Archive for April, 2008

Recently I've been salting my reserve of existential dread by reading Paul Roberts' forthcoming The End of Food, a dense, cheerless forecast about the fragility of the global food supply (it's spring!). So yesterday I felt particularly gloomy wandering around this year's Fancy Food Show at McCormick Place. With news reports of Costco rice rationing, Japanese butter shortages, and Haitian food riots echoing through my head, it's hard to get behind the hordes of showgoers lining up for samples of pate and Epoisses, buffalo sausage, single origin chocolate, and water whose chief marketing attribute seems to be the overdesigned plastic art deco style bottle it's poured into.  

There are probably a number of reason this year's trade show--titled the Global Food & Style Expo, which encompasses FFF, the All Things Organic Show and the U.S. Food Export Showcase--seemed more subdued and contracted than last year's, and not all of them have to do with my crappy mood. The U.S. imports end of the floor was forlorn and unattended, and the Fancy Food Show slightly less so. But on the other hand the organic component was booming: by my rough guess it was nearly the same size of the other two shows combined. It's not news that organics have become big business, but the difference between this and last year seemed startling. The New York Times even had a tout there selling subscriptions. Of course that meant a larger share of silliness on display, from organic frozen breaded shrimp, yogurt for dogs, many varieties of unidentifiable bark bars advertised not so much for what they're made from but for what they're not, and all sorts of highly processed foods that are permitted to wear the attractive label of "organic." The absurdity of a lot of this stuff was put sharply into focus at the display for a French Canadian spice company that thought the best way to market its blends was to employ a couple of robotic arms to sprinkle the stuff over uncooked pasta and a platter of weathered-looking salmon (pictured).

Thursday from 7 to 10 PM at Toast of the Town, Wine Enthusiast’s annual extravaganza at the Field Museum, more than 500 wines and spirits will be paired with food from 30 restaurants, including Carlos’, Mambo Grill, Le Lan, and Vermilion. $95 ($185 with VIP tasting at 6 PM).

Zocalo celebrates Cinco de Mayo early this year, with margaritas, wine, beer, and hors d'ouevres Thursday from 6 to 8 PM. $40. 

The Oak Park Conservatory’s annual Herb Sale Saturday from 8 AM to 3 PM features plants for the "urban potager," including vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers, all chosen for their ability to thrive in Chicago’s climate as well as for their flavor.

Saturday at 6:30 PM, Pastoral's downtown location is hosting a class on how to create infused artisan vodka, using Death's Door vodka and ingredients like peanuts, bacon, lavender, cucumber, basil, and horseradish. Cherry lavender fizz cocktails (with lavender gin) and horseradish egg sours (with horseradish-infused vodka) will be served during the class, and each participant will take home a jar of their own infused vodka. $50, reservations required.

The Cuisine of Afghanistan, the latest dinner and class in the Oriental Institute’s series on food from the Near East, will highlight traditional specialties such as mantu (meat dumplings), ashak (scallion dumplings), and quabili palau (lamb stew served over seasoned rice) at Kabul House Sunday at 7 PM. Owner Abdul Qazi will explain the preparation and history of each dish he serves and share some of his favorite recipes. $45 (includes tax, tip, and wine).

Tuesday from noon to 2 PM is the reopening of Hull-House Kitchen, a program to honor the legacy of Jane Addams and the original soup kitchen at her Hull House, the first of its kind in Chicago. Every Tuesday at lunchtime in the Residents' Dining Hall, Hull-House Museum staffers will serve free organic soup and bread during a discussion of topics related to sustainability, health, food supply, community, and the environment.

With our Best of Chicago voting now in session, I started looking through old Reader guides to the city, which included our long-running Cheap Eats roundups. Here's what we were recommending over 30 years ago:

Ratso's 2464 N. Lincoln: Beyond criticism. Ratso's is becoming the city's hottest night spot, and it must be because of the entertainment, because the food is outrageously inconsistent, with even the ingredients in one dish varying from night to night. You can get a very good meal here . . . and you can find a cigarette butt in your salad (I did just a couple of weeks ago--honest). (1975)

Harold's Chicken Shack No. 14 1364 E. 53rd St.: Best fried chicken south of the Loop. $1.85 gets you half a chicken and some greasy french fries. Carryout only; you can phone your order in. Livers and gizzards are also available, but you have to acquire a taste for them. Go easy on the hot sauce. (1975)

Nuevo Leon 1515 W. 18th: Garish sweet-shop decor and delicious Mexican food. Tacos, burritos and frijoles refritos better than any I've had elsewhere, but most of the dishes are Mexican specialties unheard of at El Taco Loco. (1975)

