MenuPages

No doubt that this is a very special place. Let me give you a few hints for real enjoyment:

1. Come in a small group (about 6) so you can rate a round table with a lazy susan in the middle so you can spin to what you want.
2. Eat family style so you can get lots of tastes.
3. Ask if the owner Eric is there. If he is, ask him to help you order. He might have some specials you might not have thought to order.
4. Have a Chinese beer with your meal.
5. Order one less entree than number of people. The servings are generous. Their noodles are made on site.

Sun Wah BBQ [MenuPages]

[Photo of Sun Wah's goods via mjkmjk's Flickr]

Tom Colicchio has a lot going for him. A pile of wildly successful Craft-branded restaurants far flung throughout the country, national celebrity as host of Top Chef, an oh-so-shiny bald pate. But one thing his fame and fortune haven't delivered is the one thing he started with in the first place: A kitchen of his own, where he could man the stoves himself and directly oversee the plating and service of a handful of happy diners.

So now that he's rich and famous enough to build a small, humble restaurant, he's building himself a small, humble restaurant: the tentatively-named Tom: Tuesday Dinner, which will be located in the private dining room of his New York Craft flagship, and will run dinner service every other Tuesday, to the tune of a few benjamins a head. The first seating is October 14.

While we can see this raising eyebrows in some circles, and we certainly see the ironic circularity of the situation, we are ultimately of the opinion that this kind of return-to-the-kitchen situation is precisely what's needed to counteract the current national scourge of celeb chef empires. For every Mario Batali, who can effortlessly pull off helming Babbo in New York and Osteria Mozza in LA with equal aplomb, there are a dozen wannabe-national chefs like Marcus Samuelsson, whose C-House flounders helplessly in Chicago while in New York, his Merkato 55 circles the drain. Not to mention Wolfgang Puck, who has become little more than a glorified Chef Boyardee: a well-known name and a smiling face, readily available on soup cans and in your grocer's freezer.

What Colicchio's doing is a smart antidote to Puck-style market oversaturation (or Samuelsson-style too-much-too-soon). While anyone with basic cable knows Tom's name and face, and anyone in New York, Atlanta, LA, or Las Vegas is within 30 minutes of a menu he's personally signed off on, he's taking it one step further. He's simultaneously appeasing his original fans, the ones who knew him by taste instead of by DVR, and also shoring up the core value of his celebrity. Both of these, fortuitously, are achieved merely by offering the real thing: Himself, in a kitchen, making a plate of food just for you.

Colicchio Cooks! [Diner's Journal]
Name This Restaurant [Diner's Journal]
More Details on Colicchio’s New Project, Tom: Tables Now Available! [Grub Street]
Craft [MenuPages]
Craft [Official Site]

"Sending a pack of apples to a fat man is a lot like sending a case of Coca-Cola to a crack addict, a set-up for incredible disappointment."

–Mike Nagrant, in a review of the Sweetango apple,
the entire review of which could probably qualify
for QOTD status, it is that hilarious and awesome

So, Robert Parker wants us to boycott restaurants that over-charge for wine. The publisher of Wine Spectator Advocate reportedly writes in an upcoming article that restaurants jacking up the price of wine is, "nothing more or less than a legitimized mugging."

Strong words, no doubt. But for as much as we'd like to see his campaign work, it might be a non-starter. Parker decries the idea of wine as "a luxury item," but the fact is, for many people, it really is a luxury item. Take, for example, the recent study that found more expensive wine tastes better. And, as long as there is disposable income left in this country, somebody's probably going to dispose of theirs on fancy wines.

But he's right that it's infuriating to know you're overpaying by as much as 500 percent simply because other suckers out there are willing to do so. So yeah, go ahead and boycott those places that gouge you into the poorhouse, but you may just have to write them off for good. We don't think they're going to see the light any time soon.

if you do still want enjoy a glass of wine the next time you're out to dinner, get a look at Lettie Teague's Food and Wine tips for getting the best deals in a restaurant. Also, check out this 2003 New York Times article on how wines are priced.

Robert Parker Says Stop Eating at Restaurants with Unfairly High Wine Prices [Serious Eats]
Tips: A Cheapskate’s Wine Rules [Food And Wine]
Why Wine Costs What It Does [NY Times]

[Photo: Two Buck Chuck via Kables/flickr]

Milwaukee's Public Market is a wonder: Local, independent vendors for everything from produce to sushi to artisanal bread, gathered under one roof, supported by the city, and visited by thousands upon thousands of shoppers.

The closest Chicago has to that are our greenmarkets — admittedly, nothing to sneeze at, but they tend not to stray from the produce and perishables department. But with tomorrow's opening of the Chicago Downtown Farmstand, the Local Beet points out that we could be one step closer to Milwaukee's local purvey paradise. All we've got to do is make the Downtown Farmstand so wildly successful that officials decide it's worth it to keep the market running year-round.

Now go get shopping!

Chicago Downtown Farmstand [The Local Beet]
Chicago Downtown Farmstand [City of Chicago Official Site]
Milwaukee Public Market [Official Site]

[Photo via Milwaukee Public Market]

After all the hype surrounding Chicago Gourmet, we have to cop to a tiny bit of schadenfreude when reading all the "where's the food?" complaints, but ultimately we were rooting for the food festival to pull off its freshman effort.

The Reader's Julia Thiel pulls absolutely no punches: Summing up the various coverage of the event, she says "So far ... nothing I've come across has used to word "clusterf**k" to describe the event. Which is strange, because it's been running through my head all weekend."

Meow, Thiel, but the truth is she's on the money: Not enough food, too much wine, and a poorly organized flow of events that meant lots of standing around doing nothing, not a lot of consuming prepaid gourmet nutrients.

A misplayed inaugural year doesn't mean Chicago Gourmet is dead in the water: the Aspen Food & Wine Classic has taken a quarter-century to get this big, and South Beach benefits from a partnership with the Food Network. So for an indie operation in its first year out of the gate, in this case, there's nowhere to go but up.

Chicago Gourmet: What the hell happened? [Food Chain]
All Chicago Gourmet coverage [MenuPages]

[Chicago Gourmet brochures via Zesmerelda's Flickr]

• Today the new FDA country-of-origin labeling requirements go into effect for produce and meat! [Seattle Times]

• ... for most produce and meat, that is. Mixed vegetables and Spam are exempt. [Bloomberg]

• Part of yesterday's failed bailout included a bill that would prevent non-ambulatory cattle from entering the food supply. [Pork Magazine (a real publication!)]

• Cadbury, Heinz, and Mars are all pulling their Chinese-made products, as they may contain melamine. Sigh. [Telegraph]

• Voters in California are debating Proposition 2, which would mandate that farm animals — including swine, veal, and chickens — be uncaged. In related news, why don't we live in California? [SF Chron]

The scene on the great lawn.

The ladies return to their home medium with a wrap-up podcast, delivering their ex post facto survey of the food and wine festival that, as it turned out, was woefully short on food. Tammy put it best right around 5:25 when, comparing Chicago Gourmet to the Taste of Chicago, she said "I wanted the Rick Bayless version of a turkey leg!"

You can check out the full podcast here, with additional explication of the faint-praise overall judgment of Chicago Gourmet as an event that rates a mere 5/10 — as Bridget says, a good freshman effort.

Tammy's exceptional photographs of the weekend event — including those that appeared here on MP over the course of the past few days — are on her Flickr, with a final gallery of Chicago Gourmet highlights after the jump right here!

Rick Bayless grins while prepping his demo.

The radiant Alpana Singh, wine director for Lettuce Entertain You restaurants.

A fancy bread display at Fox & Obel.

Tuna kampache from Roy's.

A sample of crab from Aria.

Let no one tell you that you can't live forever: immortality has been discovered -- well, for a burger, anyway. Death eludes the indomitable McDonald's hamburger. Consider the following evidence, via Serious Eats and courtesy of Karen Hanrahan's website, bestwellnessconsultant.com:

The burger on the left, purchased 12 years ago looks exactly the same as the burger on the right, circa 2008. No wrinkling, no discoloration... the cosmetic industry ought to take a hint.

The Big Mac's source of fountain of youth is not, as popular conspiracy theories would have us believe, children who had been sucked into the ball pits, but rather an elixir blend of powerful anti-aging ingredients: distilled monoglycerides, DATEM, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, enzymes, ethoxylated mono- and diglycerides, sodium stearoyl lactylate, guar gum, mono-and diglycerides, calcium peroxide, calcium propionate and sodium propionate. And that's just the bun.

Now the patty is a real puzzle. According to the McDonald's website, the patty is composed of
"100% pure USDA inspected beef; no fillers, no extenders. Prepared with grill seasoning (salt, black pepper)." But this doesn't quite explain why meat that ought to have rotted beyond recognition still looks like a recent order. Got theories on this subject? Send us a line.

I leave you with one thought, however: wouldn't it be embarrassing (or poignant, depending on your point of view) if a millennium from now, an advanced future race discovered the only remaining fragment of our civilization -- the soul-less, youthful carcass of a cheeseburger? And, in any case, aren't there better alternatives?

12-Year Old McDonald's Hamburger, Still Looking Good [Serious Eats]
1996 McDonalds Hamburger [bestwellnessconsultant.com]
McDonald's USA Ingredients Listing for Popular Menu Items [McDonald's USA Official Site]

[Photo: Via bestwellnessconsultant.com]

Chicago put itself on the front burner this past weekend with the inaugural Chicago Gourmet, a weekend-long festival of food and wine attended by chefs and sommeliers near and far. Special MenuPages correspondents Bridget Houlihan and Tammy Green, of the dining podcast Chicago Bites, were on the scene. From Sunday: Big names, big fun.

Art Smith's shrimp and grits.

When they took the stage at Chicago Gourmet Sunday for a cooking demonstration, it was like getting a sneak peak into what that show would be like.

Both Gand and Smith are obviously at home in front of an audience because of the time they have spent in front of the camera, and they know how to put on a good show. They even had cookware prizes to give away! But there was also something more personal about their presentation.

The two friends cook together behind-the-scenes at events but rarely in public. Still, they know each other well. So Gand and Smith kicked things off by cracking open a bottle of wine. They raised a glass to Chicago Gourmet. Then they got busy helping each other cook.

Gand made apple fritters. And Smith whipped the egg whites for her. Smith made his famous shrimp and grits. And Gand helped with the sauce. Then they opened some champagne.

It was fun watching these two play in the kitchen! They share a love for food and cooking that's positively contagious.

I wish they'd come cook in my kitchen. As it is, I'm about to go heat up leftovers in the microwave.

—BRIDGET HOULIHAN

Gale Gand and Art Smith play in the kitchen.

Chicago put itself on the front burner this past weekend with the inaugural Chicago Gourmet, a weekend-long festival of food and wine attended by chefs and sommeliers near and far. Special MenuPages correspondents Bridget Houlihan and Tammy Green, of the dining podcast Chicago Bites, were on the scene. From Sunday: Hitting The Bottle

Jackie Shen telling her story at Chicago Gourmet.

"Honey, it comes from a bottle!" Shen admitted, with a rather devious smile during her "East Meets West: Wok and Wisk" seminar Sunday at Chicago Gourmet.

Of course Shen does a ton of stuff to that bottled sauce before she serves it.

You need to have a good foundation in cooking to know what to do, she says. Inspiration doesn't just strike. Finding the right balance of flavors is all about knowing what you're working with — and trial and error.

Shen went on to talk about how her entire cooking career has been about finding that balance. Originally trained as a French chef, she got bored with the cuisine (especially the sauces) about seven years ago and decided she needed a change.

"My dad said, you're not a chef anyway; you know nothing about Asian food," she said. "I wanted to prove him wrong!"

So Shen asked her mom to visit and teach her how to make wontons. She started to focus on the food she ate as a child in Hong Kong but didn't know how to make. And once she had a solid foundation in Asian cooking, she started to think of ways to fuse it with western-style food.

"I've had a good time going from fire to wok," said Shen. "People are traveling more, and trying new flavors. There can be balance between them."

Shen is currently exploring this further in a cookbook she is collaborating on in addition to teaching at Kendall College and working at Red Light.

One thing is for sure: I need to try that sauce from a bottle as soon as possible. Red Light here I come!

—BRIDGET HOULIHAN

A story on the Barf Blog today raises a question so disturbing that much of our restaurant-o-phile readership will probably shudder at the very thought. But the evidence is there: Some restaurant and institutional kitchen food poisoning may be deliberate.

It's not pretty, but when you think we've all probably harbored some kind of sick revenge fantasy against a boss from hell or a job from hell or some such thing, you have to admit it's totally possible that some of the food poisoning cases in the world are no accident.

Barf Blog refers to a story of an International House of Pancakes in Texas that has been linked to more than 100 salmonella cases over the last five months. Police are investigating, and while they stopped short of calling the contamination intentional, they said they were, "investigating every option."

But don't let it scare you too bad. Really, when was the last time you heard a substantiated case of this kind of attack? Plus, it's one of those things you absolutely can't predict. So just try not to think about it, okay?

But do avoid the IHOP at I-40 and Western Street in Amarillo. Intentional or no, that's a shameful track record.

How much food poisoning is deliberate? [Barf Blog]
Over 100 salmonella cases linked to IHOP [KVII Texas]
Food Safety for First Responders [Centers for Disease Control]

[Photo: Food Poisoning Microbes via Braintree District Council]

Chicago puts itself on the front burner this weekend with the inaugural Chicago Gourmet, a weekend-long festival of food and wine attended by chefs and sommeliers near and far. Special MenuPages correspondents Bridget Houlihan and Tammy Green, of the dining podcast Chicago Bites, are on the scene. Today: Tasting California.

In the tasting tent.

Stefen Soltysaik from Rodney Strong Vineyards was my guide; his wine seminar at Chicago Gourmet, called "Examination of Cool to Warm Climate Cabernet Sauvignon," was excellent. We were each given four glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon. The first three glasses were from different Rodney Strong wineries in the valley, and the fourth glass was the vineyard's current pride and joy, the 2005 Rockaway blend.

Then the geography lesson began, and Soltysaik explained how climate impacts wine. Each glass was incredibly different because of the location of the winery where it was produced.

As we tasted and learned more, Soltysaik also detailed how the wine we were drinking was made.

It was a fascinating and well-put-together presentation. I've taken a variety of wine tours and have gone to a number of tastings. This one was far-and- away the most educational and entertaining I've attended.

The wine was spectacular too… especially the Rockaway 2005! I sought out that wine and sipped some more at the Grand Cru Tasting later in the day. It just might inspire me to go to Sonoma one day. (As if I really needed an excuse!)

—BRIDGET HOULIHAN

An AP article that ran over the weekend highlighted the growing trend of farm-to-table restaurants, especially those outlets who take it one step further and ensure that their physical structures are LEED-certified. And tucked right in there at the end was a nice little shoutout to the north side paean to all things vegan and gluten-free, The Balanced Kitchen.

Manager Joshua Alper laments that the 20-seat cafe still hasn't broken even, but there's always hope: "There is a certain percentage of the market who need, or want or appreciate what we are doing."

Like, for example, us: Their raw "noodles" (really long threads of shaved coconut) with peanut sauce and their ever-changing brunch menu are almost enough to make us believers in the raw food gospel.

Farmers bet 'green' eatery will catch on [IHT/AP]
The Balanced Kitchen [MenuPages]
The Balanced Kitchen [Official Site]

[photo of a fruit quiche via The Balanced Kitchen]

• Uh-oh, Jack-o-Lantern (and pumpkin baked good) enthusiasts! Too much rain this summer = poor pumpkin harvest this fall. [Boston Globe]

• The poisoned milk disaster spreads its melamine tainted tentacles even further, with news that White Rabbit candies, the inexplicably tasty vanilla-flavored chews, are NSFE (not safe for eating). [LA Times]

• The North Dakota Farmer's Union is opening a restaurant in Washington, D.C., and they're shooting for making it the "greenest" in the city. Ironically, since this demands an emphasis on local crops, most of the food will not come from North Dakota farms. [AP]

• Would you like Starbucks in exchange for your empty milk carton? RecycleBank awards per pounds recycled, and those points can be redeemed for Starbucks, groceries, Coca-Cola products and more. Filling your tummy by emptying your bottles and cans? Pretty sweet deal. [Newsweek]

• 103,000 pounds. Sound heavy? That is how much meat the Utah Food Bank got from 4-H members across the state, in an incredibly weighty donation. [The Salt Lake Tribune]

Chicago puts itself on the front burner this weekend with the inaugural Chicago Gourmet, a weekend-long festival of food and wine attended by chefs and sommeliers near and far. Special MenuPages correspondents Bridget Houlihan and Tammy Green, of the dining podcast Chicago Bites, are on the scene. Today: How to taste wine.

Lined up and ready to pour.

"Food is full of fat, and wine is acidic," he explained Saturday during a wine seminar at Chicago Gourmet. "Think about eating steak. You're essentially coating your palate with fat. As you sip wine, it cleans your palate so you can taste the next bite."

The first bite is always the best, he continued, and when you pair food with wine you get 30 first bites.

That's a good reason to become a wine lover, and once you start tasting a variety of wine it's a whole new world.

In the seminar "Tasting the Masters' Way," Dame walked us through that world a bit with a blind tasting. He detailed techniques sommeliers use to identify and appreciate wine and discussed what it takes to become a sommelier. Some of his best tips:

• Identify the scents in the wine you're about to taste. What fruits do you smell?
• Look at the color of the wine. Is it bright? Clear?
• Keep in mind that white wines grow darker with age and red wines grow lighter.
• Swish your wine around. Look at the legs. Wines with a lot of tannins are fuller-bodied wines.
• Taste a variety of wine. It will surprise you.
• Take notes whenever practical.
• Enhance your skill with taste tests — especially blind ones.

—BRIDGET HOULIHAN

Chicago puts itself on the front burner this weekend with the inaugural Chicago Gourmet, a weekend-long festival of food and wine attended by chefs and sommeliers near and far. Special MenuPages correspondents Bridget Houlihan and Tammy Green, of the dining podcast Chicago Bites, are on the scene. Today: Food demos!

Jose Garces, head chef at Chicago's Mercat a la Planxa, prepares octopus.

No joke. This simple technique, known as scaring, tenderizes the octopus, making it more succulent to eat.

Jose Garces, the head chef at Chicago's Mercat a la Planxa, explained this to a captive audience yesterday during a Best of Spain and Mexico cooking demonstration at Chicago Gourmet.

Sharing the stage with Rick Bayless, Garces got everyone's attention before he even started cooking, simply by holding up the octopus. Then he showed us how to cook it. I know I'm not ready to give this a shot myself, but it was utterly fascinating to watch. Until yesterday, I had absolutely no idea how to "scare" an octopus.

You know what else? Start saving the corks from the red wine you drink. When you throw them in the boiling water with the octopus it adds to the flavor. Cool, huh?

Watching a cooking demo at Chicago Gourmet is what I imagine it would be like to be on the set of a cooking show that airs on the Food Network. The stage at Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park is currently the home of a snazzy looking kitchen set, complete with professional appliances and cookware. Large mirrors hang over the prep tables so that you can watch the chefs work.

And it's really fun to watch a great chef cook. They make it look easy. Cooking and plating well is an art… and I like to see it as it happens.

Having said that, I must admit that I don't watch cooking demos often. That's because I find it very dissatisfying not to be able to taste the food I'm watching people prepare. I know for a fact that if I were to make the same dish myself it wouldn't taste as good. So I was really hoping to get to taste the food after watching live cooking demos.

No such luck. In some cases, I could find samples of the dish made in a demo at a tasting table later in the day, but not always.

Still, the demos were great to watch and they may even inspire me to cook! Garces certainly inspired me to eat: Tammy and I made our way Mercat a la Planxa for dinner last night and splurged on not one, but two orders of octopus.

—BRIDGET HOULIHAN

After the jump, photos of Rick Bayless's two demo dishes, plus salted cactus!

Rick Bayless' demo dish: Stewed ribeye.

A sample portion of the ribeye, served up at a tasting table later.

Salted cactus from another demo, "The Best of Latin Flavors."

[All photos by Tammy Green. All rights reserved.]

