Last week, Eve Studnicka, with an assist from her Funeral Potatoes partner Alexis Thomas, took part in an amazing pop-up with Borneol, Texas butcher (and former Chicagoan) Kriss Abigail. Abigail had arrived in town with an axis deer carcass harvested in the Hill Country, which she broke down at Saint Emeric in front of 30 […]
Category: Food & Drink
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Autumn is about to drop a cornucopia of local food books
While my comprehensive four-volume opus on freeganism was derailed by the pandemic, it seems like it was a particularly productive period for a whole bunch of local food writers who have books coming out this fall. I’m excited about all of them. Instantly Mediterranean: Vibrant, Satisfying Recipes for Your Instant Pot, Electric Pressure Cooker, and […]
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Nobody’s Darling is for everyone
When longtime friends Angela Barnes and Renauda Riddle decided to open up a high-end cocktail bar in Andersonville, they never predicted the enthusiastic fervor that would follow. Just months after opening, Nobody’s Darling has enjoyed a word-of-mouth popularity usually reserved for the main Boystown or Andersonville thoroughfares, ones that reflect the current culture in the […]
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Monday Night Foodball Goes to Mumbai with Tasting India
Jasmine Sheth wants you to know Mumbai isn’t all about samosas and chaat. OK, there will be samosas and chaat (kind of) at the Kedzie Inn when Sheth brings her Tasting India pop up to week three of Monday Night Foodball, but if you’ve followed her biweekly thali series over the past 16 months you […]
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Don Pablo’s Kitchen is one man’s ode to empanadas
Among the poems about common things Pablo Neruda wrote during his lifetime are a number of odes to food: “Ode to the Artichoke,” “Ode to Tomatoes,” “Ode to Conger Chowder.” But somehow, the Chilean Nobel laureate forgot to write an ode to one of his country’s most ubiquitous signature dishes. Not only are baked and […]
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Eat Malaysian with Kedai Tapao at Monday Night Foodball at the Kedzie Inn
Hey! It was great to see you at Monday Night Foodball at the Kedzie Inn the other night, the very first stand in our weekly chef pop-up series. How about Giong Giong’s banh mi, eh? Good thing you got one before they all sold out. Wait a minute. You weren’t there? Oh, jeez, I’m so […]
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Are you ready for some Monday Night Foodball?
In January 2020 I assumed I had a lock on the annual Kedzie Inn chili cookoff, with a three-day smoked brisket braised with Cremeria La Ordena mole picoson. I spent a lot of time peering into the Dutch oven, building it, finessing it—no, caressing it—making sure the judges would drown in its smoldering, head-spinning complexity. So I […]
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The Iconic Chicago Restaurants Map
Along with Chicago’s many beaches and tons of interesting things to do—plus the fact it’s relatively cheap to live here and generally fairly easy to get around without a car—our city’s diverse, affordable, and appetizing eating scene is one of the main things that makes this a terrific place to live. I first came up […]
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Thai culture thrives in Bridgeview
In Thai culture, the first question people ask is not “How are you?” but instead “Gin khao reu yung?” Have you eaten yet? As a kid, I’d learn this phrase from my mom, who immigrated to the U.S. from Bangkok in 1989. It just made sense: If you hadn’t eaten yet, there must be something […]
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Devon Market? Divine market!
“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine . . . they have nine different types of feta. Yeah. It’s a place called Devon Market.” The tall, white, American man drifted in front of the deli counter. If his euphoric expression and phone conversation hadn’t given him away as a first-timer, his massive, empty […]
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Growing together at the El Paseo Community Garden
In the permaculture site at El Paseo Community Garden, seven layers of plants grow in a harmonious, planned ecosystem. Wild strawberries flourish at the foot of fruit trees, out of direct sunlight. Comfrey grows near herbs and berries, bringing nitrogen and phosphorus to the soil, acting as a sort of natural fertilizer to neighboring plants. […]
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Fresh Moves Mobile Market is a rolling food oasis
Thursday afternoons at the 51st Street Green Line el Station you’ll find a colorful scene: A large shuttle bus wrapped in a bright photo collage of fruits, veggies, and beaming faces, parks at the curb of Boxville, a shipping container village of 20 hyper-local small businesses. This is the last of three stops that day […]
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Continental Sales Lots-4-Less is a real treasure island
John Sanchez reckons he downs 12 cases of bubbly a month. “I don’t drink pop, or juice, or anything diet, so I usually come here for the bubbly,” he shouted. “It’s cheaper.” We were struggling to hear each other in a sun-beaten Clearing parking lot on a recent morning while he loaded two-liter bottles of […]
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Habrae Cafe has your good luck Thai sweets
A couple introduce Forest Park to Thai desserts, old and new.
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A bit of dumpling lore from Let’s Make Dumplings!
A chat with Hugh Amano and Sarah Becan and excerpts from their new comic book cookbook