Next time you find yourself at West Side soul institution Edna's, pass on the peach cobbler (which is amazing, by the way), and try a slice of coconut cake instead. A monster hunk is $3, and the cakes are, of course, homemade. If you were wondering where Chicago's highest concentration of trans fats was located, look no further. But totally worth it!

Edna's [MenuPages]

[Photo: Made in Mississippi]

The big news on the international spirits scene today is that the country of Sweden has sold state-owned Absolut Vodka to French conglomérat de boisson Pernod Ricard for $8.9 billion after a competitive auction. From Reuters:

Pernod beat the favourite, Jim Beam bourbon maker Fortune Brands (FO.N: Quote, Profile, Research), to win control of Sweden's Vin & Sprit VSG.UL, owner of the fast-growing Absolut brand, and gain a bigger presence in the U.S.

"The combination of a full price and the amount of debt to be raised definitely seems to have unnerved certain investors," said Stephen Surpless, senior analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald.

According to a report earlier this month, the three most popular drinks in the United States are martinis (with vodka or gin), mojitos and Red Bull with vodka. The New York Times just ran a big feature on feminine-oriented vodkas in Russia, which might work for Absolut, with its mastery of marketing and its wide variety of infused flavors.

For its part, Pernod Ricard expressed confidence in its new brand's market strength. From its press release:

In the United States, Absolut is the top premium spirits brand, selling more than 5 million 9 litre cases. It has a unique brand image built around values of creativity, innovation and cultural leadership.

In the rest of the world, with close to 6 million cases sold in 2007, Absolut is one of the most global brands in the industry with a significant presence in all the continents and a strong perception as a leader in the premium vodka category.

Pernod buys Absolut vodka [Reuters]
Traditional Martini Ranks Most Popular [Wine and Spirits Daily]
Russian Vodka with a Feminine Kick [NY Times]
Photo: Absolutini [Absolutdrinks.com]

• If you're willing to brave the lines at Bongo Room and not get a brunch item, their sandwiches are delicious [Chicagoist]

• Everyone likes soup when they're sick. If you're sick at work in the Loop, Ginza's udon will steam the virus right out of you. And it comes with green tea! [Chicago Foodies]

• Bridget & Tammy love the burgers and mac and cheese at Kuma's Corner, but are a bit irritated by the service. (16/20) [Chicago Bites]

• Brunch at wildly popular Milk & Honey Cafe possibly not worth the long and aimless wait [Drive-Thru]

• The cupcakes at Molly's Cupcakes may not be the best thing that ever happened, but they brew a decent hot chocolate! [Chicago Foodies]

• Betraying a wicked sense of humor, an order of the Eggs Benedicto XVI at Polo Cafe comes with a framed photo of the current Pope that watches you while you eat. Really? [Chicagoist]

• Randomly garnering two reviews last week, Ras Dashen is a solid Ethiopian option in Edgewater with unique daily specials [Drive-Thru, Chicago Foodies]

• If you score a reservation to newly-reopened Schwa, see if you can break out of your gorging reverie and ask Chef Michael Carson about your dishes, eh? [Food Chain]

• The vegan menu and calming atmosphere at Spa Cafe makes it a good Loop lunch spot for anxiety-prone non-carnivores, and maybe you too! [Drive-Thru]

• Newcomer Twisted Sister Bakery, another entrant into the fearsome world of cupcakeries, is so far good! [Chicago Bites]

[Photo: a good way to start / a good way to depart, Steve Brandon/flickr]

You know it happens, but it's still disturbing to be reminded of it: news came across the wires Friday that a cook and Seahawks fan in the Seattle suburb of Port Orchard, Wash. allegedly spit in a burger ordered by a customer wearing Steelers gear. From the Kitsap Sun:

Deputies said the 37-year-old man in Steelers garb took his daughters to a Mile Hill Drive fast food restaurant Saturday evening, and "began trading friendly barbs about his team and their victory over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL," reports said.

One employee told the man that he'd "better not say that to the guy that's making your food," but the man thought it was a joke, reports said.

That is, until he opened his "clamshell-style" hamburger container and discovered what he called a "loogie" on his hamburger.

The manager, hilariously, told Kitsap County sheriff's deputies his 24-year-old employee might just have hawked something into the food. What the deputies were hoping to find in the way of evidence of the crime when they searched his home, we couldn't tell you, but they found some marijuana when they got there, and brought the guy in.

The man also confessed to spitting in the 37-year-old's hamburger container to "gross him out ... because he was a Steelers fan," deputies said.

With a new sports season just starting and a lot of old rivalries coming back into the spotlight, we're here to remind diners to keep it civil and maybe wear neutral colors if you're in enemy territory, at least while picking up short-order food. It's not right that a few disgruntled sports fans/kitchen employees play like that, but you'd be naive if you thought they didn't.