Chicago puts itself on the front burner this weekend with the inaugural Chicago Gourmet, a weekend-long festival of food and wine attended by chefs and sommeliers near and far. Special MenuPages correspondents Bridget Houlihan and Tammy Green, of the dining podcast Chicago Bites, are on the scene. Today: Where's the food?

Dried fruit display at Pastoral Artisan Cheese

My tummy was rumbling when I arrived at the main entrance Saturday morning, primed to sample everything Chicago's best chefs had to throw at me. It turns out that wasn't much.

The majority of the booths at the main event, located on the lawn of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, offered wine, not food.

"Isn't there supposed to be a Grand Cru Wine Tasting later today?" I asked Tammy, my Chicago Bites co-host, as she photographed the scene.

"Yeah."

"So what's with all the wine?" I asked, baffled. "Where's the food?"

So we set out on a tireless quest to find something to eat, relentlessly foraging from booth to booth.

The booths themselves were lovely. Many looked professionally designed, and were decorated with phenomenal flower arrangements and tempting pictures of food or large reproductions of restaurant menus. But time after time, we walked away with brochures and nothing to eat.

Then we saw a line stretching out of the Chaise Lounge booth… they were serving crab cake and salad! Victory!

"Have another plate," the owner said, after I'd devoured my first. "I've never been to a food fest with so little food."

True. And here's the kicker: I'd venture a guess that all that wine drove up ticket prices. So folks paid $100 to get in and drink on empty stomachs because they thought they were paying to eat.

Tammy and I were able to ferret out a few more food tastings throughout the day. But they was sparse and meat-heavy. Tammy is a "fussitarian": She eats fish but no meat. So she sat by patiently while I tried things like chicken salad wraps and bacon-and-onion tartlets.

She did get to sample A Mano's olive oil gelato though, which was one of the food highlights of my day. We both enjoyed Kefir smoothies from Star Fruit café in the Whole Foods kids' area, and there were a couple of booths with dried fruits and excellent cheese. I loved Rick Bayless' rib eye steak dish. But of course Tammy couldn't eat that.

—BRIDGET HOULIHAN

The crab cake at the Chaise Lounge booth was a saving grace.

[All photos by Tammy Green. All rights reserved.]

Chicago puts itself on the front burner this weekend with the inaugural Chicago Gourmet, a weekend-long festival of food and wine attended by chefs and sommeliers near and far. Special MenuPages correspondents Bridget Houlihan and Tammy Green, of the dining podcast Chicago Bites, are on the scene. First up: The opening night reception.

When you know the bartender, the headwaiter, or the bus boy, you're in for a better dining experience. These are the folks whose service can make or break an evening.

So, when I spotted Carol, an acquaintance I met years ago through work, behind the bar last night at Chicago Gourmet's kickoff in Millennium Park, I had an inkling it was going to be an amazing night.

"I didn't even know you were a bartender!" I said, wandering over to say hello, while the press photographers were busy snapping shots of Mayor Daley.

"One of my four jobs," she replied with a smile. "This is such a cool event, isn't it?" she said, pouring me a glass of wine. "You've got to try the Seven Daughters white, it a blend of seven grapes. You'll love it!"

Chicago Gourmet aims to solidify the city's place as an international food contender through a series of cooking demos, seminars, and tastings this weekend. And the food I sampled last night was great, but it wasn't the most striking part of the launch.

The most striking part was a prevailing sense of excitement. Every chef and attendee I chatted with shared Carol's enthusiasm for the event and seemed genuinely thrilled that Chicago is finally flexing some culinary muscle. Last night's reception was attended mostly by presenting chefs, the media, and corporate sponsors, but it was anything but stuffy. It was more like a jolly convention of foodies.

I still have to wonder though if Chicago Gourmet will resonate with the general public. In Chicago, we're used to having a street fair every 15 minutes during the summer, so a weekend of food is nothing new. And as a result, we're also pros at eating food on a stick in a tent.

Ticket prices, chocolate pepper macaroons, and worries for the future, after the jump!

John Penn's salad gives me hope that the British won't starve!

The local lineup showcases Chicago's best, but just as impressive is the event's international flavor. Chefs from Chicago's sister cities throughout the world have flown in to participate, and last night there was much buzz about the 2016 Olympic bid.

In between chats with fellow foodies, I did manage to taste everything. The standouts for me were the tuna tartar starters, and the desserts – especially the chocolate pepper macaroons. Many of the main dish tastings were game heavy – featuring veal and ostrich. I didn't really like them, but appreciated what they were going for.

My favorite dish of the evening was John Penn's Haricot Vert Salad, a refreshing medley with some of the tastiest tomato and olive garnish I've ever had.

Penn is visiting from England, and when I lived there, I ate to live, not because I wanted to eat. If Penn's salad is any indication, he has the potential to greatly improve the food scene on the other side of the pond. He's a culinary teacher too… so he's passing his knowledge to others! There's hope!

The Risotto with Veal Sweatbread & Crawfish Moussaka was rich and flavorful, but not my thing.

My initial impression of Chicago Gourmet is good. But I do wish the price tag wasn't so high (although I'm told that it is much less expensive than similar events in New York) because everyone should have the opportunity to taste the best Chicago has to offer.

Will folks pay the price and show up for events today? Or will corporate sponsors make up the majority again? I'll keep you posted! No matter what, I'm looking forward to good eats. And I'd better get to it.

—BRIDGET HOULIHAN

[All photos by Tammy Green. All rights reserved.]

The TOC Blog breaks the news of who'll be helming the forthcoming no-doubt-going-to-be-awesome Eater Chicago site: Ari Bendersky (left), whose email link Tamarkin has set to give the auto-subject line "Hey sexy!"

Ahem. Get an internet-room, you two.

Meanwhile, we learn this about Bendersky from some quick-and-dirty googlestalking:

He loves his dog, Emma, and his partner, Drew, spicy shrimp tempura rolls, skim vanilla lattes, a respectable Turkey Club, biking, San Francisco (his former home) and a great bottle of red wine, preferably a spicy Zin or jammy Pinot. Oh yeah, and he thinks Scrabble rocks-- even though Drew will never play with him. Some day he'll get off his ass and write a book or two.

Eater and Curbed to launch October 15th [TOC Blog]
Ari Bendersky [Cool Hunting]

• Maybe he's responding to Mike Nagrant's declaration earlier this week that he doesn't think Pat Bruno is a good reviewer, but Bruno is deviating from form yet again this week, levying an actual criticism of P.J. Clarke's!

  "as much as I enjoy some of the food ... I think it's time somebody took a hard look at the menu and made some changes; it's beginning to look just a little bit dated."

  But wait, un-stop the presses, 'cause he quickly reverts to the old Bruno we love and are exasperated by, entirely failing to elaborate on how, exactly, the menu of cheeseburgers, chili, and pasta with red sauce is any more dated here than it is at the dozens upon dozens of other Chicago restaurants with entirely identical inventory. Whatevs. He likes the food, and we learn almost nothing. Same old same old.
• Riddle me this: if Follia, which clocks in for Bruno's second review this week is so Italian that the dishes mentioned in the writeup are IN ITALIAN, then WHY FOR THE LOVE OF GOD is does the little info box next to the review read "Cuisine: American"? WHY IS THIS THE CASE? Anyway, Bruno is smitten by the pizza at this west loop joint, taken in by the pastas, and finds the desserts to be hit or miss — ultimately, the experience isn't bad for the price, but Bruno (weirdly) spends a lot of time dropping hints to the staff on how to make the food better (a side of broccoli rabe, a garnish of raspberry sauce, etc etc etc).
• Witom's back on his suburban beat (does he ever leave it?), at Cafe Havana (5 N. 105th St, Itasca, 630 773 8822), a recent open whose menu is still, per the manager, a work in progress. Witom's menu rundown has few surprises: pressed sandwiches, ropa vieja, black bean soup, bistec al cubana served with what sounds like chimichurri to us (WItom IDs it as "a special herb-infused olive oil dipping sauce"). Maybe our undies are still in a bunch from Tamarkin's Criticgate 2008, but this review is a freaking waste of space.

[Photo of P.J. Clarke's via yochicago's Flickr]

On his visit, Sula finds dishes that are reminiscent of — but not identical to — Thai flavors: sweet curries, distilled fishy flavors, coconut, pickled greens, basil, mint, lemongrass, peanuts, and cucumbers all come into play. But the dishes are much subtler: where Thai food is, say, extreme mega bmx snowboarding, Cambodian food might clock in as fencing: not so much brute-force adrenaline, but still plenty engaging and calling on skill and technique. He also checks in with Kathy Reun, a who works for the Cambodian Association of Illinois, and is an active figure in the fight against diabetes — the disease is prevalent among the Cambodian community.

The article is augmented by a roundup of thirteen uptown Asian restaurants — while none are Cambodian, you can still catch a glimpse of some of the flavors involved. Included in the roundup are Pho 777, Silver Seafood, and MP favorite Thai Pastry.

[Photo: a Cambodian seafood-noodle dish, via nextography's Flickr]

While much of the talent is homegrown — Frontera's Rick Bayless, Top Chef's Stephanie Izard, Gale Gand of Tru and PBS — the festival's got global reach, with chefs and wine experts flying in from all over: from Terrance Brennan of New York's Picholine and Maricel Presilla of Hoboken, NJ's criminally delicious Cucharamama and Zafra, to Mpuhe Dhlomo of Africa Meets Europe in Durban, South Africa and Francesca Marsetti from Milan's Brasserie Iseo Brescia.

Of course, MenuPages will be on the scene as well: special correspondents Bridget Houlihan and Tammy Green (of the can't-miss dining podcast Chicago Bites) will be bringing their formidable skills to the table, filing regular reports throughout the weekend, starting with tonight's opening night gala.

• Bostonians are dumbstruck with grief after a grease fires one of the area's best burger joints. [MP: Boston]

• Graham Elliot Bowles is misinformed about a lot. [MP: Chicago]

• Business Week is approximately fifteen years behind the times in its list of up and coming neighborhoods. [MP: Philadelphia]

• Resolved: there's no good reason to prevent a taco truck from parking outside a high school. [MP: San Francisco]

• A Floridian chain has filed for bankruptcy for the second time in one year. [MP: South Florida]

For cop-out Friday, check out this classic Sesame Street video with Grover doing his best impression of yours truly as a waiter. No, not really. But seriously? If we're ever called upon to take up the mantle of the service industry once more, we're totally going to forgo a notebook in favor of Grover's rhyming memory technique. "Round and tasty on a bun..."

There's more going on in Millennium Park this weekend than Chicago Gourmet — launching tomorrow and running for the next two weeks is Wired NextFest, "the premier showcase of the global innovations transforming our world."

The free event is a must-visit (and a must-swoon) for all the techsters out there. Gapers Block's Andrew Huff was at a press preview where he saw Mayor Daley relaxing in a magnetically-levitating lounge chair. But poking around on his Flickr we realized that there are some entirely food-relevant components to this nerdfest (we use the term with utter affection). Like, up on the left there? That is SMELLOVISION. Straight out of Futurama, and into our lives. With pie!

Excitingly, the amazing serving pieces from Alinea are on display as well, which should be no surprise to anyone familiar with the expectation-defying work of Grant Achatz. And for the record, no, we are not on Alinea's payroll. Even though, yes, we talk about them entirely way too much.

Wired NextFest Chicago Set [Andrew Huff's Flickr]
Wired NextFest [Official Site]
Alinea [MenuPages]
Alinea [Official Site]

Isn't there a restaurant in Chicago with that chef, who just won some crazy award, who's like, "I will poach the...idea of a pine needle, and insert it into your vagina at some point during your visit." Do you know what I'm talking about? It's called Alinea or something.

Pitchfork: I have no idea what you're talking about.

I know it's in Chicago. Check it out, and then you must go! Some courses are served in motions, like, they have a sex swing that they put a piece of broccoli rabe on?

Pitchfork: I'll have to look that up.

I think you should make a reservation for tonight.

– Nico Muhly, impish savior of classical music, on dining out
in an interview with Pitchfork

• Europe is concerned that their condensed milk could be of the tainted Chinese variety. [New York Times]

• People in Japan and Taiwan have already become sickened by the melamine-tainted milk. [Washington Post]

• Hong Kong residents are staying as far away from food imported from China as possible. [Bloomberg]

• Here in the U.S., we don't need to worry about tainted food because the FDA has the resources to stay on top of it. Oh wait. They totally don't. [Chicago Tribune]

• Even amidst the financial meltdown, there's good news for at least one group of rich people: McDonald's shareholders. [LA Times]

Big news in the world of big guns: one sixtyblue has hired a new executive chef.

Taking the helm at the beginning of Octoberwill be Michael McDonald, who comes to town from Restaurant Charlie at the Palazzo Hotel in Vegas, but cut his chops in New York at Cafe Gray, and at Napa's Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa. (MP:SF editor Adam: "huh?")

Rest assured, this guy's a solid one. We look forward to the revamped menu, oui?

one sixtyblue [MenuPages]
one sixtyblue [Official Site]

[Photo of McDonald's hands via StarChefs]

Like the flood of reader response that poured in after the article on Mr. Breakfast from a few weeks ago. Too bad so much of it was off the mark — folks fixated too much on brunch and anti-Yankee sentiment, not breakfast.

But the real meat this week is Phil Vettel's take on Piccolo Sogno, which he awards with a solid two stars. When TOC reviewed it a little over a month ago, they were more taken by the patio than the food — Vettel acknowledges the lure of the outdoor space, but also finds no savory dish worth complaining about (though the tomatoes in a seafood pasta dish clock in "dangerously close" to an overpowering level), though the desserts aren't spectacular.

[Photo of panzanella at Piccolo Sogno from Maes Studio]

We wrote about the delightfully eccentric Kenny Shopsin, of New York's Shopsin's, but a couple days ago and that same night, he appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. For those readers who have never been to Shopsin's, and perhaps may never go, this clip is a pretty stellar example (minus a lot of cursing) of what to expect from Mr. Shopsin. For those who have , he's in fine form, no?

The video is a fun watch, not only for the way these two banter (seriously, have two people ever looked more perplexed and befuddled by the other?), but also, because of what they cook up. Mac and cheese pancakes? A pancake with a tiny little burger in it? S'MORES PANCAKES? Kenny Shopsin is truly blowing our mind with all of these reinventions!

What's more, this video &mdash plus all of the Shopsin-mania swirling around the release of his cookbook &mdash just happens to fall during the same week as National Pancake Day, which is tomorrow. As far as coincidences go, this one could hardly get better: Shopsin has whet pancake appetites nationwide + you basically have no recourse but to stuff your face with pancakes tomorrow.

We can't all rush to Shopsin's for mac and cheese pancakes, but that doesn't mean that there aren't mighty fine pancakes to be found elsewhere in the country. So run on down to Orange tomorrow and remind yourself what a real short stack tastes like. Hell, order yourself a side of macaroni and see what happens.

Shopsin's [MenuPages]
Shopsin's [Official Site]

It's semana del Tamarkin at TOC, apparently, as David steps off his soapbox to compare/contrast the various savory cupcake offerings from newcomers Chaos Theory Cakes and More Cupcakes. Going head-to-head are the dueling bakeries' bacon, curry, and tomato mini-cakes. Whose cuisine reigns supreme? There's no clear-cut overall winner. Psh.

We feel this sort of centered peace upon seeing the ol' Heather Shouse byline again (hi Heather! Welcome back!), as she profiles (see Tamarkin's first article to grok that this is not a review) Jamaica Jamaica (1512 Sherman Ave, Evanston, 847 328 1000). Bet you can't guess what kind of food they serve! The restaurant is from the owners of Good To Go, and the classic island fare — jerk chicken, meat patties, other good stuff — is augmented by a 25-plus-item smoothie menu.

Shouse also profiles the just-opened Bristol, but we are guessing you already know everything you need to know about that place.

And Tamarkin for the close, with a profile of the just-opened Cafe con Leche, which is related to but not identical to the same-named restaurant in Logan Square.

[Photo: one of Chaos Theory's bacon-peanut butter cupcakes, via their Flickr]

"That’s gonna be great. We’ve got the culinary and we’re bringing in some international chefs from some sister cities. We’re really highlighting that because now culinary and hospitality–we’re about the second city almost, close to New York. We have great restaurants. Really, New York they always have some top three or four, but we’re very, very close. We have original, original creators and all types of chefs. We’re doing very well. I mean, this is gonna quite a show."

– Mayor Richard M. Daley,
on Chicago Gourmet, which kicks off tomorrow night.

So, um, remember that Swiss Chef we reported on, who was playing with the idea of using human milk in his restaurant dishes? Yeah, well guess who lurrrrved that story? PETA, of course.

The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals hopped right on the human milk bandwagon, sending a letter to Ben and Jerry's co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield asking them to replace cow milk with human milk in their famously counterculture-embracing ice cream.

The ice cream mavens politely declined, PETA reported in its blog:

In response to our letter, Ben and Jerry's issued the following statement: "We applaud PETA's novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a mother's milk is best used for her child." Hey, guys, that's our point: Cow's milk is for baby cows.

The Breast Is Best! PETA Asks Ben & Jerry's to Dump Dairy and Go With Human Milk Instead [PETA Media Center]
Update: PETA to Ben and Jerry's: Breast Is Best! [The PETA Files]
Find-A-food Search [MenuPages]

[Photo: Via Cherry Hill Drive-In]

Monica Eng's sit-down with a bunch of Chicago chefs is so full of fodder that we are actually sitting here in a state of disarray, so much is there that we want to talk about. It is glorious.

Eng sits down with Michael Altenberg (Crust, Bistro Campagne), Graham Elliot Bowles (graham elliot), Paul Kahan (Blackbird, Avec), Bill Kim (Le Lan, Urban Belly), Carrie Nahabedian (Naha), and Jackie Shen (Red Light), to talk about, well, everything.

And we were going to do a sort of topic-by-topic recap, but then we realized that virtually everything that got our undies in a bunch came out of the mouth of one mister Bowles. Like, for example:

• Chicago vs. New York: Graham Elliot Bowles counters Bill Kim's claim that "New York is still the top city" by pointing out that "in New York the chefs that you talk about today—Daniel [Boulud], Jean-Georges [Vongerichten] and [David] Bouley—are the same ones you talked about 20 years ago. It's not very feasible for people to [open a new place] unless it's way down in the Village or way in Brooklyn."

  Dude. Graham. We showed that quote to MP:Boston editor Leila and she said "that is retarded." And she is right! Plenty of new-guard NYC chefs who own their own places are all over the national foodie radar: Chang, Hamilton, Dufresne, Zamarra — just to name a few. And believe us when we tell you we have lived in New York, and opening a restaurant "way down in the Village or way in Brooklyn" is not an "unless" scenario — it is a best-case scenario. Midtown is for tourists and businessmen, and upper west and east sides are culinary wastelands. Downtown or Brooklyn is where you go if you want to be taken seriously as a chef.

• A good Chicago bakery: GEB claims that his restaurant doesn't even serve bread, "because we aren't able to make it in-house and there are really no great bakeries to source it out."

  And then Paul Kahan is all, dude, what about Fox & Obel? Hmm? And we are all THAT IS RIGHT, PAUL KAHAN. YOU SHOW HIM.

• Bloggers: Ouch: we and our ilk are universally hated, of course, but GEB draws an odd analogy: "Why this obsession with food online? You don't see people blogging about their new shoes in the same way."

  Has this man never been on the internet?

Top Chicago chefs dish on dining [Tribune]

[Photo: This man does not think people blog about shoes.]

The Bristol finally opened its doors the other night, to much media fanfare. What's the first-two-days scoop?

The consensus (er, the various info gathered from the two LTHForum reviews) are thus:

1. The servers' uniforms are a tshirt and jeans, which is confusing to patrons and a little out of synch with the menu's price points.
2. Despite their sartorial shortcomings, though, the servers and other employees were intelligent, friendly, and helpful.
3. The portion size is small, but the food is good.
4. Those much-hyped duck fat fries? They might (gasp!) be better than Hot Doug's.
5. Mixed opinions on the "nutter butter" dessert (two peanut butter sandwich cookies with chocolate fondue for dipping): either terrific or boring and not worth it.

