Results tagged “bbq”

         

So yesterday was the annual chef's BBQ at Green City Market, which a few folks on twitter have called "the real Taste of Chicago." No arguments there. Not even a passing thunderstorm could keep people away from indulging in pure unadulterated gluttony.

Green City Market will be packed this evening on a picture perfect night for grilling and BBQ as they host their annual chef's BBQ. The BBQ brings together a Justice League of chefs making dishes using food procured directly at the market. Food tends to go fast and furious here; they've actually run out of some dishes at previous incarnations. Get there early.

For Memorial Day, The Chopping Block is hosting a BBQ Bash at their Lincoln Square location. The bash is an "open-house-style cooking class and party" on their patio with all the proceedes going to veterans via the Disabled Patriot Fund, a not-for-profit that helps Illinois veterans wounded in Iraq or Afganistan. Cook and dine on slow-smoked BBQ pork, balsamic-glazed skirt steak, beer can chicken, three bean salad, blueberry pie a la mode and sip on (free) lemonade and Goose Island Beer. The classparty is from 12-3pm, sponsored by Goose Island, Paulina Market and Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet and is $75 per person. Yes, more than your typical back yard party but it's for a good, local cause. So do it. With a smile and hungry stomach.

Well, we guess that whole "we'll store anything approach" must be making bank, because somehow Jones secured the capital to open a BBQ / Foot Massage joint. Just don't go accidentally barbecuing a foot!

It's mid-July which means that many tastings and fixed price dinner events have a Bastille Day theme. Here are a few of note

Holiday weekends tend to bring out the freak accidents and unfortunate circumstances. This weekend is no different. Already there are reports of:

The World Championship BBQ Competition in Memphis ended last weekend and some locals brought home a trophy.

With the warmer weather upon us, we've been outside exercising more and not really into the heavier meals we enjoyed during our winter hibernation. What we've been digging is a well-made salad for a meal, but salads can get really repetitive and boring if you're not careful.

It's completely OK to laugh at this because no one got hurt: A truck carrying 50,000 pounds of beef ribs caught fire last night near Hazel Crest. Authorities don't know what exact cut of rib the truck was hauling, but made plenty of barbecue jokes. Mmm, barbecue smell.

It's no secret that we're big fans of pigs here at Chicagoist (especially the mini variety). So of course we're going to be celebrating National Pig Day today at Brookfield Zoo. Started in 1972 by two sisters in North Carolina (where they also love their pigs), the day was set aside to honor the smart and tasty barnyard beast.

But [Village Manager Mark] Rooney and [director of economic development for Wheeling James] Lang said the village never intended to stop anyone cooking for their church or any other religious organization.

Continue reading "ACLU, Libertarians Join Pig Roast Fight"

Chicagoist's general rule toward our vegetarian tendencies is, if we wanted a dish-chock full of meat, we'd eat it. As such, plates full of fake meat masquerading as juicy animal parts (a vegan Reuben sandwich, for instance) generally hold little appeal, and we instead opt for dishes full of clearly identifiable veggies or simple marinated tofu.

We sometimes feel that turkey is the ugly stepchild of sandwich meats. Why get dry, boring turkey when crispy bacon, juicy roast beef or succulent ham are calling? When paired with the right ingredients, turkey doesn't become a liability—it becomes an asset.

Let's keep the party going. The list continues! -That with Smoque, Honkey Tonk and relocated Honey1, we're finally getting some halfway decent BBQ in town within easy reach of the north side. - That we can know how most Chicago sports fans feel about a story simply by assuming it's the opposite of what Jay Mariotti thinks - That we won't be wasting more b-day money on Super Bowl t-shirts, Bears jerseys, etc. this...

If there's one thing we brought back to Chicago with us after our six years down south, it's certainly our love for smoked meats. We'd always loved ribs as far back as we can remember, but exposure to true Southern BBQ raised our expectations to a whole new level. We learned that meat is meant to be lovingly smoked for hours in order to achieve the perfect symphony of tastes and textures.

Lately we've dedicated more than a few sentences about Honky Tonk BBQ, the new Pilsen-based barbecue restaurant officially opening in late September. We even announced that they were doing a sneak preview of their menu last weekend. Having sampled their 'cue while making our rounds on the street fair circuit we had a lot of questions, mainly about the true quality of the meat.