Cook Accused of Spitting on Fan's Burger [AP]
Seahawks Fan — and Fast Food Cook — Arrested for Spitting on Steeler Fan's Burger [Kitsap Sun]
Opening Day 2008 [MLB]
Photo: The Hamburger Method Of Criticism [N8tip]

• Lopsided economy drives record nationwide food stamp use [NYTimes]
• Food prices up 9% since last year; pork bellies mostly flat [Forbes]
• Asia's stomach rumbles as rice prices have doubled in the past year [AsiaSentinel]
• Record high profits for egg co. led by record high egg prices [CNBC]
• Absolut, once produced by the Swedish gov't, bought by Pernod for $9b [Guardian]
• Californian megadairy proposal for NW Illinois gets mixed reception [Tribune]
• DC woos Fancy Food Show away from NYC starting in 2011 [WaPo]

Three little ethnic restaurants opened recently, and we got their menus!

1) Kam Fung, in Chinatown. Exciting menu item: Chinese-style fried chicken, $15 for the whole bird

2) Snow Spice Thai, in Ravenswood. Exciting menu item: avocado fish salad, $7. And they deliver!

3) Tacos Erendira in Bridgeport. Exciting menu item: chiles rellenos burrito, $4.50. Exciting menu quirk: menudo is $5.50, but menudo to go is $6.50. Those plastic containers don't come cheap, we suppose.

Okay, have a good weekend. Try someplace new!

We generally try to avoid large chains. Very broadly speaking, the food isn't usually that awesome and the experience results in us giving our money to some sort of mega-corporation that has a ton of policies we find objectionable. The exceptions to the rule? New England based pizzeria Bertucci's, which makes truly solid margherita pizzas, and nationwide burrito chain Chipotle. Chipotle's burritos have often satiated our craving when we find ourself in a Mexican-food wasteland, and if you have any self-control (we don't), they can easily comprise two meals. We also love the company's focus on sustainable foods (the company uses rBGH-free sour cream, an ever-increasing amount of organic produce, and meat from green companies like Niman Ranch).

Recently, we learned of a reason to like Chipotle even more when the Washington Post reported that the chain has started using pork from Shenandoah Valley based Polyface Farms in its Charlottesville, VA location. Polyface is, of course, run by Joel Salatin, the man immortalized in Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma. Although Chipotle has faced numerous challenges, including the need to install a new kitchen in Charlottesville, over the seventeen months its taken to bring Polyface products to the restaurant, it hasn't given up. Here's hoping that Chipotle takes this focus on local farms nationwide!

Bertucci's Brick Oven Pizzeria [Official Site]
Chipotle [Official Site]
In Trial Run, Chipotle Heads to the Farm [Washington Post]
Polyface Farms [Official Site]
The Omnivore's Dilemma [Michael Pollan]

[Photo: Carnitas burrito, Flickr: skeptict]

The other day, we asked if anyone had a sense of where Top Chef episode 3's block party took place. Much to our surprise, someone actually took the time and energy to write in! Commenter and brilliant deductress Beth Berlin surmised the following:

I'm pretty sure the block party was in Ravenswood. I was trying to figure out where it was because it looked like a slightly more upscale "typical" Chicago neighborhood but still with a lot of houses and bungalows, but mostly all older houses; no new tall brick-y things. I think Richard called his paella "Richmond Ave. paella" at one point and that set off the lightbulb. Also, in the car Dale was saying there were passing a lot of Korean restaurants; there are lots of those in Albany Park, just north and west of Ravenswood, although they also showed them driving by Hard Rock and other River North spots, so who knows. My best assessment of where they were, though, is somewhere in Ravenswood, or just north or south of it.

[Photo: tervaja/flickr]

Oh man, Mike Sula almost got us with his brilliant, could-have-been-in-NYMag, piece on invented asshole chef Albert D’Angelo and his nightmarish superexclusive fake restaurant in Lake Michigan, Crib. But for one thing, Mr. D'Angelo would know better than to put alcohol in his bong, and two, since we're also 24 years old and from the Upper East Side, we'd have known him growing up. The scary thing is, much of it is plausible. Very traumatizing.

The real Albert D'Angelo died three weeks ago in suburban New Jersey. He was a 76 year old property developer who "enjoyed watching westerns, especially those starring John Wayne." And he's pissed about this.

(Actually, Mike tells us that that Albert D'Angelo is the name of a chef in T.C. Boyle's much-beloved short story, "Sorry Fugu." Anyone who didn't catch the reference should feel uncultured.)

Okay, speaking of April Fools, remember Time Out's shill for Sixteen earlier this week? Well, Pat Bruno's review of the restaurant in today's Sun-Times sort of reminded us of it. Unfairly, perhaps, but still. A particularly odious passage:

Executive chef Frank Brunacci knows how to up the flavor amp, but there is nothing shocking (no foams, gels, or powders, thank you) to worry about.

Sixteen [MenuPages]
Sixteen [Official Site]

As you probably read in the FYI roundup, the U.S. is sending some health inspectors to Honduras to try to get a handle on a crop of tainted cantaloupes that have given a handful of Americans and Canadians salmonella. The melons, sent over by grower and packer Agropecuaria Montelibano, have of course been recalled, but not before they were distributed pretty widely, with 50 illnesses reported in 16 states.

But Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said the fruit was just fine, according to CNN.

"It's not in our fruit," he said about last week's report by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that some Honduran cantaloupes may be contaminated with salmonella. "It's not true what they are saying. Logically, we believe it is an error."

"Permit me to make a demonstration," he said, then cut open the fruit, sliced off a chunk, put it in his mouth and chewed vigorously.

"I eat this fruit without any fear," he said with his mouth full. "It's a delicious fruit. Nothing happens to me!"

The FDA recommends that consumers take the following steps to reduce the risk of contracting Salmonella or other foodborne illnesses from cantaloupes:

* Purchase cantaloupes that are not bruised or damaged. If buying fresh-cut cantaloupe, be sure it is refrigerated or surrounded by ice.

* After purchase, refrigerate cantaloupes promptly.

* Wash hands with hot, soapy water before and after handling fresh cantaloupes.

* Scrub whole cantaloupes by using a clean produce brush and cool tap water immediately before eating. Don't use soap or detergents.

* Use clean cutting surfaces and utensils when cutting cantaloupes. Wash cutting boards, countertops, dishes, and utensils with hot water and soap between the preparation of raw meat, poultry, or seafood and the preparation of cantaloupe.

* If there happens to be a bruised or damaged area on a cantaloupe, cut away those parts before eating it.

* Leftover cut cantaloupe should be discarded if left at room temperature for more than two hours.

* Use a cooler with ice or use ice gel packs when transporting or storing cantaloupes outdoors.

FDA Warns of Salmonella Risk with Cantaloupes from Agropecuaria Montelibano [FDA Press Release]
US Health Inspectors Sent to Honduras [AP]
Honduran president defends melons by eating one [CNN]
FSIS to Host Public Meeting to Discuss Challenges and Solutions for Reducing the Incidence of E. coli O157:H7 in Raw Beef [USDA Press Release]
Photo: Askobac [Flickr]

• Italian mozzarella contaminated with dioxin [BBC]
• Honduran cantaloupes with salmonella [AP]
• New Zealand tahini with salmonella [NZHerald]
• New Zealand honey with toxic tutu nectar (!) [Times]
• North Dakota venison with lead particles [StarTribune]

We have no idea what's real and what's fake anymore. Actually, we never did.

• April Fools! A fake review of Sixteen, press release shill style, to commemorate the imaginary purchase of Time Out Chicago by Donald Trump. Of course, it, and things like it, can and do happen all the time. So it's almost more sad than funny. But that's the way we like it! The eleven stars in falsie (why not sixteen?) trumps (so to speak) the four (out of six) the realie from a few weeks back.

• The Tribune's theme this week is budget dining. The team names their favorite sub-$5 picks, including sympathy-inducing A MANO's $5 happy hour menu, and banh mi at Nhu-Lan Bakery & Sandwiches

• TOC's legit feature (by co-U of C alum Laura Oppenheimer) is on restaurant name etymology. The piece mostly covers fried chicken, soul, and bar & grill-type places; we want to know just exactly how middling Chinese restaurant Takie Outit got its name. Is the final 't' silent? And so forth.

• David Tamarkin reviews the newly-reopened Schwa, assuring readers that it's as good as it's always been. Which is great.

• Chris Borelli did an entertaining round-up of chain mac & cheese, none of which earned higher than a "B." The worst: Boston Market.

• Phil Vettel's piece on winter produce exhaustion is the sprightliest thing he's done in recent memory, we will go out on a limb and contend. We especially enjoy this construction:

It's gotten so bad that Carol Wallack, chef/owner of Sola restaurant, has taken up smoking.

"You look for something to keep your interest," she says. "We have an indoor smoker, and we smoke what we can. We've smoked our miso cod, for Kahlua pork potstickers, for pork butt wrapped in banana leafs. We've smoked our Canadian bacon and salmon for brunch. This time of year, we get pretty protein-heavy."

• Speaking of the big V, remember last week when he was lamenting the lack of good egg salad sandwiches? Apparently 200 sympathetic souls came to his aid, the oddest suggestion being the egg salad sandwich that used to be served at Bellvue Hospital in New York. Um...thanks?

• Finally, Mike Nagrant wants you go to skillfully pan-Asian Guan in Evanston (he calls it a "modern womb"), and Judy Hevrdejs appreciates the effort being made at The Balanced Kitchen, an organic vegan restaurant in North Park.

Sixteen [MenuPages]
Sixteen [Official Site]
Schwa [MenuPages]
Schwa [Official Site]

[Photo: something crazy at Schwa]

With respect to the previous post, the only one that we found actually funny was Honey Bunches Of Goats. The bees were also amused:

Apparently, this was not premeditated (on the part of the beekeeper). Ain't that some sh*t?

