orleans.Most of the folks in the
hotel seem to live there permanently and it had a hard-luck feel to it. It was
the kind of place where your legs start itching in the bed and you think the
worst and you don’t want your kids to touch the carpet or the tub and we huddled
together and I read them to sleep.Monday morning, my wife’s aunt told us they
had a generator in Baton Rouge. As Katrina marched north and east, we bailed on
our sullen little hotel and drove down along he western ridge of the storm,
mostly alone on the road.

Gas was no problem. We had catfish and pulled pork in a barbeque joint in
Natchez and the folks there - everyone we have met along our three-day journey –
has said the same thing: Good luck, folks. We love your city. Take care of it
for us.Oh, my city. We have spent hours and hours listening to the radio. Image
upon image piling up in your head.What about school? What about everyone’s jobs?
Did all our friends get out? Are there still trees on the streetcar line? What
will our economy be like with no visitors? How many are dead? Do I have a roof?
Have the looters found me yet? When can we go home?Like I said, it consumes you
as you sit helplessly miles from home, unable to help anyone, unable to do
anything. If I could, what I’d do first is hurt the looters. I’d hurt them
bad.But you have to forget all that. You have to focus on what is at hand, what
you can reach and when you have three little kids lost at sea, they are what’s
at hand and what you can reach. I brought them to a playground in Baton Rouge
Tuesday afternoon. They’d been bottled up for days.Finally unleashed, they ran,
they climbed, they fell down, they fought, they cried, they made me laugh, they
drove me crazy; they did the things that makes them kids. It grounds you. You
take a breath. You count to ten. Maybe - under the circumstances - you go to
twenty or thirty this time.

And tonight, we’ll just read them to sleep again.We have several books with
us because – and this is rich – we brought on our evacuation all the clothes and
things we planned to bring on a long-weekend trip that we were going to take
over Labor Day weekend.To the beach. To Fort Morgan, right at the mouth of
Mobile Bay. Man.

Instead of that, I put on my sun tan lotion and went out in the yard of the
house where we’re staying in Baton Rouge and I raked a massive pile of leaves
and limbs from the yard and swept the driveway.Doing yard work and hitting the
jungle gym on the Day After. Pretending life goes on. Just trying to stay busy.
Just trying not to think. Just trying not to fail, really. Gotta keep
moving.

Send the Queen Mary

I know this sounds flippant, but I am serious (also, I lived in New Orleans for a few years, so I really take to heart what is happening to the city). So, my suggestion to anyone who is looking for a suggestion is send some cruise ships up the Mississippi to New Orleans. Why not? Food, water, shelter, hospitals. It's all there. Ships are like the only things that can really access New Orleans. New Orleans has wharves big enough for cruise ships. Get some there. Now.

Leadership

CORONADO, California (AP) -- President Bush will cut short his vacation to return to Washington on Wednesday, two days earlier than planned, to help monitor federal efforts to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina, the White House said Tuesday.

Wednesday? Cut short? Certain Republicans could not understand the popularity of Bill Clinton, but I can almost tell you (fer sure) that he'd be down there right now doing whatever it took.

13th Market
Oak Oak Park Farmer's Markert 8/27/05
From Ann

When I recruited Ann Fisher to write the market report this week--I attended a bat mitzvah--I did not realize she would REALLY put me to shame with the quality of her report. A little put to shame I could stand, but this. Perhaps I will count on Ann all weeks.

From Ann:

Corn from The Farm* continues to be terrific. Makes you proud to be from Illinois. The ears weren’t quite as big as last week, but still plenty large. In my experience, good corn continues until almost the middle of September, so we should have a few good weeks left. I was intrigued to find that the Angelic Organics CSA corn wasn’t nearly as good. I suspect The Farm is growing sweeter varieties and Angelic is growing more pest-resistant ones.