Bucket O'Suds 3123 N. Cicero: Still over 600 bottles of booze behind the bar (and plenty more down in the cellar), still the homemade meals and sauces, still the quintessential neighborhood bar. Try a meatball or Italian sausage sandwich, any of thirteen cheeses (including hot pepper) all for $1 or less, or Brunch a la Skandia (herring, cheese, and crackers) for $1. Top it off with one of 30 homemade alcoholic concoctions like El Caribiano Royale, and you're ready to trade anecdotes and discuss the fine points of sour mash with owner Joe Danno. (Notice, I didn't even mention Joe's exclusive store of pre-Prohibition Old Oscar Pepper sippin' whiskey; that's because there wouldn't be any left for me.) (1977)

Wing Wah 208 W. Cermak: It's been almost a year since we started touting this place as the best Chinese-Cantonese restaurant in Chicago, and thankfully it manages to remain unspoiled and obscure. Part of this, perhaps, is the hours: 5 pm-5 am. Strange, we grant you, but actually quite practical--Wing Wah, you see, is the place where all the other restauranteurs in Chinatown go to eat after closing their joints for the night. The rest of the clientele is made up of half the Chicago police force, a large following from the immediate area, and a mere handful of Occidentals. The secret is to ignore the first menu they give you (it's only four pages, printed on the inside of a red or yellow cardboard sheet) and hold out for the real menu--a small red notebook with typewritten pages and about 60 items listed in English and Chinese. This is where you will find the city's most garlicy garlic shrimp; its best lightly cooked squid; its only conch; plus snails, fish stomach soup, clams in hot sauce, whole crab prepared Chinese-style,  and much, much more, each item on par with the next. The truly courageous will ignore even these listings and badger their only barely bilingual waiter into translating the daily specials written in Chinese on the wall. There they will discover such delicacies as whole red snapper and quick-fried pigeon. We haven't tried the live frog yet--it's killed at your table and eaten raw--but we have checked out the duck's feet, and might we suggest you don't bother. (1977)

John Barleycorn Memorial Pub 658 W. Belden: The quietest of the Northside beer-and-hamburger spots. Classical music, old silent films, and art-classic slides are there to distract you if conversation flags. (1975)

Southern Foodways Alliance oral historian Amy Evans was in town this month doing fieldwork in preparation for Camp Chicago: An Up South Expedition, an event to be held May 23-25. It's an exploration of the connection between the foods of the city and the south, but no dry, academic exercise. It's going to include a tamale tour with Peter Engler, bourbon drinking with Chuck Cowdery, soul food at Edna's with the Trib's Donna Pierce, a south-side barbecue tour, a show at the Hideout, dinner at West Town Tavern with Edna Stewart, and more. Anyone with a passing interest in Chicago soul food (or the mother-in-law) will recognize some of the subjects Evans collected material from while she was here: they include Stewart, James Lemons of Lem's, Barbara Ann Bracy of Barbara Ann's BBQ, Izola White of Izola's, and John Pawlikowski of Fat Johnnie's. But if you've ever read her work in the SFA's Oral Histories Project archive--colorful in-depth discussions with Kentucky ham makers, New Orleans bartenders, Birmingham Greeks, Western Tennessee whole hog smokers, and more--you know she's going to bring plenty to the table. She's planning to post the transcripts on the SFA's site before the 23rd, but in the meantime, there's a beautifully shot flickr set from her visit.

Rick's Picks, a New York-based company that makes artisanal small-batch pickles, is in town this weekend sampling out its products, including Phat Beets (beets pickled in a rosemary, ginger, and lemon brine), Windy City Wasabeans (green beans pickled in a soy-wasabi brine), Smokra (pickled okra with smoked paprika, curry, and a bit of cayenne), GT 1000s (curried green tomatoes with Spanish onions), and Pepi Pep Peps (roasted red peppers).

The pickles will be matched with cheeses at Pastoral on Friday: beets with Bucheron goat cheese, green beans with Bleu d’Auvergne, green tomatoes with Ossau-Iraty sheep cheese, and roasted red peppers with Zamorano, another hard sheep cheese.

And at Provenance on Saturday, not only cheese but also wines from the Pacific Northwest will be thrown into the mix. The beets will be paired with Hook's blue cheese, the okra with Chouda (a cross between Gouda and cheddar), and bread-and-butter pickles will be served with Brunkow six-year cheddar. Specific wines haven't been chosen yet.

Friday: noon-3 PM at Whole Foods Lincoln Park, 1000 W. North; 4 PM-7:30 PM at Pastoral, 53 E. Lake

Saturday: 11 AM-3 PM at Fox & Obel, 401 E. Illinois; 4 PM-6 PM at Provenance, 2528 N. California

Sunday 2 PM-5 PM at Whole Foods Lincoln Park, 1000 W. North

I spent some time earlier this week catching up with Chungjun "Ben" Li of Chinatown's Double Li Szechuan restaurant, which I wrote about back in November. He's finally translated his entire menu into English, and he's talking about opening a new place somewhere in the suburbs, maybe in a year or so. But the big news was that late last month his girlfriend, Cindy, gave birth to a bouncing baby boy, name of Ray.

