Food: August 2009 Archives

These days, when people refer to Scarlet, the popular Boystown bar, as “smokin’-hot” they’re referring to the bar’s posh new interior, and not to the fire that destroyed the establishment in February of this year. Nearly a 100 firefighters responded to the early-morning blaze which leveled the bar and the residences that occupied the second and third floors of the building. Neighboring gay bars and clubs rallied around owner Paul Cannella and his employees by hosting a series of fundraisers to help those suddenly out of job, and some cases, out of home. Fast-forward to a few months later, and Cannella is ready to re-launch Scarlet, a bar often described as “Wicker Park comes to Boystown,” in late September. “After the fire, my initial reaction was to rebuild it exactly the same as it was and to get the doors open as fast as possible. But as more time went by, we were able to think things through and take the best of the best of the bar and incorporate it into the new Scarlet,” says Cannella, 39, a Lincoln Park resident.

Heirloom tomatoes are finally starting to roll into farmers markets throughout the city. With that comes some pretty outstanding cocktail recipes. First, there's the always busy Adam Seger of Nacional 27. Seger's monthly cocktail class was the subject of a cover story in the New York Times style section yesterday. The Paper of Record also published Seger's Heirloom Tomato Mojitonico recipe for Anthony and Rob to try at home.

          

On Friday night, we dined at MK and had one of the best seared scallops we've ever eaten. Perfectly seared with a golden brown crust. We wanted to know if we could come close to re-creating this at home. We gave it a go and found that it wasn't as difficult as we thought! Directions in the photo captions. And, if you have a favorite way to eat your seared scallops, let us know and we'll try to re-create the dish. Step 1 begins with the second picture. Enjoy!

• Today: This is the final day to get the all-new C-Wich, a crab cake sandwich, for $5 at C-House in the Affinia Hotel Chicago (166 E. Superior). Additionally, select sides, sweets and specials will also be offered for $5.
• Tonight: Celebrate Michael Jackson's birthday at Kit Kat Lounge and Supper Club with a $19 menu special featuring blackened chicken with cheddar potatoes and roasted corn. A "Black and White" martini made with VOX vodka, dark chocolate liqueur, vanilla is also for sale for $5. Kit Kat's resident "diva," Traci Ross, will be performing as both Michael and Janet Jackson. (3700 N. Halsted)
• Sunday: Goose Island's going hog wild with a pig roast to benefit Slow Food Chicago. Clybourn brewpub chef John Manion, Blackbird's Mike Sheerin, Pat Sheerin of the Signature Room at the 95th, Jackie Shen of Red Light, the Bristol's Chris Pandel and Brian Millman of Uncommon Ground will each have a pig to roast at the brewery on Fulton. Purchase tickets here. (1800 W. Fulton, 3-7 p.m., $55)

• Growing Home, Inc., which in our humble opinion does the Lord's Work with its organically certified urban farms in Englewood, is facing a $100,000 funding gap. If you've ever had their greens or other produce, please give what you can. [Inbox]
• The Green Chicago Restaurant Co-op launched a "Guaranteed Green" initiative that will help diners find and support the restaurants that "that take significant steps toward protecting the environment." on hand for the launch were Rick Bayless, Ina Pinkney, and Helen Cameron of Uncommon Ground, which also received the Co-op's first honors. [Inbox, again]
• "Are the Peaches Any Good?" Next time, ask a stupid question. [Fruit Slinger]

If you're like us, sometimes you want to grab a bite to eat and may not know exactly what's nearby, especially in an unknown part of the city. Mobile phone applications are a great way to help you not only find out what's nearby but also direct you right to its front door.

Head over to Fox & Obel tonight to enjoy a cooking class with Josh Jones, Chef de Cuisine at Spring Restaurant. Chef Jones makes New American fare with Asian influences and will be presenting a brief history of noodles and offering instructions on how to prepare traditional Japanese noodles (and incorporate ingredients into them). He will be preparing Somen Noodle Salad, Soba Noodle Cake and Fresh Ramen with Roasted Meat and Broth. You can sip some Japanese beer, take home recipes and will receive a gift. Two hours of validated parking is available and you'll get 10% off purchases you make tonight.

