Archive for May, 2008

This week in Omnivorous I ran down a half dozen of my favorite new food books. Here are some more new releases of note:

THE SPLENDID TABLE'S HOW TO EAT SUPPER, Lynne Rosetto-Kasper and Sally Sweet (Clarkson Potter, $35) The Guffawing Grandmarm of NPR's syndicated food show, along with her producer, present a companion cookbook for beginners who want someone a little more sophisticated than Rachael Ray as a sensei. Regular listeners will recognize much of the background information but may be put off by the admitted "hand holding."

THE RIVER COTTAGE COOKBOOK, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (Ten Speed Press, $35) The British food writer, TV personality, and back-to-the-lander has become a cottage industry for DIY food production. Here are clear, precise instructions for everything from gardening to sausage making to choosing a cow to cleaning cuttlefish in the loo.

THE END OF FOOD, Paul Roberts (Houghton Mifflin, $26) Grim, sobering analysis of the widening fissures in the global food system: "Ironically, the problems with the modern food system begin with its very success." This is something you should probably read, but won't have fun doing it.

EVERYDAY DRINKING: THE DISTILLED KINGSLEY AMIS, Kingsley Amis (Bloomsbury, $19.99) Compilation of the late, great English satirist's two volumes on the "drinking arts." Here he is on one of the basic jobs of British vodka: ". . . to replace gin in established gin drinks for the benefit of those rather second-rate persons who don't like the taste of gin, or indeed that of drink in general." The introduction is by another eloquent British lush, Christopher Hitchens.

BEYOND THE GREAT WALL: RECIPES AND TRAVEL IN THE OTHER CHINA, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid (Artisan, $40) Beautiful coffeetable cookbook and travelogue on China's underexposed outlying regions and minority populations. Recipes are as varied and intriguing as Kazakh noodles, Uighur pastries with pea tendrils, and Tibetan bone broth.

Pastoral's Lakeview location offers free samples of La-Dee-Dahs, caramel and nougat swirls dipped in chocolate from the new Chicago company Whimsical Candy, tonight from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. Owner Chris Kadow-Dougherty will be on hand to answer questions; there'll also be wine pairings.

Friday from 7 to 9 PM, Treasure Island Foods (2121 N. Clybourn) hosts a Belgian beer tasting class with Johnny Fincioen of the Global Beer Network and Anthony Norkus of Louis Glunz Beer. They'll lead a sampling of ten beers, including Wittekerke White, Piraat Triple, and Petrus Blonde Ale. $20, reservations required (773-880-8880).

Great Chefs, the annual fund-raiser for the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Chicago, is Friday from 5 to 9 PM at the Sheraton Chicago. There'll be dishes like mango-lobster mousse and mushroom bruschetta from Carnivale, Chalkboard, La Madia, and others, plus cocktails, wine, and a silent auction. $100.

Saturday from 6:30-8:30 PM, Taste Food and Wine hosts a free tasting of Partida Tequila, with margaritas as well as samples of the blanco, reposado, and anejo tequilas.

Also Saturday from 6:30-8:30 PM, Pastoral's Loop location offers a free tasting of their picks for summer picnic wines. 

777 Wine Week starts Monday at David Burke’s Primehouse, which means that through Friday diners can taste seven wines with lunch (11:30 AM-3 PM) for a $7 donation to Common Threads, a nonprofit (cofounded by Oprah chef Art Smith) devoted to kids’ nutrition. There’s a different theme each day, starting with chardonnay and continuing with cabernet sauvignon, summer wine, “new” old-world wine, and South American wine. Chef Rick Gresh will prepare daily specials that pair well with the featured wines.

Geja's Cafe's Winemaker Dinner, Monday from 6:30-9:30 PM, pairs wines from Hahn Estate with cheese, meat, and chocolate fondues. $50 (includes tax and tip). 

