|
about stores recipes pictures links archives contact |
2002.february.28 ---------------- last night bekah came over and made us some rockin lasagna. she stopped at pete's on the way to my house to pick up some ingredients, and while mexican food staples are cheap and abundant in my neighbourhood, italian groceries are not. she was able to get noodles and sauce, but the procurement of proper cheeses proved more difficult: instead of mozzarella and ricotta, we used chihuahua and cotija. to be accurate, smellen had some mozzarella that we mixed in with the chihuahua, a blend that i've used before to make pizza quesadillas. overall, the dish turned out great; the only real difference i could tell was that the cotija made it a bit saltier, which was fine. i love the way chihuahua melts, so no complaints there. --- something i noticed yesterday: the walgreens by my office just installed automated checkout machines, two of them. because i'll try anything twice, i used one to purchase some batteries for my new digital camera (thank you mark!). while doing so, i looked over at one of the cashiers and felt a wave of guilt: how many jobs or employee hours does even one of those machines eliminate? it's a difficult issue. on one hand, i love the application of technology into daily life; i'd be the first (ok, maybe third) to sign up for bioimplants and such. however, self checkout machines are such a blatant way for corporations to cut employee hours. not to mention that the human factor will always be appreciated by the majority of the population, myself included. i've done a fair amount of searching, but can't really find much information (specifically: hard numbers) on how self-checkout affects employment rates. apparently there's a fairly high turnover with retail cashiers, (i hadn't realized that, since i once held the same cashiering job for three years), which self-checkout machines alleviate. so i haven't made up my mind on how i feel about them. everything in time, i guess. 2002.february.27 ---------------- i got email from this guy, jeff grabowski, who has been unjustly fined by the city of chicago. what he did was organize the collection of unsold perishable food from several farmers markets around town, and donate it to local food kitchens and missionaries. for three weeks in october, jeff picked up several hundred pounds of food that would have otherwise been composted, and used it to feed hungry people. for that, he was charged with two counts of deceptive practices and one count of operating a business without a license. when he was able to prove that he had indeed given the produce to specific food kitchens around town, the deceptive practices charges were dropped. i'm posting his full letter here, including his communication with chicago's department of consumer services. as i read about his saga it became clear that the same department that maintains operation food basket is just another component of chicago's bureaucratic machine. more information on how to help end hunger in chicago is available on jeff's site, parchicago. 2002.february.26 ---------------- last night ellen and i made dinner for tom, an old friend from college who will be returning to california soon. in the spirit of things, we made burritos (and margaritas), but deviated from the more traditional ingredients we usually use, instead making them california-style. ellen found the recipe on the phunky bitches list a while ago, and we've been looking for an excuse to fix it. black beans, tofu, corn, chiles, spanish rice...i'm getting hungry just thinking about it! good thing there are plenty of leftovers. as a variation, i want to try substituting tvp for the tofu next time. still on the phunky bitches tip: the frustrated chef is a food blog to which i've been meaning to link. today's entry has a miso soup recipe, which put a big smile on my face. miso = goodness, and that's that. --- mmmmm, chocolate, finally: last friday i left the austrian dark chocolate bar that i bought at devon market at work. when i tried to eat some yesterday, the five (yes, FIVE) novocaine shots i received at the dentist that morning made the chocolate taste all metallic and gross. not being able to enjoy good chocolate is such a terrible feeling; i spent most of the day in frustration because of it. but today i can feel my face again, and polished off the chocolate, savouring every melty piece. 