The expansion of the Alinea brand continues unabated. Now Achatz, Kokonas and company are opening their daunting wine cellar and selling wine subscriptions. In addition to rare selections hand-picked by Alinea sommelier Joe Catterson, Alinea:Oenophilia subscribers will also receive tasting notes, recipes for pairings (all the more reason to break out the Anti-griddle), and a "welcome kit" containing a bottle of Laurent-Perrier brut champagne, a pair of Rona Artist champagne flutes and a cork and card presenter from designer Martin Kastner.

Decided to cook with beer Sunday and whipped up some amazing buckwheat pancakes using a cup of Lost Abbey Inferno ale. Damned if they weren't some of the fluffiest we've had in a long time. the beer was good, too.

At this point in his career Roger Ebert has earned the right to write about whatever subject that strikes his fancy, and he does so with eloquence, wit, passion and keenly honed journalistic instincts. Ebert also cut his teeth in newspapers when reporters and columnists had a reputation for hard-drinking and late night war story sessions at the Billy Goat; Ebert has said on many occasions that this is what newspapermen did.

Last year at Chicago Gourmet we attended a "Pairing Cheese with Beer" seminar led by Greg Hall from Goose Island. To our surprise the last course paired dark chocolate with Goose Island's Pere Jacques. Augh. It was soooo nice. Join Vosges Haut-Chocolate and Goose Island this Friday from 7-9pm for a Chocolate and Beer Soiree. Pair Vosges Naga truffle, which has a sweet Indian curry powder, coconut and milk chocolate, with Goose Island's Sofie Belgium Style Ale, which has been aged in wine barrels with orange peel giving you hints of citrus with a creamy vanilla finish. The party is at Vosges Lincoln park storefront (951 W. Armitage Ave.) and is $30/ person, which includes 3 chocolates paired with artisan beers from Goose Island along with open bar of Goose Island 312 beer. Also receive a 10% discount off any chocolate purchase during the event.

  

Chipotle Mexican Grill launched an iPhone application today that allows users to locate a location and place online orders. We've been putting it through its paces on our iPhone and like what we're getting out of it so far.

           

Bonjour. We were invited to attend a cooking class at the Alliance Française de Chicago, which before Saturday we knew only as, “that pretty building on Dearborn where French people hang out and that we are slightly intimidated by.” Having the choice of romance languages to study, we chose Italian and Spanish over French (the “bonjour” at the beginning of this post is really the extent of our language skills.) Silly American. However, we decided there is no better way to begin our relationship with the Alliance and the French language than through food, so we gave it a shot. Kinda like Julie Powell but without all the whining and self-pity. And we never cried over beef stew.

There's been a backlash against high fructose corn syrup in recent years as the sweetener has been linked to a litany of health problems. But when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Or, if you're the soft drink industry, you make sodas loaded with sugar and market it as both a better-tasting product and a healthier alternative to HFCS.

The MetraMarket, which broke ground last year, is finally taking shape in the 100,000 sq. ft. space on the street level of the Ogilvie Transportation Center (bordered by Lake, Canal, Washington and Clinton streets). The developer recently announced at least half of the tenants who will occupy the Chicago French Market, a part of the MetraMarket retail development that promises to be reminiscent of European open-air markets. Among the tenants signed on for the French Market's late October opening are local favorites Pastoral, Flip Crepes, and Vanille Pastisserie, as well as Chicago Organics who will offer an array of locally grown and certified organic produce, meats, and dairy. Other purveyors on the list are Albano's Deli, Canady Le Choclatier, Completely Nuts, Espression by Lavazza, Fraternite Notre Dame, Sweet Miss Giving's, and Wisconsin Cheese Mart.

          

Last night's beer dinner at the Publican was the culmination of six months of planning and discussions between Paul Kahan and New Holland Brewing Company. After all the brewing, the emails and phone calls, getting to know each other and travel between Chicago and Holland, it came down to the beer and the food, as it should have been. The proof, as the adage goes, would be in the pudding.

     

When you walk into the Spice House in Old Town with 10 pounds of pork belly strapped to your back, you're telegraphing to the employees what you need. What we were looking for was four ounces of sodium nitrate, aka "pink salt."