He told me all about the semitraditional postpartum treatment mother and child were undergoing at the hands of a woman he'd hired to cook and care for them. In Chinese culture this confinement period, sometimes known as "doing the month," is usually managed by the grandparents, but as both sets live out of town, he had to advertise for help. I say the treatment is partly traditional, because Cindy isn't forgoing showering, laughing, and rising from the birth bed like she might back in China. But she is staying indoors for about a month, and she's on a special diet which includes, among other things, a lot of soup.

Ben's task was to pick up a chicken, specifically one of those white, fluffy ones with black skin, known as silkies, which are highly valued in China for various medicinal purposes. Ben's silkie was destined to be simmered for broth for the new mother, its meat and bones discarded. So we headed off to Wing Ho Live Poultry & Retail, a little shop on 26th that stocks guineas, hens, turkeys, geese, ducklings, rabbits, pigeons, quail, and partridges, all in the most pristine state of freshness possible--which is to say, still scratching and clucking. Along the way Ben extolled the fresh flavor and rugged texture of these birds, "raised wild," as he said, and insisted I get one of the red free-range chickens to make my own soup. He'd provide the recipe.

Have you been to a live poultry store? For those who don't hunt or have access to their own animals or abattoirs but want to experience what Michael Ruhlman recommends as "one of five things you should eat before you die . . .  the meat of a freshly slaughtered animal, preferably having witnessed the slaughter," your local live poultry shop is the place to go. It won't smell good, it won't be pretty, but there you can meet your meat while it's still breathing, look it in the eye, and take measure of your omnivorousness. And what you take home is as fresh as it gets. My first experience in one of these places involved two cute little white rabbits who definitely didn't want to be stew and were violently vocal about it. It was sufficiently traumatizing for me to back away for a time and brood. I like to think I'd have been more stealthy had I done the deed myself.

The birds at Wing Ho might spend their lives free ranging, but they certainly aren't after they get to the shop, where they wait in crowded cages to be selected by customers, have their throats cut, feathers plucked, blood drained, and carcasses butchered. This definitely is not the place to wax poetic about the bucolic, carefree existence of pasture-fed animals. But they go quickly. My chicken and Ben's silkie were dispatched, cleaned, and cut up within ten minutes. The whole business happened so fast I had trouble keeping up with it, but I took some pictures (attached), and here's a pretty fair description of what happens to a chicken in one of these places.

And here's Ben's recipe for chicken soup. It's not the postpartum special his girlfriend is getting, but just a simple clear broth infused with that fresh chicken flavor. Initially the gentle sweetness from the dried dates and longans (a relative of the lychee) was a little disorienting, but it grew on me, and the flavorful and textured meat from the chicken that nobly gave its life beat the hell out of Perdue.

Ben's Li's chicken soup 

1 freshly killed free-range chicken, plucked, cleaned, cut into pieces (feet included)

4 quarts water

1 knob of ginger, peeled and sliced

3 green onions

1/3 cup rice wine

fistful of dried longan

fistful of seeded dried dates

1 tsp. salt 

In a large wok or pot, cover the chicken with cold water and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, drain, and wash it under cold water. Return to the pot and add the water and all the ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to the barest simmer for three hours. Say thanks to the bird, and enjoy.

Dining Out for Life, the national benefit for AIDSCARE, comes to Chicago on Thursday. Eat at any of the dozens of participating restaurants, and a portion of your tab goes to help people living with HIV/AIDS.

Thursday from 6:30 to 9 PM is the Jarvis Square Wine Affair with Alpana Singh. Forty wines from around the world and hors d'ouevres will be on offer at Taste Food & Wine. $35 (part of the proceeds go to Dining Out for Life).

Cob Connection, which seeks to foster community by promoting sustainability, hosts a fund-raiser with food, music, and activities Saturday from 4 to 7 PM at the McCormick Tribune YMCA. It'll benefit their latest project, creating a community farm and building an outdoor classroom using alternative materials like corncobs and straw bales in partnership with the YMCA. $10.

Saturday at 10 AM at Kendall College (900 N. North Branch), the Chicago Foodways Roundtable presents a screening of One in a Million: the Cock Robin and Prince Castle Story [click on "Foodways"], a documentary by Naperville Community Television about the now defunct suburban fast-food institution variously called Cock Robin and Prince Castle. Afterward the son of the founder, Walter Fredenhager Jr., will give a talk that covers, among other things, why the stores used square scoops for ice cream, how they influenced McDonald’s, why the company changed its name, and what remains of it today. $3.