2002.february.25 ---------------- sunday the roommates and i joined lacey for some mag mile shopping action. after leaving the sanrio store, (where i purchased a chococat shower cap, wallet and stickers), lacey commented on how funny it was that i was so anti-corporate groceries but simultaneously squealing over sanrio gear, it being ueber-corporate and all. i kind of laughed that off; after all, i am just another fucking consumer. fuckcorporategroceries isn't revolutionary; it could be construed more as a statement of how much i care about food, not politics. sure, i'd love to see changes made both inside and out of the system, but i'm also realistic, and somewhat jaded in the politics and revolution arena. not to mention the fact that sanrio is the most amazingly successful merchandising machine ever. they can stick cute characters on the most random plastic crap and sell tons of it. most of their items aren't even that expensive, so it's easy to rack up a decent tab without realizing it. sanrio has merchandising down, it's quite an awesome spectacle. anyway. after leaving the north bridge shops, we headed over to fox and obel. by this time i was feeling a bit yuppified, but hanging out in that part of downtown always makes me feel that way. my goal in going to fox and obel was to try one of the vosges black pearl truffles: ginger, wasabi and dark chocolate. unfortunately they were out, so i settled on a balsamic truffle, which was not at all vinegary, though it contained 10 year-aged balsamic vinegar. the other thing i got there was a five dollar beef and veal meatloaf. i know, i know, veal is bad. but the only other meatloaf the deli had was turkey, and that's just not a real meatloaf. (incidentally, my fave restaurant meatloaf is currently supplied by wishbone, where it's the special on mondays but i go on tuesdays so i can have it in sandwich format.) what was interesting about the deli was that when you ordered something, a chef jacket-outfitted employee would eagerly suggest several sides. i was encouraged to also buy macaroni and cheese and roasted potatoes. i'm fine with picking up stuff at a deli for dinner, but fox and obel was starting to feel like boston market. i can fix my own damn side dishes, thanks. i can honestly say i wasn't tempted to buy much else there, though not for lack of good product; i just wasn't feelin it. plus some of their prices were just ridiculous: a half ounce packet of dried shitake was priced at six dollars. yeah, right. --- after we came home i steamed up the asparagus i bought last week and ate it with salt, pepper and butter. (note to self: must buy pepper mill soon!) however, it felt like spring today; the season isn't that far away now, which means asparagus will be popping up all over. anyone have any good asparagus recipes or serving suggestions? i'd love to hear them. 2002.february.24 ---------------- sushi epilogue: i finally got my sashimi fix saturday night. after the anonymous federated gathering, aidan, dave, ellen, jeff, naz, and i went to matsuya, where i consumed raw tuna, salmon, scallop, crab, octopus, and more. our feast put me in quite the sushi coma for a few hours afterwards, but it was so worth it. definitely, good times! 2002.february.23 ---------------- thursday night after i got off the el i ducked into m.o. food store, a small shop that carries african food. they had a very limited inventory, mostly huge bags of rice, beans, and some canned staples. the thing that i was most interested was what appeared to be an african choco-drink. it was packaged in metal canisters; i wish i had written the name down. after visiting enough ethnic food stores, i'm making the hypothesis that the majority of cultures have developed their own version of a chocolate drink. some kind of statement on globalization could probably be extracted, but for now i'm more concerned with gathering examples... 2002.february.22 ---------------- last night ana took me to devon market, which had been on my "wish list" of places to scope or whatever since i spotted it after the last chicago bloggers meeting. i wanted to stop in at casablanca bakery, but they closed at 7, and i didn't leave work in time. on the way there, we passed several indonesian and pakistani grocers that i'd like to go back and check out, but i had to restrain myself. taking the el home and transferring lines meant limiting my purchases to stuff that wouldn't be a heavy carryback. anyway: devon market. the produce section was rather extensive, great pepper and chile selection, and some decent looking plum tomatoes. i finally learned what those cactus-y broad leaves are called - nopales, or prickly pear cactus. i'll have to get one sometime and try using it in a dish, though apparently it's also good for healing bruises and dressing wounds. their meat selection was fairly robust and fresh, as was their seafood counter. there was also a separate refrigerated case entirely for mexican cheeses. the asian section was not much more than a well-developed endcap, but at least there was some representation. i thought about picking up a tube of wasabi, but decided to hold off till i was somewhere with a greater variety. next up was the best aisle in the store: mexican goods on one side, polish on the other. i essentially ignored the mexican side, since a greater selection of all those products is readily available around my neighbourhood; i haven't been to a polish grocery in years. since i didn't want to carry lots of heavy stuff all the way home i stayed away from hardcore food staples and bought more extraneous items, specifically lots of chocolate, starting with napolitanke mocca wafer cookies, which were really good. i almost got sucked in to getting one of the multiple nutella-esque spreads: viki, choco-way, or europacream. then