Gum seems to be quite the topic lately. The International Chewing Gum Association's website now features a pretty cool Flash site on how gum is made - both sticks and pellets. And you may have heard that chewing gum may help you drop some pounds or make you smarter. (By the way, our very own Wrigley sponsored that research...so take that as you will.) Mental Floss blogged about gum recently and devoted a couple of pages in its most recent issue on the chewy substance. It was this article's story about Chicago's own Wrigley Company that caught our eye.

We've been looking forward to seeing Nana (3267 S. Halsted St., 312 929 2486), an organic breakfast/brunch spot in Bridgeport by Omar and Christian Solis, whose father Jose owns nearby Tacos Erendira, open for months. Chicago Brunch Blog reports that they're finally taking the paper off the windows and are slated to open 6 a.m. Monday with a menu including buckwheat pancakes with banana and mulled hemp seeds, liege (a leavened batter with beads of pearl sugar that burst and caramelize in the waffle iron) and the "Nanadict:" a pupusa topped with crumbled chorizo, poached eggs and poblano sauce. Coupled with the packed houses at HAN 202 nightly and Nightwood, my backyard could be on the cusp of destination dining. [via Grub Street Chicago]

From the "calm the fuck down" department: Jeff Ruby's list of his 30 favorite burgers turned the echo chamber at LTHForum up to 11, much of it centered on why Patty's Diner (3538 Main St., Skokie, 847-675-4274) didn't make Ruby's cut. Some samples (emphasis ours):

So far this week we've already given you the heads-up on the mado/Webster's Wine Bar/Bluebird collaborative dinner and the Chicago Botanic Garden's Pepper Weekend. 'Course the big thing for us is the Publican/New Holland beer dinner Sunday. If those three don't tickle your fancy, try these events.

• WTF is Homaro Cantu up to now? "Disruptive food?" [Homaro Cantu's Twitter]
• Chicken McNuggets confit [Fancy Fast Food]
• Ice Cream from one single ingredient [the Kitchn]

We really enjoy baguettes here at Chicagoist's test kitchens. Unfortunately, there always seems to be 3-4 inches of dry, stale bread left over after a couple of days. After years of tossing these in the garbage with a sigh, we started experimenting with ways to use them up.

      

"That mole was the hardest thing I've ever cooked in my life, as I didn't have a recipe available. The 27 ingredients I used were from memory," Rick Bayless told the assembled crowd between commercial breaks at Frontera Grill last night. Bayless threw what was essentially a victory party last night, screening the "Top Chef Masters" finale to a host of media, VIP and haiku masters like Benjy. If you've never witnessed Bill Kurtis firing off the fiercest finger guns this side of Joe Biden, you're missing one of life's guiltiest pleasures.

Heyyyy, Top Chef Fans! We're getting ready to liveblog the finale of Top Chef Masters. Our esteemed Editor is watching at Frontera with Chef Bayless along with Benjy Lipsman. We'll be getting updates from him on what's going on there, too. Here's his first:

Who would've thunk that burgers would be one of the year's big food fads, although we should have seen it coming with "the Cheeseburger Show?" (No offense, Pang).

Although we didn't recognize it at the time, our formative years learning about beer started in the southeast Asia nearly 20 years ago with brands like Tiger, Chang, Bintang, Anchor (not the San Francisco brewery), Kingfisher and Singha. We heard that Lion stout was making its way to Chicago and it brought back old memories. Getting our hands on the stout was like saying hello to an old friend. Say hello to Guinness? Screw that and marketing slogans. Say hello to Lion Stout!

If you ever wondered what a reality show looked like where contestants were civil to each other, there was no backstabbing and maneuvering to save one's own ass and had a host that made Padma Lakshmi look hyperactive, "Top Chef Masters" was that show. That's not to say the show didn't have its moments: Ludo Lefebvre acted so above it all that Stolpman nicknamed him "LeDouche;" Tim Love showed signs of a drinking problem when faced with making a meal in a dorm room; the crestfallen look on Art Smith's face when told he was cooking a vegan and gluten-free dish for Zooey Deschanel and her party.