The Bristol [topic] [LTHForum]
The Bristol [MenuPages]
The Bristol [Official Site]

• If it weren't for that pesky financial crash, this Chinese food safety thing would be really big news. As it is, you may not have heard that all sorts of potentially contaminated products are being yanked in all sorts of countries. [CNN]

• When San Francisco passed a health-care mandate, some restaurants tacked on a surcharge. Now a New York City grocery store is doing the same and blaming the high cost of energy. [Newsday]

• A London restaurant is offering a meal meant to replicate the diet of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton. It contains 6,000 calories, but no penguin. [Times Online]

• Pity the French. Really. They had a good thing going with the long lunch, and now they're not only cutting that short, their options are shrinking as restaurants across France shutter in these tough times. [Business Week]

Here's a thing we don't get: When it comes to food on sticks, Minnesota is the happiest place on earth. But apparently when it comes to lunch, it verges on being an Onion article:

Business is building at Jensen's in Eagan, where the well-known supper club is now offering weekday lunches -- with a freshly made popover welcoming each customer.

"It's picking up every day," owner Doron Jensen said of the lunch service he began Sept. 8 in the Cedar Grove area.

There's a new soup-and-salad bar, sandwiches, steaks and seafood -- and also meeting facilities. Last week, the soup was prime rib mushroom, supped by senior citizens, business people and shoppers stopping in.
...
"It's perfect at lunch," Jensen said. "You can make any kind of chef's salad you want with chicken, shrimp, turkey or ham -- or just a garden salad, if that's what you would like."
...
"Lunch at Jensen's will be unique because we are more upscale than nearby restaurants," Jensen said. "Local businesses will finally have an attractive location for business lunches, as well as noon-hour celebrations such as birthdays and holidays."

Though he had resisted opening the family-owned supper club to lunch, the success of Jensen's Cafe in Burnsville, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, convinced Jensen.

Word is spreading of classy new lunch dining [Minneapolis Star-Tribune]

[Photo: the Jensen's sign, which admittedly is, okay, incredibly awesome, via anglerove's Flickr]

[HT to our friend Mary, who is in Minnesota being Political]

Our favorite three stories from this week's crop:

• Emily Nunn runs down the traditions of Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish new year celebration. Like many Jewish holidays, it's very food-centric and very traditional (brisket, kugel, et al), and much of the food is symbolic. We already knew about honey for a sweet year and apples and round bread loaves for continuity, but now we know to eat fish for ... fertility? Hrm.

• We've always found the best accompaniment to a riotous bowl of gumbo is an alcoholic beverage, and Bill Daley suggests, specifically, that it should be wine. Weirdly enough, the dish works with such disparate varietals as Gewurtraminer (a sweet white) and Pinot Noir (a peppery deep red). We are calling up some flavor-memories right now and we agree: it totally works.

• Everything you ever wanted to know about making cheesecake, including a long list of alternatives to plain ol' Philadelphia. Among them, tantalizingly: goat cheese, quark, and mascarpone.

[Photo: Gumbo (among other things) from Dixie Kitchen (god we want a glass of wine), via rebeccachen1970's Flickr]

I've known quite a few picky eaters. A roommate once dated a guy for a year who would only eat in chain restaurants. (My reaction: "And you went on more than one date with him?") A friend is terrified of mayonnaise and begins to hyperventilate at the mere thought of mayo being in anything she's already ingested.* And I once dated a guy who wouldn't eat eggs or anything with even a hint of spice. (That relationship ended very, very quickly.)

But that was nothing compared to some of the people interviewed for this Globe and Mail article. One guy will only eat dry chicken, well-done steak and sauce-free veggies. (That's him in the video, attempting to eat pizza, which he did not like. Who doesn't like pizza?!) Then there's the other guy who has eaten the same thing for lunch for the past decade: peanut butter on crackers with a glass of milk.

The first inclination is to label them spoiled brats — which they are, to the same extent we all are; none of us is threatened with starvation, so we have the luxury of picking and choosing what we eat — but after reading through the comments too, I'm beginning to think that this isn't just some childish thing. These people have a serious disorder. Imagine how socially crippling it would be to not be able to hold down most foods. It made me feel a bit sympathetic towards these ridiculously picky eaters.

That said, God help me if I ever give birth to a picky eater. I love food too much, and I just don't have that kind of patience.

Burgers make me gag [Globe and Mail]
TJ vs pizza [YouTube]

Course 19: Macaroons [L2O Flickr]
L2O [MenuPages]
L2O [Official Site]

"We arrange the apples from tart to sweet. What if ONE OF THE APPLES WERE OUT OF SEQUENCE?"

– Dan Shumski, aka The Fruit Slinger
on the dire consequences of taking a day off

Wow, talk about a clash of the food-politics titans. Check out this debate between sustainable food guru Michael Pollan and Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant, held at a Google-sponsored forum.

They're talking about pretty important issues, and in a way, each seems like something of a caricature of his side. Grant wants to solve the world's hunger problems through the magic of (Monsanto) technology, while Pollan argues for many local, sustainable solutions, developed at a grass-roots level, by people so hungry they can barely keep themselves alive. There's an element of evil corporate suit vs. idealist college professor, but that's as much a pre-existing stereotype as it is a reality. They're both pretty astute and articulate.

It's good viewing, even if few of the world's problems are solved by the end. Most people don't want to eat crops that were developed in a lab, nor can they afford grass-fed steaks from New York's Blue Hill. But at least debates like this get companies like Monsanto out of the backrooms of government, and idealists like Pollan out of the ivory tower.

Slow Food Vs. Monsanto [Grist Mill]
Blue Hill [MenuPages]
Blue Hill [Official Site]

A new one for the RSS Feed: Chef Philip Foss of Lockwood (in the Palmer House Hilton) has an up-and-running blog that seems to take its cue from L2O's wildly succesful blog: lots of plating photos and kitchen shots, accompanied by a glimpse at the chef's thought process. Also a photo of Foss's daughter that made us get all melty.

The blog is a nice read, for sure, with plenty of shoutouts to the chef's inspirations ranging from Thomas Keller to Grant Achatz (those two guys are getting a heck of a MenuPages workout today). And Foss definitely has a sense of humor: explaining a dessert of banana, bacon, and beer (omg yes), he says 'This presentation took time to develop... and not during an all night pot smoking session." (also omg yes.)

We're a little intrigued by the frequency and quantity of posting: the blog's only been up and running since September 2, but already has more than 30 posts — a whopping twenty of which went up between 5:50 and 9:48 PM on the 10th. That's prime dinner time on a Wednesday night, so either Chef Foss had his night off and spent it on Blogger, or some poor assistant's job description now includes hitting "post" on all those blogger entries.

FossBlog [Official Site]
Lockwood [MenuPages]
Lockwood [Official Site]

[Photo: Lockwood's tuna nicoise amuse, via FossBlog]

So naturally what you must do is this: Mark your calendars for December 2. That evening Mister Achatz and Mister Keller (of New York's Per Se and Napa's French Laundry) are going to be sharing the proverbial stage: twenty courses over the course of what will undoubtedly be countless hours of culinary precision and gastronomical bliss. It's at Alinea.

Of course, it's not cheap: the price tag runs a hefty $1500, which includes both wine pairings and astonishing proximity to greatness.

Dining Calendar [New York Times, last item]
Achatz and Keller Team up For Epic 20-Course Menu [Eater]
Alinea [MenuPages]
Alinea [Official Site]

[Photo: The Alinea kitchen (one of these people will soon be Thomas Keller!), via Browners82's Flickr]

• The French are moving away from long, lazy lunches to sandwiches eaten at their desks, and cafes in Paris are suffering. Naturally, this is really big news over there, lots of hand-wringing involved. [The Independent]

• And now fast food is making serious inroads in the Mediterranean, and the kids are getting much fatter because of it. [NYT]

• Hot oatmeal is the top seller among the new food items at Starbucks. It's great news for the company since profit margins for the oatmeal are among the highest. Which is usually a good indication that it's so cheap and easy you should be making it at home. [Reuters]

• Scandal in the food industry: it seems there may have been some price fixing among California tomato processors. [SFGate]

• Kolkata (aka Calcutta) in India has banned smoking in restaurants after October 2. [Times of India]

In honor of their publication's 40th anniversary, the snuggleable writers over at TOC have ID'd 40 Chicagoans as "Cultural Heroes." Among the enricheners of societal fabric are four food names: Top Chef Stephanie Izard, LEYE wine maven Alpana Singh, and restaurateurs Charlie Trotter (of the eponymous restaurant) and Grant Achatz (of Alinea).

All four mediagenic individuals are nationally-recognized figures who, yes, make the Second City look first-class. Also the photo of Grant Achatz makes us sort of have a giant crush on him. He looks flat-out hot. It is enough to help us get over our deep personal offense at being (mistakenly, of course) left off the list.

Cultural Heroes: The Foodies [TOC]
Charlie Trotter's [MenuPages]
Charlie Trotter's [Official Site]
Alinea [MenuPages]
Alinea [Official Site]

[Photo by Chris Strong, via TOC]

Chicago Business News reports that restaurateur Sandy Yu, of the now-shuttered Republic, is planning to open a place called Farmerie 58 in the old Republic space at 58 E. Ontario.

Farmerie 58 will be "an American restaurant with a sushi bar," with an emphasis on local and organic ingredients, and the man in the kitchen will be William Alexander, formerly of The Dining Room at Kendall College.

Here's something no one saw coming — and by no one, we mean no one: When we googled the restaurant name, the only result was CBN's article itself. More info as we get it.

Restaurant redo: from Asian to Midwest farm-centric [Chicago Business News]

If you don't know this restaurant, you should: New York's Shopsin's, perhaps one of the quirkiest, oddest, most delightful, most infuriating restaurants in the world, which is presided over by Kenny Shopsin, who is himself one of the quirkiest, oddest, most delightful, most infuriating restaurateurs in the world.

Shopsin's is famous for any number of reasons: the 900-plus-item menu, the draconian dining room rules (no parties greater than 4, no two people at the same table ordering the same dish), the seeming infinity of Kenny's cantankerousness, the Calvin Trillin treatment in The New Yorker, the sign reading "All our cooks wear condoms."

And then, of course, there is the food: Blisters on my Sisters (sort of like huevos rancheros), Egg Nachos (exactly what it sounds like), Slutty Cakes (pancakes filled with pumpkin and peanut butter), Mac n Cheese Pancakes (another self-evident one) ... and that's just breakfast.

We realize, of course, that not everyone is at this very moment in New York City and able to go to the cramped space in the Essex Street Market to have Kenny make you a Chicken-Fried Hamburger. So now, the Chicken-Fried Hamburger comes to you!

Eat Me: The Food & Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin is coming out tomorrow from Knopf, and it could not be a more awesome cookbook. Organized around chapters like "The Story of Shopsin's Turkey, or Why I Hate the Health Department," and studded with 70s-era photos of Shopsin's kids taking baths in the sink and straight-faced portraits of Kenny's everyday kitchen utensils, this is certainly not your mom's copy of Joy of Cooking. In fact, it probably makes Joy of Cooking blush and giggle the red off its cover.

Eat Me [Amazon]
Shopsin's [MenuPages]
Shopsin's [Official Site]

[photo of Kenny by Jason Fulford]

Not too long ago, we reported on the reportage surrounding restaurants knowingly (or perhaps unknowingly?) serving diners cheap types of fish rather than the pricey or rare varieties advertised on the menu. So we perked up at this MenuPages review that crossed our desktop the other day, from an anon reviewer to an anon restaurant:

I ate here with a group recently and was mortified when the Snapper Special turned out to be tilapia. I have always read about how some restaurants swap in a cheaper fish, but I never thought it would happen to me. Unfortunately, the snapper dish that is on the menu for 18.99 is the one they heavily promote on their website. I am a chef and know the difference when I am served a 2.99/lb fish in place of snapper. When I told the server, she said she would check with the kitchen - as if they would admit to doing something like that. It's unfortunate that they would try to take advantage of their customers. Stick to the pork items here.

[Photo of fresh red snapper via JordanH's Flickr]

After yesterday's public head-scratching on the San Francisco blog over OpenTable's handling of large parties (in this case at Medjool), we got a response to our question of why reservations for, say, 12 people, sometimes can't be accepted through OpenTable, but can be accommodated after a phone call directly to the restaurant. OT spokeswoman Shannon Stubo wrote in an e-mail:

The availability you see on OpenTable.com is a direct reflection of the way the restaurant has set up its reservation book. Each restaurant sets its book up differently to accommodate the unique dining patterns and management needs of that particular business. When a diner searches OpenTable.com for restaurant reservations, the results reflect the actual book availability at that restaurant at that point in time.

Because a restaurant may have the flexibility to reconfigure tables during service (combining two tables for two into one table for four, for example or reassess the expected completion time of a previous dining party), hostesses are sometimes able to accommodate diners by phone. Large parties require a certain amount of operational attention, and restaurants occasionally want a human to make that decision based on what’s currently going on in the restaurant.

Medjool: Reservations The Old-Fashioned Way [MenuPages SF]
OpenTable.com [Official Site]
Medjool [MenuPages]
Medjool [Official Site]

You know there's a good PR team at work when a restaurant shows up on Thrillist, DailyCandy, JuliB, and UrbanDaddy. But who does it best? We subscribe, read, and levy judgment... so you don't have to

Today! Today is opening day of that much-ballyhooed, much-buzzed, much-delayed valhalla to the drunken epicure: The Bristol. We've been sitting on our hands for this PR Showdown, since some e-PR outlets took the early-opening bait (Thrillist and Juli B ran their items on September 15 and 16, respectively), but we had a feeling the others would catch up. Which they did: UrbanDaddy dropped their pitch yesterday, and DailyCandy's popped into our inbox all perkily this morning. So how do they do?

Thrillist's take on...
a witty title: "Meet Your Scratch"
an overarching narrative conceit: the average man's notion of making something from scratch is popping a lunchables and drinking a capri sun.
number of chefs called out by name or former place of employment: 3: "Tri-owned by a former Tru chef and vets from N9ne & one sixtyblue"
a head-scratcher of a humorous assertion: "in Belgium, the Lord's blood is frothy."
highlighted menu item that makes us drool: "chorizo-stuffed boneless chicken wings (w/ bleu cheese cream & chicken cracklings)"
closing witticism: "[the bar serves] Moscow Mules — a drink you can enjoy without incident, as opposed to those whose pouches must be pierced with a pointy straw."

Juli B's take on...
a witty title: "Bristol Whipped"
an overarching narrative conceit: the resto is both British and neighborly
number of chefs called out by name or former place of employment: 1: "exec chef chris pandel has worked at fancy-pants restos like NYC's café boulud and chicago's own tru."
a head-scratcher of an illustration: stock photo of pastel plastic cafe chairs that we are fairly sure don't fit into the Bristol's leather-and-wood pub design.
highlighted menu item that makes us drool: "soothe your soul with comfy food like duck fat fries"
closing witticism: "get on your pony and warn them all: the bristol is coming."

DailyCandy's take on...
a witty title: "Snackdown"
an overarching narrative conceit: your late-night snacking habits are immature, at best
number of chefs called out by name or former place of employment: 3: "Operated by John Ross (One Sixtyblue), Phillip Walters (N9ne), and Chris Pandel (Tru)"
a head-scratcher of an opening sentence: "On your last trip to the The Wiener’s Circle, you smeared ketchup on your date’s face then dipped a fry in it."
highlighted menu item that makes us drool: "monkey bread (biscuits with butter, dill, and sea salt)"
closing witticism: "Weekend brunch launches mid-October. Giving you just enough time to clean up your act."

UrbanDaddy's take on...
a witty title: "Chalk It Up"
an overarching narrative conceit: you hate writing things in stone; you live your life via a metaphorical chalkboard; The Bristol is good for both guys nights and date nights.
number of chefs called out by name or former place of employment: 0
a head-scratcher of any variety: none, actually. This is surprisingly both lucid and devoid of jokes.
highlighted menu item that makes us drool: Taco-Stand Corn on the Cob
closing witticism: "From there, the game plan should take care of itself."

Winner: In an upset, we're going to anoint the crown to DailyCandy. This is in part because of how much better this entry is than DC's previous attempts, which have been shockingly bad. But they also get props for IDing the chefs by name and resume, a well-punned title, and an adorably deranged opening sentence. Wear that tiara with pride, DC:C!

Loser: What the fudge, Juli B? While this showing wasn't a total embarrassment, we were struck by the absent plugging of the other two name-brand chefs involved with the project, the totally incongruous illustrating photo, and the out-of-left-field Mister Rogers reference in the opening paragraph — not to mention the closing sentence (we do not now, nor have we ever, owned a pony). Fail. Sorry.

Honorable mention is due to UrbanDaddy, by the by, for delivering the information on this restaurant in such a way that we knew exactly what was going on in their post at all times, and precisely what every sentence was supposed to refer to. It didn't make us laugh out loud like Thrillist's (which gets the ribbon for humor), but reading UD was a breath of fresh PR air.

Thanks for playing, everyone! See you next time!

The Bristol [MenuPages]
The Bristol [Official Site]

In the creeping reign of Wisconsin over the rest of the world, we are willing to back off for at least this one concession: Milwaukee's Will Allen, proprietor of Growing Power and recipient of a 2008 MacArthur Genius Grant.

Top-notch Chicago restaurants like Avec, Lula Cafe, and Nacional 27 (not to mention avant-eco-guardsmen like Uncommon Ground and the Green City Market) use Growing Power as a produce resource, and Growing Power in turn uses as resources (and vice versa) virtually everybody: teens, kids, the elderly, career farmers, urban planners all get involved with ideas for growing, harvesting, and distributing in communities across the Chicago-Milwaukee corridor. Their Chicago office has overseen such remarkable projects as the community garden in Cabrini-Green.

All in all, an excellent allocation of $500,000. By "menace," here, of course, we mean "inspiration."

Farmer, lighting designer: Geniuses [Chicago Tribune]
Growing Power [Official Site]

[Photo of Will Allen (center) and kids involved with Growing Power, via Growing Power's site]

• Now that 53,000 babies have fallen ill from tainted milk, Chinese officials are saying that "this is a failure of the system." [Bloomberg]

• ...So China's top food safety official has resigned. [WaPo]

• A new study says Splenda is bad for your tummy. But! The study was funded by the National Sugar Association! [NYT]

• At a cafe in the Netherlands, cameras watch every move the customers make. For science, of course. [SFChron/AP]

• In lighter news: An elderly vegetarian in Australia befriended a giant pig, who is now holding her hostage inside her home. Pig. As in bacon. [Daily Mail]

An after-hours visual treat to tide you over until you eat dinner: Courtesy photographer Grant Kessler, a plating photo from the much-buzzed, yet-to-open resto The Publican, from the boys that brought us Blackbird. Gastro-swoon over the Becker Lane pork shank, which for $30 gets you this hunk of pig (raised happily in Dyersville, Iowa) surrounded by with cane sugar, aromatics and cured rapini:

The entire Publican menu is available right here on MP, just in case your salivary glands need some stimulating.

The Publican [MenuPages]

• The Decider takes on virtually every one of Chicago's non-Sonic drive-ins, including MP personal favorites Mic Duck's Superdawg. [The Decider]

• The ladies of Chicago Bites head to Avec (in company of fellow podcaster Scott from Dinner Voyeur). Tammy thinks it feels like a cafeteria, but the food (especially the meat) knocks them all out of the park. [Chicago Bites]

• Head out to Schaumburg for some Greek food at Greek Village Taverna, where the waiters look like Telly Savalas! [Best Of The Best Dining Chicago]

• The Dolinskter delivers a cubano roundup, including a "way out of whack" rendition at newcomer 90 Miles Cuban Cafe. [CHuffPo]

• Mister Gebert visits Mado, and the restaurant endears itself to him on impact: well-priced, delicious food, with smart flavor composition. They even make liver palatable! [Sky Full of Bacon]

• The Chicago Traveler (did anyone ever notice his logo is reminiscent of Chicagoist's?) gives a writeup of Lakeview's Shochu: cocktails made from the namesake liquor don't disappoint, and there's satisfying Asian-inflected bar food. [Chicago Traveler]

• Here's a breakfast after our own hearts: Brie, spinach, and mushroom, in a panini, at Star Lounge Cafe. [Chicagoist]

• Mister Nagrant weighs in on More Cupcakes. Not the idea of having a lot, but the cupcake bakery by that name. [Hungry Mag]

• A present-tense review of Barnaby's in Des Plaines, where they're known for pizza but do a mean baby back ribs as well. [NBC5 Street Team]

• ChiBBQKing has so many meat/gyro/pork/ribs reviews up this week that we think you should just click over there and read them yourself. [ChiBBQKing]

[photo: it's a bird! it's a plane! it's a superdawg! via yummyinthetummyblog's Flickr]

There are two general rules in our kitchen: one, if I cook -- you clean. Two, when in doubt -- add cheese. Is there a single dish in existence that won't benefit by the addition of cheese? We're clearly not alone in thinking along these (dubious) lines, because AXE, the body product brand (and another dubious concept), wants to know -- can't man benefit from the addition of chocolate? Behold the Chocolate Man!

