Everybody’s going nuts lately trying to recreate Alinea‘s dry caramel shots and dehydrated flying bacon with nothing but a whisk and a well-worn silpat. So I took Julia and Emily’s advice and just went to the restaurant instead. Oh my. This was my first return visit since the place opened in 2005, and despite the … Continued
I’m just gonna say it: I love Alpana Singh’s unrepentant goofiness. When I first got my mitts on her book I confess I groaned at the dippy subtitle. But as someone who routinely eats nachos off a cookie sheet in front of the TV at 2 AM . . . who am I to resist … Continued
V. quickly cos I have to go to work–I finally got around to watching the video component of the Whole Hog Project, produced by Sky Full of Bacon‘s Mike Gebert, and just wanted to plug it here as well. (Sorry Cyndi!) Yes, parts of it are kinda gruesome. (Much more so than the “gruesome” Sarah … Continued
Passing this on from Nance: The Greenhouses of Hope at Pacific Garden Mission, offers a pound of worms to the Chicagoland community for a $20 donation. We sell very nice untreated often reclaimed wood worm bins 1.5 cubic foot, ‘under-the-sink’wormerie w/ ~1000 worms for $75 9 cubic foot ‘bench warmer’ wormerie w/ 2,500 worms for … Continued
Out today in the Reader‘s food issue, I bravely interview local chefs and find out that . . . they all really, REALLY love Paul Kahan. Stop the presses. A more gripping read, IMHO, is Mike Sula’s fascinating and eloquent account of following his mulefoot pigs to slaughter. And then eating them. Vegetarians across Chicago … Continued
File under “leading economic indicators.” Claudio, aka “the tamale guy,” reports an uptick in sales in the last week. The bars on his beat have been more crowded since November 4, he says, and those drinkers are eating more tamales. He chalks it up to a mild postelection surge in consumer confidence. On the other … Continued
till: TROUT ROE coconut, hyssop, passionfruit TOMATO basil, mozzarella, olive oil CAULIFLOWER five coatings, three gels, apple LOBSTER popcorn, butter, curry WAGYU BEEF maitake, smoked date, Blis Elixir RABBIT prune, shallot, burning leaves SHORT RIB Guinness, peanut, fried broccoli LAMB carrot, poppy seed, pistachio CONCORD GRAPE yogurt, mint, long pepper CRABAPPLE foie gras, brown sugar, sorrel … Continued
I was supposed to go back to the island this weekend for the hotel’s first-ever juniper festival, a “let’s all whitewash the fence” kind of deal in which participants forage for wild juniper berries, for later (ostensible) use in Death’s Door gin. But I just couldn’t get it together. It looked to be cold and … Continued
Sunday about 20 plant nerds converged on Gompers Park, at the far-northwest corner of Foster and Pulaski, for Nance‘s final foraging walk of the season. We walked into this thick stand of lambs quarters right off the bat; if you’re looking, it’s at the south end of a little bridge at the southwest corner of … Continued