Looks like the Publican/New Holland beer dinner isn't the only must-eat dinner in town Sunday. Rob and Allie Levitt of mado are putting together a five-course dinner of their own featuring wood-roasted pig’s head with spicy greens and marinated chickpeas, spit-roasted leg of mutton and smoked trout with apricots, chilies and polenta abbrustolita. The dinner starts Sunday at 6 p.m.

   

When it comes to naming the city's best mixologists, Adam Seger's name is usually one of the first to roll off one's tongue. The general manager of Nacional 27 is a Certified Culinary Professional and worked the lines in kitchens before hearing the sirens' call of the bar. Seger takes the approach of a chef to his cocktailing, sourcing artisan products, growing herbs and spices in the planters lining Nacional 27's sidewalk seating and infusing spirits in-house.

The Chicago Botanic Garden will be hosting All About Peppers weekend, a celebration of all things hot and spicy, this weekend. Sweet peppers will also be showcased, but we’re less excited about those. There will be tours of the garden focusing on pepper varieties, vendors, special decorations and informational signs throughout the garden. The CBG grows more than 40 varieties of peppers, so if you’re looking to experiment with something new, this would be a great time to visit!

After a temperate and relatively dry summer — and that's putting it mildly — tomatoes are finally starting to grow and ripen just as the fruit is reaching its seasonal peak locally. Chicago Tomato Fest was established by Slow Food Chicago to celebrate the five-week period where sun gold, plum, cherry and other heirloom varieties abound. New to the fest this year is a "BLT Challenge," where they're asking local chefs to commit to using locally grown heirlooms, as well as locally and sustainably raised bacon to promote the farms they sourced the tomatoes and pork from.

A peach a day keeps the birthers/angry town hall attendees away?

Yesterday was National Rum Day, but just because it's over doesn't mean we'll stop imbibing. Today's weather is in fact perfect for a Dark 'n Stormy® (one of the few cocktails to feature a trademarked recipe, by the way).

       

No sooner had the server placed the dish on our table yesterday than we were looking for said server to return the dish to the kitchen. By then he was "in the weeds." After a couple minutes we finally got the attention of one of the hostesses, who summoned a front-of-house manager to the table. "What's wrong with the dish?" she asked. Our friend simply pointed to the undercooked chicken on the plate.

Quickfire. Oooo, yes! The palate test! Each chef will be blindfolded and will taste 20 ingredients which they are then asked to identify. Each chef will receive stars relative to the number they identified correctly. Let's touch on some notables: Michael thinks hoisin sauce has a texture unlike anything he's ever put in his mouth before. He thinks marscarpone is sour cream. Fortunately, he's able to identify oregano. Hubert does well until he identifies poppadom as potato chips. We have to say...it looks like they went easy on these contestants compared to our regular group of contestants. Some of the ingredients include: corn, peanut butter, ketchup, and maple syrup. This makes us want to do our own blindfold taste test. Now here's a kicker. Rick Bayless knocks back some hoisin sauce like it's a shot of vodka and says, "Ranch salad dressing." No lie, folks. He identifies mango as plum. Anita blanks on hoisin. Heh. She pegs dashi, though. Here they are in order of how they did and the number of stars they received: Michael (7) - 5 stars. Rick (6) Anita (6) - each get 4 stars. Hubert (5) - 3.5 stars.

Sometimes it pays to subscribe to a restaurant's Twitter feed. Case in point: the hyper-seasonal and snout-to-tail experts at mado. Co-owner Rob Levitt occasionally posts updates to his feed letting fans know, among other things, what he and wife Allie are making in the kitchen and the not-uncommon complaint from a new customer regarding their commitment to using every bit of what they buy. Today Rob Levitt posted what the restaurant's "first piece of hate mail" to the restaurant's website It's a scan of highlighted capsule review of mado with the following written in green ink next to it:

• Get out and enjoy Province's new outdoor patio. It opens today. (161 N. Jefferson)
• According to Time Out Chicago, Nightwood opens for brunch Sunday from 9:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. Now we'll get to see if the lines run Lula-long.
• No Sleep 'til Bridgeport. St. Jerome Croatian Church's 103rd annual Velika Gospa gets underway at 10:15 a.m.. Lots of cevap, oysters, hearty Italian fare and sweets to be had here. (28th and Princeton). That'll be followed by the procession of St. Rocco di Simbario on Sunday

Here are some links to check out in between Madden '10 sessions:

      

We dined last night at Carnivale for its Slow Food and Goose Island Brewery dinner. The meal featured produce from local farmers prepared by Chef Mendez and paired with a Goose Island brew. Once seated at communal tables, the evening began with a warm welcome from Chef Mendez and a beer graciously poured by his wife, making us feel like they'd welcomed us into their home for a dinner party with friends.