[Photo: hydraxis/flickr]

p.s. and then we ended up on LOL bees, which only kinda works

Hilarious: We have been giggling over these cereal boxes on Serious Eats all day. They got it from xkcd. Thought it was only appropriate to share:

Honey Bunches of Goats? Amazing. Truly.

Meat Cereals [Required Eating]
xkcd [Official Site]

Many life lessons from last night's Top Chef, in which Stephanie eked out a victory with her Mexican cinnamon wonton shells, as served at a block party in an UNNAMED Chicago neighborhood. Could somebody please name it?

1) Rick Bayless is a fashion icon, with that blousy purple shirt and the very light facial hair. Maybe a Mr. Wizard with a twist? OF LIME AND CILANTRO!

2) Jicama can be used in lieu of a starch. Also, if Miguel is willing to lapse into Spanish pronunciations for "taco" and "chorizo," the least he could do is pronounce jicama properly (i.e., HEE-cama instead of hicamma, like a hiccup)

3) Richard's restaurant, Trail Blais (Blais being his last name), would be better named "Blais of Glory" (thx Anthony)

4) Mental note, upon viewing Quickfire upscale taco challenge: lesbians ironically can't make tacos (zing!)

5) Corporate sponsorship — Padma tells the contestants to "jump in your [product placements]" and drive to the (Clorox front) mealstogether.com block party. Mmm, Cloroxtinis for everybody! Alternatively, "Sexy Drink," made with lavender. Is lavender really sexy? We think of it more as laundry

6) This is the second time in a row that no one knows how to cater. We hate things in a row!

7) The show's editing leads us to believe that the Red Team is going to win, and the suddenly, no, the Blue Team comes out on top. Because when all we get is hyperkinetic half-second shots of fifteen different food items, we really can't make independent assessments (unlike on Runway, where at least we have the same number of senses as the judges do). So the producers can jerk us around as much as they'd like for the first half of the season, until enough of the chaff has been whittled away that we can start paying proper attention to who's doing what

8) The Red Team defends itself by saying, oh, it's a Middle American block party, so we made lowest common denominator food. This is incredibly condescending — bunch of New York chefs go to bungalow country and think people don't know what they like? Chicago is, in many ways, a purer eating city than New York, and its avant-guard culinary scene and copious fatness prove it. As Rick Bayless himself put it during the judging, "good food sells to everybody." And condescension sells to nobody (except a small set of high-income strategic self-deprecators, but that's another story)

Yes, life lessons all. Next week: Daniel Boulud and Richard Roper for some reason!

[Photo: Stephanie's winning recipe for "Mixed Fruit with Oatmeal-Pine Nut Crumble, Cinnamon Sugar Fried Wontons." Seems like all you need to do to win this competition is cook well! (Bravo)]

IMPORTANT ADDENDUM

MP:Boston's Leila — with whom we watched Top Chef last night — noted that the block party street looked like John Hughes' fictional town of Shermerville, IL:

What we found out is that each one of us is a molecular gastronomist and a locavore, a sous chef, a classicist and an innovator. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, the Block Party Club.

Sad news to report. Herb Peterson, creator of McDonald's uber-popular Egg McMuffin, died on Tuesday of natural causes. He was 89 years old. A longtime advertising representative for McDonalds, he actively pushed the restaurant chain into expanding into the breakfast market. He eventually became a McDonald's franchisee. BY the time he passed away, Peterson was co-owner and operator of six McDonald's franchises in Santa Barbara and Goleta. From the International Herald Tribune:

Peterson came up with idea for the signature McDonald's breakfast item in 1972. He "was very partial to eggs Benedict," Fraker said, and worked on creating something similar. The egg sandwich consisted of an egg that had been formed in a Teflon circle with the yolk broken, topped with a slice of cheese and grilled Canadian bacon. It was served open-faced on a toasted and buttered English muffin. The Egg McMuffin made its debut at a restaurant in Santa Barbara that Peterson co-owned with his son, David Peterson.

Egg McMuffin inventor Herb Peterson dies in California at 89 [International Herald Tribune]

[Image via McDonald's]

You all know by now that Grant Achatz was very seriously considering plopping a version of Alinea in New York, but has decided against it. In an email to Time Out New York, he writes:

Sure, it would have been easy for us to clone Alinea and plunk it down in Manhattan. But what does that get anyone? Sure, we make some money if it is successful, but really that is not compelling. It would mean cannibalizing the very philosophy that makes Alinea what it is. New York would have a knockoff, and it would stretch our resources here at Alinea to the point of jeopardy for no real gain to anyone.

1) Mr. Achatz could charge $400 for the Tour, and people would still pack the place. It would be disgusting.

2) Could it really be that someone out there is doing it for the art and not the cash? Bless you.

3) Certain things should be unique in the universe for deeply philosophical reason, and Alinea is a prime example.

4) New York simply doesn't deserve it. Really. It's too good for them. And we should know.

Even if one day, forces beyond our control dictate that Mr. Achatz launch a New York project, at least today, we can savor the victory of good over evil; that's how strongly we feel about it.

