Entries associated with the tag "Southern Foodways Alliance":

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.

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.

This weekend marks the inaugural event of the Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance, "dedicated to celebrating, exploring, and preserving unique food traditions and their cultural contexts in the American Midwest." Though the organization is still in its infancy it has some heavy hitters behind it, including Roosevelt University food historian Bruce Kraig, Kendall Culinary Arts Dean Chris Koetke, LTH-er and Chicago Culinary Historian-Foodways Roundtabler Cathy Lambrecht, and food scientist Kantha Shelke. The very idea of the organization indicates it has the potential to attract the kind of funding that the heavily budgeted and highly successful Southern Foodways Alliance wins (on which it is modeled)--and a number of commercial food producers have ponied up cash and product to get things rolling.

Saturday's program is titled "Stuffed: A Journey of Midwest Sausage Traditions" and itself features a formidable roster of sausage scholars, including Andy Smith, editor in chief of the newly updated Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Buz Waldmire of Cozy Dog in Springfield (home of the corn dog), and my pal Peter Engler, who has singlehandedly rescued the South Side mother-in-law from obscurity. Lunch alone may be worth the cover charge, featuring Vienna Beef hot dogs, corn dogs, Michigan's Coney dogs, brats and sauerkraut, sausages from Ream's Elburn Market, Toledo's Tony Packo hot dogs, mother-in-laws, and a Milwaukee specialty known as "sausage salad."

It starts at 9 AM at at Kendall College, 900 N. Branch. Registration is $35.