Populist Jerry Kleiner's long-awaited answer to the void in Hyde Park's mid-range dining options is admirable—the crowd on my Saturday-night visit to this manifestation of his lurid red-velvet vision of urbanity was integrated to a degree I'm not sure exists anywhere else in town. But while the "classic American" dishes may seem attractive, larded with enough trendy ingredients and nods toward seasonality to set the casual diner's mind at ease, in execution many of those I tasted were middling: crayfish ragout failed to ignite glazed salmon, overroasted roasted halibut filet fused prosaically with its pureed cauliflower, a Spanish chorizo stuffing emphasized the dryness of a roasted chicken. These dull dishes set a tone that now makes it difficult to recall the better things I tried—lamb brochettes with black quinoa were an appealing curiosity, and a superfresh fried calamari salad was simple and well done. Our waiter steered us toward a perfectly good and affordable malbec. He'd had nearly a year to get intimate with the wine list, broken into “sexy reds” and “sexy whites"--whatever that means. That's about how long it took for the liquor license to come through, he said, though the private upper perch, which requires a separate license, was still closed. Is the otherwise swift and efficient bureaucratic process haunted by the ghosts of E2?

All that aside, there's not much here to distinguish Park 52 from the rest in the pack of numerically named restaurants. You can almost hear the ambivalence inside dozens of cars inching down the south-bound Kennedy: "Hyde Park? I thought our reservation was at Table Fifty-Two. Oh, forget it—let's go to Zed 451."    

Park 52, 5201 South Harper, 773-241-5200

I picked up a couple packages of these Malayasian snacks in a Vietnamese grocery in Milwaukee, fully expecting to be grossed out or at least underwhelmed by some artificially flavored chipsimile. Turns out they're real mushrooms--not the kind you reconstitute in liquid, more like those freeze-dried vegetable snacks you find in Whole Foods. At first they were somewhat repellent, with a texture reminiscent of dirt, but gradually the mildly sweet, earthy flavor and the texture of the stems--which reminds me of one of those Lorna Doone shortbread cookies--won me over. The black-pepper-flavor ones have a nice kick, stronger than the wasabi, which are far milder than those sinus-scouring snack peas.

If you see these around town anywhere, $2 a bag isn't a bad gamble.

Like throwing a meaty rib into a pack of hungry dogs, raise the issue of whether there’s truly a  Chicago style of barbecue that can compete with the distinctive smoked creations of Memphis, Texas, and Saint Louis and you may prompt a heated fight among local foodies. But one thing's beyond doubt now: Chicago has a champion barbecue team that hails from . . . Pilsen.

At an event somewhat awkwardly titled the Memphis in May 2008 International Barbecue Competition last weekend, there was superhot-lump-charcoal action featuring some up-and-coming local boys. Billed as the "Largest Pork-Cooking Contest on the Planet,” this low-and-slow showdown attracts some of the most distinguished pit men from across the country.

Headed by Willie Wagner of Honky Tonk Barbecue, the Ques Brothers is a team of Chicago and Memphis chefs that also includes Efrain Cuevas, who in the past year gained notoriety due to his fabulous turducken and his penchant for the occasional underground goat slaughter. The Ques Brothers came in third in the pork shoulder category.

Last year Wagner and his team placed 12th, so if the trend continues they're in the running for the number one spot next year.

The NRA show, the "world's largest food service and hospitality event," hosted by the D.C.-based National Restaurant Association, was in town Saturday through Tuesday at McCormick Place. The event drew 2,150 companies exhibiting everything from industrial flooring to raw seafood and 74,000 restaurant and food-service professionals from around the globe, clamoring for free hot dogs and samples of bacon salt (which is vegan, oddly enough). 

Monday kicked off with a speech from Republican presidential nominee John McCain (perhaps he mistook the event for a different kind of NRA show?) and marked the debut of the first annual International Wine, Spirits & Beer event. The IWSB expo was sequestered from the rest of the show, held in a black-swathed VIP lounge restricted to those “involved in the decision-making process to purchase beverage alcohol in a food service operation,” and required a special badge that cost twice as much as a regular NRA Show pass. The IWSB ran Monday and Tuesday only, and was three hours shorter than the main event, presumably an attempt to prevent orgies of drunken revelry. I'm not sure how well this tactic succeeded--I found myself proclaiming "Oh my god, I am SO DRUNK!" to random attendees in a way I haven't since college. 

The IWSB event was markedly swanky compared to the rest of the show, with lounging areas on the sidelines and tuxedoed staff scurrying about--though the cheese table was demolished by the time I arrived. With more than 60 exhibitors showcasing and offering samples of wines, beers, and liquors from around the world, it was difficult to know where to begin. I decided to start my trek in the spirits section, following the old adage “liquor before beer, you’re in the clear" (I'm not sure where wine falls in that equation). Slow-food loving, Green Party-registered lush that I am, I made a beeline for the organic vodka. 