Exclusive: Achatz fills in the blanks on Alinea NYC [Time Out New York]
Alinea [MenuPages]
Alinea [Official Site]

* Note that we have virtually no emotional reaction to Charlie Trotter's entré into the New York market. Account for that as you will.

• New USDA plan: to tell us less about meat recalls! [AP]
• Apparently, college students have poor food safety habits [Reuters]
• Much of the Asian Brown Cloud caused by cooking-related pollution [NYTimes]
• Chilean salmon factories rife with viruses, poor oversight [IHT]
• Training fish, in Pavlovian fashion, to swim towards a dinner bell? [Tribune]
• Inventor of Egg McMuffin makes it to the reassuring age of 89 [AP]

It might have been marginally more difficult in August, but probably not; that day-glo yellow is rather unmistakable.

Given that it was so obvious, props to Jessica D for giving non-marshmallow-related answers. Vada with turmeric? Yes, that would be something. Actually, it would be this:

[Photo: shubhangi athalye/flickr]

A fantastic read today in Slate got us thinking about this Chez Pim post from a few days ago. Both are about Spanish avant-garde cuisine, but while Slate wonders out loud whether technology-based trends such as foaming will make lasting marks on the food landscape even after their stellar popularity, Pim declares, in no uncertain or complimentary terms, the lasting impression a certain such restaurant left on her.

From Slate's Lisa Abend:

At its best, the Spanish version of "molecular gastronomy" stokes the emotions, shocks the senses, and, in the words (if not exactly the intentions) of that hedonistic gourmand Claude Lévi-Strauss, is "good to think." It's also often delicious.

But, from the beginning, some critics have scorned a mode of cooking that relies, in their opinion, too heavily on technology (as if an oven weren't a machine) and often chooses form over substance.

But Pim's complaint seems to cut to the heart of the matter: At "quite possibly the worst meal of my life" at Miguel Sanchez Romera's L'Esguard, north of Barcelona, she describes a meal that seems almost totally divorced from anything that seems like real food. With most dishes packaged in a gelatinous "Micrifilm," and served with what sounds like more attention to appearance than to taste, Pim pointedly complains about the chef's "grand idea:"

But you know what? Sometimes all we care about is if your grand idea tasted any good. Because if it isn't, then it's just a big pile of crap.

As for Slate's question of whether the 20-odd-year trend in hyper-experimental Spanish cooking will leave a long-lasting mark, well, we'll probably have to stay tuned. Likely, some techniques will become part of the long-term landscape, while others go away to die. What will become of Micrifilm? We'll let Pim cover that one.

Fish Foam and Spherified Mango Juice: Will Spanish Avant-Garde Cuisine Stand The Test Of Time? [Slate]
L'Esguard: Quite possibly the worst meal of my life [Chez Pim]
Photo: Salmon wrapped in Micrifilm at L'Esguard [Chez Pim]

Guess the thing:

We'll tell you tomorrow, but please to write in with your ideas. Correct identifications will be noted. Hilarious identifications will be lauded!

We imagine our parents laughing while reading New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov's article over whether or not to let his 16- and 17-year-old sons drink wine with dinner. He consults experts, some of whom tell him to give them sips, others who advise enforcing a strict no-alcohol policy until 21. (One even wishes the drinking age were 25!)

This was one issue that our parents never thought twice about, which is why, perhaps, Asimov's hand-wringing seems a little silly. Alcohol was never forbidden; if we wanted a sip of something, we could have it. For as long as we can remember, we had our own wine glass at dinnertime — it was just a lot less full than the other glasses. We were never offered beer or cocktails until we were 18 and had returned from college.

The other MenuPages editors had similar stories. MP: Boston's Leila was allowed a glass of wine with dinner throughout her teenage years. Adam of MP: San Francisco was still in elementary school when he started taking sips from his parents' cups, although he didn't begin drinking wine or beer with dinner until he was 18. Neal of MP: Philadelphia was 14 when he was allowed a glass of wine on holidays and special occasions, and Adam of MP: Chicago wasn't all that interested in wine when he was first offered it at 14 or 15, but by 17 he was drinking wine with dinner and by 20 was sharing scotch with his parents.

So it's not exactly a representative sample, but it's telling that none of us has had any real drinking problems. Sure, we all drank more than we should have in college (didn't everyone?), but there are no stomach-pumping incidents or DUIs to report. Just a few bad hangovers. Which makes us think that Asimov should just chill out and let his kids have a glass of wine.

Can Sips at Home Prevent Binges? [New York Times]

Photo: gakrid [Flickr]

Our biological clock has been ticking madly the past few days, and we finally figured out why: our very first post was on March 26th, 2007. A whole year of us and you together...it has truly been a pleasure to serve. And looking forward to many more.

