I finally got around to reading the Gourmet Magazine from last month. While I didn't catch any mentions of Chicago in their "Cooking Vacations" themed issue, I was pleased to find an entry on the Republic of Georgia.
Georgia is a country at the top of my travel list. When I spent some time in Russia a few years ago, one of the highlights was the prevalence of Georgian restaurants. Chicago doesn't have any full-fledged Georgian restaurants, but we are very lucky to have one of the only Georgian bakeries in the country.
Argo Georgian Bakery is located in Rogers Park and serves up some of the most delicious breads from their "tone" oven. The main reason I visit is to order their incredible khachapuri - a cheese bread that is unimaginably delicious. Their lobiani are also delicious - breads stuffed with kidney beans, garlic and cilantro.
If you would like to try your hand at making your own khachapuri, the beautiful site, The Traveler's Lunchbox has a great recipe. I also highly recommend one of the books she mentions, The Georgian Feast by Darra Goldstein. (Gourmet also provides a recipe with their article).
(Oh, and if anyone wants to fly me to Georgia to write an article, I will happily write more than the one page the Gourmet author mustered.)
Argo Georgian Bakery
2812 W. Devon Ave
(773) 764-6322
- Gemma Petrie |
Blog Thu May 08 2008
The Check Please Effect gets national attention today at Gourmet.com. David Tamarkin laments the fact that the Chicago public television show drains business away from lesser known restaurants and funnels it into the spots featured on the show. He concludes it's not so bad, though, to discover one's own favorites.
- Dana Currier |
News Thu May 08 2008
• Continuing the coverage of Alinea and Grant Achatz: Not one but two profiles in the June issue of Chicago magazine. Plus Men's Vogue has a profile, and the restaurant landed at #21 on S.Pelligrino's World's 50 Best Restaurants list.
• Time Out runs down the best of outdoor seating.
• Nagrant finally made it to Tufano's Vernon Park Tap, recently honored by the James Beard Foundation, and is disappointed by lackluster food and indifferent service.
• Hungry Mag also has a nice photo set from McWethy Farms, a hydroponic heirloom tomato farm, to go with his Sun-Times article on the place.
• Sepia's Peter Vestinos wrote about his experience behind the bar at the USBG National Cocktail Competition for Time Out's blog.
• It's not just your imagination: celebrity chefs from all over are flocking to Chicago to open restaurants.
• Dish gets an early word on Mixteco Grill, new to the doomed corner of Montrose and Ashland, and talks with food writer Patricia Wells and her husband Walter, and chef-writer Craig W. Priebe.
• The Food Chain reports on fugu liver and the controversy surrounding whether you can eat it.
• I know this looks like a brownie, but it's really gingerbread.
• We're the 8th best restaurant city in the world, according to Food & Wine.
• The Veggie Train debunks some vegetarian myths.
• Chicago Bites tries Bull-eh-dia's Tapas Bar.
• Phil Vettel contemplates dim sum for brunch.
- Andrew Huff |
Event Thu May 08 2008
Vie Restaurant and the North Shore Distillery are joining forces for a one-night only tasting menu of food and cocktail pairings designed by Vie’s chef and mixologist teams using North Shore spirits. The May 29th dinner will allow a limited number of guests and provide opportunities for them to ask questions of both the chef and the mixologists. The cost is $110 per person, before tax and gratuity. Vie is located in Western Springs, so get your Metra pass or ZipCar membership out.
- Shylo Bisnett |
Review Wed May 07 2008
There are eight chefs left in the running for big money from the makers of Glad products, a spread in Food & Wine magazine and other name-brand prizes (including the name Top Chef). Antonia notes that this is the first time since the series started that there are the same number of women and men this far along in the competition. All the chefs are getting tenser, but they’re also getting closer. In the opening moments of the show, Spike and Andrew share a hug of sadness over Mark’s departure, until the mood shifts suddenly to joy, because Andrew gets to take over Mark’s spot next to Spike’s hat-festooned bed.
