Quick Bites
- Monica Eng at the Trib must be helping Chicago win its title of "most caffeinated" city; she tried 32 different coffees for a story in today's paper about which coffees taste the best. Coming out on top are cups of coffee from Metropolis, Intelligentsia, Coffee Beanery Ltd., Whole Foods, Cafe Colao, Illy, Peet's Coffee (our personal favorite), and Julius Meinl. She also recommends picking up the banana cream tart at Fox & Obel to go with a cup of coffee. The description made us want to skip work and head straight there: "A dense cookie crust holds fresh banana pudding, topped with silky whipped cream and cute slice of banana all in a pool of chocolate sauce." Yum.
- Two of our favorite things, Google maps and MenuPages, are combined on this handy mash-up, Menumap. Gridskipper alerted us that "Mapmeister" Will Schenk has done his yearly update on the site, so hopefully, all of Chicago's newest locales are be included. From our initial glance as it, it seems to be extra-light on Southside restaurants and a little slow to load, but super-useful just the same.
- Count us in for the “Simply Manischewitz Live Cook-Off” that Dish alerted us to, happening today from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Macy’s Culinary Center on 111 N. State St.
- Zagat is all about the recently relocated Green City Market, which is held in the Notebaert Nature Museum twice weekly until Dec. 22. Those shopping for fresh vegis get an added bonus—free admission to the museum. Not a bad deal. There are also chef demos at 10:30 a.m. ever Wednesday.
- Does Jerald O'Kennard need an personal assistant? Because Chicagoist is definitely available to work at Chicago's Beverage Tasting Institute, where O'Kennard is the director. We think we would be excellent at drinking all day long and judging things. Actually, that's sort of what we do anyway; we just don't get paid for it. Anyway, Crain's has a nice profile of the BTI and the challenges it faces as it tries to grow and become more prominent. Seriously, though, we're available to work, if needed.
- Whiting, Indiana lost out to Binghamton, New York in the search for the "Capital of the Pierogi Pocket." We have no idea what that title means, but we do know that Whiting takes its Pierogi seriously, so if it lost to Binghamton, than Binghamton must really throw it down when it comes to our favorite Polish morsels. According to The Stew Whiting still received a $1000 prize.