[Photo: awww! Butterfly Sweets/flickr]

• USAID cutting non-emergency food aid as prices soar [AllAfrica]
• Burmese refugees in Thailand going on an unexpected diet! [IHT]
• Illegal garbage dumps poison Italy's buffalo mozzarella industry [NYTimes]
• Ill. ties hunting and fishing licenses to child support payments [Tribune]
• Underground sugar economy taking hold in Calif. schools [Telegraph]
• Honduran president defiantly eats salmonella melon [CNN]

When a restaurant first shows up on MenuPages, its popularity will often spike past the regular strong performers as people search for what they're reading about in the papers and on the blogs and what have you. But, say, two to six months in, if a place is still showing up in the top ten, it means it's got some legs.

And so, we salute:

• Brasserie Ruhlmann, in 1st place Downtown! It's a definitely a big-name restaurant, but such a distinction was not preordained; they earned it with their consistently delicious and innovative French fare

• Crisp, in 3rd place on the North Side. Impressive for a little, insider-y Korean fried chicken place, no?

• The Balanced Kitchen, tied for 3rd on the Northwest Side. It's way the hell out there in North Park, and it's vegan, but never discount those niche clickers!

[Photo: Raw Plate (organic raw cashews made into cheese; served with flax seed crackers; and an assortment of dehydrated fruits & vegetables) at The Balanced Kitchen]

While celebrity chefs and other food personalities don't seem to be hurting for gigs and endorsement deals, actual restaurants are feeling the economic pinch right about now. Does that mean that food porn is more popular than actual food?

Over the weekend the trade magazine Restaurants and Institutions linked on its site an article from the Baltimore Sun that made the case that a faltering economy is leading to scrimping among restaurant customers:

Amid gloomy economic trends - falling real estate values, layoffs and stock market volatility - many consumers are changing their spending habits. And eating out is among the first expenses they look to trim in times of economic uncertainty, economists say. Consumers can adjust "in terms of frequency, spending levels and venues," said Bob Goldin, executive vice president of Technomic Inc., a food industry consulting and research firm.

But even as the trade rags paint a bleak economic picture for restaurants, restaurant-related media shows no sign of slowing down. Last month, the Baltimore Sun reported on the continuing popularity of the Food Network:

Now, almost 15 years later, the Food Network is going strong. In 2007, it had 90 million subscribers, which, according to Derek Baine, cable analyst with SNL Kagan, puts it on a par with such cable stalwarts as ESPN, Nickelodeon and MTV.

But for all the public's appetite for food media, where is its appetite for food? Perhaps the glossy pictures, lingo-filled dialogue and industry gossip work as a stand-in for the real experience for those unable to spring for frequent restaurant meals in these lean times.

Frankly, we hope not. Eating out is a good way to make a regular old evening special and can be done on the relative cheap. Part of the fun in eating out comes with discovering that perfect menu for your budget. We happen to know a great website that can help with that. Just saying.

CONSUMERS CUT WHERE THEY CAN; AREA RESTAURANTS, SMALL BUSINESSES SUFFER [Baltimore Sun, via Restaurants and Institutions]
Stagflation [Waiterrant]
From 'dump, stir' to reality, Food Network still cookingFrom 'dump, stir' to reality, Food Network still cooking [Baltimore Sun]
The Fat Pack Wonders if the Party's Over [NY Times]
Abstract: Chef on the Edge [New Yorker]
Photo: Courtesy of Sisudave [Flickr]

These reviews tickled us the most of the many dozens that came in last week. Actually, that's a half truth; there's this one that we posted yesterday but did not validate, and another one that isn't even appropriate for the blog, for the sake of your grandmother's chastity (and colon).

Anyway, the best of the allowable:

Perry's Deli | 3/19 | by "The best Jerry. The Best!" | entitled "A dream come true":

This place is manifested out of a wonderful dream I had about corned beef, coleslaw and Russian dressing. It’s an amazing experience every time and is a must if you’re in the Chicago’s loop. Beware of the cell phone alarm!

Think | 3/21 | by "Barred Owl" | entitled "My take on THINK":

I went to Think with a large group of women (a low-key bachelorette party).
We sat upstairs where the tables seemed to be all comprised of large, rather raucous parties - so it was pretty fun!
the downstairs dining room seemed cramped/intimate
The menu is impressive, the specials sounded so delightful we had to get them!
The service took FOREVER! I think we got our entrees around 2 hours after we arrived - although we were seated very quickly and we had plenty of BYOB wine to share
(i was pleased that the servers were very polite about the variety of cheap/supercheap wines my country bumpkin friends had brought)

once the food arrived, all of my memories of waiting too long were banished - it was THAT GOOD!

check out my blog to see pics and a description - http://barredowl.wordpress.com/2008/03/19/i-love-food/

Kuma's Corner | 3/22 | by "Kari" | entitled "WOW":

Wow..... I took a step out of my element thinking I was going to hate this place and I turned out loving it! Everyone sitting at the bar was so social and the drink selctions were everything besides the ordinary! The food was to die for beats a lot of expensive places in Chicago. Can't wait to go back!!! It will def. be a place where I will be sending out of town guest.