Gabriel Magliaro, founder of the eight-month-old local Half Acre Beer Company, is celebrating his lager’s availability at the Heartland Cafe by doing a walk for charity—with beer. For the Half Acre Hike Saturday starting at 4 PM at Monroe Harbor, he’ll tote a case nine miles up the lakefront to the Heartland; sponsors’ donations benefit First Slice, a nonprofit that provides restaurant-quality meals to the needy. Supporters are welcome to join the walk and hit the afterparty at the Heartland starting around 8 PM.

Mary Lou and Robert Heiss discuss and sign their book, The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking Guide, Sunday from 2 to 5 PM at Palette & Chisel. The ChicaGourmets program [PDF] also features Ceylon tea from Liif Tea, munchies like smoked salmon profiteroles and roasted pork tenderloin, and wine. $59. 

The Lakeview location of Pastoral hosts Artisan Breadmaking 101 with Jory Downer of Bennison’s Bakery, a certified master baker who won a gold medal in the 2005 World Cup of Baking in Paris, Tuesday at 7:30 PM. The fee for the class benefits Our Daily Bread, a joint initiative by Pastoral and Bennison’s to support the Lincoln Park Community Shelter. $40.

Dr. Abraham Kocheril of UIC will be at South Loop Wine Cellar Tuesday from 6:30 to 9 PM to explain the health benefits of drinking wine. There will, of course, be a wine tasting as well. $10.

At first glance the slick new book Things Cooks Love, the first in a projected series from cookware retailer Sur La Table, looks like it might a mere promotional gimmick for expensive kitchen gadgets. But in fact it's a thorough encyclopedia of kitchen tools, with information on uses, care, recipes, and alternatives for everything from chinois to potato ricers. There's even a list of competitive sources for the stuff in the back (no mention of Williams-Sonoma though).

Author Marie Simmons will be doing a book signing tonight at the Naperville Sur La Table at 5 PM, followed by a $55 cooking class at 6:30 PM called Tools of the Global Kitchen. If you leave the city now you just might beat the traffic and make it.

Sur La Table, 55 S. Main St. 1D, Naperville, 630-428-1110

Reader Steve Timble called in a tip that the venerable Calumet Fisheries, home of delectable fried sea critters, sweet smoked shrimp, and fish crack, was closed due to some kind of car accident. The voice mail confirms it, but not much else, besides saying the little fish joint perched at the foot of the 95th Street bridge will hopefully reopen in mid-May. Timble, who is right in calling CF a "Chicago institution," said it looked like a vehicle had plowed into the the tiny building.

If Calumet Fisheries can survive Jake and Elwood, it can survive anything. 

--Smack in the middle of the Paseo Boricua, a new yellow facade, new windows, building permit, and temporary sign announce the coming of Draft, "eat.drink.lounge." That's at 2525 W. Division. 

--At 1465 W. Irving Park, two hand-markered signs announcing the arrival of Myle Restaurant are stuck up over the window paper. Above it a professionally rendered sign for New Life Chinese Restaurant bears a number that leads to a voice mail redirecting callers to a new number for Myle Asian Restaurant (pronounced "my lee")--773-281-2555--which isn't connected yet. Vietnamese perhaps? This is the site of the late great N.N. Smokehouse and its forgettable successor Smoke Country House.

--The Little India Restaurant at 1109 W. Bryn Mawr is open and offering a menu of northern Indian dishes. Nothing surprising there but the carryout menu bears this message: "Adding soon: Asian Italian Fusion Cuisine & Pizza." Ownership has some affiliation with the Devon Avenue Pakistani restaurant Zam Zam. 773-728-6789.

In possibly the fastest restaurant turnaround of the year, Galapagos Cafe opened last week in the space briefly housed by Leyla's Turkish Bakery, which may have died the fastest restaurant death of the year. No, it's not offering saddlebacked tortoise, blue-footed booby, or barbecued iguana, but instead merging the seemingly disparate prongs of sushi and Ecuadoran food, which means a four-page menu encompassing chirashi and carne frita, California maki and ceviche, seaweed salad and plantain soup, and more.

Co-owner Alvaro Perez says he worked behind the sushi bar at the now defunct Wicker Park Pacific Cafe. His brother and partner Manuel is handling the Latin end of things.

Galapagos Cafe, 3213 W. Irving Park, 773-754-8265.

Friday from 7-10 PM at Architectural Artifacts (4325 N. Ravenswood), First Slice hosts "Get On the Bus," a fund-raiser kicking off its new mobile meals program to deliver hot, high-quality meals directly to Chicagoans living on the street. The benefit features wine, beer, and coffee; dishes prepared by local chefs and the First Slice Kitchen; and live music from Cadillac Dave & His Chicago Redhots. $60 ($50 in advance; make reservations at getonthebus@firstslice.org). 