Tomatoes everywhere, in every color. I bought some beautiful little “garden peach” tomatoes from Scotch Hill Farms. In the bowl on my windowsill they’re almost indistinguishable from the shiro plums from Skibee. Nichols says they have 80 varieties. I wouldn’t doubt it. Sandhill Organics continues to offer tastings of its heirloom varieties, and this week was also selling bags of tomato puree, suggesting it be used a soup base. They also seduced me with Swiss chard that looked like it belonged in a Rembrandt painting. Nichols also had the most beautiful “exotic eggplant” display–red, purple, green–and made me really regret I didn’t have my camera with me. They and the place at the northeast outside corner of the market were selling lemon cucumbers, pictured here. Since they were the size of lemons, and cost 75 and 50 cents respectively, and I heard the woman at Nichols say they really just tasted like cucumbers, I passed them by.

I’m loyal to Skibee for my apples. I love to be able to mix and match from all their crates. In addition to the Paula Reds that they had last week, the first real Macintosh were in. A sign, of course, that fall is on its way.

Barry’s Berries blueberries continue to be excellent and they were selling a lot of raspberries as well. We’re seem to be past the Red Haven peaches, to my regret, but they and everyone else still had a lot of choices of peaches, plums, and nectarines.

I spent some time talking to the man from Scotch Hill Farms. The scent of their pet soaps, while not unpleasant, makes it harder to appreciate their produce. But when I moved a little way off to taste the yellow tomatoes, I was glad I’d stopped. They’re still offering CSA shares, this week down to seven weeks. It’s $27.50 a week, pesticide- free but not organic. They always have a couple of sample bags available for $25. If I hadn’t felt compelled to check out a variety of vendors to fulfill my guest blogging responsibilities I might have been tempted. Maybe next week.

*Surely I can’t be the only person who thinks of Spriritual Midwifery every time they see the name of that vendor.

Mom's Tip of the Week

I mentioned below my frustration of getting a bunch of corn mid-week, then my salvation thru Mark Bittman. What I did not know was THE trick for corn on the cob, but thanks to Bubbie, here it is:

An angel food pan. Brilliant. I started to de-kernel some corn roasted on the grill the other night. My mom sez to me, "do you have an angel food cake pan." Knowing our abundance of kitchen supplies that was a dumb question. But you know, I do not even like angel food that much. I love the pan (now). It achieves two things. First, you stick the cob in the hole in the pan, keeping it firmly in place for cutting. Second, you have the reservoir for cake to catch the kernels.

12th Market
Oak Park Farmer's Market 8/20/05
Loaded Up

I saw chowhound, Ann Fisher as I was leaving the market on Saturday, hands full. She said, "good day at the market." But you know what I was thinking. I was thinking, with Sophie with her friend Quinn, the Condiment Queen and Hannah volunteering at the Animal Care League, I had only two hands to carry stuff. And when I could not carry anymore, well, that was it for the day. Or put another way, I got hassled this morning because the only berries I purchased were blue berries.

White peaches, peach peaches, nectarines, blue berries, golden raspberries, jalepenos (nicely hot), small red potatoes, basil, green beans, wild Illinois plums (from Nicholl's) and stunning, dull red pears; oh and a carton of fresh eggs from the Wettstein's. What I could have done with another set of arms.

For the records: there was an absolute profusion of hot peppers in the market. I do not know if it's a "thing" for peppers this year, the hot weather or what, but both Nicholl's and Farmer Vicki had several kinds of peppers (as did a few other vendors). Apricots seemed to have finished but what a short great season they were.

How I Eat Local

The family and I had a delicious lunch today of assorted bruschettas (how do you say it?), and I think the lunch illustrates some of my do's and don'ts on eating local.

Here's what he ate that could be called local: kale, swiss chard, tomatoes, garlic, onions, bread baked at Bittersweet bakery.

Here's what we ate that was not local: olive oil, Portuguese tinned sardines, Pecarino Romano cheese, Turkish olive oil (and I am sure, the ingredients in the Bittersweet bread).