[Photo: the Mastodon Burger at Kuma's, Andrew Huff/flickr]

The Comoros, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean halfway between Mozambique and Madagascar, recently squashed a coup attempt on one of its three islands in a rather hilarious manner. Reuters reports that no one was injured in the invasion, and the rebel leader "was believed to have dressed up as a woman and to be trying to escape by boat to the nearby French-run island of Mayotte." They always try to escape to Mayotte! We make light of this because Comoros has had bloodless coups and coup attempts on average of once a year since it declared independence from France in the 1970s. National motto in this beautiful but isolated country of 700,000: "there's nothing to do, so let's have a coup!" (Their actual motto is "Unity - Solidarity - Development," but very few of those things have happened.)

This is a perfect opportunity to bring up the country's delightful and virtually unknown cuisine. Its basis is the standard Swahili assortment of coconut-based curries served with grilled meats and fish, fortified with Indian snack food and graced with a dollop of the French sandwich aesthetic. When we visited a few years ago, our very favorite food item was a particular sliced hard-boiled egg and cucumber sandwich, served in shops around the capital on fresh-baked baguettes (France's most laudable colonial legacy) with mayonnaise and spectacularly ripe tomato. We might have been biased toward the sandwich since we had been stuck in Africa for several months without decent bread, but we will say with some surety that it is was an artful combination of simple, fresh ingredients, and thoroughly satisfying to eat with two hands.

Our second favorite dish was tuna sambusas, which are basically like samosas but less flaky:

On mainland Africa, they're usually filled with beef or lentils, but here, it's a lot easier to source tuna than cow or pulses. At four to the dollar or so, one could really go to town on these.

Our third favorite dish was a beverage: tap water. After a few days, we were running low on funds to pay for the incredibly expensive French bottles that were the only available water supply in the marketplaces. Why no local bottled water like in every other country, we wondered? How do the people afford it? Surely they weren't drinking tap water, the septic scourge of the global South! But after several locals told us it was okay, we tried a glass and a light bulb went off: the country is a volcanic island chain, and we were sipping pure volcanic spring water! Don't tell anyone, or the next thing you it'll be crawling with Fiji executives.

Oh yes, they also have crazy-looking lobsters for you to eat:

If you go, avoid: the incredibly sour injera-like sponge cakes they try to serve you with fish curries. Ask for rice instead. Also, manioc; it's just not a very good tuber. Finally, plan your trip around avoiding election day &mdash they close all the roads in the country, and you'll have to hitch a ride with the Army. But it turns out the soldiers are quite friendly!

Comoros Claims Control Of Rebel Island [Reuters]
Comoros [Wikipedia]

[Photos: Lunchtime spread &mdash aidjihad/flickr; tuna sambusas &mdash kaysha/flickr (even though kaysha calls them samosas, they're really sambusas); lobster &mdash hughdoulton/flickr]

• How many times must we say breakfast cures obesity? [NYTimes]
• Portly Wales bans junk food from its hospitals [BBCNews]
• There's some kind of crazy poison honey going around NZ! [NZHerald]
• Note to Jared Diamond: corn's been in S. America 4eva [ScienceDaily]
• Canada's McD's to celebrate Earth Hour by dimming lights [NewsWire]

Chicago's intrepid food bloggers were all over the damn place last week, in alphabetical order by restaurant

• Do you think Avec, with its artisanal meat-heavy menu, would have any problem delighting a fussy vegan? No, of course you don't think that [Drive-Thru]

• Torta-type sandwiches at Bombon Cafe are worth the stomach space during lunch; try the chicken milanesa version dubbed "Clasica" [Chicagoist]

• Hearty chili, unfortunately still necessary this time of year, is available at Cooking Fools with ethical seitan instead of evil beef [Drive-Thru]

• Little Andersonville pizza shop Great Lake may only serve a few different varieties of pie a night, but they're all delicious. Also, BYO [Drive-Thru]

• Apparently picking up steam from its previous round of hopeful but disappointed reviews, La Cocina de Frida now impressing diners with its grandmotherly Mexican cuisine [Metblogs]

• So far, mostly great reviews for Mercat a la Planxa, the new Catalan restaurant in the South Loop. Mention "pan tomate" and Chef Jose Garces will come out and kiss you on the forehead [The Stew, Gastromic Bypass]

• Fancy Vietnamese on Argyle Street? Yes, at Pho Xua, where the decor won't scare your lily-white grandma, if you have one [The Stew]

• Is the stripper pole at Rockstar Dogs functionally unusable? Mike Sula's strip-o-philic friend and Monica Eng say yes. The hot dogs themselves are decent enough, but overpriced [Food Chain, The Stew]

• Jerry Kleiner's Room 21 serves the same upscale comfort food in the same atmosphere as all his other places. Why not a menu from the Prohibition era for your fancy location, Jer? [Chicagoist]

• New Chinese fast food spot in Pilsen, Take Me Out, has tiny but solid menu that features Chinese fried chicken [Hungry Mag]

• Bahena production Tepatulco serves decent authentic Mexican food that warrants a visit, if not an obsession [Chicagoist]

[Photo: pick your poison, Hilary74]

Since reading this week's New Yorker profile of Momofuku chef David Chang, we've been fascinated with the idea of eating ostrich eggs. Early in the piece, Chang describes trying to cook one, with unappetizing results:

I wanted to pretend I was Fred Flintstone. So I got a big rondeau, put like two inches of oil, and I was gonna deep-fry the motherfucker, but there was so much water content in the white that it just sort of dispersed. It looked like cottage cheese.