Chef Calvin Soh of Shanghai Terrace at the Peninsula leads a Chinatown Tour that promises the chance to "experience this vibrant and intriguing enclave like a local," Saturday from 10 AM to 3 PM. In addition to Yin Wall City and Chicago Food Market, the tour (a program of the American Institute of Wine and Food) will hit Lao Beijing for Peking duck, Penang for Malaysian food, and Captain Bakery for pastries. Meet at Chinatown Square, 2084 S. Archer. $65.

The Killing of a Chinese Cookie, a new documentary by Derek Shimoda on the fortune cookie as a pop culture icon, screens at the Gene Siskel Film Center Sunday at 5:15 PM and Tuesday at 6:15 PM. 

Cyrano’s Bistrot is supplementing its regular offerings for its Crepe and Beer Festival Tuesday through Saturday during dinner service. Crepes in varieties such as smoked salmon with creme fraiche and spring onion frites; grilled pear, walnut, and Roquefort; roasted banana and rum; and Nutella mousse with orange-almond compote will range from $8 to $16. Beers will include the Belgian Duvel, the Austrian Kronenbourg, and some domestic organics. A prix fixe crepe menu is also available for $29.50.

Wednesday from 7 to 10 PM, the chefs at Fiddlehead Cafe will roast a whole suckling pig and serve it with Flossmoor Station beer and sides including truffled mac 'n' cheese, salad, and molasses baked beans. $37 (not including tax and tip).

The Globe Pub celebrates Saint George, the patron saint of England (and many other countries ranging from Canada to China), with its annual Saint George’s Day Bash Wednesday starting at 4 PM, featuring free samples of curry and port, a traditional sing-along, and $4 pints of Wells Bombardier English bitter.

Five interesting things, among many, from Jennifer 8. Lee's The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: 

1. Fortune cookies are Japanese.

2. Everybody in China knows General Tso, but nobody knows General Tso's chicken.

3. The great majority of Chinese restaurant workers in America come from Fujian Province, a region of no particular culinary distinction.

4. Misa Chang, the woman who invented restaurant delivery as we know it, is alive and well and running her Empire Szechuan empire from Manhattan today.

5. Those little plastic packets of black liquid that come with your takeout order contain no actual soy, but are still legally considered to be soy sauce.

The New York Times reporter's terrific book about the Chinese restaurant industry outside of China has been chided here and there for a lack of focus, but her subject is so broad and multifaceted that I think it's a considerable achievement. With chapters on the origins of those white cardboard takeout containers, the harrowing existence of poor, itinerant restaurant workers, why Chinese is the true ethnic food of American Jews, and a globetrotting but essentially futile search for the world's best Chinese restaurant, Lee does an excellent job of demystifying an ubiquitous yet mercurial industry that in many ways is more American than Chinese.

Lee will be in town Thursday at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, 800 S. Halsted, speaking on a program with poet Patrick Rosal. The event, sponsored by the Public Square, runs from 6 to 8 PM; it's free, but reservations are recommended. Call 312-413-5353.

When last we heard from Valerie Weihman-Rock and the Wisconsin mulefoots, all five female pigs (four gilts and a sow)--including the Reader's Dee Dee--were getting ready to have their piglets. A little over a week ago two of them farrowed--Demetria gave birth to six, and Diana four. Valerie reported that Diana wasn't taking to motherhood so well--she didn't like having the little ones around her and Valerie was convinced she'd hurt them. Ergo, Demetria is nursing all 10 little ones--8 females, and two males.

So Diana ID'd herself as a good candidate for slaughter. Writes Valerie: "Diana will be ham, bacon, lard, etc. as the first one harvested soon. It is important when raising the heritage breeds to not continue genetics of unfavorable traits (such as being angry, snapping, and not accepting piglets)." 

Then, last Tuesday, our Dee Dee had four piglets, two of which are female (Valerie couldn't tell the sex of the others yet). One of these piglets Friend of the Food Chain David Hammond has arranged to buy--an anniversary gift for his wife, Caroline. He's named it Ermine--after his grandmother. "One of the girls has white hooves and white-around feet," wrote Valerie. "Just like Dee Dee. So this one will be Dave Hammond's 'Ermine.'"

Aww. Nothing says I love you like the gift of meat.

"All the pigs and their piglets are snugly ensconced in partitions covered with artists' canvas tarp," writes Valerie. "And a heat lamp for piglet bunk area. Moms can come and go as they wish and the 'partitions' are to keep piglets from running off in the relative cold of the barn. Their tents are ~70 degrees F inside. And the piglet area under heat lamp is 85-90 degrees F. Rest of barn was 45 [last] weekend. 40 [next] morning. And the boy pigs are happy digging in the mud and pasture."