Meanwhile, in an inspired move of cocao genius, a German company goes one further: combining typography with chocolate. 'Cause, you know, typesetting is so much sweeter when it's made with chocolate...

[Photo: Via Typolade]

Chicago: 1, Canada: 0.

Turns out Freshii, the lunchtime staple for uncountable thousands of South Loopers, is in fact the first American outlet of a Canadian Chain. Except in the great frozen north, they don't call it Freshii — they call it Lettuce Eatery. Thanks to the Canadian name's focus on roughage, apparently all anyone orders in Toronto is salads — and the chain's founder, Matthew Corrin, wishes they ordered oatmeal and soup like the Chicago patrons.

His solution? He's changing the name of every single Canadian franchise to the more foodstuff-neutral "Freshii." How's that for a win?

What's in a name? A lot. So changing it is risky [Globe & Mail]
Freshii [MenuPages]
Freshii [Official Site]

Is this burger enough to make you give up the localvore challenge?

It's almost enough to do in Chicagoist's Chuck Sudo, but not quite. Instead, he falls under the spell of Burrito House's off-menu fish tacos, and two bottles of Pineapple Jarritos.

Localvore Challenge Update: Uh-oh... [Chicagoist]
Kuma's Corner [MenuPages]
Kuma's Corner [Official Site]
Burrito House [MenuPages]
Burrito House [Official Site]

[Photo via]

For politically oriented drink marketing, everything comes down to a name.

Serious Eats reports today on a little-known Chilean wine sold in San Francisco that has taken a severe dip in popularity since the complete GOP ticket was announced. The name of the maligned red: Palin Syrah.

"It was our best selling wine before (the V.P. announcement),” said Chris Tavelli, owner of Yield Wine Bar, which has offered Palin Syrah, a certified organic wine from Chile, by the glass since July. But after Sen. John McCain tagged Sarah Palin as his running mate, sales of the wine with the conservative's inverted name plummeted—not surprising in famously liberal San Francisco.

McCain has his own link to the wonderful world of alcoholic beverages through his wife, Cindy McCain, whose family fortune comes, in part, from domestic beer behemoth Budweiser.

Joe Biden, on the other hand, will have to sit this round out. Word is, he's a teetotaler.

'Palin Syrah' Wine Drops in Sales After Sarah Palin Veep Pick [Serious Eats]
Sixpoint Craft Ales Brews "Hop Obama" Ale [Beer Advocate]

[Photo: Via Appellation Wine And Spirits]

Our required Tribune and Sun-Times and Reader reading aside, we are pretty huge fans of the New York Times. We have many a fond memory of sitting in the kitchen on a Sunday morning, pen in hand, attempting to fill in as much as we could of the crossword puzzle (our mother would always fill in the 85% we'd left blank within, oh, four minutes of us wandering away in frustration). We never actually read the news, of course, but we love love loved the dining, style, and metro sections, with their peeks into the impossibly glamorous lives of the New York elite.

Ahem. New York Elite indeed. We were struck mightily by the special T magazine Travel issue, which highlighted — could it be? — Jimmy's Woodlawn Tap (1172 E. 55th St., 773 643 5516). The Times was interested because Jimmy's, proximate as it is to the University of Chicago, attracts a slightly more intellectual crowd than your average dive bar, with patrons ranging from the just-turned-21 college juniors, to the ghost of Saul Bellow.

As for the accompanying photo slide show of the Hyde Park haunt's regulars, we half-expected to see it populated entirely by our former coworkers at the Seminar Co-op. That wasn't to be, but we're pleased (if a little miffed, in the way one is miffed when a wonderful secret goes public) that Jimmy's is getting its due.

A Heady Brew [New York Times]

[Photo: the outside of Jimmy's, via Kylio's Flickr]

• Those FDA guidelines on genetically modified animals were released on Thursday, and the plan is to treat modified animals "like drugs." There is already a glow-in-the-dark aquarium fish on the market, but don't expect to find GMO meat in your supermarket today. [Chicago Tribune]

• Attention aspiring diner-owners! The owner of Grubb's Diner in Huntingdon, PA is looking to sell or even donate his vintage diner to the right person. Once you've proven your mettle, all you need to do is move and reopen it. [Boston Globe]

• The judges at the Nez Perce County Fair in Idaho awarded first place in the "hog-calling" category to a woman named Bacon. Jolee Bacon. [AP]

• "Spain... on the Road Again," the culinary/travel show featuring Mark Bittman, Mario Batali, Gwyneth Paltrow, and some other chick, begins airing this week. Opinion is divided on whether the addition of Paltrow will be a boon or a bust. Guess we'll find out soon enough! [NYT]

• In the world of cure-all food trends, acai seems to be the new wheatgrass or bee pollen. Before it was that, the berry was a "poor man's staple" in the Amazon. Now it's known as "purple gold," and although considered a green harvest, there are concerns about what it might do to the rain forest. [LA Times]

Forget Sparks. They're going to outlaw that junk anyway. The next big thing is this totally serious product we saw written up in the Onion:

According to makers of the nervous-energy drink Pace!, the new beverage provides consumers with the same anxiety, restlessness, and self-doubt associated with waiting for a phone call from a much-desired female acquaintance.

Happy Friday. Have fun on that date tonight!

States ask MillerCoors to pull alcoholic energy drink [LA Times]
New Nervous-Energy Drink Recreates Feeling Of Waiting For Girl To Call [The Onion]

Sometimes it feels like all we read about anymore is wine and Urban Belly. Don't get us wrong — there are worse fates — but when you're sitting at your computer all day and visions of lamb-brandy dumplings and bottles of pinot are swimming in front of your eyes, it can be a little overwhelming.

The Sun-Times hands us two journalistic confections from Mister Pat Bruno:
• Welcome to the Sun-Times fall dining preview! Have you heard about this place opening up soon called The Publican? Also a slew of other upcomings (and recently-openeds) that have already been covered to death on the blogs and in the other publications: More Cupcakes, The Bristol, Jackson Park B&G, and that as-yet-unnamed new place in Pilsen from the folks behind Lula.

• Our favorite thing about Bruno's review of Urban Belly? The URL basename: after a string of standard-issue tracking numbers, it's "brunobelly19," which we're now considering making our new AIM screen name. But seriously, folks, Bruno — like everyone else — is raving over Urban Belly, his particular favorite being the fourteenth item on the nineteen-item menu, noodles stir-fried with eggplant. Yum.

And from OSBMS (for new readers, that'd be Our Secret Boyfriend Mike Sula, who might actually be downgraded soon to make way for Christopher Borrelli, but that's another post for another time), over in the Reader, we get an interview with Tyler Colman, author of the intriguingly-titled Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink. It turns out that the forces at work in getting a sip of wine from the vine to your mouth are far broader than just growers, distributors, and pushy wine-store clerks. Colman is in town for various signings and readings, check out Sula's Q&A for dates and times.

[Photo: a raspberry-topped cupcake from More]

To balance out our earlier Sarah Palin coverage, we bring you the Obama cake from Bleeding Heart Bakery, and the general-issue cupcake, $2 of whose purchase price (in any flavor!) goes directly to support the Obama-Biden campaign:

A Little Morning A-Moose-Ment [previously]
Bleeding Heart Bakery [MenuPages]
Bleeding Heart Bakery [Official Site]

[All photos from the Bleeding Heart Bakery Flickr]

• Last meal choices: an analysis. [MP: Chicago]

• Make pizza, not war! [MP: Philadelphia]

• Rubbing elbows with highly caffeinated mobsters. [MP: Boston]

• Fight food poisoning with other, less poisonous food. [MP: San Francisco]

• And some of the prettiest brunch pictures you ever did see. [MP: South Florida]

• Kim Severson of the New York Times offers up answers to burning reader questions such as "Is it possible to be a vegetarian in Alaska?" (A: sort of, as long as it's not a political thing), and "Have you ever killed a moose yourself?" (A: no, but her dad has), and "Is it true that Alaskans eat this disgusting-sounding dish that the MenuPages blogger summarizing this cannot bring herself to retype?" (A: Yes!) [New York Times]

• And she answers even more! [New York Times]

• Some fun facts about moose and moosemeat: the animal is vegan, if slaughtered correctly the meat can be kosher, and a delicious-sounding moose slider is made from mooseburgers, sourdough bread, cranberry ketchup, and sauteed smoked onions. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

• Mooseghetti is basically exactly what it sounds like. Also the real way you prep moose meat is, again, kind of gross. [NPR, via Serious Eats]

• It's illegal to buy moose in both the U.S. and Canada (the only way to get it is to kill it yourself), but one Chowhound poster suggests "tinned or bottled moose," and we can't tell if they're joking. [Chowhound Ontario]

[Photo: A moose in a parking lot, via arctic_photos' Flickr]

If you are pretty darn excited as well, we highly suggest you get your tickets for Saturday and Sunday's tasting pavilions, seminars, and cooking demos. And may we also suggest that you use this code &mdash CG2008TEN — while ordering your tickets online? It'll land you a sweet 10% discount.

• The Japanese minister of agriculture steps down after tainted rice is found in the food supply. [BBC]

• The Canadian processing plant linked to all that tainted deli meat re-opens [National Post]

• The Chinese may start taking their coffee black after contamination is found in regular milk as well as baby milk. [BBC]

• British bans on advertising junk food don't seem to translate to the waistline. [Reuters]

As we've mentioned, David Tamarkin of Time Out Chicago has a piece up today attacking the locavore/localvore movement. It's been getting plenty of attention, but we uncovered this hidden gem in the comments section of Chicagoist's notation of the piece:

Tamarkin raises good points, but the ones with which I disagree based more on what I feel are his assumptions that those embracing the localvore lifestyle are either near-sighted with regard to the global economy or not doing their homework on how their local produce is sourced.

I'll most likely have more to say on this when I post a challenge review next week.

• Dear Christopher Borrelli: We love you. We really really do. We feel kind of embarrassed to be so overwhelmingly gushy about basically everything you write, but them's the breaks. We like your beat. Like today, when you're all screw those stupid ice cream mix-ins, and then reminisce about your childhood ice cream mentor, Steve Herrell (we went to college in Massachusetts! We love Herrell's!), and then point out how iCream got hoist by its own petard, and then compare "Marble Slab" and "Cold Stone" to graveyard imagery! Good gracious, mister, you make our Thursdays fun.

• Speaking of Mr. Borrelli, apparently reader response to his "Mr. Breakfast" article has been so great that the paper will be running a pile of breakfast suggestions in next week's edition.

• Phil Vettel has the dirt on former Spiaggia chef Missy Robbins, who's picking up for New York City, where she'll be helming the kitchen at Manhattan's A Voce. And by "dirt" we mean "everyone is really friendly and amicable and there is just no good gossip to be taken out here."

• This week's big review: Vettel is in the suburbs, at Haussmann Brasserie (305 N Happ Rd, Northfield, 847 446 1133). For those of you keeping score, the S-T's Bruno was there a month ago, and found the place too simultaneously elitist and predictable for his taste. Here, though, Vettel enjoys pretty much everything: the menu is a solid mix of French classics (onion soup, steak frites, a killer roast chicken) and nouvelle twists like roasted salmon with curried artichokes. For those of you who, like us, were totally confused by the review's headline, "Hoochie Koo" is apparently a song by Rick Derringer which, we assume, was playing while Vettel dined.

[Photo: charcuterie at Haussmann Brasserie, via David Hammond of LTHForum]

Oftentimes, the use of a fanciful or unusual ingredient makes our pulse race in excitement and fills our mind with all of the possible ways to incorporate this new element into foods. Not so with the article in the Times UK about Swiss chef, Hans Locher!

You see, the inventive new ingredient that Locher has been experimenting with (and seeks to incorporate on the menu for his restaurant) is human milk. Yes. In case you are not already feeling squeamish, let us reiterate: human milk. For the curious, sample dishes include breast milk lamb curry and antelope steak with chantarelle sauce with breast milk and cognac. In case you were wondering where the milk came from, he began crafting these dishes after the birth of his daughter, so the dots are fairly easy to connect.

He then put out an ad for donors, "who were promised the equivalent of about €10 [...] for a litre of milk," which frankly, just does not seem like enough. Unfortunately for Locher, Swiss authorities did not respond very positively to this, and Locher will find himself in a bit of a pickle if he chooses to go through with his human milk menu.

As far as inspiration, we have it from the mouth of the man himself. Says Locher:

The idea first came to me when I noticed that there were many young mothers in our village, some of them single. I thought to myself: why not make use of their potential? I served the meals to my friends without telling them about the new ingredient and the feedback was excellent.

Says this writer: we often think of all the things that we would love to eat, and pat ourselves on the back when memes like the Omnivore's Hundred make the rounds. The line needs to be drawn somewhere though and as far as we're concerned, human breast milk is a pretty good place to start. Disagree? Think that this would be an excellent notch to add to your omnivore's bedpost?

"Gourmet Hans Locher cooks up trouble with human milk recipes" [Times Online]

[Photo: via Tubes./Flickr]

The record clearly shows that we are a bit undies-in-a-bunchy about Wisconsin infringing on our culinary territory.

But hold your mockery: We're not alone! Looks like Wrigleyville Scandinavian stalwart Ann Sather is on our team: The Chicago Brunch Blog reports that the restaurant will be serving a "Wisconsin-free" omelet made from sausage, beer, cheese, and eggs that are from our state, dammit.

It's only available on Cubs game days against Milwaukee. For now. Ahem.

Wisconsin-free breakfast at Ann Sather [Chicago Brunch Blog]
Menace To The North: No, Seriously, This Is Very Menacing [previously]
Menace To The North: Milwaukee Is Cooking [previously]
Ann Sather [MenuPages]
Ann Sather [Official Site]
[Image: via LethargicLad]

We were inspired by Fruit Slinger's deeply compelling description of the frenzy for Honey Crisp Apples:

Toward the end of the market, two women came up within seconds of each other and asked if we had HoneyCrisps.

We had already sold out.

"Oh, that's the only reason I came to the market!" one woman said.

"Well, would you like to try a slice of something else?" I asked.

"Do you have anything that's like a HoneyCrisp?" she asked.

There is no way I am describing any apple as being like a HoneyCrisp. Are you kidding me? I'd sooner answer the question: "So, is there anybody kind of like Jesus?"

Later on, feeling inquisitive, we asked him what his favorite part of the day had been.

"Those potato chip things."

"Potato chip things?"

"The apples that had potato chips."

"HoneyCrisps?"

"Yes. Obviously."

The One About HoneyCrisps [Fruit Slinger]

• There's already buzz around David Tamarkin's takedown of localvorism (or however you spell it), which hinges on a logically consistent claim that a perfect exercise of locavorism results (ironically and myopically) in a scenario that is precisely opposite that which the locavore is intending to achieve. If you buy what Tamarkin is selling, but are now flailing about for some gastronomical tenets on which to hang your hat, he offers up some suggestions for responsible eating on the TOC blog. (P.S. In the course of reading the article and then writing this summary, we felt like a philosophy major all over again. Thanks, DT!)

• If you are locally (or at least farmers-marketally) minded, but also a fan of drinking? Have an Indian Summer: apple cider, maple syrup, cranberry liqueur, and rum. It's New England in a glass, but alcoholic. Which is to say, it's New England in a glass!

• Last but not least, Tamarkin makes good on his angry response to Steve Dolinsky, who committed the double sin of (a) lumping TOC in with the other unwashed blogging masses when he accused them of visiting places — specifically, Urban Belly — as soon as they opened, and (b) himself visiting Urban Belly on opening day. Per TOC's editorial review standards, Tamarkin held off on his visit for a couple of weeks after the restaurant's open, but winds up with the same conclusion Dolinsky did: Urban Belly makes a hell of a lot of rapturously delicious dishes.

[Photo: quesadilla al pastor from the Maxwell St. Market, via red vines' Flickr]

My home city of Boston has found itself in the news this week, and not just because of Tom Brady's knee injury. On Saturday, the city officially banned trans fats in all of the city's restaurants and other businesses that make and sell prepared foods. In doing so, Boston became the third MenuPages city to do so (New York's ban was enacted in July 2007 and Philadelphia's came into effect in September of the same year; a statewide ban in California is set to take effect in 2010). From a public health standpoint, the benefits of a trans fat ban are clear: trans fats (artificially-manufactured oils) have been under fierce fire since a 2006 article in the New England Journal of Medicine stated that they can cause "considerable potential harm, but no apparent benefit" and reduce good cholesterol while upping the bad kind. There's also little evidence that cutting out the Crisco is detrimental to a product's taste.

Truthfully, for all the hoopla about trimming the trans fats in Boston, the ban has had little effect. Why? Well, for one thing, the legislature voted for the ban in April, giving local chefs plenty of time to cut the offending ingredients from their menus. For another, although the bill has been stalled as of late, Massachusetts as a whole has been flirting with a trans fat ban since July. Finally, this being Boston, the importance of Dunkin' Donuts' victory in developing a doughnut with zero grams of trans fats cannot be overestimated.

Trans Fats Now Banned In Boston Restaurants [Boston Globe]

We recognize the inherent absurdities of the genre, too, though we are inclined to come to its defense more than attack it if we encounter it in a dark alley. So it was with delight that we read Michael Nagrant's meditation on nerd-friendly cuisine on HungryMag. Nagrant is a contributor to the Alinea cookbook (the same one being blogged by Carol Blymire), so he has an intimate, thoughtful take on this sort of concern:

When I’d first heard [the phrase "postmodern cooking], I thought the problem with some of postmodernism is that it often reinforces or mimics the alienation of the world, leaving us more cold and unsettled than we were before. Food at its worse has always been basic sustenance, and at its best, comfort and amusement for the soul. Combining postmodernism with culinary technique, it seemed to me, threatened these connections.

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Science Food [Hungry Mag]

[Image via Achewood]

• Twelve more arrested in Powdered Milkgate 2008. [New York Times]

• The FDA will finally release guidelines on bioengineered animals today. Get excited! [Washington Post]

• Want an endless pasta bowl or some Old Bay biscuits? It's gonna cost you. [Chicago Tribune]

• Twenty five states ask MillerCoors not to put their plans for Sparks Red into motion. God, it's like they don't want teenagers to be drunk or something! [LA Times]

• The salmon industry needs at least seventy million dollars, preferably as soon as possible. [San Francisco Chronicle]

• We grew up thinking (is this weird for a kid?) "beer is for boys and wine is for girls." Of course, as we got older, we realized that just as men dominate the world of the professional kitchen, they also dominate the world of the professional wine cellar. So we are excited by today's profile of Deborah Brenner, author of Women of the Vine, which profiles (you guessed it) female leaders in the world of wine. Super cool.

• Sushi-grade surf clam breaded with panko and deep-fried, served with herb mayo and greens on a burger bun? Oh my god yes please.

• Rooftop farming: try it at home!

• Lemons are costing more, and consumers are cranky. We would like to note at this juncture that we personally are frequent makers of both lemon curd and preserved lemons, for which we used to buy batches of 10 organic lemons for $3, and now they are one dollar each and we are so incredibly annoyed. Sigh. That darn economy.