Square One Vodka comes in a rectangular bottle adorned with, no surprise, squares, and like most organic foods, it just tastes better. Made from organic rye, its relative purity means it can be filtered once and retain the natural flavor of the rye without being harsh. I tried the cucumber-infused variety (which was light and refreshing instead of tasting like body spray) and an incredible basil gimlet prepared by the on-site mixologist. These guys know what they are doing, and as a vodka lover I would definitely spend the extra bucks to pick up a bottle next time I'm at Sam's. 

I was lured over to the Marani Vodka table because of the honey sticks they were giving away, in hopes that ithe stuff would taste like a smoother version of the Polish honey vodka Old Krupnik, much beloved by me. No such luck: Marani is a winter wheat vodka distilled with honey and dried milk, but while it is smooth and delicious, it didn't taste like honey.

Some of the vodka companies were less focused on the content of their spirits and more on gimmickry: the Zodiac “luxury potato vodka” booth (now there's an oxymoron for you) was shrouded in a miasma of dry ice, with an array of vodka bottles inscribed with the twelve signs of the Zodiac. I was served a miniature dirty martini out a shot glass adorned with my sun sign (Taurus) and a coaster explaining my love compatibility with other signs. Another company working a shtick was Saint Charles-based Al Capone Distributing, who sell "dangerously smooth" vodka and tequila in bottles shaped like tommy guns, promising to bring the "taste of the twenties" to your dining establishment. As the "taste of the twenties" was denatured alcohol served out of someone's bathtub, I took a pass. 

Although I'm not much of a tequila drinker, I couldn't resist the Oaxacan bar snacks on offer at the Scorpion Mezcal booth: chapurrines, air-popped grasshoppers seasoned with salt and lemon (chapulines, the traditional Oaxacan preparation with chile and lime, are fried). While living in Japan I became a devotee of inago, grasshoppers braised with soy sauce and sugar, and I can assure you that the crispy chapurrines were equally delicious. They're rumored to go great with guacamole.  Barbara Sweetman, the VP of Caballeros, Inc., took me on a tasting tour of the various mezcals and tequilas, all of which come with a scorpion exoskeleton in the bottle ("You never drink alone with Scorpion Mezcal," Barbara joked). The Scorpion Mezcal Gran Reserva (which goes for $80 a shot at some establishments) was truly impressive, aged seven years and so smooth that it tasted more like a cognac than a tequila (though at that price you might be better off just buying cognac). 

Having lived in Japan, I was eager to check out the two sake companies in attendance at the event. Midorikawa (Green River) Sake imports its traditional cold sake from the snowy region of Niigata, Japan. The company's still looking for distributors, so it may be a little bit difficult to get your hands on their product, but the snow-aged rice wine was very good. Dewey Weddington, a rep from the more-widely-distributed Oregon-based brewery and importer SakeOne, was on hand with a line of gold-medal-winning Momokawa ginjo (premium) sakes ranging from sweet to dry, as well as its fruit-infused Moonstone line. I was particularly impressed by the Moonstone Plum, which tasted like a lighter, crisper version of the typically sweet and syrupy umeshu plum wine, and the Moonstone Coconut Lemongrass, the first-ever infused nigori sake (unfiltered sake with a sweet, creamy taste), which would go nicely with spicy Thai or Korean dishes.

I'd arrived rather late in the day, and the show began winding down before I could attempt to tackle the vintners and breweries. (I was also experiencing the effects of mixing too many different types of alcohol--another flashback to college.) On the way out I made a deliberate detour around the Crown Imports beer tent, where a nubile dirndl-clad fraulein dispensed plastic cups of Saint Pauli Girl while a guitar-wielding balladeer played covers of Johnny Cash and Led Zeppelin. Why pay $195 for that when you can get the same thing for a lot cheaper in Wrigleyville?

This week in Omnivorous we highlighted some favorite barbecue spots in honor of the Southern Foodways Alliance's visit this weekend.  But elsewhere I wrote about Willi Lehner, the "off-the-grid rock star of the Wisconsin artisanal cheese movement" as the New York Times has deemed him. Here's some footage of Lehner's subterranean solar- and wind-powered cheese cave in Blue Mounds, which produces some of the most paralyzingly good Wisconsin cheeses I've ever tasted.