        

No matter how many times we go to Chicago Farmer's Markets, there is always something that surprises us. This week, we encountered a few new things: squash blossoms (which can be battered and fried), the first apples of the season, baby celery.

One of the best things about visiting Uncommon Ground Devon's farmers market (every Friday from 4-8 p.m. ) is that you can walk around the vendors set up in the parking lot with a beer in your hand, if you're so inclined. They have a nice rotating selection of drafts and with August finally giving us a semblance of summer — humidity — that's been missing, a good fruit beer is in order. Maybe something that makes a good shandy when lemonade is added.

We all tend to follow trends now and then. Based on personal experience farm dinners are a good trend to follow, without getting dirt under the nails.

   

Culinary gimmickry seems to be everywhere these days. Molecular gastronomy, bacon-infused candy, flavored air - oh my! While this epicurean mayhem can be a bit overwhelming, we’re always ready to try something new. As we have learned from restaurants like Moto and Alinea, sometimes “gimmicks” can be an opportunity to showcase artistry, creativity and some really tasty food. Or, it can go horribly, horribly wrong.

We've been preoccupied with non-Chicagoist related business today, but wanted to check in with this video we found of a trip NAHA's Carrie Nahabedian and Sarah Stegner of Prairie Grass Café took to Olga Bay, Alaska, where they visited wild salmon fisheries; the trip was sponsored by Plitt Seafood Company. Both Stegner and Nahabedian have been leaders in the promotion of seafood sustainability and this video shows them walking the talk, educating themselves further in the process amidst the beautiful Alaska wilderness.

      

The shaved ice and fruit dessert known as bing soo tastes even better when the temperature is in the low 90s. We saved the bing soo for last yesterday while at the Chicago Korean Festival. Held on Bryn Mawr between Kedzie and Kimball, the festival seems to grow larger every year. We decided to hit it and get out early before the heat really started scorching attendees; the heat also swayed us from eating kim chi. Here are some shots of some of the food dishes available for purchase, ending with a beautiful bing soo.

When it comes to Alinea and Grant Achatz, what is understood need not be discussed. So let's let two minutes of video and this review do the talking, instead:

That is all.

Had to double-check the name of that wine to make sure there were some vowels.

On Saturday August 22, join master sommelier, host of Check, Please! and proud pug owner Alpana Singh, at Juicy Wine Company as she hosts a fundraiser for The Northern Illinois Pug Rescue Association. Enjoy summer wines, delicious food, a silent auction, including a chance to win a spot on Check, Please! and door prizes. The party is from noon-3pm and tickets are available here for $45 per person.

Julie & Julia opens in theaters today and restaurants throughout the city are offering specials in honor of the late Julia Child using recipes from her seminal cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Today, we're rounding up a few for the Buffet and we've added our favorite portrayal of the French Chef, Dan Aykroyd's performance from the early days of "Saturday Night Live."

• Sam's South Loop and Aigre Doux weren't the only notable closings this week. Joining them in the restaurant/retail graveyard are Mama Desta's Red Sea (the city's oldest Ethiopian restaurant) and Doggy's S.S. Soul Eatery. [Food Chain]
• Chicago Diner is guilty of making tired Sarah Palin jokes. Local blogger is guilty of overreacting to Chicago Diner's tired Sarah Palin jokes. [Grub Street Chi]
• I passed along some of the guanciale I made to Seth Zurer of Baconfest Chicago and Sky Full of Bacon's Mike Gebert. Here's Gebert's verdict. [Sky Full of Bacon]

Last week, Suzanne Tracht was sent home, leaving to compete this week: Chef Hubert Keller, Chef Michael Chiarello, Chef Anita Lo, Chef Art Smith, and Chef Rick Bayless. The chefs walk into the kitchen and a stack of cheeseburgers and fries on a table. Choi wastes no time and we begin the Quickfire.