A few weeks back in one of the "Friday Buffet" installments we wrote about Honky Tonk BBQ, a vendor that's been traveling around the street fair circuit all summer serving up some decent barbecue, but nothing that makes us start searching for superlatives to describe it. We've attributed that to them traveling around, spending full weekends with the same stuff to sell to passers-by who might be more interested in purely bacchanalian pursuits. Our suspicion is that, once they officially open to the public in September, Smoque might be in for some serious competition for the attentions of foodies and BBQ enthusiasts.

Chicagoist has long been a fan of Goose Island beers. Not only have they long been a staple Beer of the Week, but we're pretty sure our names are on a plaque somewhere on the pub walls as "Masters of Beer Appreciation," a feat accomplished in the hazy years before our baby. What we didn't know then was that we could have our kid and our beer, too.

This clip from The Simpsons is as good a place to jump off this week, as we're leaving to see the film after we file this, and the beginning setting is at a fair. Which makes a nice segue for us. Last week, we went to the South Side Arts & Music Fest we profiled in last week's installment and were confronted with the sticker shock of seeing a funnel cake sell for nine...

Twelve pieces of salmon-pink, slimy, sliced smoked turkey deli meat were piled on top of each other with a plop of tasteless coleslaw, a teaspoon of cranberry sauce, and a whole lot of "adobo sauce" which looked and tasted like Sriracha. Meet the mediocre "Maya F," one of the 100+ sandwiches on the menu at the second outpost of Jerry's. The Division Street location officially opened on Monday, though people have been packing the place since the beginning of July. And we couldn't blame them; at $8.25 for a sandwich and two sides, it presents an upscale yet inexpensive take on a food that almost everyone can appreciate.

Taste of Chicago left a bad taste in the mouths of some; 17 people have become sick after eating tainted food from the Pars Cove booth at the annual food fest. Five of these have been diagnosed with salmonella contamination.This is the first time in the Taste's 27 years that there has been an incident like this.

No repartee this week, all business. - We've received e-mails from concerned people and had to check it out for ourselves, and it looks as though Cereality at 110 South Wacker has closed down, only a couple years after Chicagoist (among other media) made a big fuss about its opening. There's even a "For Rent" sign in its front window. This kind of reaffirms our faith in the human race; if people won't pay $4.50...

Is there enough going on this weekend? We’re here to add to the list of places to go. Sunday is “A Day in the Country” at the Hideout. Get some BBQ, hear some country music, drink some whiskey. Sounds perfect to us. The whole dang thing begins at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday with a couple acoustic sets out front by Tangleweed and The Golden Horse Ranch Band before moving the music inside for the remainder...

Vegetarian Hot Dogs?

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big -- really freaking big -- so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city's San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA...

Yawn. That’s our initial response to the free music at the Taste of Chicago this year. We know not every concert should cater to us alone, but should we suffer because of the need to cater to the balding, khaki-wearer’s bland taste in music? Thanks, XRT, for taking this to a new level of disinterest. Who’s having the BBQ? That’s where we’ll be instead of Grant Park. The Taste of Chicago has released the Fourth...

Attention: All you shoe-loving rap fans, all you jobless hipsters ... Time to put down the Cristal. Time to take off the ice for a minute ... As Miles Raymer reported yesterday on Crickets, Redman is scheduled to do a DJ set and a meet-and-greet from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at St. Alfred in Wicker Park. So you know, if you don't have anything to do on a Wednesday afternoon, you might as well...

Chicagoist often thinks of restaurants like friends, and thus our experiences with restaurants are oftentimes described in terms of human relationships. For example, one restaurant we eat at is a go-to kind of friend; always open, never a hassle, no complications. Another restaurant we like to go to keeps letting us down because our expectations are too high ... and yet, we keep going back for more.

We were inclined to dislike Smoque, the new BBQ joint that just opened up off of the Irving Park Blue Line stop on 3800 N. Pulaski. The borderline idiotic name, the intensity of their BBQ manifesto and (for us) the long distance necessary to travel to get there, made us ready to dismiss the recently opened BBQ joint. Additionally, we didn't feel like it was "authentic." While we aren't sure what authentic really means, Smoque doesn't have it — it almost feels like a pre-fab restaurant, with the menu on the chalkboard and the french fries in a paper bag acting like what someone thinks a BBQ place should be. We were ready to hate it.