Don't be freaked out by his talk of cheese mites. They're harmless, and most artisanal cheesemakers (and ham makers) have to deal with them, usually by simply brushing the wheels off. In addition to the diatomaceous earth Willi sprinkles his wheels with to ward them off, he also "hoovers" the little buggers with a shop vac, just like they do for Montgomery's Cheddar in Somerset, England.

Starting Friday and continuing through Sunday is the Southern Foodways Alliance's Camp Chicago: An Up South Expedition, a "day camp" including presentations, lunch at West Town Tavern, and catfish 'n' blues at the Hideout on Saturday. There'll be side trips to sample south-side barbecue, bourbon, mother-in-law sandwiches, and soul food; click here for a complete schedule or here to register. $85, plus $45-$55 for each side trip. 

Raghavan Iyer, author of the cookbook 660 Curries, presents Curried Culinary History, covering 6,000 years of spices in India, Saturday at 10 at the Chicago History Museum. There will also be a sampling of several of Iyer’s curries ($5; 708-788-0338 or rsvpchc@yahoo.com). Afterward he’ll be at Marigold for a 12:30 PM book signing and four-course lunch with wine pairings; among the dishes are kadhai paneer with spring vegetables and lamb in a Kashmiri curry ($65).

The free weekly wine tasting at the Logan Square location of Provenance Food & Wine (2528 N. California, 773-384-0699), Saturday from 3 to 6 PM, pairs treats from Tinycakes with Tobin James Liquid Love (a late-harvest zinfandel), sparkling wine, and a couple of nondessert wines. Baker Stephanie Merello, who sells her creations at the Logan Square Farmers’ Market, will be offering individually sized brownies, cheesecake, dark chocolate pistachio biscotti, and double chocolate hazelnut cookies.

Saturday and Sunday from 11 AM to closing time (3 AM Sat, 2 AM Sun; food served until 10 PM) is the fifth annual all-you-can-eat "Rockin' Crawfish Boil" at Blue Bayou, featuring New Orleans-style jambalaya, gumbo, corn bread, Abita beer (brewed in Louisiana), and, of course, crawfish--shipped in live from New Orleans. There'll be music from Hurricane Gumbo (4 PM Sat), the Flood Brothers (9 PM Sat), the Cook County Jazz Commission (noon Sun), and Forte (8 PM Sun), as well as a French Quarter burlesque show by Michelle L'Amour (11 PM Sun). $25 per day.

Less than two blocks from Blue Bayou's celebration, on Sunday starting at noon Toons Bar & Grill will serve up red beans and rice, muffulettas, and andouille at its all-you-can-eat crawfish boil, now in its ninth year. It’ll last as long as 750 pounds of crawfish do, or until the bar closes at 2 AM; Abita Amber beer is on special for $3.50 a pint all day. $25.

A new crop of spring food books is piling up around here, and for partly egotistical reasons I was particularly excited about Renewing America's Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent's Most Endangered Foods, a coffee-table menagerie of heritage animal breeds and heirloom plant varieties that features a short chapter on our favorite critter, the American mulefoot hog. A few months ago the book designer asked permission to use a couple photos I shot for the Whole Hog Project--one a closeup of a fused hoof, and another of a very pregnant Crystal during her days at Hillspring Farm. The book arrived a couple weeks ago, and there she was on page 148. Nice. Then I read the text authored by editor Gary Paul Nabhan, in which he confidently states that the mulefoot is "a breed with fewer than 150 purebred individuals being cared for today."

Whah?

That wasn't even remotely close last year. Further, the chapter gives short shrift to the genetic research and promotional efforts of Arie McFarlen of Maveric Heritage Ranch, who has the largest mulefoot herd in existence. Writes McFarlen: "There is no possible way that there are only 150 breeding animals. Last year alone, Maveric Heritage Ranch registered 97 mulefoots. This added to the 150+ we have registered since 2005, added to the 110 we have on our farm, clearly indicates that there are more than 100 breeding mulefoots. Also, we have started over 25 breeders in the past two years, including the ones in Canada, who each started with a minimum of a breeding trio. That is another 75+ pigs."

The folks at the mulefoot registry in Michigan, who likely have the most up-to-date figures, haven't gotten back to me yet, but they've also started new breeders since I last checked in with them last year. So while I don't imagine the population is anywhere near solid, things aren't as dire as Nabhan portrays them to be. Given that, how should we look at the book's estimations for things like Meech's Prolific Quince, the Cui-ui sucker, or the (hilarious) Tennessee fainting goat?