Remember that rooftop garden we told you about a few weeks ago? It’s not open to regular patrons of Uncommon Ground, but if you go to an upcoming Slow Food Chicago Dinner, you can get a group tour of the nation's first certified organic rooftop garden. We’ve been up there, and it’s not to be missed.

On Monday, loyal customers of the South Loop location of Sam’s Wines & Spirits learned that the location was due to close this upcoming Sunday, August 9. The store opened with much fanfare in 2007 and included a rooftop deck and a wine bar. The Chicago-based chain spent a significant amount of money renovating the 16,000 square foot former Trailways bus terminal it was located in. The exact reasons for the close are unknown, but emails from Sam’s indicated that general economic malaise, as well as the particular difficulties in the South Loop housing market, helped lead to the store’s demise.

The adjective to describe Sunday was "epic." There was a lot of eating involved with going to Fiesta del Sol; there were two trips alone Sunday. In between was a visit to LUSH Wine & Spirits University Village location for their free Sunday wine tasting (2-5 p.m. every Sunday). After we ran through the wine selections, a palate cleanser was needed and another customer cleaned them out of Gumballhead. Scouring the cooler we came upon some organic beers. Our history with organic brews is not a good one, but we're anything if not an equal-opportunity drinker and one bad experience won't deter us.

                    

With a huge hand clutching a glass of Austrian sparkling wine, David Cleverdon slowly gestured across the seemingly endless verdancy surrounding us like a compass searching for True North and said, "You're catching us at the beginning of a transition. Tomorrow, trucks will be coming to the farm and tearing up the land as we start laying the ground work for the future of Kinnikinnick Farm."

The term "gaucho" for some brings to mind naive, romanticized notions of South American cowboys. For us it means sinking our teeth into a tender, juicy steak, sipping on some malbec and popping on some Steely Dan. Lush Wine & Spirits University Village location (1257 S. Halsted, 312-738-1900) won't have the Dan tomorrow, but they will have everything else as part of a humpday "gaucho party" they're throwing in their fenced-in garden seating. The steaks are going to be wood-grilled, loads of malbec will be available and, if we know the Lushies, they'll also have some tunage ready to drown out the annoying Rat Pack staples their neighbors at Franconello's will undoubtedly be spinning.

  

A couple weeks back Rob and I attended a tasting of Rosangel, a new infused tequila from the makers of Gran Centenario, at Nacional 27. Rosangel takes Gran Centenario's reposado tequila — aged for 60 days in port barrels — and then is infused using hibiscus flowers. The result is a pinkish-colored tequila with the faintest sweetness imparted to it from the flower petals.

These are the things one misses when you leave town for a day. Aigre Doux, the River North bistro of husband/wife team Mohammad Islam and Malika Ameen, has shuttered its doors. A press release yesterday cited the recent passing of Ameen's father and a desire to focus on family as the reasons behind the closing. ameen will be keeping Aigre Doux fans updated on her and Islam's exploits on, where else, twitter. [Grub Street Chi]

After a short hiatus, we're back in the kitchen! This week, we've cooked up a light, tasty summer supper which could serve as a main course (served alongside a salad and a big loaf of bread) or an appetizer served by itself. This is one of our favorite dishes, because it allows us to deceive our friends. It looks so fancy and tastes so fancy, but it is sinfully easy to make. The whole costs about $8, even if you buy the mussels at Whole Foods - they sell for between $4-5 a pound. It has a fancy French (or Belgian, depending on who you believe) name, which gives you an instant air of snobbery. Plus, you can use some of that dead bottle of white wine that's been sitting in your fridge for a month.

       

If you've seen a giant, 10-foot carrot being hauled around the City recently, don't worry, you're not hallucinating. It's the folks behind Carrotmob Chicago, happening at Fox & Obel this Sunday, August 9. What is Carrotmob? Well, we'll let them explain.