When it comes to February 14, I can do bitter better than anyone.
I have probably uttered, “It’s a Hallmark holiday” four times a year for the last 15 years.
Though I have been happily in love for the past five Valentine’s Days, my primary interest in the holiday is and has always been the discount candy the day after.
If you’re like me, you make it your mission to go to every restaurant in the city. If you’re human… you know that’s probably impossible.
So when the opportunity comes along to sample food from 45 different restaurants, cafes, bakeries and juice bars around the Chicago area, in one location, you do it!
Tasting Table, a website and newsletter for foodies, hosted it's second Chicago Open Market on Saturday, December 6th. While the location’s exterior left a lot to be desired, the Red Moon Studio proved to be a fun and festive space, perfect for a winter foodie market, filled with new and veteran artisan vendors.
It is cold outside. Am I surprising anyone? No? Good. While bears may have the easy way out of this one, the rest of us can at least warm ourselves from the inside out. Each culture has its cold-weather staples, but oxtails stand out across the globe.
As January has come in full force, the name of the food game seems to be healthy food. Salads, low carb, gluten-free, low fat; you get the idea. I don’t know about your grandma, but mine didn’t do salads. Of course she ate vegetables, but to call a pile of lettuce a meal would have been considered a joke, and one not well received.
However, while one group of us out there seems to be reaching for the cruel-joke lettuce dishes, the other half of us are reaching for comfort food and of that, my grandma was an expert. So for January, we’re going to foray into Grandma Beresh’s kitchen for my absolute favorite dish, Veal Paprikash, and learn a little bit about the bigger picture of goulash, the quintessential comfort food.
In the days of slaughterhouses, my grandfather, like so many other African-Americans, would make the trek to Chicago for free food. Pig feet, intestines, maws, brains, ham hocks, and other bits of offal that were not commonly sold in stores; this trash was treasure. With many others, he would patiently wait for what was discarded. My grandmother would be overjoyed at this priceless bounty and couldn’t understand why this perfectly good food was being thrown out.
Offal is an example of how ignored food became marketable. After seeing enough people stop by with plastic buckets to collect these pork products, producers began selling them in stores. What was once ignored became recognized as food and became another source of profit. Now pre-cleaned chitterlings are sold frozen in vacuum sealed plastic -a far cry from its previous treatment.