[Photo: A pile of wealth, via logan anthill's Flickr]

File this under "most inventive smuggling operation ever." A group of smugglers wanted to get cheap vodka from Russia to Estonia without having to pay those silly EU taxes. So they built an underwater pipeline to funnel the spirits from one country to another:

TALLINN, Estonia (AFP) — Eleven suspects have been charged over a smuggling operation to pump vodka from Russia to Estonia via a two kilometre (one-mile) underwater pipeline, Estonian prosecutors said Tuesday.

"It might sound weird and unbelievable but it's a very real criminal case," Mari Luuk, spokeswoman for the Estonian Viru Circuit Prosecutor's Office told AFP.

She said the 11, who included Russians and Estonians, were likely to go on trial soon and faced up to five years in prison if convicted.

The illegal pipeline was submerged in a water reservoir located between Russia and Estonia near the north-eastern Estonian border town of Narva.

The operation was profitable as the price of vodka in Russia is nearly one third cheaper than in Estonia, a member of the European Union since May 2004.

Apparently these men, who somehow managed to avoid capture for almost four years since the discovery of the illegal operation, face up to five years in jail. Although given the fact that they have an underwater vodka pipeline on their resumes, it may be difficult to keep these men in prison.

Eleven charged in Estonia for vodka smuggling via pipeline [AFP]

Photo: clicking passion/flickr

Um, for everyone except Chicago:

Researchers have done little work to calculate food miles for areas outside the Midwest. A 1997 study showed that produce travels an average of 1,129 miles to Austin, 34 percent fewer than to Chicago. In 2001, an analysis of the Jessup, Md., terminal market concluded that U.S.-grown produce traveled an average of more than 1,685 miles. And though there's no formal research to support it, Pirog says it's safe to assume that, on average, food travels fewer miles to get to diners in California than to those in New York.

What's in a Number? [Slate]

[Photo: Local cherries from the Green City Market, via nibblekibble's Flickr]

This morning we noticed that a Christopher Borrelli article on a local gelateuse was a repeat of an earlier article, and we raised an allcaps eyebrow. A source emails us an explanation:

"Good Eating is a zoned section. Some zones are bigger than others in terms of news hole, so there are times when stories like Borrelli's can't be run in all zones because of lack of space. The stories then run the next week in the zones that missed it the first time."

Tribune Food: Wine, Wine, WTF [previously]

Wow, the news about plastics just keeps getting scarier. First it turns out they may give you brain damage. Now it seems you can get a host of diseases from the stuff as well. You doubtless picked it up from this morning's FYI, but just to remind you, here's what the Chicago Tribune had to say about the latest findings on Bisphenol A, a compound found in all sorts of plastic:

Bisphenol A, commonly known as BPA, is used extensively in the linings of food and drink containers, plus countless consumer products, including baby bottles and sippy cups. The chemical also has been found in drinking water, dental sealants and even household dust.

Adding to a growing sense of unease about the chemical's potential effects was a study released before federal hearings Tuesday that linked exposure to bisphenol A with cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and liver-enzyme abnormalities in adults.

So what can you do to avoid getting sick, or going soft in the head? Well, as government regulators talk about whether or not to ban the stuff, you can start packing your lunch in a glass or metal container, and maybe pick up one of those metal water bottles. Meanwhile, according to the Tribune,

Some state and federal lawmakers have sought to ban BPA in children's products, and some companies have decided not to produce or sell BPA products. Wal-Mart is phasing out sales of baby bottles containing BPA from its U.S. stores next year, and Nalgene is removing BPA from its popular water bottles.

Common chemical BPA under scrutiny as study links it to diabetes, cardiovascular disease [Chicago Tribune]
Association of Urinary Bisphenol A Concentration With Medical Disorders and Laboratory Abnormalities in Adults [Journal of the American Medical Association]
Draft Assesment of Bisphenol A For Use In Food Contact Applications [FDA]

[Image: Via Wikipedia]

• Speaking of fermented grapes, Bucktown's getting a new wine shop, called Red & White. Trendy neighborhood? Check. Inexpensive bottles? Check. Proprietor with an interest in carpentry? Check. "Biodynamic" this and that? Check and check.

• Chinese five-spice powder! It's a neat seasoning! No really, we are actually quite big fans of this combo of clove, cinnamon, anise, fennel, ginger, and whathaveyou. We put it in shortbread.

• Bill Daley gives us a mouthwatering recipe for chipotle brats topped with the double-rouge combination of red peppers and red onions, all grilled. It is not remotely in the lunchtime ballpark right now and yet we are officially obsessing over this.

• Our man Christopher Borrelli profiles artisan gelato-maker Jessie Oloroso, WHICH HE HAS TOTALLY DONE BEFORE. Like, the exact same article. We were so struck by this that we ran out and looked at a paper copy of the Tribune (seriously) and there it is — section 7, page 4, lower corner. Expliquenme, los Tribunos: what is up with this?

[Photo: Vineyards in Gelendzhik, via Lyubov's Flickr]

Ah February September, when a young man's fancy turns to love. The Chicago Traveler has rounded up his picks for the city's ten best spots for romance, apropos seemingly of nothing, but we find ourselves wondering if there isn't a little love in Matt B's heart these days? We're cutting this out of whole cloth, of course, but we love nothing more than the mongering of a little completely unfounded foodblogger gossip.

While the list sticks to unsurprising choices (wine bars like Juice Wine Co and The Tasting Room, for example, and notably romantic restaurants like Le Lan), it's always nice to be reminded that there's plenty of romance to be had in the city of big shoulders.

Ten Best Romantic Spots 2008 [The Chicago Traveler]
Juice Wine Company [MenuPages]
The Tasting Room [MenuPages]
Le Lan [MenuPages]

[Photo via]

• Now a third baby has died in the contaminated milk scandal in China; more than 6,000 have gotten sick. [VOA]

• BPA — the stuff that is found in plastic food and drink containers — is now linked to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and liver-enzyme disorders. [Chicago Tribune]

• The US approved $250 million worth of farm sales to Cuba — that includes food and construction materials — to help them rebuild after being battered by Gustav and Ike. [AFP]

• The USDA is considering revamping the way allergy precautions are written on food labels. [Washington Post]

• Moose: it's what's for dinner. (In Alaska.) [NYT]

We'll be slow on posting for the rest of today and most of tomorrow, for exciting surprise reasons that will be revealed unto you if you are patient and lovely. Which you totally are.

If you're craving content, go re-read the Q&A with Carol Blymire, which, while long, is worth absolutely every word. Seriously.

xoxo
Gossip Girl Helen

[Photo: Blair is good at keeping secrets]

To some people, "GNR" conjures visions of Axl, Slash, Stephanie Seymour in a remote desert church, and karaoke hangovers.

To us, they are among the three most drool-inducing letters in the Latin alphabet (also in the running: p-i-e). They stand for Great Neighborhood Restaurant, and nominations for the 2008 awards are now open at LTHForum. If you know of some under-the-radar (but not too under-the-radar, since it's the joint's LTHF history that earns its awards) that has the best chilaquiles, apple turnovers, banh mi, chicken cutlet, hand-dipped ice cream ... throw up a nom.

The Fall 2008 GNR Nominations are now open [LTHForum, via]

"When we hear 'ribs,' we want barbecue. Not bruise."

–Benjy Lipsman, Chicagoist
on the state of Devin Hester

Eyes refusing to open to such sad news, we lay half-awake this morning as the clock radio announced that Richard Wright, keyboard player for Pink Floyd, had died, apparently of cancer. Then a Barf Blog post put the tragedy in perspective by pointing out a huge sub-section of Floyd's fan-base: Kitchen workers:

There was some Tom Petty, and The Clash, but a lot of Pink Floyd. So it was with a nod and a lighter raised in the air to food service workers everywhere upon hearing the nears that founding Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright passed today.

So godspeed, Richard. The bussers, waiters, dishwashers and line cooks of America owe you a debt for getting us through some pretty hairy shifts. Good luck, er, break a leg at that Great Gig in the Sky.

Richard Wright, Member of Pink Floyd, Dies at 65 [NY Times]
Pink Floyd and Fargo Rock City: food service and music [Barf Blog]

[Photo: Via 7241/flickr]

In January 2007, Carol Blymire launched French Laundry at Home, her award-winning blog in which she attempts — and succeeds at — cooking every single recipe in The French Laundry Cookbook armed with little more than her normally-equipped home kitchen, a scathing sense of humor, a formidably stacked iPod playlist, and a small army of neighborhood kids to serve as sous chefs and official tasters.

...And starting a brand-new one. Soon (very soon!) Carol will be launching Alinea at Home, in which she'll blog her journey through every single recipe in the forthcoming cookbook Alinea (Ten Speed Press), based on the menu of Chicago's uncountable-number-of-awards-winning restaurant, Alinea, helmed by James Beard Award-winning chef Grant Achatz. Alinea is poised to be a groundbreaking cookbook in every way: From their industry-bucking publishing model to the book's interactive companion website, the ink-and-paper Alinea experience looks like it will be as unique as the reservations-and-silverware version.

To say we are jealous of Carol would be a gross understatement. To say we are beside ourself with excitement to have sat down via email for a Q&A with her would be fairly accurate.

MP: Tackling Alinea after completing The French Laundry feels like a natural progression: Grant Achatz trained under Thomas Keller before striking out on his own. Now you're intimately acquainted with the techniques and recipes of both chefs — can you see (or taste!) Keller's influence in Achatz's cooking?
CB: I definitely see an influence in the playfulness, nuanced nods, and the touchstones to that with which we're already familiar. As we've read now for years, Chef Keller is known for creating dishes that remind him of childhood or other memories, and Grant does the same thing. Just like Keller's "Coffee & Doughnuts" reminds me of my uncle's bakery, at Alinea, Grant did a dish based on Chinese takeout — a sheet of gelled Guinness, peanuts, peanut puree, a sous vide short rib, broccoli, and so on... and it reminded me of my freshman year in college and all the Chinese food one of my now best friends and I ordered as we got to know one another those first few weeks. It's something I hope and think many chefs and cooks feel in some way — that food in any form is evocative and such a primary connection between themselves and the customer.

I also think a major Keller influence is apparent in Grant's ability to originate and create while staying true to the brand and the business mission — no matter what the industry, any good boss finds the traits and skills inherent in an employee and nurtures them to grow the organization, and then the employee. Sometimes, that means the employee moves on, but that's a good thing because is means those influences evolve and help shape another organization and its employees. When Grant is in his late 40s and 50s, I'm going to be really curious to see who he has influenced and how or what that person is cooking.

Read the complete interview — the origin story, the critical importance of Thomas Dolby, the restaurants on Carol's must-visit list, and a lot more — after the jump!

MP: So much of the Alinea experience seems to rely on the innovative presentation: Crucial Detail’s service implements, test tubes, precise plating. Is it scary to try to replicate that at home? Are you going to try? Make the neighbor kids eat morels off of spring-mounted skewers?
CB: You know, before I went to Alinea for dinner in July, I was prepared to roll my eyes at the presentation because I can be a bitchy cynic and I'm not necessarily the most earnest, fawning food writer you'd ever meet. I knew there were some truly original presentations (like sucking foie mousse, fig puree and coffee-flavored tapioca through a tube) and I was really hoping it just wasn't for show. It's not. It's so not.

Here's what I think: when you go out to dinner in most restaurants, you order from the menu, the server plunks the plate down, and you dig in, knife and fork doing your dirty work, and you chew and swallow, and go on with whatever conversation it was you were having. What I really love about the presentation of every single course at Alinea is that nothing is repeated throughout your dinner there — every serving and service "utensil" is unique. It makes you stop in your tracks and pay attention to what you're eating. It makes you pause and think about the flavors on your tongue. It makes you think about what you might've had before in your life that's even a little bit like it. But above all, it makes you appreciate the thought and the work that went into it.

So, will I buy every single service piece on the Crucial Detail web site? No. Will I spend some time at kitchen stores and even the hardware store trying to figure out how to make it work on my own? You bet. Because finding a way to make my guests stop in their tracks and suspend the day-to-day noise in all our brains for just a few minutes while we take a bite or have a taste of something new is really important to me, and the plating and service of these dishes helps create that environment.

As for the neighbor kids, they're not only excited to try this food, they're also lining up to be my assistants, which will certainly add a fun element to the project. They have been looking at the book every couple of days, and as they turn every page they get more and more quiet and say, "whooooaaaaa" in deep reverence, which is pretty damn cool when you consider they're 9 and 11 years old. Take that, J.K. Rowling.

MP: But we're getting ahead of ourselves! Let's go back to the beginning: How did the whole Alinea At Home thing come into being?
CB: Michael Ruhlman told me a while ago he was working with Grant [Achatz] and Nick [Kokonas, Alinea's business manager] on the Alinea cookbook, and my reply was, "Oh, wow. Maybe I'll cook my way through that book next... ha ha HA, I crack myself up!!" to which he replied something about me needing to seek mental-health counseling. I pre-ordered the book last year, and then once I saw the Alinea Mosaic site, then ate at Alinea in July, I was hooked. I knew I had to do this book next. I mentioned to Grant when I met him in July that I wanted to cook my way through his book and blog it, and he was so gracious to send me an early copy. I haven't been able to put it down. I just hope I can do it justice.

MP: You haven’t posted on Alinea at Home yet, except sort of a teaser of what’s to come. Any idea what recipes you’re going to attack first? Is there a plan of action?
CB: The book is laid out seasonally, so I'll stick with my original instincts and do it the same way I did French Laundry at Home and cook in the order of what's in season here in the mid-Atlantic (Carol is based outside of Washington, D.C. –Ed). There'll be some ingredients I'll have to have shipped in, I'm sure, but my goal is to stay as seasonally relevant as possible.

Right now, I'm in the process of doing some budgets, spreadsheets, and lists to chart out the first few months to get things up and running. I really hope to be able to do every single dish as it is in the book, but I'm prepared to have a plan B in some cases where I'll have to figure out another way to execute the dish but stay true to the flavor profiles. I've already got my fishmonger on the lookout for sea urchin in October, so that'll be one of the first dishes. That, and the bacon with apple, butterscotch and thyme, because it was one of the most memorable dishes I had when I ate at Alinea, so it seems right to start with it.

MP: Do you think you’ll have a different soundtrack for cooking Alinea than you did for French Laundry? What songs or albums should any Alinea fan absolutely listen to while fantasizing about eating/cooking their food?
CB: I usually choose my music based on the mood I'm in before I even start cooking, so I imagine that'll still stick. And, as most of my readers know, I tend to stay trapped in the 70s and 80s with a few newer bands sprinkled in for good measure. But who knows? My readers are always suggesting great new music, so maybe the Alinea at Home readers will have some awesome bands for me to listen to while I make these dishes. When I told a friend of mine I was doing this project, he started leaving Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me with Science" on my voicemail every few days, so perhaps that'll have to be my theme song.

MP: On to more general matters! After spending so much time cooking at home, but also eating in such amazing restaurants, we’re wondering: Would you rather have a terrific restaurant meal or a terrific home-cooked meal?
CB: I know I can't say "both," so I'm gonna go with the home-cooked meal, unless of course that person just got a box set of Sandra Lee or Paula Deen cookbooks, in which case *ahemcoughcough*I think I'm coming down with a cold *hackcough* and I'll have to take a (permanent) raincheck. I'm really picky about restaurant food these days — I wish I could afford to eat in some of my favorite places (Per Se, Central Michel Richard, Komi, BlackSalt) every night, but that's not an option. And, sushi and ethnic takeout does get tiresome after awhile. So, if I can have a home-cooked meal, great conversation, good wine, and a game of RockBand afterward, I'm set.

MP: Do you read cooking and restaurant blogs? What food blogs are on your must-read list?
CB: Now that my day job is busier than ever, and I'm wrapping up French Laundry at Home and starting two (yes, you heard me, TWO new blogs), I have less time to read blogs and food web sites than I used to. The ones I check nearly every day are: Ruhlman, 101 Cookbooks, Simply Recipes, David Lebovitz, and Smitten Kitchen. There are so many others I love... I just wish I had more time to read them more often. I used to think, "Oh, I need a sick day so I don't have to work and I can catch up on my reading," but when I feel like crap, I usually just end up watching a Golden Girls marathon on Lifetime or vintage episodes of Melrose Place, so yeah... I'm behind on my online reading. If there was a way to automatically covert all those blogs and blog posts into podcasts so I could listen to them in the car on my way to meetings, I'd be a happy camper.

MP: Are there any restaurants you’re dying to eat a meal at that you haven’t been to yet? Any you’ve been to that deserve a special mention? Anyone who really ought to have a cookbook, who doesn’t?
CB: There are two restaurants on the to-do list for 2009: Manresa and Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Those two aside, I'd like to go back to Chicago and spend some more time exploring the restaurants there, because my time there in July was too short. I'm also planning to go back to The French Laundry and Per Se.

There are two chefs heading up small restaurants I love that haven't yet gotten major national recognition, but I feel like it's on the way — and that's Lucas Manteca at Sea Salt (Stone Harbor, NJ) and Andy Little at The Sheppard Mansion (Hanover, PA). Lucas runs a seasonal place at the beach, and the food is unlike nothing you've ever had in a beach town... or anywhere for that matter. He's from Argentina, has cooked all over the world — including a stage at The Fat Duck and one with Dan Barber — and I think he's one of the best chefs out there. Andy Little returned to his hometown in Hanover, PA after working at Inn at Little Washington, to helm a small kitchen in an historic inn and he's doing some really delicious stuff with local ingredients.

As for who should have a cookbook that doesn't already, I'd honestly rather read something from someone running a small family-owned farm or independent food business, like a cheesemaker or fishmonger. Sadly, those seem to be the folks that are too busy to be able to write a book. As for chefs and cookbooks, I'd rather see some of them move in a direction similar to what [Le Bernardin chef] Eric Ripert is doing with his new site, Avec Eric. I love cookbooks, but the home cook's learning opportunities are endless when it comes to doing things online, and I think having a living, breathing, interactive repository of a chef's or restaurant's dishes and thoughts on food would be incredibly educational and beneficial. I'm looking at you Gabrielle Hamilton, April Bloomfield, and Judy Rodgers.

MP: So that second blog you mentioned! It’s called “Saturday Night at Home," and it’s all about being confident in yourself as a home cook, taking on big challenges, doing hard-core cooking in a soft-core kitchen. What can we expect?
CB: Maybe Ruhlman was right, and I do need an intervention. While I'm cooking my way through the Alinea cookbook and blogging about it, I'm also going to do Saturday Night at Home, on which I'll share my own recipes I've developed over the years, as well as other aspects of creating a really wonderful dinner in your own home on a Saturday night for friends and family. Both of my new blogs will go live sometime in October.

I got the idea for the Saturday Night at Home blog when I was thinking back on French Laundry at Home and how much I learned and grew skills-wise, and also how much I enjoyed having my friends over on Saturday nights to taste those dishes. I don't know about you, but I love going out to restaurants Monday through Thursday, but on the weekends I want to stay close to home; and with food and fuel costs always on the rise, I think people are looking for ways to entertain at home but not resort to carryout or casseroles.

One of the things I hear most from my readers is how much French Laundry at Home empowered and emboldened them to try new things in the kitchen. It's so heartening and I love hearing that, because it did the same thing for me! So, I thought it would be fun to do a blog that helps other home cooks figure out how to do creative, challenging food at home and, most importantly, have fun doing it. It might be tackling a dish from Michel Richard's Happy in the Kitchen, making something inspired by the flavor profile in a Ferran Adria dish, or it might be making your own cheese or sausage — anything that takes you out of your comfort zone, reconnects you with your kitchen, and puts a smile on your friends' and family's faces as they take their first bite.

I'm excited about Alinea at Home because it's taking me galaxies outside my comfort zone, which inevitably means hilarity will ensue and that my skills and understanding about food are going to grow exponentially. But, I'm also really looking forward to Saturday Night at Home because it's the first time I'll be putting my own recipes and ideas out there, and I'm excited about all the interactivity it could generate with readers as they share their ideas, as well.