I feel I made no compromises. Cheated not one bit. Why? In my theory of eating local, anything that can be effectively shipped with no degradation of quality is as good as local. Another way I might put it, if people could reasonably eat it in Chicago 100 years ago, it's legitimate to eat today. It means that I am not restricted to cooking with butter or lard. It means Stilton as well as Maytag. It also means citrus in season because I think there is little degradation in quality. It surely allows for bananas, and because these products were part of the Chicago culinary scene for a long, long time, shrimps and oysters. On the other hand, I make no exception for modern transport. Sure, a fish caught in Hawaii can be in my kitchen with a day of it being hauled in, but I won't count that. I do not count that mostly because it is highly unrealistic that I can truly get such fresh food. I am not Thomas Keller.

As long as we are the subject, and I have alluded to this already, but I am too cheap to fully commit to eating just local meat. I like to think that I treat meat a bit in the Mediterranean fashion, as an infrequent luxury, but I am too American. So, there are times where I will give in and buy supermarket meat.

That's the basic of how I eat local. Come back in December and see how I am faring. That's when the challenge kicks in.

No Good Chinese Food in Chicago (?!?)

Not! 'til my dying days I will fight against two fallacies, that the New York Times aint so librul (Krugman, and thank god for Krugman excepted) and that there is no good Chinese food in Chicago. I think a lot of the no good Chinese food is propagated by the same New Yawkers who pine for a good triangle style slice. That is, it is not good Chinese food they want, but Chinese food like the take away they once got. But there is also a home grown school of Chinese restaurant detractors. This school mostly bemoans the lack of sophistication and airs of our Chinese restaurants and tends to be tone deaf to the greatness of "real" Chinese food (oil and all). For instance, this later school, push comes to shove, might point to places like Ben Pao or Opera as the few good Chinese restaurants. Me, I have a hard time hitting all the places I like, and then I run across a place like Lee Wing Wah, and I am even more pissed.

Lee Wing Wah is one of a several Chinese restaurants in the mall North of Archer, on the Northern part of Chinatown. The mall has had these restaurants for years but only now, about ten years later, does the mall feel alive. And all these years, I never bothered to try Lee Wing Wah. I am mostly a creature of habit, and while I go to a lot of places in Chinatown, I tend to have set places for things: Happy Chef for Cantonese, Mandarin Kitchen for Shanghainese (which sounds weird but makes sense if you know the back story); The Sevens, Treasure for soup noodles, Wives for breakfast; Spring World for spicy/oily stuff; Triple Crown for late night; Ken Kee if I wanted to be weird. I know there are places I need to try like Sky, and I know that others off the short list, like Lao Sze Chuan or Moon Palace can be pretty special, but like I say, I am a creature of habit. Now, a few weeks ago we finally tried the pho place in the Chinatown mall, so I guess I was inspired to seek out new things.

I gazed long into the Lee Wing Wah space because it was so packed on this weeknight. And it all looked good, especially the salt 'n pepper shrimps on a lot of tables. Mostly for Cantonese food, I've stuck (well) with Happy Chef. Happy Chef has three things I like in a Chinese restaurant: a broad and easy to navigate menu; good value and great cooking. Well, not that long ago I was noticing some great looking food on customer's tables at Lee Wing Wah, and I thought, finally, to give that place a try. Lee Wing Wah also has a broad and easy to navigate menu; good value and great cooking.