That's 14 new mulefoots, folks. Stay tuned for photos.

Friday from 7-9 PM, Viet Bistro hosts a free Svedka Vodka tasting with cocktails from sommelier Rashed Islam and appetizers by chef Dan Nguyen. 

The Ins and Outs of Composting, a class at the Angelic Organics Learning Center in Hyde Park that was listed in this week's print edition, has been canceled. There are no plans at the moment to reschedule.

Binny's South Loop is promoting local entries to the Sam Adams Longshot homebrewing competition by hosting a free Chicago Home Brew contest Sunday from noon to 4 PM. The winner gets a trip for two to the 2008 Great American Beer Festival in Denver this October; in addition, all entries will be shipped to Boston (on Sam Adams’s dime) for consideration in the national competition. Participants should bring 12 bottles of homemade beer to be judged. There will also be a home-brewing demo and a tasting.

The Elastic Arts Foundation holds a fund-raising dinner Sunday at 6 PM at Friendship Chinese Restaurant. The four-course meal (a vegetarian option is available) is preceded by a 5 PM reception and followed by music and drinks at 10 PM, both upstairs at Elastic Arts. $50.

A panel including historian Sarah Marcus, Bruce Kraig and Peter Engler of the Culinary Historians of Chicago, and Monica Eng of the Tribune presents Hot Dog! A History of Chicago Foods, on the origins of local delicacies and how they’ve evolved over the years, Tuesday at 7 PM at the Chicago History Museum (Chicago-style Vienna Beef dogs will be served starting at 6:15). This is the first lecture in the Culinary Chicago series; other talks include The Local Option, which will demystify buzzwords like “locavore” and “green,” and Chef Showcase, where local chefs will discuss current trends in Chicago cuisine. $10.

Va Pensiero in Evanston is offering 15-cent martinis with the purchase of dinner on Tuesday in honor of tax day. 

Last August when I spotted a stop work order on the Cincinnati-themed lounge cum chili parlor Cinners, building out in a tiny space in Lincoln Square, I wondered if it was a vanity project of some neighborhood kid of Greek extraction whose dad owned the building. After all, in ancient times, Macedonians invented Cincinnati three-, four-, and five-way chili, and though I'm not enough of a food historian to theorize with any confidence, it is tempting to imagine a connection between the Greek dish pastitsio and the Queen City's tomatoey stew, redolent of baking spices, plopped over spaghetti, all covered with cheese. And even though the stuff hasn't often made its way too far out of Cincinnati, the little pocket of Lincoln Square where Cinners is located is kind of like Balkantown, with plenty of Greeks, Albanians, and immigrants from the former Yugoslavia. Why not a hitherto unknown link between the foodways of Cincy and Chicago Greeks?

Well, I'm all wet. Cinners' Tony Plum was just looking for an up-and-coming neighborhood, with a youthful population to support a laid-back lounge. He didn't imagine it as a destination, but when word got out he'd be serving Cincinnati chili and Coney dogs he started taking phone calls and e-mails from desperate expats hungry to know his opening date and curious about the recipe he'd be using. Would it be more like Skyline? Or Gold Star?

Plum has an incredible story about his recipe. He says he's using the original formula developed by Tom and John Kiradjieff, of Empress Chili, who invented the stuff in 1922. Seems Plum's great-grandfather, a beat cop in the 20s, asked the Kiradjieff brothers for the recipe so his wife could make it at home. Plum says the recipe was passed down to his grandmother, mom, and now him.

But would it be real Cincinnati chili without a dash of controversy? 

“No, they didn't give it out,” says 78-year-old Joe Kiradjieff, son of Tom, who still sells Empress Chili to supermarkets and franchises Empress Chili restaurants, of which ten remain. “No sir. No way. Uh-uh. No. I don't think my father would do anything like that. Or my uncle.” Kiradjieff did offer to sell his chili to Plum. He thinks it would go over big in Chicago.

You want the truth? No matter what recipe you're talking about, Cincinnati chili ain't rocket science. It's simmered ground chuck with tomato sauce and an array of spices--cinnamon, cocoa, allspice, cumin, chile powder, Worcestershire, and more. And Plum's isn't bad, with a bit more burn than the style's famous sweetness.

If you want to hear a gripping yarn ask Plum about his Sisyphean struggle to get the place open, involving a four-month battle with landlords to get the plumbing replaced and Kafkaesque entanglements with the city to get the liquor license issued. It's a horrifying tale--ending in an opening nearly a year late and $40,000 over budget--that would send this guy bawling back into Daddy's arms. The sad thing is, such problems aren't unfamiliar to many bar and restaurant owners crazy enough to play the game in this city.

I'll have a more fleshed-out profile of Plum and Cinners in next week's Omnivorous, along with video here at the Food Chain.