Saturday at 10 AM at Kendall College (900 N. North Branch), the Chicago Foodways Roundtable presents Chef Louis Szathmáry and "The Bakery" Restaurant, a talk by Barbara Kuck on the Hungarian immigrant who founded the longtime Chicago institution. $3. 

Pastoral will be serving free duck foie gras on homemade crostini at both its Lakeview (2945 N. Broadway, 11 AM-7 PM) and Loop (53 E. Lake, noon-6 PM) locations this Saturday in an impromptu celebration of the city's repeal of the foie gras ban--never mind that the repeal doesn't go into effect till later this month. This may be your last chance to taste the forbidden liver while it's still forbidden; after that it's just controversial like before. 

The Drinking and Writing Brewery celebrates American Craft Beer Week with the second annual Beerfly Alleyfight, a “tri-pairing” of beer, food, and art, Saturday from 1-5 PM at Rock Bottom Brewery (1 E. Grand). Ten home brewers will bring a beer and food pairing, and a local artist will “interpret” each entry “in an ass-kickin’, alleyfight way” in a boxing ring. The artists include Neo-Futurists Jay Torrence and Diana Slickman, dancer Mindy Meyers, potter Marla Seibold, and the musical duo Twang Bang.

The annual Rare Breeds Show at Garfield Farm Museum, near Geneva, is Sunday from 11 AM to 4 PM. This year it features Don Schrider of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, who'll lead a seminar on rare chicken breeding and selection Saturday from 10 AM to 3 PM ($20, reservations required). At the show itself, owners of rare breeds like fainting goats (pictured), Babydoll Southdown sheep, and miniature Hereford cattle will show and discuss their animals. $6 adults, $3 children under 13.

The Chicago History Museum's Exploring Chicago's Yeast Side: A History of Beer, a boat tour with Berghoff beer provided, is Sunday from 6:30 to 9 PM, leaving from the Chicago Line Cruises dock at North Pier, 465 N. McClurg Court. $45 ($40 members).

Sunday from 4-7 PM at Weegee's (3659 W. Armitage), mixologists and Slow Foodies Allen Katz and Bridget Albert host Slow Food Chicago’s benefit "Consider the Cocktail," “a slow celebration of the repeal of Prohibition.” During an evening of “fine drink, long tales, and festive camaraderie” (plus hors d’oeuvres), they’ll give a talk and demonstration on our country’s contributions to the art of imbibing. Proceeds go to Slow Food USA. $50, reservations required.

Tours of the Rick Bayless Organic Garden—a mix of traditional and raised beds, containers, and indoor garden spaces on three adjacent Bucktown lots—begin Wednesday, 6:30-7:30 PM. Bill Shores, who manages the garden, will discuss the chef’s outdoor kitchen, commercial organic vegetable garden, and worm composting systems as well as what’s in season now (salad greens). Additional tours are scheduled for June 11, July 16 and 23, August 13, and September 10. E-mail for reservations and address. $20.

Zinfandel Advocates and Producers is holding a tasting with wineries including Gnarly Head, Peachy Canyon, and Rancho Zabaco at the Mid-America Club Tuesday from 6:30-8:30 PM. $45.

For the last few months my pals Peter Engler and Rob Lopata have spearheaded an ambitious project: a survey of soul food joints, with a particular focus on the many little places that exist all over the south and west sides, quietly serving their neighbors with nary a mention in the media. I've been lucky enough to tag along on most of these forays, and so far I've been present for a few remarkable finds, one of which I wrote about in Omnivorous this week, recalling the momentous day when Peter found a place that sells Mississippi Delta-style hot tamales.

Another I've been meaning to write about for weeks is Doggy's S.S. Soul Eatery. Rob ID'd this little place around Harrison and California months ago, and we've had a couple excellent lunches there that included giant, heaping plates of ham hocks, fried pork chops, short ribs, and a seasonal smothered rabbit special, all at extremely reasonable prices. For instance, a seemingly bottomless bowl of soupy chicken and dumplings, filled with big chunks of rangy meat, charts at a mere $4.50. The sides that come with these show a particular amount of care in the making: green, leafy stewed cabbage; tangy mac 'n' cheese with a thick, clingy sauce; candied yams with pronounced orange and cinnamon notes; spicy and slightly sweet greens; and caramely bread pudding that, along with corn muffins, arrives with each order. Even the sauces on some of the main dishes distinguish themselves--for example, the gravy on the rabbit has a particularly peppery bite (pix attached). 

