Food Chain
Friday, November 20, 2009
Chicagoland, Food Chain, Music, Food & Drink, Performing Arts Dinner and a Show: Friday 11/19
Posted by Whet Moser on Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 4:23 PM
- Stefano Giovannini
- DJ/Rupture & Matt Shadetek
Some of tonight's best events, as recommended by our music, movie, and performing arts critics—and where to eat before or afterward.
Food Chain, Food & Drink Too New to Review
Posted by Kate Schmidt on Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 4:21 PM
Tonight, after months of delay, Nella Pizzeria Napoletana opens with a full bar, antipasti and salads, and pizza from Nella Grassano, the original pizzaiola at Spacca Napoli. Lunch starts Monday. A second location on Taylor Street is in the works for February.
More new places after the jump:
Chicagoland, Food Chain, Food & Drink Chicago: The Best BBQ Scene in America?
Posted by Whet Moser on Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 12:42 PM
So saith Michael Nagrant (via Grub Street). Helen Rosner thinks he's trying to start a war, and I don't disagree, but the comments are thoughtful and well worth reading - especially the part where Nagrant seemingly gives away the game, but in a good way, because I agree:
"I think Eastern North Carolina is probably my favorite region, with places like Wilbers, the Pit, and Allen and Son's really sticking out."
FWIW, I can't recommend Honey 1 highly enough, despite some hate in comments. Here's what our critics had to say on Nagrant's other picks: Smoque and Uncle John's.
Update: I've heard that Kansas City actually has the best barbecue so many times that it can't be discounted, but sadly have never been.
Food Chain, Food & Drink, News Ground Zero for the Pumpkin Shortage
Posted by Mike Sula on Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 11:51 AM
For some people, the news from Morton, Illinois, that heavy rains may force a shortage of canned Libby's pie filling is a little more dire than the threat of going pumpkin pieless for the holidays:
"But just a week in Morton can bring in more money than a year of farming. In bad years, farmers in La Soledad lose money. There are no farm subsidies, and there are few other jobs."
What? You didn't know Morton was the pumpkin capital of the world?
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Food Chain, Food & Drink Video: making apple caramel jam
Posted by Mike Sula on Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 12:53 PM
This week I wrote about Elizabeth Madden of the Oak Park-based Rare Bird Preserves and the explosively fruity natural pectin jams she makes. I considered that the meditative two-day process of making a small batch of Honeycrisp apple-salted caramel preserves might lend itself to an epic Warholian treatment on the order of Sleep or Empire, but there's a moment of danger near the end that convinced me I should just cut it down to a few minutes.
Making apple caramel jam with Elizabeth Madden of Rare Bird Preserves from mike sula on Vimeo.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Food Chain, Food & Drink This Week's Food and Drink Events
Posted by Julia Thiel on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 5:00 PM
A rare tea dinner, a benefit for the soon-to-open Dill Pickle Food Co-op, cheese from master cheese makers of Wisconsin, and more.
Food Chain, Food & Drink "Today I Put Up a Couple of Pig Heads to Simmer. . . "
Posted by Mike Sula on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 12:10 PM
A certain nameless Chicago chef—no doubt with some cautious regard for the meat police—just launched a blog he's calling Butcher's Grip, to document his endeavors in whole-animal butchery and charcuterie. Yesterday's post, his second, details the making of the notoriously delicious headcheese he serves in his restaurant.
Food Chain, Media, Food & Drink Top Chef
Posted by Kate Schmidt on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 11:46 AM
The Daily Beast asked Reader food columnist Mike Sula for his pick for the best Chicago restaurant that's opened since Labor Day.
Despite some previously stated antipathy toward attaching the word best to restaurants, Sula obliged, and his answer may not surprise anyone.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Food Chain, Free Shit, Food & Drink 11/18: Rick Bayless at Green City Market
Posted by Whet Moser on Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 10:31 PM
Rick Bayless, whose Xoco is one of the Reader's choices for best new restaurants of 2009, does a 10:30am cooking demonstration at the Green City Market in Lincoln Park.
Next Wednesday, it's Rob and Allison Leavitt of Mado, one of the best new restaurants of 2008.
Food Chain, Food & Drink Thai Potato Chips and a Secret Late-Night Congee Menu at Me Dee Cafe
Posted by Mike Sula on Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 2:38 PM
Ravenswood's Me Dee Cafe is an odd little place, a mere six tables squeezed between a wall of Thai snacks, a freezer full of mochi, and walls decorated with squabbling cartoon brats and troubled cows (a herd of bipedal, urinating bovines graces the wall in the loo). The main menu is loaded with inexpensive but decorously presented Ameri-Thai standards with hints of fusiony gimmickry such as a noodle dish tossed with fat disks of Polish sausage, grilled mushrooms with chihuahua cheese, and plates garnished with raspberry and blackberry gumdrops.
But there are number of other things that make Me Dee far more intriguing than just that.