By now you might have heard that the wonderful Thai Grocery is closing its doors on April 29, due to the well-deserved retirement of owner Ek-Anant, aka Eddie Lin, who's been in business for 34 years.

Thirty-four years! This news has sent ripples of sadness among the geeks who've wandered its cramped aisles clutching stained copies of David Thompson's Thai Food, seeking out ingredients both essential and obscure to Thai cookery. At least for non-Thais, it was always easy to profit from Eddie and his cohorts' genuine interest in just what the heck you planned on doing with everything from banana leaves to tamarind pulp to pork floss. A few holiday seasons back when I was making jars of chili jam, or nam prik pao, for gifts, I got to hear a detailed exegesis of how brother-in-law Surat's aunt does it back in Thailand--she's old school, grilling the ingredients instead of frying them--and a rundown on the healthful benefits of chiles to boot. 

When I went in Friday to pay my respects, Eddie was running a clearance sale (50 percent off grated cassava!), handing out little recipe books and farewell letters, and musing happily on his long career. His son's college graduation is the occasion: he and his wife plan to kick back and relax.

Eddie is also the wholesale supplier for many of the city's Thai restaurants, and I wasn't able to get a straight answer about whether he was giving up that end of the business, though I got the sense he was keeping a hand in it.  As for retail, there are bigger, brighter, and broader Asian markets in the neighborhood. Eddie, in fact, is sending his merchandise up the street to Golden Pacific, and just a few blocks south at Oriental Plaza, you can find a good selection of Thai nonperishables. But none has the broad array of house-made snacks and sweets or the steam table loaded with cheap, home-style Thai food (prepared by Surat's wife) unlike that of even our most authentic Thai restaurants. And none have Eddie's and Surat's generous expertise.

The owners of the neighboring Vietnamese bakery Ba Le have bought the building. No word yet on what they're planning.

Thai Grocery, 5014 N. Broadway, 773-561-5345 

Golden Pacific Market, 5353 N. Broadway, 773-334-6688

Oriental Plaza, 4821 N. Broadway, 773-728-1199 

It's ramp season, occasion for Hammond to go picking (see podcast for 4/3) with John Bubala and Paul Kahan for Eight Forty-Eight.

Apart from new featured reviews of Schwa and Sixteen in this week's Food & Drink we have nine others in the listings and a bonus in the Reader Restaurant Finder. Kate Schmidt would take the bus to the Peterson Park tapas restaurant Cafe Marbella, though an easier CTA trip would let her relax among throngs of Evanstonians at Union Pizzeria. David Hammond barely stayed awake at La Cocina de Frida, and Anne Spiselman thought the eats at the Libertine far outclassed the cheesy faux-Victorian vibe. Martha Bayne says Natalino's is good enough for her parents--but not for her--and the food at Nxxt isn't good for anyone. I was surprised how good Nia was despite its wide-ranging menu, and I'm holding out hope for Troy Graves's Tallulah. Finally, there's no surprise at the stupidity of Rockstar Dogs, and I recommend holding your nose at Con Sabor Cubano. Better yet, take out.

Next time: Mercat a la Planxa, Take Me Out, Jack Rabbit, The Fifty/50, and more.

Thursday from 6-10 PM, Hart Davis Hart Wine Company and Dom Perignon host Hope Dream Live 2008, a charity wine dinner and auction at Tru to benefit YMCA Camp Independence. A five-course dinner with wine pairings (including a 1990 Chateau Latour and 1986 Chateau d’Yquem) will be followed by an auction of ten lots of rare wines. $1,500.

If you wanted to go to WhiskyFest Chicago you needed to buy a ticket weeks ago, but Thursday of Whisky Week sees lots of free prefest tastings with whiskey makers in town for the event. A few highlights: Julian Van Winkle of Old Rip Van Winkle bourbons will speak and sign bottles at a tasting at Lush Wine and Spirits in Roscoe Village (5:30-8 PM). From 4 to 5 PM Tom Bulleit of Bulleit bourbon and Gregor Cattanach of Johnnie Walker will be at an event at Warehouse Liquors (4-7 PM); they’ll then move on to a tasting at the South Loop Sam’s Wines & Spirits (5-8 PM), where they’ll appear from 6:30 to 7:30 PM. And the West Town location of Twisted Spoke hosts its annual “barrel extravaganza,” a whiskey festival featuring the distillers for Death’s Door Spirits (offering tastes from its first barrel of aged whiskey), Old Rip Van Winkle, Heaven Hill, and Kentucky Bourbon, plus Greg Hall of Goose Island, who’ll have a barrel of Bourbon County Stout on hand (8 PM-2 AM). 