There's a lot of sports memorabilia on the walls, and someone has won some trophies racing cars. Each time we've visited, it's been filled with old-timers sitting around shooting the shit and playing the dozens. Last time we were told that each day an old woman arrives around three in the morning and makes the day's dishes. 

I wish I could give you a little more background than that. In person the operators are as nice as can be, but so far every time I've called up for a chat I've been offered a big bowl of "get lost." According to a commemorative plaque on the wall they've been around since 2000, but as far as I can tell Doggy's has been overlooked by every search engine, forum, and food writer in town. They're obviously doing just fine without the help.

Doggy's S.S. Soul Eatery, 2815 W. Harrison, 773-722-4037, Mon-Sat 7 AM-9 PM, Sun 7 AM-7PM

Chefs were crawling all over the Green City Market this morning, hauling away flats of purple asparagus, young garlic, and spring greens, which dominate the produce selection this early in the season. Always nice to see that happening outside the context of a photo op.

The usual non-veg vendors supplemented the offerings; beautiful stuff at the Bleeding Heart and (newcomer) Delightful Pastries tables. I got some spring lamb tongues from Mint Creek Farm and some 15-month-old bandaged cheddar from Wisconsin's Brunkow Cheese. Over at the demo table Sarah Stegner was plating it with dandelion greens, and Bruce Sherman put together some radish, asparagus and Prairie Pure Cheese crostini. All in all a typically shiny, happy start to the season, with strangers peeking into each others bags, swapping recipe ideas, etc. Check out the attached pix.

This Saturday Rick Bayless is leading a sustainable ag pep rally at the market. Rah spring!

Tom Tunney's stealth attempt to repeal the foie gras ban just passed in the City Council 37 to 6.

Joe Moore was pissed. After what some say was Tunney's "unprecedented" end run around regular procedural rules, he scolded the council for not allowing a debate on the matter: "Today it happened to me. Tomorrow it could happen to you."

"Thank you Alderman Joe "Foie Gras" Moore," replied the mayor with a dismissive rap of the gavel.

Over at Hot Doug's the only Chicagoan busted under the ban, Doug Sohn, says he'll bring back his foie gras-duck sausage as soon as he sees the law on paper.

As promised, here's video of the new spring mulefoots (and Dee Dee).

 
Apologies to . . .

Steve Rhodes, of the Beachwood Reporter, weighs in on D.T. Max's excellent New Yorker profile of Grant Achatz and his battle with tongue cancer:

The story also says something about Chicago and, perhaps, its bumbled rush to be seen as sophisticated and worthy. "Chicago prides itself on being a city with more daring restaurants than Manhattan," [Max writes]. "The city also has Moto, an Asian-inflected outpost of molecular gastronomy--and the home-town response was unequivocal. The Tribune exalted the very dishes that the Times suggested were contrived or showy, declaring the P. B. & J. opener 'comfort food fit for the Museum of Contemporary Art.'" Which suggests the locals didn't have the guts to say the whole thing is ridiculous for fear of coming off like hayseeds. But whatever. (To be fair, Gourmet did name Alinea the best restaurant in America in 1997.)

OR it suggests that Rhodes, like blinkered Second City sufferers across our fair city, automatically believes in the inherent authority of Frank Bruni and the New York Times over anything anyone in his "hayseed" town might argue. Never mind Bruni's well-documented bias toward the rustic and Italian (not that there's anything wrong with that!). And never mind that New York is hardly a stranger to the mysteries of sous-vide and nitrogen griddles. But most especially, never mind that "Chicago " is not the one in a "bumbled rush to be seen as sophisticated and worldly." "Chicago" did not force Food and Wine, Saveur, Gourmet, or any of the other national food rags to turn their attention to its exploding, innovative dining scene. The international food media has been falling all over itself for the last two years to cover Chicago--a fact easily obtainable, had Rhodes bothered to do any research--thanks to the ahead-of-the-pack convergence here of the two biggest trends of the 'aughts: locavorism and molecular gastronomy--or whatever you want to call it.

(Also, uh, Steve, Alinea wasn't open in 1997, as the NY'er makes clear. The Gourmet accolade came in 2006.)

