Entries associated with the tag "Saveur":

Yes, we like other things besides pork here at the Food Chain. 

But earlier this month I was rhapsodizing about the country hams my friends and I brought back from Cadiz, Kentucky. Last Saturday we ate them, and I don't think there's a better way to convey their exquisiteness than by posting this photo of a tissue-thin slice of Douglas Freeman's ham (courtesy of Ron Kaplan). We ate this one like prosciutto, and though it was a lot saltier it had great depth of flavor and nuttiness to it. The ham I bought--fifth place in the Trigg County Country Ham Festival--I soaked for two days, changing the water three times. We boiled it for four hours in a turkey frying pot and let it steep until the morning. Next we peeled the skin, glazed the ham with cider vinegar and brown sugar, and baked it. This one had a smokier, more aggressive flavor than the Freeman ham and was powerfully salty despite all that soaking. Both were delicious, though a little bit of country ham goes a long way. The hocks from each went into black-eyed peas and a mess o' greens a la the Izola's recipe in the Chicago issue of Saveur.

Chez Panisse's Alice Waters, champion of local and seasonal cuisine, does Chicago:

• Today at 3 PM, she'll be at Prairie Grass Cafe in Northbrook for a sold-out book signing with appetizers served.
• She's signing her new book, The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes From a Delicious Revolution, at the Michigan Avenue Borders tomorrow at 7 PM.
• At 6 PM Friday, Waters is the featured guest at a reception and five-course dinner at Kendall College to benefit Slow Food Nation and Slow Food Chicago. Tickets are $150.
• Green City Market hosts her 9 AM Saturday book signing.
• At 11:30 AM Saturday, she'll attend a sold-out farm-to-table brunch at North Pond Restaurant. 
• And finally, Saturday at 2:30 PM Waters will give a talk and read excerpts from her new book at Northwestern University's Thorne Auditorium. Audience questions and a book signing will follow. Tickets are $10.

For its France vs. the Rest of the World showdown Thursday at 7 PM, the French Wine Society will select one French wine made from each of eight major wine grapes (e.g., sauvignon blanc, pinot noir, syrah) for comparison with a wine of that grape from anywhere else in the world. Wines will be selected from Chicago-area wine stores and retail for $25 (whites) or $35 (reds). Attendees will blind taste the wines, try to identify which is which, and vote for their favorites. It costs $55 for members, $65 for nonmembers.

Can you list the first-growth chateaus of Bordeaux? The Ultimate Wine IQ Challenge this Saturday and Sunday from 12-4 PM at Sam’s Wines & Spirits aims to separate the connoisseurs from the amateurs (no professional sommeliers allowed, though) with written and verbal tests, plus blind tastings, in three elimination rounds. It kicks off with tastings, games, and prizes, along with a written test for first-round contestants; the grand prize is a $1,000 Sam’s shopping spree. 

Swirl Wine Bar celebrates its one-year anniversary Saturday with a free cocktail and wine reception from 9-10:30 PM. There'll also be hors d'oeuvres and a flamenco performance by Ojos Gitanos at 10:30.

The craze for all things porcine reaches new heights Monday at Osteria via Stato with Swine & Wine, a prix fixe dinner at 6:30 PM introducing baconcello, a creation of wine director Adam Seger. Described as “indescribable, like an infused vodka that’s both smoky and a bit sweet,” it will be served as an aperitif to a five-course meal with wine pairings. Featured items include pork confit crostini, Italian pork sausage with black lentils, risotto with house-cured bacon, pasta with a wild boar Bolognese, and pork chops from Gunthorp Farms. Apparently--thankfully--there’s no pig in the dessert, an almond cake with wine-poached pears and vanilla gelato. It's $69 a person.

The Chopping Block celebrates Saveur magazine's first-ever issue devoted entirely to Chicago with a hands-on tasting event at its Merchandise Mart location Wednesday at 6:30. Saveur editors and cooks featured in the Chicago issue will do cooking demonstrations of recipes from the issue, which will be available for tasting, as will wine and Goose Island beer. Tickets are $60; part of the proceeds will go to the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

Selections from Saveur's October mash note to Chicago--which hits newstands today--are now available online, along with some Web-only content that includes a brief piece by from Hungry's Michael Nagrant on Puebla tacos. I haven't gotten my mitts on the print edition yet, but based on the table of contents it looks like a thoroughly juicy overview. But I couldn't help but sigh through this introductory piece, which, like every piece apparently to be written about Chicago food, suffers from more than a touch of "look Ashley, they've got microgreens in the midwest!" condescension. (Paging Alan Richman!)

Sure Chicago's historically a meat and potatoes town--but so's New York, as anyone who's ever been to Peter Luger knows. Sure, we have a rich tapestry of immigrant food traditions -- but so does New York. And San Francisco. And LA. And sure we're at the epicenter of a culinary revolution right now. But while I don't want to diminish the influence of superstars like Grant Achatz, the idea that sophisticated dining somehow sprang fully grown from his toque in the last three years is a disservice to everyone who's been cooking (and eating) here since Charlie Trotter bought that Armitage Avenue townhouse 20 years ago.

In any event, I can't wait to get the hard copy and see what they have to say about Richard Melman (PDF).

Saveur's July "Steak Issue" just arrived, its cover promising "Our 7 Favorite Steak Houses." I immediately wondered if the venerable Gene & Georgetti made it. Sure enough, there it is between Milwaukee's 5 O'Clock Club and Omaha's Gorat's, the copy hot and damp in its praise of  G&G's "unmistakably masculine vibe."

Furthermore, "The restaurant attracts both tourists and Chicagoland burghers, who look as built into the place as the bricks and mortar. Everyone gets the same superb steaks and and chops, though." 

I might be reading too much into it, but does that strike anyone else as a little coy? Its almost as if author Josh Ozersky, editor of New York magazine's food blog, Grub Street, isn't willing to admit what most "burghers" know. That G&G's is a consummate insiders' restaurant, prime seating and care reserved for celebrities, wiseguys, and politicans under federal indictment (or soon to be). Most people I know appreciate G&G's less for the steaks than for than for this unapologetically old school vibe. I mean the steaks are OK, but it's really the Don Rickles of Chicago steakhouses. You go to get crammed into the bar with your dirty martini, ushered past the swells on the first floor by a grumpy old man, and seated in cheap seats on the second with rest of the rabble. And the tourists.

And that's enough for most people. Every time I see my uncle in Pittsburgh, his jaw slackens, his saliva ducts go into overdrive, and he asks if I've been back to Gene & Georgetti's. No, I'll tell him. I'm waiting for you to take me.