Saturday from 10 AM to 4 PM at Kendall College (900 N. Branch), the Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance presents The Midwest: How Sweet It Is!, a program on regional dessert traditions. Among the topics: the role of the railroad and immigrants in introducing new recipes to the area and the local origins of candy and candy bars like Butterfinger, Baby Ruth, and the Heath Bar. Refreshments and lunch are included. $60 ($50 in advance).

Cooking Jewish With Judy, a Culinary Historians of Chicago lecture by author Judy Bart Kancigor, takes place at the Chicago History Museum on Saturday from 10 AM to noon. It's based on her recently published book, Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes From the Rabinowitz Family, and includes samples; $5. And at 6 PM, ChicaGourmets (PDF) hosts a book signing and wine dinner with Kancigor at Ina's; $69.

"Rock star of the craft beer world" (and Dogfish Head Beer founder) Sam Calagione and master sommelier Marnie Old discuss their book, He Said Beer, She Said Wine, Tuesday at 7 PM at the Book Stall at Chestnut Court.

Our European correspondent Bob McCamant, reporting from Europain 2008, sent this dispatch on the fate of Argyle Street baker Peter Yuen in the annual World Cup of Baking. Yuen, a member of Bread Bakers Guild Team U.S.A., was the subject of the Reader's March 20 cover story.  

Paris, April 2, 2008: The French team won Le Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie for 2008, delighting a crowd of enthusiastic French baking students who swelled the ranks of fans. The contingent from Taiwan won second place, Italy third.

For Team USA, the only bright spot was Chicago's own Peter Yuen, who took fourth place in the individual Viennoiserie category. "This means I get to come back to France in two years to compete in an individual competition," he said.

The scoring for the competition changes from year to year, and much depends upon the personal opinions of the judges, none of whom are from countries with entrants in the competition. Factors include taste, appearance, timely production, and even cleaning up your kitchen at the end, which falls under the heading of "professionalism." The problem is that nobody seems able to predict how the various categories will be weighted in any given year. Team USA suffered from some bad luck in the artistic design category, which was the responsibility of Dara Reimers, from Maine. Her representation was of baseball and apple pie, and she constructed a window in the process of being broken by a baseball knocked through it. The intentional breakage part worked fine, but unexpectedly, the window frame itself split in several places (mind you, everything in the construction was composed of bread or other edibles). This required patching, which took up extra time and left Reimers--who'd been supposed to work on sandwiches as well--behind in her duties. The team finished 22 minutes after the deadline, but until (or if) the scoring is announced, nobody will know how much they were penalized.

The third U.S. team member was Solveig Tofte of Minneapolis, who was responsible for the baguette and specialty bread competition. Each team was required to prepare baguettes from a standard "traditional" recipe as well as ones in unusual shapes, which were required to have ascorbic acid, a frequent additive in French baking but one with which she normally does not work. Here again, in these categories it's very hard to predict how the scoring will go. It all depends on the opinions of the judges, and even renowned experts disagree on who makes the best baguette in Paris. (For my part, the best of ten or more I've tasted on my visit is that of Eric Kayser, with the one from Arnaud Delmontel coming in a close second.)

Dara and Solveig joined a female team member from Mexico this year in sexually integrating the competition, which previously had been men only.

The Coupe du Monde is only a small part of Europain, an international baking show held every three years in Paris. Europain 2008 occupied four giant halls of a convention center near Airport Charles De Gaulle. There was some irony in the handicraft contest being held in the maw of the huge trade show, with its vendors of everything from bakery signage to machines that can mix dough, form it, raise it, and bake it with little or no human intervention. But many commercial bakers got their start as artisan bakers, so they would often stop by to see what the competitors were doing. And actually, these artisan competitors made use of mixers, digital scales, and electric ovens with multiple shelves magically maintained at a controlled temperature and humidity, so that a baker of 1808 who could have produced most of the same products would have done so in an entirely different way.

The Korean fast-food invasion continues. Last week Monica Eng reported the April landing of South Korean frozen yogurt chain Red Mango in Evanston and Naperville. Happily, I can report that Red Mango is tasty stuff, having enjoyed it in Seoul a few years back. I know the picture to the left doesn't look terrifically special, but the yogurt--available in vanilla or green tea, with a variety of toppings (fruits, nuts, candies)--has a subdued sweetness and a pleasing tang, you know, like an actual dairy product. I can't say how it compares the current national fro-yo obsession Pinkberry, but lots of others have.

Pinkberry, which which was founded by Korean-Americans in California, has frequently been accused of ripping off the Red Mango model ever since RM arrived on the west coast two years ago. And that was only the first salvo fired in a veritable proprietary battle royal of Korean-affiliated frozen yogurt concerns. Now, with Red Mango establishing the first local beachhead and Pinkberry rumored to be on the way, are we the next front in the Korean fro-yo wars? And how will little Starfruit and Berry Chill survive the onslaught?