Alinea At Home [Official Site]
Alinea [MenuPages]
Alinea [Official Site]

[Photo via Alinea At Home<]

• Riesling is a type of wine that more people should be drinking! (We personally find it a bit too sweet, but we can see where its fans are coming from.) Also: because it is German, there are humorously long-winded names on the label. Like "Paul Anheuser Schlossböckelheimer Königsfels Riesling Kabinett." Winner.

• Andrés Lara's pastry kitchen at NoMI is still getting tons of (deserved) press. Doubly so when you read the recipe (and watch the video) for his Brioche Bostock with Chocolate Berry Jam.

• A quick writeup of Yats that remarkably manages to be neither positive (a la Chicago Gluttons) nor negative (a la Nagrant). It just gives us the facts, ma'am.

[Photo: One of Andres Lara's NoMI desserts, via CHuffPo]

Okay, okay, sometimes we are a little hard on Daily Candy Chicago.

We're prepared to revise our opinion, though, in the face of shameless free things thrown in our inboxes: Namely, among today's "Chicago Deals," we were delighted to find a coupon for a free "signature cocktail" (that'd be a peach mojito, a sangria, or a passion fruit margarita) at Le Lan. Just print out this page and bring it in to the restaurant sometime between now and September 23rd.

And (sigh, we admit it) you can thank Daily Candy for that.

Drink, Drink, and Be Merry [Daily Candy Chicago, registration might be required]
Le Lan [MenuPages]
Le Lan [Official Site]

• Salmonella recall watch, part nine zillion: Petfood! [WebMD]

• Countries experiencing food crises, part five gajillion: Haiti! [Reuters]

• French chef Anne-Sophie Pic is the third straight chef in three generations of her family to be awarded 3 Michelin stars. Also notable: She's a woman. [Reuters]

• A British celeb chef has been admitted to a treatment clinic after stabbing himself in the chest with a kitchen knife. [DailyMail]

• There's a good chance that if you've eaten something in your lifetime, you've eaten something owned by billionaire Nelson Peltz. [AP]

This just in: intermittently-beloved West Town Argentinian joint Buenos Aires Forever has closed.

File this one under What You Name Your Restaurant Will Lead To Its Ironic Comeuppance.

The Headlines Write Themselves [previously]
Buenos Aires Forever [MenuPages]
Buenos Aires Forever [Official Site]

Just a reminder that today's the day that graham elliot 2.0 launches. The full menu's up here. Eat, drink, and be autumnally merry!

Graham Elliot 2.0: The Fall Of Graham Elliot [previously]
graham elliot [MenuPages]
graham elliot [Official Site]

The noted gastrophiles at Chicagoist have rounded up their picks for their respective last suppers, with the stipulation that they've got to eat in Chicago. We love stuff like this — we love playing armchair analyst based on these minute glimpses into the minds of others — and are pleased to see closing meals that run the gamut from Popeye's (yum!) to "I would go to Schwa and I would eat their quail egg ravioli for nine hours straight." (double yum!)

Our one gripe: Chuck Sudo starts his meal off with an amuse of fugu, the infamous Japanese pufferfish which kills you hard 'n dead if its poisonous internal organs and skin aren't properly removed, on the logic that he's a dead man anyway.

We're on board with everything but the menu positioning: fugu poison kills by paralyzing your muscles, so you eventually die from asphyxiation yet remain conscious the whole time. On the offchance that the fugu is, in fact, improperly prepared, we'd imagine Sudo would rather have it come at the end of the meal — rather than have it show up at the beginning, work its paralytic black magic, and cruelly tease him with the subsequent plating of his followup courses of pear and goat cheese tart flambees, chilaquiles al guajilo, fusili arrabiata, bread pudding and strawberry compote, white chocolate lemon ganaches... all without being able to move so much as a tasting pinky. Torturous!

Your Last Supper [Chicagoist]
Schwa [MenuPages]
Schwa [Official Site]

[Photo: the quail-egg ravioli at Schwa, via mere.mortal's Flickr]

Think you’re alone in needing medical attention after spending some time in the kitchen? Think again. Time Out New York published a short piece surveying the work-related injuries of various food industry professionals, including a big-name chef or two. View the list at your own discretion, as it may have the unfortunate consequences of guilting you into giving up that sacred pillar of morning routine – espresso.

Shake and Ache [Time Out New York]

[Photo: Via biskuit]

File this in the same folder as tumors with hair or maybe three-eyed fish. Only cuter. And edible. Boing Boing has a link to a report from a woman in England who found what looks like a strawberry growing inside a tomato:

Esther, 48, of Cheltenham, Gloucs, said: “It definitely looks like a strawberry in a tomato and it tastes like a tomato but a bit sweeter.” She added: “We’re keeping it in the fridge in case an expert wants to look at it.”

Strawberry found inside tomato, says gardener [Boing Boing]
Woman finds a strawberry inside a tomato [Nothing To Do With Arbroath]

[Photo: Via Nothing To Do With Arbroath]

• The tasting menu at Terragusto gets highest praise, especially the steak: "The Rapture But With More Butter And The Slightest Hint of Nausea From Overeating." [Chicago Gluttons]

• Gebert continues his list of 50 under-the-radar spots with Umaiya Café, which clocks in a a good neighborhood pan-Asian, perhaps not worth going out of your way for. [Sky Full of Bacon]

• Mike Sula's veal is making faces at him at Sabatino's. [Food Chain]

• An eyebrow-raising review of Madame Tartine, wherein the reviewer dines with her French teacher and yet homophonically misspells "chic" like the Arab nobleman. Food gets the nod of approval, though. [NBC5 Street Team]

• The first overwhelmingly positive review for C-House that we've come across. [NBC5 Street Team]

• Two takes on Mana Food Bar: Drive Thru likes it but thinks it's pricey, Chicagoist pulls out all the stops and knocks it a rave: "just the kind of vegetarian restaurant Chicago needs," and "the food rocks." [Gapers Block, Chicagoist]

• Here's a puzzler: Pizzeria Calzone serves pizza, but not calzones. [Sky Full of Bacon]

• Great decor and service get a little undone by subpar sushi, but on the whole Rise, er, rises to the occasion. [Chicago Foodies]

• Another take on Urban Belly: complexity, layers, deliciousness. [Chicago Foodies]

• Add this to the hangover cure file: hamburger aktagawa at
Hamburger King: chopped hamburger, eggs, green pepper, onions, bean sprouts, and our reviewer suggests adding mushrooms. We're sold. [ChiBBQKing]

[Photo: a plate at Mana Food Bar, via Grant Kessler]

This is probably going to be the last piece in our coverage of 2008 Slow Food Nation, the labor day sustainable food event that turned San Francisco into one big gourmet ghetto. Overall, I thought the ambitious, four-day event was a smash, but you can't ignore the criticisms, so here's our second installment looking at what could be improved next time.

Standing in the charcuterie line with MPSF cohort Alexis Wright and her “Sweetie,” Bobby Rullo, I watched a disgruntled patron accost a volunteer:

“Nine dollars,” the tight-lipped woman said, thrusting a piece of butcher paper topped with a small stack of pate and salumi into the face of the aproned woman checking tickets. “This tiny amount of food cost the equivalent of nine dollars. That is outrageous!”

“Please ma’am, I’m just a volunteer. I didn’t come up with the prices. Let me see if I can find you somebody to talk to,” the weary-looking volunteer said, as the growing line of attendees shifted its weight from one foot to the other, and looked hungrily at the small pile of meat.

Long lines, a confusing layout, and uneven pricing were probably the most frequent attendee complaints stemming from the taste pavilions at Slow Food Nation.

Of all the carefully choreographed Slow Food nation events, the taste pavilions were probably the most complicated, and suffered most from the organizational problems inherent in the seminal event.

This is probably going to be the last piece in our coverage of 2008 Slow Food Nation, the labor day sustainable food event that turned San Francisco into one big gourmet ghetto. Overall, I thought the ambitious, four-day event was a smash, but you can't ignore the criticisms, so here's our second installment looking at what could be improved next time.

Standing in the charcuterie line with MPSF cohort Alexis Wright and her “Sweetie,” Bobby Rullo, I watched a disgruntled patron accost a volunteer:

“Nine dollars,” the tight-lipped woman said, thrusting a piece of butcher paper topped with a small stack of pate and salumi into the face of the aproned woman checking tickets. “This tiny amount of food cost the equivalent of nine dollars. That is outrageous!”

“Please ma’am, I’m just a volunteer. I didn’t come up with the prices. Let me see if I can find you somebody to talk to,” the weary-looking volunteer said, as the growing line of attendees shifted its weight from one foot to the other, and looked hungrily at the small pile of meat.

Long lines, a confusing layout, and uneven pricing were probably the most frequent attendee complaints stemming from the taste pavilions at Slow Food Nation.

Of all the carefully choreographed Slow Food nation events, the taste pavilions were probably the most complicated, and suffered most from the organizational problems inherent in the seminal event.

Langosta Gigante, via Darwensi's Flickr. Read all about it at his Chicago Gluttons review. A highlight:

There is something to be said about a restaurant that a) moves across the street from its competition, b) uses essentially the same name as its competition, c) serves pretty much the same food and d) utilizes the same gaudy ass Red Lobster decor as its competition.

El Barco Gets P***ed On by New Mariscos Neighbor [Chicago Gluttons]

While serious water damage has pushed the opening of The Bristol back from this Thursday to next Tuesday the 23rd, we can console ourselves (just a little) with some designporny details about the space.

Like, f'rexample, the custom handmade maple tables from Bellfina, including two 10-person "contemporary farm tables" for your communal drinking pleasure. Or the handmade leather menus and wine holders.

Sigh. Swoon. Stupid rain.

• Regulations on produce coming from Mexico to the States are not tip-top. Could this be the root of some of the recent salmonella recalls? Maybe! [Chicago Tribune]

• An update on the tainted powdered milk drama taking place in China: two babies have died; two brothers have been arrested on the suspicions that they added melamine to the formula. Not good, not good at all. [AP]

• The state of Florida is buying the United States Sugar Corporation, in a move that is supposed to help restore the Everglades. It's also a move that will help the Fanjuls, a family perhaps best described as the Microsoft of the sugar world. [NYT]

• Pat yourselves on the back for being so awesome at eating locally, Californians! Now that being a locavore has become de rigeur, you may be called upon to become "locavolts." [San Francisco Chronicle]

• In other happy food news, food banks are benefiting from a bounty of food, mostly in California. Volunteer harvesters collect food from gardens that might otherwise go to waste, and redistribute it to the needy. So nice. [NYT]

We sort of feel brain dead after doing that Gebert/Nagrant round up. Which just might be the perfect state in which to read the Sun-Times' dining reviews. Zing! Badum-chhhh! Heyo!

• Hold up! Stop the presses! Pat Bruno dislikes a restaurant! The perhaps lone institution in all of Chicagoland to earn his ire is 200 East Supper Club, the 20-month-old faux gentlemen's club on the Gold Coast. Bruno finds it baffling: an overlong menu that's short on originality and seriously short on quality. About the only plaudits he can bestow are on the "Melrose Peppers" (our brain keeps trying to see the "Melrose Place" pun in there, even though it is just the name of the variety) and the caesar salad — neither dishes feathers in most chef's toques. The bad, on the other hand, seems nearly endless: flavorless minestrone, overflavored brick-cooked chicken, factory-processed chocolate cake, and a linguine with clam sauce that Bruno declares "one of the worst I've ever had. The pasta was overcooked to the point of gummy. There was enough garlic to make the singer over in the corner start singing "Witchcraft." The clams (a few cherrystones in the shell and some chopped among the pasta) were insipid. The broth/sauce had no real flavor." Cringe.

• In his other filing this week, Bruno gives us kind of a head-scratcher. He starts out with this:

I have said it before, and I will say it again -- Star of Siam serves some of the best Thai food in Chicago and easily makes my Top 5 Thai restaurants in the city.

[Photo: Star of Siam's pad thai, at Taste of Chicago, via Zesmerelda's Flickr]

When Serious Eats announced that they were launching a city-by-city eating series, we got excited — but skeptical. Picking up on our skepticism was Mike Gebert, whose credentials for skepticism far exceed our own: he's one of Chicago's great eaters, founder of LTHForum, writer/filmographer of Sky Full of Bacon, and all-around gastronome-about town. He put together his own Chicago list, preempting Serious Eats' roundup.

Serious Eats, for their part, retaliated with a well-plotted blow: Their guide was penned by none other than Mike Nagrant, the other Mike*, whose credentials rival Gebert's own.

How do they stack up? For your consideration, we present: A side-by-side comparison of the Must-Eat Chicago picks of Messrs. Gebert and Nagrant, edited to include only those categories in which they both had something to say. For their full picks, check out their own respective lists. Gebert also has his rejoinder to Nagrant's list up here.

We'd like to start, because we can, with their selections for "best date night," because both of the answers are so adorable that we kind of are tempted to ask the Mikes to call up Our Boyfriend and have a conversation with him about what he should do with us this Saturday night.

Best Date Night:
Gebert: "Surely this category says more about you than about the restaurant scene, depending on how you determine what makes an ideal date night, but I’m going to say that the most romantic place I can think of, good food in a great building, is North Pond Cafe. If you want energy and scene, though, you’ll want something else entirely."
Nagrant: "Double Li or Khan BBQ.. Sure, you could take your future significant other to NoMI, L2O, or L.2O, but if they are so pretentious or coddled that they can't get past the storefront vibe, the hardcore ethnic crowds, and the no-nonsense preparations to enjoy what are arguably some of the best examples of Chinese and Pakistani cooking in Chicago, you definitely don't want to be dating them for long. Think of these spots as "weeder" date spots, so you don't have to mess around wasting large bucks on someone at the high-end places you were going to break up with anyway. Even if the date sucks, the food won't."

For the rest of the comparison, click the jump!

*We suppose, to be fair, that there is also Sula, but his last name doesn't end with a T.

They agree on some, they disagree on others. RIght now we would like to make a MikeLander: There Can Be Only One! joke, but we are worried only like three of you will get it.

But Seriously... My Serious Dining Guide [Sky Full of Bacon]
Serious Eats City Guide: Chicago [Serious Eats]
Serious Eats Taps Mike (hmmhmm)-t To Pick Chicago’s Best [Sky Full of Bacon]
Serious Eats Chicago Est Arrivé! [previously]

[Photo: Batman vs. Superman, via Doug Schwarz's Flickr]

By now you’ve no doubt heard that the Labor Day Slow Food Nation event in San Francisco went off with at least a couple hitches. Negative chatter and blog posts have popped up regarding the organization, the cost, and the overall tone of the event. Our SFN coverage wraps up with two looks at pricing and organization at the four-day food-fest.

The biggest problems with Slow Food Nation, in my opinion, had to do with money (don’t they always?). Specifically, why participants had to part with so much of it, and what they got for it. I found the biggest financial discrepancies in the Slow Marketplace, and the Taste Pavilions — not coincidentally, the two focal points of the event.

Walking from the bi-weekly Heart of the City farmers’ market in United Nations Plaza to the Slow Marketplace in Civic Center Sunday, you’d see prices jump by as much as 100 or more percent for the same items.

Peaches that went for $2.00 a pound at Heart of the City ran $4.00 a pound at Slow Marketplace. Plums went from $1.50 to $3 a pound. Pears and apples stayed the same, but organic melons jumped from $.50 a pound to $1.00. What’s going on here?

Slow Food Nation director Anya Fernald acknowledged the price discrepancy, but pointed out that farmers who traveled to Slow Marketplace did so as a one-off, for only three days., and were instructed to only sell one product per stand, in contrast to Heart of the City vendors, who maximize sales by carrying a variety of fruits and veggies. The combination of those factors influenced prices, she said.

“It’s the type of product and also the distance from which the farmers had come,” Fernald said. “We did collaborate with heart of the city leading up with the event, to make sure we weren’t taking vendors from them… we wanted it to be something like an educational market where people would come once and buy something and then maybe go to markets back in their home town.”

Well, that’s fine, but didn’t Fernald say before the event that the Slow Marketplace was meant to be accessible to people of all income levels? Yes, she did. But she pointed out to me last week that it’s only by comparison to the deliberately low-priced Heart of the City market that Slow Marketplace seemed steep.

“Had you gone to Ferry Building Farmers’ Market or Noe Valley, you would have seen that prices at slow market were less expensive [than those], Fernald said. “People in heart of city have been selected because they are competitively priced.”

But my friends, whom I accompanied on their weekly shopping trip Sunday, didn’t seem to care a wit for comparisons to other farmers’ markets in the city, nor for the lessons to be learned at Slow Food Market. They wanted organic vegetables they could afford, and they got them at Heart of the City.

Slow Food Nation [Official Site]
Something is Rotten in the State of the Nation [Bay Area Bites]
Slow Food Was Here [San Francisco Magazine]

[Photo by Adam Martin]

• Inexpensive Italian on the city's priciest street? Yes please! [MP: Boston]

• Perhaps you should celebrate your marriage with a tattooed wedding cake. [MP: Chicago]

• Esquire + Philadelphia = Tru Luv 4Eva. [MP: Philadelphia]

• Love is a warm cookie. True love is getting an email alert whenever there's a warm cookie near you. [MP: San Francisco]

• Show some love by helping hurricane victims with donations of food and money. [MP: South Florida]

Part of our job, as we've mentioned, is to cull the wheat from the chaff in terms of MenuPages user reviews. Our shill-o-meter is pretty finely tuned, and we pride ourselves on our attempts not to let through any obvious faux-this-restaurant-rocked!!! reviews.

But we found ourselves perplexed when this review for Jitlada Thai House showed up in the queue:

One that is picky about food has to admit that Jitlada not only provides with an excellent service and a nice atmosphere, but the seasoning of Chef Toe (the owner too) is the best in town and, perhaps, in the world. I travel back and forth to New york and tried the best places in Manhattan, the Village, midtown, upper East side, and so far no restaurant can match Toe's recipes. Now, Toe shares her expertise of years ( said she cooks since she was 8 years old in Thailand, picked it from her mother) with her cooks in the kitchen, which by the way she treats like part of her family, so they all can come up with the same seasoning. Perhaps the secret of Jitlada's taste is that every day, Toe runs to specific stores to get fresh made noodles, tofu, and veggies. No MSG, no frozen vegetables, no canned food... An then every meal is made from scratch.

I keep telling her the curry sauce she makes needs to be patented. Its the best! No to mention how delicious that Pad Thai is, and my favorite: "Shrimp with broccoli, with fresh sauteed garlic, lite on the oil", I used to order over the phone from The Brown Elephant, a thrift store I used to work for, right next to Jitlada on Halsted and Waveland. I remember Chef Toe cooked my order not only perfect but delicious, surpassing Mee Restaurant on 54 and 9th Ave. in New York. That was 8 years ago, the place was tiny, but comfortable enough. Shrimp or Chicken Basil, Crab Rangoon, Shrimp-Chicken curry fried rice... you pick, they're are celestial.

Back in Chicago, I visited Jitlada again. Chef Toe now has a bigger place, but unlike other restaurants that grow and get careless about the quality of their food, Chef Toe still keeps the right seasoning, the right Thai food after taste, and the staff always have a service with a smile. I joke sometimes and tell "the Chef", as I always call her, that when I die "you'll cook Thai food for everybody in my funeral, so they get happy." She smiles. But the truth is that, now that I'm back to Chicago and to Jitlada, I don't want to die, I wanna live forever on Jitlada's Thai food.

You should try Jitlada Thai House, don't take my word. But if the food excels the rest of Thai restaurants in Chicago, never hesitate to thank the Chef for her dedication, giving the world a taste of her lifetime. She'll come out and greet you. But then, besides all this review, I believe Chef Toe's secret to get the perfect taste, is that she cooks WITH LOVE. I should shut up, or my mom would get jealous.

Jitlada Thai House [MenuPages]
Jitlada Thai House [Official Site]

[All photos from Jitlada's official site]

OKAY PEOPLE, IT HAS HIT. Remember how we reported on Serious Eats's City Guides? And how Mike Gebert took on SE with his own Chicago guide? And then how we shamelessly fomented a rivalry between the SE team and Gebert?

So anyway, they have finally pubbed it. They chose the other Mike: Mr. Nagrant, perhaps Chicago's most ludicrously prolific food writer (have we used that epithet for him before? We think we might have), takes us through his picks for the Windy City's best.