Elsewhere in the piece Rhodes argues that high-end dining is "decadent and even immoral" given a global food crisis. This hardy perennial of a topic is more interesting, and one that, quite honestly, I'm all over the map on on any given day. (With reason: it might be noted, for example, that Moto's Homaro Cantu firmly believes that molecular gastronomy  can feed the world--in the form of nutrient-enhanced paper and whatnot. Check out this 2006 Fast Company profile for more on that.) But I do think that condemnations of fine dining on "moral" grounds spring from the same sort of reductive romanticization of cultural authenticity that valorizes the Waco Brothers over Beethoven or hip-hop over ballet. That the cultural product in question is food just makes it more complicated, because starving kids don't need music to survive--the closest analogy is actually probably to the fashion industry, which critics routinely disdain as frivolous and amoral (though those critics may well be clad in $12.99 sweatshop-spun Target tees . . . but I digress). The idea that food is a primary need and art and music are secondary luxuries--isn't that what defenders of school arts programs have been fighting against for years? In a diverse, cosmopolitan society isn't there room for both high and low culture, "dehydrated bacon wrapped in apple leather" and hot dogs? Would Rhodes have us seize the CSO's budget to fund the expansionist ambitions of the Empty Bottle?

I often find the excesses of the restaurant industry depressing and disturbing, but temples of mindless conspicuous consumption like Il Mulino are far scarier than a place like Alinea. Achatz is a visionary and an obsessive determined to explore the far frontiers of his chosen medium. If he was a painter, would anyone find that morally offensive?

"Enjoying Wine the Mark Phillips Way," Thursday from 6:30-9 PM at the Stan Mansion (2408 N. Kedzie), features wine, cheese, and "a fun, non-snobby way to enjoy wine" from wine expert and television host Mark Phillips. $40, reservations required. 

Patricia Wells signs her book, cowritten with her husband, Walter, We've Always Had Paris . . . and Provence: A Scrapbook of Our Life in France, Thursday from 4-5 PM at a free wine and cheese reception at the Book Cellar. She'll then move on to Kendall College, where she and her husband will read at the American Institute of Wine & Food's four-course benefit dinner from 6 to 9 PM. $100 (includes a signed copy of the book).

Friday at 7:30 PM at Barbara's Bookstore in Oak Park, George Motz discusses Hamburger America: One Man’s Cross-Country Odyssey to Find the Best Burgers in the Nation, his roundup of what he considers the country’s 100 best burger joints. In both the book and his 2005 documentary of the same title, he seeks independents that have survived despite the rise of the fast-food nation. His Chicago picks? The Billy Goat Tavern and Top Notch Beefburger.

On Saturday the National Association of Letter Carriers and the Campbell Soup Company will team up on the country's largest one-day food drive, Stamp Out Hunger. They're asking people to put bags of nonperishable items next to their mailboxes, which mail carriers will pick up and deliver to a local food bank (in Chicago it'll be the Greater Chicago Food Depository). People can also donate online.

As part of the Chicago Public Library’s Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, Bert Tan of the Chinese American Culture Foundation gives a lecture, The Art of the Chinese Tea Ceremony, Saturday at 2 PM at the North Austin branch library. (He’ll give the same presentation at the Galewood-Mont Clare branch library on 5/17 and the McKinley Park branch library on 5/31). Other programs coming up this month include Chinese Cooking Dim Sum, a cooking demonstration and tasting of shrimp and pork siu mai, and a Japanese cooking demonstration of sushi rice, California rolls, and teriyaki chicken, both by Andrew Comens.

Chefs Didier Steudler and Christophe Pouy from the Ritz Escoffier school of gastronomy in Paris will do a cooking demonstration at the Alliance Francaise on Wednesday from 6 to 9 PM. On the menu: roasted artichoke veloute with Parmesan Reggiano crisp, chicken supreme with an asparagus risotto and wild mushroom fricassee, and tangerine crepes with orange butter sauce. $75.

The Angelic Organics Learning Center explains the benefits of locally grown food Wednesday at 7 PM at Sulzer Regional branch library.

I can't vouch for the giant "kosher-style" menu at Madison's Ella's Deli, but I'll vouch for its chorus line of dancing mutant feet. Last Saturday we'd already had dinner and escaped from the crowded, overrated Old Fashioned, and headed east from downtown, ostensibly for ice cream but really more for Ella's lysergic, animatronic head trip.