We poked around online to see if there are any success stories of ostrich egg eating. After all, people have been trying to make ostriches a commercially viable livestock product for years, so there must be somebody out there promoting the eggs. We found some basic guidelines from the Indian Point Ostrich Ranch in Tehachapi (Kern County), Calif. Also a Chowhound thread on the topic. But our quick search couldn't turn up any in-depth recipes using the massive protein balls.

Meanwhile, the profile on Chang is great. Aside from the ostrich egg thing, he's inspiring both as a chef and a manager of people. The transcript of his speech to his staff is simultaneously riveting and shaming as you realize you don't even come close to understanding the word "dedication" as he does.

Abstract: Chef on the Edge [New Yorker]
Ostrich Eggs Are Edible [Indian Point Ostrich Ranch]
Ostrich Eggs?!? [Chowhound]
Momofuku Noodle Bar [MenuPages]
Momofuku Noodle Bar [Official Site]
Photo credit: Bartly2005 [Flickr]

This review came in for a pizza chain location in Auburn, entitled "Worst in Chicago." We should all be so expressive:

I thought this was some of the best pizza in chicago, but after years of service I have realized that this pizza joint has arthritis. Not only is the wait time long but the customer service sucks ass. If you have something better to do grow grey hair, the wait is so long you'll die of hunger. When you check on your order the employee gives you so much attitude you would rather wait for your pie, stab the delivery guy with a nasty note , and UPS him back to [REDACTED] Head Quarters. When trying to resolve an order there is no resolve. Consumer Beware! If you have a number that is already in the system it can not be used at a different address as i was told, or maybe lack luster management couldn't surpass this minor crux. All in all, [REDACTED] is a tasty once in a while, but not a satisfaction guaranteed!

We have no idea what this person is angry about. His pizza took too long? What does it mean to "surpass" a "crux," anyway? We will never understand anything.

[Photo: (Head) Quarters, quick5pnt0]

The White House has a lot of great food traditions, from the presidential pardon of a Thanksgiving turkey to the traditional cheeseburger pizza enjoyed by George W. Bush. There's also, of course, a great to-do over holiday meals, not the least of which is Easter brunch. Thanks to Time magazine, we're pasting this year's menu below. Don't you wish you'd been invited?

Also, check the link below the menu to the 2008 state Easter eggs.

THE WHITE HOUSE

OFFICE OF THE FIRST LADY

MENU FOR

EASTER BRUNCH

Honey Baked Ham with Maple Mustard Sauce

Eggs Benedict

Bacon

Biscuits

Spinach Salad

Waffles

Sautéed Asparagus

Cheese Grits

Fresh Fruit Platter

Double Coconut Layer Cake

Lemon Curd Trifle with Fresh Berries

2008 State Easter Eggs [White House]
White House Menu for Easter Brunch [Time]
Photo courtesy of the White House

• Popeye's founder dies at 64 of scary saliva gland cancer [LATimes]
• KFC, bowing to healthy eating craze, introduces grilled chicken [USAToday]
• A primer on umami, if you've been living under a culinary rock [Tribune]
• After talking a good game, WFP now really needs emergency $500m [AFP]
• Nestle complaining that biofuels wiping out our food supply, etc. [SwissInfo]

Big news on the labor front from a big chain that's been all up in the headlines: After losing a big huge class-action suit in California, Starbucks has to pay more than $100 million to about 120,000 current and former baristas in that state whose tips it diverted to shift supervisors.

In California, owners, managers or other “agents” of business owners can't share in tips. In the first phase of the class-action suit, [San Diego Superior Court Judge Patricia] Cowett ruled that shift supervisors were essentially agents under state labor law, and therefore the company's policy allowing them to share in tips violated that law.

The company argued that shift supervisors were not managers or supervisors, that they performed many of the same tasks as baristas, and should share in the tips.

As the coffee giant clamors to extract itself from its scalding pot of labor trouble, we were just a little delighted to discover that a heating element in that pot is the Industrial Workers of the World. That's right, at least some Starbucks workers are organized with the party of Eugene Debs and Utah Phillips. Wow. Could it be there's power in a union after all? This one's for you, Wobblies! From now on we're taking our coffee red.

Starbucks ruling: Pay $105 million in tips case [San Diego Union Tribune]
Starbucks Union [Main Site]
Starbucks [Main Site]
Industrial Workers of the World [Wikipedia]

It's Friday. We won't keep you. Just wanted to put in a word for one of our favorite courses. And who better to sing it for us than the Mighty Boosh? Nobody, that's who. So here you go: The Soup Song

Don't know about