The list is long, well-curated, and — we have to admit — quite agreeably even-handed between the high-profile and the under-the-radar. Case in point: Nagrant taps Smoque for the best barbecue, of course, but also calls out Honey 1 for their excellent ribs.

Nagrant concedes to SE overlord Ed Levine's famous dislike of Chicago-style pizza by calling out his favorites for both deep-dish (Pizano's, Pequod's, and Morton Grove's Burt's) and non-deep-dish (Sicilian at Spaccanapoli, thin-crust at Vito & Nick's).

And in the make-or-break category of hot dog, he plays it obvious (but deservedly) with Hot Doug's, and crowns Jim's Original king of the Polish.

For the rest of Nagrant's takes, check out the whole list. There's some good stuff on there, though oddly absent is a pick for best Italian beef.

Tune in later today for our side-by-side comparison of how the lists of the two Mikes compare to one another.

Serious Eats City Guide: Chicago [Serious Eats]
Serious Eats City Guides: It Grows Closer [previously]
Serious Eats Rounds Up The Best [previously]

This past weekend we were sitting around with friends over a bottle or five of wine when the subject of cupcakes came up. "So over them," said the jaded one (who is not us). "They're so 2001. So Sex & The City. The New York Times agrees"

"Are you insane?" said the optimist. "Cupcakes are amazing. They are little single-serving batches of cake! With frosting on the top! They are not over!" And then the conversation devolved into whether one is a cupcake-biter or a cupcake-break-piece-off-er (we are the latter, and apparently in the minority).

Whether or not you are so over cupcakes, you must have your interest piqued at least a little bit by More (1 E Delaware Place, 312 951 0001), the uber-haute "cupcake boutique" that's opening today with some big names behind it: Todd Maturatai, formerly of Powerhouse, is in the kitchen, and Gale Gand (she who helped make Tru what it is) consults.

While the cupcake roster includes more than its fair share of sweetness (Red Velvet, Chocolate Chip, Crème Brulee, Salted Caramel, Chocolate Mint, Pink Grapefruit, Tahitian Vanilla, Mocha, Passion Fruit Poppy Seed, Lemon Meringue, Valrhona Chocolate Ganache, Cinnamon Swirl — had enough yet?), More is making news particularly beacuse of their savory cupcakes — especially the BLT, an inspired pairing of 2008's most omnipresent culinary trends.

We're as excited as the next trend-riding bacon freak to get our mouth around one of those, but Chicago Bites asks a good question: how far will the novelty carry them? Previews all have More pulling off flavorful+interesting with aplomb, so we've got a decent feeling for the store's longevity. Head over yourself and find out.

[Photo via More]

• Tainted Chinese product of the day: baby formula. Charming. [New York Times]

• Maryland chicken farmers need can no longer store their manure outside. [Washington Post]

• A Cape Cod Stop & Shop had to remove the vanilla extract from shelves, as "people" (read: "almost certainly area teenagers") were stealing the bottles and drinking them for the purpose of getting drunk. Classy, guys. Classy. [Boston Globe]

• OMG you guys, Pinkberry is getting totes litigious. [LA Times]

• As it turns out, it's hard to maintain the correct temperature of wine while it's in transit. That, friends, is a high end problem. [San Francisco Chronicle]

• Christopher Borrelli swings for a Pulitzer this week, hilariously and brilliantly bringing us the story of Alan Barrett, a.k.a. Mr. Breakfast. Barrett's goal is a simple one: to eat breakfast in a different Chicago restaurant every Saturday morning. He's been trying since 1999, and he's worried he's hit a wall. He's actually revisiting restaurants. Borrelli finds a sympathetic curmudgeon behind the epic quest: Barrett has a list of qualities a restaurant must possess to be acceptable, he is very picky about his silverware, he's reluctant to leave the north side, and he hates dim sum. We love this article so much we want to make out with it.

• If you haven't already been reading about it, in two weeks there's a big ol' festival in Grant Park called Chicago Gourmet. Even if you have been reading about it, Monica Eng has the scoop on what is, in many ways, the anti-Taste. $150 for a ticket, plus extra for seminars, and there's more sampling and demonstrations than you can shake a hand-harvested sprig of rosemary at.

• Phil Vettel opens his review of Perennial by admitting that, in fact, he has never eaten in the dining room. Rather, he talks us through time spent on the patio and at the bar. But the point, we think, is that the patio and the bar were both really really nice. The rest of it reads as really really nice, too — from the seasonal vegetable tart, to the "unusually meaty" pork belly, to the edamame-studded macaroni & cheese. Once again, Vettel's the last of the big reviewers to hit up a restaurant, and either it works to his advantage, or he's overly generous. The canneloni that Mike Sula called "a textural nightmare of overmanipulated manky meatstuff" is here lauded: "the well-seasoned filling makes this dish a hit." Of course, it's not all happiness and light (there's an "overcooked and flavor-impaired" bacon-wrapped trout), but still Vettel hands chefs Tentori and Poli a hefty three stars.

[Photo: the first thing that comes up when you flickr search "Perennial Chicago," via amma_maw's Flickr]

There seems to be no shortage of interest surrounding food and the Presidential candidates. Way back in April, the New York Times ran that collection of pieces about the intersection of our pantries and how we vote. For example, if your go-to fast food restaurant is Hardee's, you "might" be a McCain partisan! If you prefer Panera Bread, you "might" be an Obama supporter!

Beyond what our food preferences say about our political leanings, the eating habits of McCain, Obama, and their respective families are also a subject of endless fascination. Just yesterday, the Boston Globe published an article about what the candidates like to eat (because "a politician's relationship to food can say a lot about him or her").

And let's not forget Cindy McCain's recipegate (also from April), wherein the potential First Lady maybe, sorta, kinda plagiarized some recipes that she had presented as treasured family favorites!

The newest and (forgive us for slipping into partisanship!) most supremely exciting thing to happen in re: food and the Presidential race is Michelle Obama's appearance on Paula Deen's cooking show, Paula's Party. The episode will air on the Food Network on September 20, and People.com has a first look at the episode! From it, we learn the following fun facts: seafood gumbo is the first thing that Michelle cooked for Barack, she hasn't made it since, and Paula and Michelle make fried shrimp together. (Sadly, the video is not embeddable, so you will have to go to People.com to watch it.)

Barack Obama and John McCain may still be duking it out, but we're pretty sure that Michelle Obama is going to firmly clinch the First Lady cooking showdown when she appears on Paula's Party.

"Palate Initiative" [Boston Globe]
"First Look: Michelle Obama Cooks With Paula Deen" [People]

[Photo: screencap of Paula's Party with Michelle Obama via People.com]

If we are in need of some reliable workplace giggle-inducers, we point our browser to CakeWrecks, which chronicles the hilarious, the misguided, and the hilariously misguided decorated cakes that exist in this world. We chortle like a maniac every time we visit the site, and we visit it nearly every day.

So we literally gasped — really, an actual gasp — when in our inbox just a few minutes ago landed an announcement from Chaos Theory Cakes, announcing their wedding cakes. These cakes? Are no freaking wrecks. Oh holy goodness gracious:

It's kind of a sweet deal — an $800 cake that feeds a hundred partygoers clocks in at a measly eight bucks a slice. And that one on the far right is almost enough to get us to pop the Q to Our Boyfriend, for cake purposes only. Heck, we'd pop the Q to anyone for a guarantee that this would be our rewarded dessert. Any takers? Anyone?

[All photos via the official Bleeding Heart/Chaos Theory Flickr]

We started to feel nervous that Heather Shouse still doesn't have a byline (that we can find, we could be wrong) on TOC, for the second week in a row, but for the fact that David Tamarkin name-checked her in yesterday's TOC Blog post about Missy Robbins leaving Chicago's Spiaggia for New York's A Voce. (On that matter: We have eaten at both restaurants, and while we realize this is a great opportunity for Robbins, we think Chicago's getting the short end of the stick here. But we're intrigued to see what she does with A Voce's famous meatballs.)

Anyway, we wonder what Heather is up to. Maybe if we are a very good little girl and wish very hard, we will find out. Meanwhile, this week is a fiesta of Tamarkin, Julia Kramer, and a special visit from Mike Nagrant.

The headline story is a seriously feel-good one: Jo Brena Bleach earned her culinary stripes in the military — she was dining hall manager at Manas Air Base in the Kyrgyz Republic — and returned home only to immediately enroll in the French Pastry School. Now, every Saturday, you can find her at the 61st Street Farmers’ Market (at Dorchester), under the banner of The Bee’s Knees, selling homemade jams and pastries. She's one of the only vendors at any farmer's market anywhere in the city who actually lives in the neighborhood where she sells. We are kind of in love with the DIY-chic of her website, and can find nothing about this to snark on.

As for reviews, there's a lot on the docket.

• Tamarkin and Kramer round up three notable riffs on the classic chicken wing; interestingly, all are from recently-opened, recently-reviewed places. Perennial chef Ryan Poli serves his wings in a soy-orange glaze on top of spicy Asian slaw, and touts the wings' "cheapness" as a major point in their favor. At graham elliot, Chef Bowles first cooks his buffalo wings sous-vide, and then deep fries them. And at Duchamp, the fried wings get a Korean sweet-spicy glaze, and go hand in hand with a riff on classic American cole slaw, to cool the palate.

• Mike Nagrant visits Cafe 103 (1909 W 103rd St, 773 238 5115), which is so far south it's a scant 20 blocks from the city limits. But the food could easily find a home downtown — Nagrant says the seasonal dishes "could be on the Blackbird or Lula menus." Right now they're curiously devoid of patrons, but the owners wisely think it's just a matter of time before the neighborhood catches on to the gem in their midst.

• The big review this week is Tamarkin at Real Tenochtitlan, the latest incarnation of chef Geno Bahena's deft hand with the mole. A lot's been written about the man's way with sauces, but here's a telling sample: "Their nuanced interweavings of fire, fruitiness and spice is so expertly rendered that long after you’ve swallowed you can still feel the flavor echoing in your chest." Bahena's been restaurant-hopping for a while now, doling out the same dishes in new digs, but he promises this time he's staying put. If you haven't tracked him down before, Tamarkin's road map is a good place to start.

[Photo: the buffalo chicken at graham elliot, via]

The Trib is reporting that Robert Didiana, the owner of numerous Bacci Pizzeria establishments throughout the state (including six in Chicago), was arrested on suspicion of arson at his former Western Ave location.

Shady restaurauteurs, no news there. But this actually winds up reading like a Mickey Spillane-goes-culinary. We've bolded our particularly favorite elements of the story:

[Didiana is] under arrest for allegedly hiring a street gang to burn down the building for insurance money... The fire, which caused heavy damage to the building on Christmas Eve 2000, began while a family who rented an apartment on an upper floor celebrated the holidays there. The family escaped without harm when the arsonists sent a junior gang member into the building after the fire was started to evacuate the couple, their child and an elderly relative, according to the source.

Eventually, investigators began to piece together a relationship between the West Side-based gang and Didiana, who had grown up in the Little Italy area on the Near West Side, the source said. As a youth, Didiana attended school with boys who later joined the gang, the source said.

Sometime in the 1990s, a childhood acquaintance of Didiana introduced him to the ranking gang member, who then rented an apartment in the Western Avenue building from Didiana, the source said. The gang member reportedly told authorities that Didiana would keep him informed about police activity in the area based on conversations he had with police officers who frequented his pizzeria around the corner on Taylor Street, the source said.

Over time, Didiana decided he wanted to burn down the building because it needed costly rehab work, the source said. Around Christmas 2000, Didiana finally told the ranking gang member he wanted to go ahead with the arson, and the gang members set the fire in the basement Dec. 24, using a bottle of high-alcohol liquor they bought nearby, the source said.

Later, an informant wore a wire for ATF during a conversation with Didiana in which the pizzeria owner allegedly incriminated himself, according to Cook County prosecutors. During the secretly recorded meeting, which took place outside the Bacci on Taylor Street, Didiana made a final cash payment of $1,000 for the arson job, the source said.

The ranking gang member, now in a federal prison after drug dealing and weapons convictions, has not been charged in the arson case, prosecutors said. Another suspected accomplice in the case was being held on unrelated charges in Wisconsin.

Didiana is expected in court Friday, and may face formal indictment in the case sometime next week.

Bacci Pizzeria owner accused of hiring gang to burn building for insurance money [Tribune, via]
Bacci Pizzeria [MenuPages]
Bacci Pizzeria [Official Site]

First came the automat. Then vending machines. Then nothing for a while. Then, last year, a German restaurant opened that serves food mechanically, via crazy roller-coaster tracks. Now the next phase in food delivery is here, and it is electronic.

Two new over-the-top gimmicks developments have been making the rounds on the Internet lately: London's Inamo still uses human food-servers, but ordering is done through tabletop screens that double as entertainment portals:

Its big idea is that your table is an interactive screen, where by pointing and clicking you can find your menu, see pictures of each item, and order. The frustration of waggling fingers or tinging glasses to get waiters’ attention is consigned to the same dustbin of history as the night soil men who once disposed of London’s sewage. Waiters become people who flit out of the shadows to place dishes on the table, flitting away again without eye contact.

You can also personalise your décor by choosing from a range of patterns and colours that glow from the table like a Kowloon nightscape. The table can order taxis for you and show you bus maps. You can play battleships with your co-diner, should conversation flag.

That's all fine and good, but it's a lot like re-inventing the wheel. Until an actual food-pill comes along, you probably won't find a viable substitute for that carbon-based life-form balancing your tray.

Dining goes digital at Inamo [Evening Standard]
Meet Mr. Asahi: The Bartending Robot [Slashfood]

"Dining at Powerhouse last week brought to mind memories of my mother's restaurant," says Claire Bidwell Smith in the CHuffPo.

That kind of sentence is usually a good thing. We're expecting it to be followed by gold-tinged memories of a warm kitchen full of life and maternal love, a surly-but-loveable GM who taught the young Claire a thing or two about honesty and judging a book by its cover, a revolving door of young waitstaff who to Claire's eyes were impossibly glamorous and hip, a vibrant taste-memory of a signature dish.

Heh, no. Turns out that Smith's mother's restaurant — while no doubt filled with love — was also more or less a financial disaster:

It was painful to stand by her side in the kitchen, night after night, as hardly a customer graced the front door. And before we knew it, her restaurant had taken on that air of doom, the kind that makes you give the place a wide berth just walking by outside.

I don't think it's over just yet for Powerhouse, but the place is wobbling.

What Does it Take to Make a (Great) Chicago Restaurant? [CHuffPo]
Powerhouse [MenuPages]
Powerhouse [Official Site]

[Photo: Kona at Powerhouse, via Zesmerelda's Flickr]

• Privatization of food safety could be linked to the recent rash of contamination outbreaks. [U.S. News And World Report]

• A Chicago pizzeria owner is charged with hiring thugs to burn down his restaurant in a case of good, old-fashioned insurance fraud. [Chicago Tribune]

• The nation's largest kosher meatpacker may lose that certification after it is hit with charges for more than 9,000 child labor violations. [NYT]

• Los Angeles is the latest city to require chain restaurants to post calories on menues. [LA Times]

• Two men are arrested in San Francisco for dealing crack in line for a soup kitchen. [SF Chronicle]

If you're in need of some frogs' legs and don't know where to turn, The Stew has the hookup: take yourself to Room 21 and eat your fill of the reptilian limbs, pan roasted and served over blue-cheese grits.

This is all the more exciting, given the polite email we received the other day from the folks at Duchamp, informing us quite firmly that frogs' legs are not on the menu there anymore.

Need a frog-legs fix? Try Room 21 [The Stew]
Room 21 [MenuPages]
Room 21 [Official Site]
Duchamp [MenuPages]
Duchamp [Official Site]

[Photo via]

We won't say "you heard it here first," but ... aw hell: You heard it here first! Get your jollies on graham elliot's current menu while you can, because the world is about to meet graham elliot 2.0: a re-lighted, re-accessorized dining space, a new soundtrack, and most importantly, a whole new menu, to be unveiled on September 15.

We're the first to admit that almost everything sounds delicious in print, but in the course of our job we read a lot of menus. And trust us when we say that the new menu is beautiful.

There are a few holdovers from the old lineup: repeating their summer performances are the signature caesar salad (remember the brioche twinkie?), the deconstructed buffalo chicken, the skate and polenta, and the molten carrot cake. But virtually everything else is new: An appetizer flight of oysters (smoked, pickled, fried, and raw); pumpernickel-crusted sturgeon with a tres mitteleuropa accompaniment of braised cabbage, spiced quince, turnip confit, and sauerkraut sauce; green apple fritters with warm icing and a cider reduction ... it's enough to make us crave autumn.

Of course, Chef Bowles hasn't entirely abandoned the flourishes of whimsy that, for better or for worse, make his plates stand out: foie gras is decked with rice krisipies, venison osso bucco is paired with Guinness oatmeal, and a main course called — intriguingly — "tuna ménage à trois" comes with, among other things, "lime bubbles."

Our interest is particularly drawn to the "deconstructed snickers bar" that's going to show up on the dessert menu — it's one of Thomas Keller's (Per Se, The French Laundry) signature dishes, and we're excited to see how Chef Bowles puts his spin on it.

We wonder if such an entire overhaul merits a critical re-visit. But with a menu this tantalizing, we wouldn't be surprised if Vettel, Shouse, et al reserve autumn tables on their own dimes.

graham elliot [MenuPages]
graham elliot [Official Site]

[Photo: Skate and polenta, still on the menu, via stevez at LTHForum]

Waffle House has a whole slew of adoring fans, but I imagine even its most ardent supporters might not think of the roadside chain as a wedding spot. Not so a couple of Waffle House employees in Dacula, Ga., about 40 miles northeast of Atlanta:

The lucky couple, George "Bubba" Mathis and Pamela Christian - both 23 and employees at the Dacula diner located at the Ga. Highway 316/U.S. Highway 29 interchange - wouldn't have it any other way.

"I don't know, it's something different," Mathis said while fixing his tie prior to the ceremony.

For years, the couple tried to marry on their Independence Day anniversary. But the bride was always scheduled to work. Instead of waiting any longer - she got the day off at the last minute; Mathis had to report for the morning shift - the couple of nine years decided to seal the deal at work.

The result was what a NASCAR tailgate might be like if Hank Jr. himself stopped by with all his rowdy friends: Loud and proud - country music, storytelling and plenty of Dale Earnhardt paraphernalia - and not an iota of pretentiousness.

Scattered, smothered, covered and hitched [Gwinnett Daily Post]
Waffle House [Official Site]

Photo: Gwinnett Daily Post

As if two Hooterses weren't enough, we can now welcome to Chicago yet another girls-in-skimpy-outfits-will-serve-you-beer-and-bar-food joint: The Tilted Kilt, "The Best Looking Sports Pub You've Ever Seen," is slated for a late November opening on the second story of 17 N. Wabash. The pitch:

a contemporary, Celtic theme sports pub staffed with beautiful servers. And guess what the uniforms would be... knee-high socks and short, sexy plaid kilts with matching plaid halter tops under white shirts tantalizingly tied to show off the midriff.

There are also dirty limericks on the back of the (online) menu, which we are refraining from publishing because this is a family blog, goddamnit. But they involve elephant private parts and if we were not sort of personally incensed about this restaurant's very existence ("Sotos says he has no qualms about the overt use of sex appeal to lure customers" -S-T), we might actually find them quite hilarious.

Can't skirt issue: No skimping on skin at new pub [Sun-Times]
Tilted Kilt [Official Site]

This is interesting: Seems taking pictures of your food can help with weight loss, at least according to one University of Wisconsin at Madison study.

Serious Eats linked to a Daily Telegraph article on the study:

The pictures appear to have concentrated the dieters' mind at just the right time, before they were about to eat, the researchers who carried out the study believe.

Photographs were also more effective at encouraging volunteers to watch what they ate than traditional written food diaries.

Perhaps, this news will further steel David Chang's ban on photography at his exclusive Momofuku Ko in New York.