Then it’s on to the reality element of this fantasy show, starting with the Quickfire challenge. This time, Padma says, the chefs will have to tackle a challenge from last season: the relay race. And the judges are going to up the ante. The winner of the Quickfire challenge will no longer get immunity.
Editor's Note: Spoilers here, spoilers everywhere...you've been warned.
Continue reading this entry»
- Lori Barrett |
Mado, in the old Barcello space at 1647 N. Milwaukee, has been open for just three weeks and is getting largely solid reviews, likely helped by owners Rob and Allison Levitt's proven track record at del Toro and others. And possibly also by this peek behind the kitchen curtain.
Mexique at 1529 W. Chicago Avenue hopes to bring chef Carlos Gaytan's Mex-French flair to West Town this month with its made-to-order tacos, fancy tamales, and a full bar to go with brunch. Every day more and more butcher paper comes down off the windows...it's only a matter of time.
After honing his upscale skills at Charlie Trotter's, Trio and Le Lan, chef Bill Kim is opening Urban Belly at 3053 N. California Avenue in Logan Square sometime in June. A family affair that will focus on noodles and dumplings, Urban Belly may also soon be the Northwest side's answer for weekend dim sum. We can only hope.
Dadaist art gets a nod from newcomer Duchamp, also opening in June, from a team taken from Lumen and Zealous. Taking up residence in the old Meritage space at 2118 N. Damen, Duchamp will feature French and Mediterranean-inspired New American plates with a neighborhoody casual-feel. And, egads, more brunch!
- Andie Thomalla |
News Wed May 07 2008
A small essay in the Chicago Tribune's Good Eating section today caught my attention because its subject matter touches on two of my favorite things: words and food.
The author, Kathleen Purvis, muses on the words we've created to describe devoted eaters, such as omnivores, carnivores and, more recently, locavores. Then she wryly dishes out a list of names for some of the "tribes" prowling the modern foodie landscape, including "opportunivores" (people who will eat anything if given the chance); "foodfearists" (adults who still avoid foods they hated when they were kids); and, my personal favorite, "snap-and-eaters" (those who take photos of their food to post , ahem, on food blogs).
- Mandy Burrell |
Orbit Room, Hot Doug's, and Kuma's Corner are getting some diner competition this summer; Urban Belly, an Asian-inspired BYOB eatery headed by Bill Kim (formerly of Le Lan, Trio, and Trotter's) will be located near Belmont and California.
- Robyn Nisi |
Recipe Wed May 07 2008
With all this talk about mice and rats having the run of O'Hare, I decided it was a good opportunity to talk about ratatouille, the summery, stewed vegetable dish of French origins ("ratatouille" literally means "toss food"). A colorful mix of peppers, eggplant, zucchini, tomato and spices cooked in a dutch oven, it's a good use of healthy food, and with Farmer's Market season just around the corner (Green City Market kicks off on May 14!), keeping a recipe handy is a good idea; Smitten Kitchen has a nice photo of her delicious-looking ratatouille experiment, and you can find a range of recipes online.
- Robyn Nisi |
Bar Tue May 06 2008
It's a pretty bold move. To not only feature shochu so primarily on the drink menu, but also name the restaurant itself after the Japanese liquor, that is. Shochu, a type of distilled liquor made from things like barley, buckwheat, sweet potatoes and rice, is definitely not the most approachable of Japanese boozes. For one thing, shochu, at around 25 percent, is more alcoholic than wine and sake. The biting sharpness of alcohol is much more pronounced in shochu than in often-smooth sake. For another, shochu often has an aroma that may not be particularly appetizing to the uninitiated. Many Japanese swear by it, and many others avoid it like vermin. Still others venture into the recently rediscovered territory of shochu with ardent curiosity. Once considered a lower-class beverage, shochu has been experiencing a sort of a renaissance in Japan in recent years, with many shochu bars popping up like bamboo shoots after a rain. And that boom seems to be catching on in the U.S. as well. Shochu, a new shochu-and-small-plates bar in Lakeview, is a great place to try out some without spending thousands to cross the Pacific.