I have a friend who remembers the original Ella's in downtown Madison, when it was a small deli serving passable food that gradually declined over the years. That spot is no more, and the second Ella's, located east of the capitol on Washington Street, is more frequently recommended as a place to take the kids rather than a desirable spot to get your fress on. But I can't help but imagine that its real service to the community over the decades has been as a port of call for tweaking U. of W. students looking to enhance the disruption of their neurotransmitters. 

You can spot Ella's fully functioning restored 1927 merry-go-round in the parking lot from blocks away, and inside it's a paralyzing sensory overload of blinking lights, superheroes, clowns, cartoon characters (and a deranged anthropomorphic honeybee) coasting near the ceiling from wires, glass-topped tables with  magnetized games, and the incessant buzzing, whirring, and clacking of Rube Goldberg-style gadgetry (photos attached). The appealing thing about it all is its careworn cast, with everything looking like it's been around much longer than 32 years. We happened to be sitting next to the staff table and chatted up the world-weary manager on his break, eating a roast beef sandwich, who said he started working there two days after it opened. Originally it was primarily done in fern, but gradually the owner, a wind-up toy enthusiast, began to amass the displays.

The New York Times reported yesterday on an area where liver is being sold in restaurants despite an official ban--and they're not talking about Chicago. In Japan, the poisonous liver of the fugu (puffer fish) is considered so delicious that gourmands have been braving death for hundreds of years to try it. Even a taste can be lethal--people have even died merely from eating parts of the fish that have come into contact with the liver--and there's no antidote to tetrodotoxin, the poison in it.

Japanese scientist Tamao Noguchi, however, has been studying the toxin for years and believes it's produced not by the fish itself but rather by bacteria in its food. That would mean that farmed fugu, which accounts for 90 percent of the fugu consumed in Japan, is poison-free. Many restaurants have secretly started to serve the liver of farmed fish, but the National Fugu Association refuses to approve its legalization, insisting that farmed fugu can still be dangerous. So while fugu liver is widely available, you won't find it on any menus. As one Japanese tourism official said, "Officially, you can never eat it here. Well, it's not that you can't eat it, but, no, you can't eat it." Sound familiar?

It doesn't sound like fugu liver will be available in Chicago anytime soon, officially or unofficially. Only specially trained chefs are allowed to prepare fugu, and according to Ai Sushi manager Sandy Lim, Toyoji Hemmi is the only chef in the midwest licensed to do so. Hemmi, who divides his time between Ai and sister restaurant Tsuki, serves fugu when it's in season (from November to January), but has no plans to start offering the liver.

I finally got to see the latest generation of mulefoots under the care of Valerie Weihman-Rock in Argyle, Wisconsin, and brought back a ton of photos (attached) and video (which I'll post later this week). There are 17 new piglets in all, a little more than three and four weeks old.

The Reader's pig, Dee Dee, has undergone some changes since the last time I made it up there. For one, she's huge, and nowhere is that more striking than in her jowls, which have filled out, making her snout appear much shorter than it used to. She seems a lot friendlier too. She'll sniff your hand, talk, and express a curiosity that I haven't seen before in her. Valerie theorized that might have something to do with her getting a lot more attention now that she's a mother--and liking it. Dee Dee had four piglets, including one adopted by Reader correspondent David Hammond, named Ermine. Check out her face while she's nursing--pure, unadulterated bliss.

This week in Omnivorous I wrote about Milan Pelouch, Libertyville author of How to Find Morels, and his wife, Lila, who provided some 14 recipes for the book. If you're lucky enough to sniff out any of the fungi yourself--both the Illinois Mycological Association and Slow Food Chicago are leading forays this weekend--she recommends her fresh morel paté, which only requires about a cup of them.

Lila Pelouch's fresh morel paté

1/2 c. butter

1 c. morels, coarsely chopped

1/2 c. onion, finely minced

2 T. dry sherry or 1 T. sherry and 1 T. chicken broth

2 to 3 ozs. cream cheese

1/3 c. fresh parsley, minced

salt and pepper to taste

Saute mushrooms, onions, salt, and pepper in butter until mushrooms are tender. Add sherry. In a food processor, process cheese and parsley. Add the mushroom mixture and pulse on and off a few times until the mixture reaches a smooth consistency (but leave some mushrooms in small chunks). Serve at room temperature with crackers or on toast points.