I have been to Lee Wing Wah twice. Sorry, I have not sampled too many dishes between the visits. On the first visit it was salt n' pepper shrimps, fried (crispy skin) chicken, stir fried tong choi with spicy bean sauce (not really spicy at all); "egg style tofu", and steamed oysters with black bean. On the second visit, we got the dinner for 4--crab with ginger, fish fillet with vegetable, snp shrimps and fried chicken*; we added the egg style tofu (for the kidz) and Chinese broc with oyster sauce. Not a single dish has been less than excellent on both visits. The shrimps are a little different than say Happy Chef's shrimps. The salt n' pepper make a very thick coating at Lee Wing Wah, like battered fried shrimp. Egg style tofu is called egg style because the tofu was cut to look like hard cooked eggs. It looked solid but it was just barely, and it contrasted well with typical brown sauce. Let me also get out of the way, that we picked the dish (one of my daughters picked it) from a menu with color pictures, making the place easy to navigate. The other thing about that menu is that they gave away the game on "crispy skin" chicken. That is, the picture menu translated it as fried chicken. Fried chicken, it definitely tasted more fried, more greasy than others around Chinatown, but not in a bad way at all.

I do have one bone to pick though. As I noted, there are several color pictures to help form a menu. But, but, there is also a page of lunch specials, much cheaper, written soley in Chinese characters. My first visit was for lunch, and I could have read Chinese, I would have spent even less. If anyone tells you there is no good Chinese food in Chicago, take them to a meal at Lee Wing Wah.

*The dinner for 4 is a very good deal at $39. You are allowed to substitute out from the choices; there about six alternative dishes. We asked if we could substitute out the chicken instead. They were fine with that for an extra $1.75. All in all, still a very good deal.

Eating Local

I'm sorry but I have not been following all of the other Eat Local Challenge attempts, but I wonder has anyone mentioned the obvious? August is not exactly a strenuous time to eat local (at least in the Northern parts of the USA, in Florida it could be a challenge challenge). For the second week, we picked up a friends box from Angelic Organic's CSA, giving us local vegetables for a while.

I DO appreciate the capital providing aspect of a CSA, but as a practical matter, I much prefer getting my stuff at the Farmer's Market. Yes, there is a neat, Iron Chef aspect of getting a weekly box of cooking materials. "What shall we do with two zucchini, hon?" But that is precisely the problem. If last week it was two small zukes, this week it was one medium sized eggplant. What would Morimoto do with one eggplant? Worse, we got like a half a bunch of swiss chard. With last weeks bit of kale, there might be a portion there soon. What we are getting is, is a lot of sweet corn. And if I'd like more eggplants, I'd take less corn. Corn is weekend food, fire up the grill food. Still, these six ears of corn in the box demand pretty immediate attention. Luckily, Mark Bittman has some ideas of what to do with corn that sits for a few days. Last week was like one green bell pepper and one purple bell pepper that were sliced into rings and munched as a side. This week we got a fair amount of red peppers, and I am anxious to roast them (the question then becomes, store then in oil or vinegar). And I aint complaining with the amount of tomatoes received last week or this week. About a dozen "determinate" tomatoes (I always thought they were called hybrid) and a few heirlooms--more heirlooms this week. I do not have so many tomatoes that I am to the make sauce stage yet. I am enjoying all the versions of tomato salad I can contrive--today the kidz had the luxury of sel de gris purchased at the Maxwell Street Market (yes!) with their tomato chunks. It will be an easy week for me to eat local.

Eat local yes, eat well? The other thing I do not like about a CSA is you feel guilty about not liking anything. You own the stuff. It's like saying bad things about the kidz. When you buy at the Farmer's Market (or God Forbid the store*), it is an arm's length transaction. If you do not like it, you visit a new vendor next week. With great regret, I mention that we got some very weird carrots last week. Maybe they are good and we just do not know. Carrots ARE related to parsley. These carrots tasted a lot closer to parsley than carrots, or shall I say, the greens and the oranges did not taste that different. Maybe carrot aficionados, however, appreciate this uber carrotness to these carrots.

*I would like to report for all the millions who read this blog on an hourly basis that at the peak of local tomato season, Whole Foods in River Forest, Illinois was selling, well not just asparagus from Peru, but "vine ripened" tomatoes from Holland. Yea, there were organic heirrloom potato-tomatoes from California. Hardly matters. Senator Whole Foods, "do you have no shame?"

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!)