Scientists: Taking Photos of Food May Help You Lose Weight [Serious Eats]
Photographing meals "could help weight loss" [Daily Telegraph]
Momofuku Ko [MenuPages]
Momofuku Ko [Official Site]

[Photo: Via WordRidden/flickr]

Today's the first day of the Green City Market's Localvore Challenge (spelling theirs), a two-week thrown gauntlet for eating only food that's come from Illinois and its border states (with an exception made for Michigan). Exceptions for common products like salt, pepper, flour, and sugar are allowed (though Rob Gardner's wife has impressive above-and-beyond ambitions).

To ease you through moments of "Dear god if I have to slice another late-season tomato I will PUNCH THE WALL" frustration, River North restaurant mk is offering what they're calling the "Localvore Degustation Menu":

Prosciutto: sliced la quercia prosciutto, melon and cucumbers, wild watercress and red hen ciabatta

Walleye: pan-roasted lake erie walleye, heirloom tomatoes, and nichols farm potatoes and leeks

Eden Farms Pork: roasted tenderloin and braised belly, shell beans, roasted apples, cipollini onions and frisée

Piper's Pyramid: capriole farms fiery red goat's milk cheese (a nod to the loire valley's valencay), shredded beets, chives, apricots and virgin olive oil

The First Apples: nichols farm apple galette, crème fraÓche sorbet and black pepper-caramel sauce

Localvore Challenge [Green City Market]
mk [MenuPages]
mk [Official Site]

[Photo: leeks and radishes at the Green City Market, via k.m.hahn's Flickr]

The Large Hadron Collider in Cern, Switzerland was turned on today and we're not dead! In honor of that, presumably, the brilliant Chris Onstad of Achewood has graced us with yet another of his excellent food-related comics. A flowchart of what happens when a gentleman is about to engage in... A ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE DOLLAR TRIP TO WHOLE FOODS SO I CAN COOK A TWO-COURSE MEAL FOR MY GIRLFRIEND:

The Modern Gentleman's Decision-Making Flowchart [Achewood]

• The World Food Program is coming up short in Haiti; so many people are displaced and need food, and officials worry they're going to run out. [Reuters]

• The average size of a grocery store nationwide decreased a bit in 2007 after 20 years of growth. [NYT]

• Local wheat is the next new big thing. [NYT]

• Out with the old (stainless steel), in with the new (titanium). Scientists are now recommending the latter for food factory work surfaces, since bacteria have a hard time attaching to the metal. [Science Daily]

Chicagoist has uncovered an intriguing addition to the McDonald's menu.

Ahem.

Wrigleyville McDonalds Trots Out New Special [Chicagoist]

We're used to the kind of online quiz that informs us what our Vampire name is (Mysterie Ravenna!), or whether we are overly needy in a relationship (maybe a little!), or which Gossip Girl character we are (Blair! Thank god!).

But we like to switch things up a little, and we recommend that you take the Chicago Food Bank's Hunger Action Month quiz for a sobering look at food-related poverty right here in town. We only got 3/5 correct, and that was entirely thanks to random guessing.

We're embarrassed to admit that it's only recently that we've been realizing that any conversation about being a responsible eater — which usually centers around ideas of local, sustainable, humane — should also include the notion of accessibility. Thankfully for our newly-awakened conscience, September is Hunger Awareness Month, and there's a lot going on.

Forgive us our little tangent into polemic, but: Domestic hunger relief doesn't get nearly the attention it deserves — it's easy for us to exoticize hunger and starvation when we think it only exists in famine-stricken third world countries, and so we're less inclined to realize that there are people near us — literally, in most cases, within one block of us — whose fundamental nutritional needs aren't being met.

A recreational love of food — fancy dinners out, arguing over the best gyro, even this very blog — is an exercise in luxury; we owe it to ourselves and our communities to ensure that our edible hobby doesn't exist at the expense of others' basic needs.

Update: It's also National Food Desert Awareness Month. A food desert is "a geographic area with no, or distant, grocery stores often served by plenty of fast food restaurants," and over half a million Chicagoans live in one. Read all about it at CHuffPo.

Take the Hunger Awareness Quiz! [Greater Chicago Food Depository]
Get Involved during Hunger Action Month [Greater Chicago Food Depository]

As you undoubtedly already know, Grant Achatz is the chef at Alinea, and Alinea is one of the most-lauded restaurants in the country, if not the world. They also have a cookbook coming out soon (watch this space for some extremely awesome upcoming MP exclusives on that matter).

Andrew Zimmern has an interview with Grant Achatz up today, misleadingly titled "5 Questions with Grant Achatz" — in reality it's (we're counting, hang on...) thirteen. No matter how many, they're good.

While we get some tantalizing insights (Achatz has a weak spot for Potbelly Sandwich Works!), Zimmern has a hard time pulling juicy gossip out. Ever diplomatic and articulate, here's what Achatz says when asked about his "top three kitchen experiments gone wrong":

Well, we try things all of the time that simply don't work. We spent a while trying to make snow, to see if freezing various flavored liquids by spraying them into a chamber and allowing them to crystallize like snow does would produce a unique texture. We worked with Philip Preston at Polyscience on this and he rigged up a few different experiments that became increasingly elaborate and large. We made something that approximated snow, but we have not produce anything unique or worthwhile... yet. But all of our failures are temporary in some fashion... we just look at them as ongoing experiments that often lead to some place we did not expect.

We have been trying to blow a balloon from soft sugar, like caramel for about 6 years to no avail. And then there was the ill-fated concept of a lamb with charcoal crust. But really the guests never see the failures. We are very careful of self-editing ourselves. We know when a dish is menu ready.

To be specific…Ketchup, eggs, champagne, pickles, a moldy lemon, yogurt (likely spoiled as I can’t remember when I bought it), mustard (whole grain), capers, mayonnaise, and two sprigs of rosemary, grape jelly and three bottles of Evian.

[Photo: Achatz in the Alinea kitchen, via Stu Spivack's Flickr]

Here are the two ways in which a dish can be supremely delicious and fattening without containing meat:

1) It is French Fries

2) It is the news that GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's speechwriter is a staunch vegetarian who opposes Palin's beloved aerial hunting.

The Christian Science Monitor's Bright Green Blog cited a Time article about Matthew Scully, a former Bush speechwriter, who crafted Palin's now-famous address to the Republican convention last week:

The Palin-Scully pairing is anything but a guaranteed fit, though. Palin is known as an avid hunter; Scully is best known for his vigorous defense of animal rights. A vegetarian who is regularly critical of the NRA and much of the hunting community, he is a passionate advocate for doing away with the more brutal versions of blood-sport, including aerial hunting, which Palin supports.

What would the GOP's pet pit bull say about that?

Sarah Palin's speech written by a vegetarian [Bright Green Blog]
The Man Behind Palin's Speech [Time]
Her deadly wolf program [Salon]
Eat less meat to fight climate change: UN expert [AFP]

[Photo: Via Striatic/flickr]

So sayeth Mike Nagrant, and he's pretty much on target. So far Monica Eng, Mike Gebert, and Steve Dolinksy have all swooned, to greater or lesser degrees, over the fare Chef Bill Kim doles out — and that's just the top of our Google Reader.

But Nagrant is the guy who knocked the wind out of Yats, and while his review of Urban Belly isn't quite as gleefully vitriolic as his takedown of the West Loop Cajun newcomer was, we get a healthy dose of his skeptical palate. The balloon isn't burst, kids, but there's a little bit of deflation going on. The very first sentence skewers the kitchen's offerings, and it doesn't move too far from there:

Urban Belly ... is decent Asian food for unadventurous pseudo-foodies and hipsters with money to burn.

I’m guessing many of the food-obsessed have secretly longed for our own local Momofuku, so we could lord it over any and all comers that there’s nothing Chicago doesn’t own. Kim’s spot seemed the logical anointee. I’ve never been to Momofuku, but if Urban Belly is truly like Chang’s spot, then Chang’s success represents a supreme golden fleecing of American food media.

It’s not that the food at Urban Belly isn’t good. It’s that it’s just not great.

Inside the Urban Belly [Hungry Mag]
Urban Belly [MenuPages]
Urban Belly [Official Site]

[Photo: Lamb with brandy dumplings, via Sky Full of Bacon]

Esquire's released this year's list (release the hounds!) of the best bars in America. Though no Chicago institutions show up in the splash page top 10, we do darn fine okay, with 12 locales in the Chicagoland area making the total list.

We also, for the record, deeply question the decision-making process here. The top-rated bar in the country is apparently Churchill's Pub in Miami, with a rating of 76. Plenty of Chicago institutions fall in with a rating of 75, there's no mention of methodology that we can find anywhere, and we would imagine the reviewers were drunk when they wrote this. We smell conspiracy.

Anyhoo, the winners, complete with glowing writeups, are:

Duke of Perth (75)
Green Mill Cocktail Lounge (75)
Hideout (75)
Walter Payton's Roundhouse (75)
B.L.U.E.S. (74)
The California Clippe (74)
Chipp Inn (74)
The Matchbox (74)
Michael & Louise's Hopleaf Bar (73)
The Violet Hour (71)
The Red Lion Pub (70)
Bungalow (66)

Best Bars [Esquire]

And now, Samak is making headlines again: Those few shows he filmed between the time of his election and the day he took office were ruled to be a violation of Thailand's constitution, which forbids elected officials from holding outside jobs, and as of today Samak is being forced to resign as Prime Minister.

He was never terribly popular with the masses anyway: over the last few weeks, protesters in groups ranging in size from the hundreds to the thousands have physically prevented Samak from accessing his office. That a cooking show accomplished what the will of the people could not kind of makes us, personally, feel a little bit better about choosing food writing over law school.

If you're interested, the dish he was cooking on the particular unconstitutional episode is Tom Kha Salmon, in which the fish is stewed in a galangal-coconut sauce. The recipe can be found here. It sounds good ... but maybe not good enough to give up a country for.

Samak will presumably have plenty of opportunities in his newfound free time for both tasting and complaining.

Thailand's Prime Minister ousted over cooking show [National Post]
Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej forced out over TV chef role [Times UK]
Dish that got Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej in hot water [Times UK]

[Photo: Samak on the set of his show, and the logo for "Tasting, Grumbling," both via ImportFood.com]
[HT: Mandy S.B.]

• Say it with us now: Another day, another recall. Today — alfalfa sprouts! [WiscAg]

• They're revamping the security of the piece of paper on which is written the Colonel's secret recipe. [AP]

• The legal battle for (or against) L.A.'s taco trucks is escalating into a war. [Houston Chron/AP]

• At least not everyone is suffering through the recession: McDonald's global is up 14.5%. [Tribune]

• Oh, poor little CEO of the Humane Society. It's tough to go to airports 'cause you're a vegan! *Tear* [NYT]

We might have mentioned this place once or twice.

A New Burger In Town [Gapers Block]
Counter Countdown [previously]
Counter To Infinity [previously]
Counterstrike: A Rant [previously]
The Counter [MenuPages]
The Counter [Official Site]

They loved Lucy, hula hoops and "pure and good" Kool Aid. And the creepy, semi-utopian ads of the Space Age reflected this widely held belief that technology was key to world peace and immortality. Ok, so maybe not, we're starting to discover. Take, for example, plastic (via Reuters):

Scientists reported this week new evidence that low doses of the chemical bisphenol A (BPA), widely used to make plastic food and drinking containers, can impair brain function in primates, extending the findings of previous research conducted in rats.
Whether the amount of BPA that leaches out of containers into food and beverages represents an environmental risk is a subject of controversy.
"Our primate model indicates that BPA could negatively affect brain function in humans," study investigator Tibor Hajszan said in a press release from the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.

In the meantime, why not stick to more time-tested materials for your food-storage needs -- like glass? Some great alternatives include Crate & Barrel's glass storage bowls with plastic lids and these all-glass storage containers. Pyrex also offers cheaper options and claims its containers are made of non-porous glass that won't absorb flavors (a definite plus).

And while progress hasn't quite lived up to the hype, this reassuring new study comes on the heels of another thought -- that there may be some things worse than animal testing.

Plastics chemical harms brain function in monkeys [Reuters]
Since You Asked - Bisphenol A [National Institute For The Environmental Health Sciences]
Buying Guide - Plastic Food Storage [EVO]

[Photo: Via Jerrroen/flickr]

It was with tongue planted firmly in cheek last week that we declared Milwaukee a "Menace To The North."

We are starting to get a bit nervous about that state up there, though, because on top of the Epi-Log's love for Milwaukee, there's a whole host of other stuff that gets us feeling a little shaky in our midwestern culinary superiority.

Suddenly the whole state of Wisconsin is going local, which makes us feel threatened in our more-gastronomically-virtuous-than-thou parts. Plus DailyCandy, tied with Pat Bruno for MP:C's favorite punching bag, is urging Chicagoans to visit Madison — if only for a weekend.

What is the world coming to?

Eat Local Wisconsin Challenge begins [SlashFood]
Don’t Get Mad: Road Trip to Madison [DailyCandy Chicago]

[Image: Mr. Cheese (he is an evil robot made of cheese. Get it?), from LethargicLad, which is totally worth reading]

Carol Blymire of the beyond-excellent blog French Laundry at Home has given the world a tantalizing peek at what comes next:

ALINEA. AT. HOME.

Allcaps and emphatic punctuation ours, because OH MY GOD.

The Alinea Cookbook is set to launch in early October, btw. Ruhlman has the heads up.

Alinea at Home [Official Site]
Alinea, the cookbook [Ruhlman]
Alinea [MenuPages]
Alinea [Official Site]

[Photo: This makes us more excited than puppies. Via Jermannlabs's Flickr]

"U.K. chipmaker hires Moto exec as new CEO"

–Crain's Chicago Business

Sometimes we are on the ol' internet chatting with our fellow internet-food-people and we tell them things that we should probably tell you first. Like omg look how much Bourdain looks like Tiny Tim.

[Separated at Birth: Tony Bourdain and Tiny Tim [Serious Eats]

• We are pausing our so-over-bacon ennui to rejoice: Bleeding Heart Bakery has given the world a bacon cupcake. [Chicagoist]

• Gale Gand's first CHuffPo post is up; she revisits the ancient Cindy McCain recipe-stealing scandal. We are being patient with this because we love her so much. [CHuffPo]

• One of our favorite cooking blogs of all time eats out in Chicago. On the docket: Smoque and Hot Doug's. [The Paupered Chef]

• The third most power-dining-y power dining experience in the entire world? NoMI, apparently. [BOTBDC]

• Obama likes the turkey leg with dressing at Macarthur's. We like the man's taste in food. [TheVote08]

• Maki topped with grape jelly? For reals, at Ai Lounge. Overall assessment: 'sokay. [Chicago Bites]

• Everyone's been reviewing Tamalli lately. For extra credit, compare and contrast Brent Kado's take with last week's Reader review. [CenterStage Chicago]

• Good times had by all at Vong's Thai Kitchen. [Chicagoist]

• Chicago-style pizza ... healthy?! Zemans takes on Bacino's. It's delicious, at least. [Slice]

[Photo: A full tray at Smoque, via The Paupered Chef]

Because it wasn't weird enough for a Fresno, Calif. burglar to simply assault his sleeping victims with food from their own kitchen, a paragraph in Saturday's Fresno Bee account implies the suspect carried out the two attacks at the same time!:

The victims, both farmworkers, told deputies they were awakened by a stranger applying spices to one of them and striking the other with a sausage.

You may or may not be happy to know that newly crowned (by us, just now) "weirdest criminal ever," 22-year-old Antonio Vasquez, was arrested, and the cash he stole returned to the victims. Officers identified Vasquez by the wallet he left at the scene, and arrested him as he hid in a nearby field, wearing only a t-shirt, boxer shorts, and socks, according to the Bee.

Unfortunately, though, "the sausage was tossed away by the fleeing suspect and eaten by a dog." Wonder if Vasquez will have to pay reimbursement? (Via Coldmud)

Burglar victims wake to spice rub, sausage attack [Fresno Bee]
Burglar wakes men with spice rub, sausage attack [Fresno Bee]

[Photo: via Spigoo/flickr]

With all the politics and the Britney Spears and the Bears vs. Colts stuff, it can be hard to pick out the real news. This is where we come in: if you read one thing today, let it be Thrillist Nation's interview with champion eater Takeru Kobayashi, who is out shilling his official line of t-shirts. The highlight:

Do you ever casually enjoy a hot dog?
Yes, I do.

What do you put on it?
Ketchup and mustard.

Do you have a favorite brand?
(Laughs) Most people call me the Hot Dog King, but I can't answer your question until I try all of the different hot dogs.

Kibitzing With Kobayashi [Thrillist Nation]
Kobayashi Online Store [Official Site]

[Photo: One of the Kobayashi tshirts]

Here's what we'd kill for: A torta milanesa from Maravillas, that we have pleadingly amended to include chorizo as well. Lettuce, tomato, avocado, no sour cream. A giant mug of coffee. And a pineapple Jarritos.

If you find yourself hungover and on the south side, that's what you need. If you're more northerly, the experience can be approximated at Arturo's, but we advise against adding the chorizo (it might make things worse).

Blargh.

Maravillas [MenuPages]
Arturo's Tacos [MenuPages]

[Photo: Arturo's torta milanesa (that's breaded fried steak), via nrsilver's Flickr]

• In a new development in the whole the-cattle-are-ruining-the-environment idea, it turns out that cows can be made greener simply by changing their diet. Huh. Now back to your steak and milk! [Times UK]

• One upside of economic downturn/environmental crisis is an increased incentive to bring lunch, and packed lunches have really evolved. [Boston Globe]

• In post-modern news items, the NYT clues in to the fact that Yelp and Zagat reviewers have made everyone a critic and can &mdash gasp! &mdash sometimes be as useful as professional reviews. [NYT]

• Truly on fire this weekend, the Grey Lady posits that escalating competition between Pinkberry and Red Mango may have helped create the current fro-yo craze. [NYT]

• California wants to buy water from farmers, but the farmers say there's not enough. On the other hand, Oakland's Pacific Institute says farmers could increase their water conservation to the tune of billions of gallons per year. Well? Which one is it, guys? [LA Times vs San Francisco Chronicle]

The upside of today's Sun-Times dining section is that every single one of the two links from the main page works.

The downside is that we are growing increasingly agitated by the S-T's apparently inane editorial policy of accepting reviews that are based on only one visit to a restaurant. Our boy Witom has dinner at a restaurant along with one companion. After describing their two apps, two entrees, and two desserts, he spends the copious leftover space reiterating the menu more or less verbatim (which, for the record, is in this case the "summer menu," and hello it is currently September).

Say what we will about Steve Dolinksy, he draws the line between amateurs and real reviewers by saying "most of the big time critics will visit at least twice, if not three times, before they'll print a review." So either the team at the Sun-Times is the ill-advised exception implied by Dolinsky's use of "most," or Bruno et al aren't "big time critics." Ahem.

• Thomas Witom's interminable tour of suburban bistros continues, this week at Jerry's Restaurant (505 Chestnut, Winnetka,847 441 0134). Witom's review reads like a checklist: Decor? Muted and anonymously upscale (check!). Appetizers? Lobster risotto (check!), something involving buffalo mozzrella (check!), soup in a shot glass (check! cringe! time machine to 2003!). Nothing bad to say about the entrees, though we also don't get too much detail beyond what a menu might tell us. But hey! Be sure to check out this crazy culinary trend: "Looking for a variety of tastes? Ask the server about ordering 'small plates' for sharing." Intriguing! Cutting-edge! Can it last? This might be too much for us. [Witom, Sun-Times]

• Bruno heads to Texas de Brazil, leading us to bring out our Oh My God How Many Brazilian Steakhouse Reviews Can We Read Before Going Insane list. We read the review, and have not yet (that we can tell) lost our sanity, so tally duly added. The usual oohing and aahing over the depth and breadth of the "salad bar," which is to salad what Whole Foods is to a loaf of bread. Here is a sentence that we entirely fail to parse:

As it goes with the picanha, and many of the cuts of beef here, there is a salty edge to the flavor (at the outset, the gaucho/waiter explains the salting or less salting process, so you get to choose a bit of that process, which is good), and this also sets Texas de Brazil apart from other churrascarias I have tried.

[Photo: An entree at Jerry's, via the restaurant's official site]