Continue reading this entry»
- Yu Kizawa |
Random Tue May 06 2008
The Stew, a food blog maintained by Chicago Tribune food writers, recently featured a story on newly introduced organic Frango Mints. Apparently, the contest between organic and non-organic Frangos wasn't even close.
We bought two boxes of the classic milk chocolate version in both regular and organic. We asked nine tasters to compare them in a blind tasting. Our panelists voted 8 to 1 in favor of the N.O.F. (non-organic Frango). The prevailing comment: The O.F. (organic Frango) didn't taste minty enough.
For those seeking the real minty deal for dear old Mom, original Frangos are available by the pound at Macy's for Mother's Day, and every day.
- Abbey Gillespie |
Random Tue May 06 2008
I was on a bus this past weekend and struck up a conversation with two frazzled-looking women who were returning from a rough experience. Earlier that day, the women had just ordered lunch while sitting at a restaurant's outdoor patio in Wicker Park (which didn't have a barrier fence around it) when a passerby ran up to their table, quickly stole one of their purses from underneath a chair and ran off. Thankfully, her cell phone and keys were in a jacket. As the victim went through the dreaded notification of her credit card company and bank, she discovered that the thief had already made off with $600 in gas and purchases at a drugstore a few miles away. After expressing my condolences for her loss, I asked if the restaurant had comped her $8 meal. Both women's eyes lit up. "No!" they said. "Can you believe it?"
Does this seem right? Help me out.
- Robyn Nisi |
I bit into the crusty, toasted bread of an Atomix sandwich. The cheese flowed through tomato and steamy spinach. I'd ordered vegan cheese – Tofutti the counter told me. The tofu turkey was sliced in the way I imagine only a deli slicer can do.
From a booth in the back, I heard one man talking to the man working the counter. It was about the turkey alternative they call tofu turkey. I didn't make out the start of it. The counter responded something like, "it's tofu-based." The patron humbly and sincerely asked, why then, is it called turkey? And the counter, in a tone that seemed as objective as could be, answered: because it's supposed to be similar. There was no stress on "supposed to." To someone who hasn't eaten meat in years, the tofu alternative seems to serve its purpose: to provide salty substance with a little chew, and perhaps protein, to a sandwich based on thick, hearty, toasted bread, with plenty of vegetables and a good savory spread like pesto or hummus.
Atomix is the type of low-key, simple coffee shop I come when I want to be free to read a little, nibble on a crumbly vegan coffee cake muffin, or combat the type of strong, primal hunger that demands a dense sandwich – and knows how to be patient while they slowly make it.
- Chris Brunn |
News Mon May 05 2008
• A lengthy, fascinating profile of Grant Achatz appears in the current New Yorker. NYTimes' Diner's Journal has some further thoughts.
• Speaking of Alinea, if you pre-bought the Alinea book, you'd have access to the members-only section of the book site today.
• Wondering where to get a sweet treat for Mothers Day? Centerstage has some tips.
• Or you could send mom some Mexican food.
• The Trib explains just how much of your tip actually goes to your server, and Mike Nagrant elucidates the tension between front of house and back of house over tips.
• Want to hunt morel mushrooms? Omnivorous profiles the author of How to Find Morels; Food Chain offers up a recipe for fresh morel paté.
• Dish learns more about Province, the new West Loop spot from ex-Nacional 27 executive chef Randy Zweiban, and interviews Kurt Serpin, chef/partner at Café Orchid.
• Interested in becoming a competitive eater -- or just watching them? EatFeats has a list of local events for you.
• Several Chicago spots on All About Beer's list of the 125 places to have a beer before you die, including Hopleaf, Map Room, Goose Island -- and John Barleycorn?
• The beer guys at Chicagoist had a busy weekend, not enjoying DarkLord Day at Three Floyd's and discovering Oberon (sort of) has returned to the city.
• There's a local cook's recipe in Rachel Ray's latest cookbook.
- Andrew Huff |
Drink Sun May 04 2008
A 67-year-old man from Glenwood Village has made plans to be buried in style. And by style, I mean a coffin made of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer cans.
- Robyn Nisi |
