It's Pronounced Sah-VERE, FYI

By Laura Oppenheimer in Food on Sep 19, 2007 2:00PM

The "vere" part is pronounced like "were." Now that you know how to pronounce "saveur," it is time to pick up a copy of the food and wine magazine by the same name. The October issue of Saveur is dedicated solely to Chicago; not too surprisingly, a piece of pizza is featured on the cover. And here we were pumped about getting a single article in Gourmet. Like Gourmet, Saveur doesn't put all of its content online, so pick up an issue on the newsstand for the complete package.

In a type of ode to his hometown, David McAninch offers up this perfect description our city:

It is safe to say that the writer Nelson Algren, were he alive today, would scarcely recognize the town he called a "drafty hustler's junction", for if the Chicago of Algren's mid-20th-century heyday was a collection of hard-bitten neighborhoods ruled by parochial tastes, the present-day city is inarguably a world-class metropolis. This former stockyard town that rose from swampland between the prairie and the inland sea of Lake Michigan has shed its unglamorous reputation and come of age. And nowhere is its transformation more pronounced than in the realm of food. Over the past few years, Chicago has become a magnet for avant-garde chefs and is now home to temples of innovative cuisine — the celebrated restaurants Alinea, Moto, and Schwa among them — that have earned a level of culinary cachet previously seen only in New York, Paris, or London. But the city's kinetic food culture amounts to more than a restaurant revolution; in fact, it has less to do with the city's clout as a gastronomic destination than it does with the increasingly varied backgrounds and appetites of the people who live there.

This guide to eight quintessential Chicago bars may come in handy if you are looking for a new watering hole. We also enjoyed the "City of Pork" article, which chronicles the love-love relationship Chicago has with Polish pork products. Best line in the piece? It comes from Stan Bobak, head of Bobak's Sausage Company, as he discusses making kielbasa the old-school way by allowing it to air-cure in unrefrigerated rooms. "There are rules in this country that prohibit this, but here in Chicago, everyone just looks the other way."

Other articles (not online) include a guide to Chicago markets, a piece on eating soul food on the South Side, and a profile of Rich Melman.