i remembered that dairy hates me. so i reached for a huge dark chocolate bar instead; i'll be sharing it with my vegan buddies later today. i hope it's very bitter. we also got three small polish candybars for 33 cents each. two were chatwa, this thick dry nougat-y stuff that i didn't like very much. the peanut buttery one, czekoladzie, was covered in chocolate, while the vanilla one, waniliowa, was chocolate-free. i didn't eat much of either of those. the third, mikado, came in a japanese-style wrapper with writing in polish. it was pretty good, milk chocolate and puffed rice. i also bought some vegeta soup and vegetable flavouring, which contains msg. i debated not getting it because of that, but i personally have no allergy to it, and this huge bag of it was like, a dollar. i'm really curious what it tastes like. their bread section was fabulous, lots of heavy darks: rye and pumpernickel and such. i bough a loaf of challah, which i hadn't had in years. it's from val's bakery in skokie, and while it was good, it wasn't as sweet or moist or eggy as i like it to be. perhaps the strangest thing i bought was thomy delikatess mayonnaise in a tube. i had to. mayo in a tube! admittedly, when i put it in my basket i somehow thought that it was actually mustard (maybe that had something to do with the yellowness of the packaging). when i got to the register i realized it was mayo and i bought it anyway, for the novelty factor. i wouldn't use it for tuna salad or anything, but i'll try it on a sandwich sometime. my purchases: + a loaf of challah bread + 7 oz. majestic chocolate bar (dark) + 1 packet hot and spicy shin ramyun + thomy delikatess mayonnaise (in a tube) + napolitanke mocca wafers + 3 polish candy bars + 1 box plain couscous + vegeta seasoning + 1 box vanilla rice dream + some pre-peeled garlic (for ana) total: $16.41 stuff i didn't buy but considered: a jar of tahini, ghirardelli coffee, a 2 liter of tahitian treat, a jar of krakus "vegetable salad #4" (for the name alone), pitted sour cherries, a bag of generic cereal (side note: they redesigned the cookie crisp box, my fave sugar cereal from when i was a kid!), and sabinas corn chips, which ana claims are better than el ranchero. 2002.february.21 ---------------- started off today with some sweet bagel goodness. oh yeah. tonight after work, i'll be trekkin it up north for a visit, and as part of my effort to explore other neighbourhoods' stores (especially the devon area, though i don't know if i'll get to hit that tonight). i'm not really sure where we are going to shop; there are several markets in the edgewater/rogers park area that i want to check out, but i don't know if they're within walking distance of where i'll be. if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know; if i don't make it this trip, there will always be future excursions. oh, and i'm still craving sashimi. 2002.february.20 ---------------- ahhh, the afternoon espresso. would my day be complete without it? i'd hate to have to find out. we're out of coffee at home (the normal stuff, no espresso machine at the abode), and that's just not acceptable. i have some nescafe classico as backup, but i'd rather not resort to instant. a friend of ours works at the coffee and tea exchange, so i could go there. i've been wanting to try the beans they have at stanley's; i vaguely remember seeing that they're organic, and i'm well overdue for a stanley's run. there's also a small selection at cyd & d'pano...good coffee is something i have no problem paying a lot of money for. no more over-flavoured stuff for a while though. our last bag was bought at family fruit market, vanilla hazelnut. it was sickeningly sweet, enough to revert me back to plain roasts for a while. though i'd like to work the old grind-a-cinnamon-stick-with-the-beans trick, especially since i still have a fair amount of the world's best cinnamon left to use. 2002.february.19 ---------------- yesterday i was craving sushi all afternoon, hardcore. smoked salmon, or fish eggs, or some tuna maki from sai cafe (i love their tuna implementation). no one was really up for going out, so i checked the hours for tokyo lunch box; it said they were open till six. i figured i could take a slight detour off the blue line at the la salle stop and pick up some carryout. so i left work early, dreaming of sashimi. arrived at lunchbox by 5:30, read the sign that said "open for dinner 4-6pm" and had to restrain myself from kicking the door in when i saw that all the lights were off, it was closed. (yeah, i know, it probably had something to do with washington's birthday.) i rode the el back thinking all was lost; didn't know of anyplace else near me where i could buy sushi to go (yes, whole foods sells it but i loathe the place, refuse to support it). walking home from the station, i picked up a can of beefaroni at carniceria y fruteria roman: comfort food, sure, but not what i was craving. [side note: i'd like to make my own beefaroni-esque casserole sometime, i don't think it would be difficult at all.] when i got to my house, ellen and aidan were sitting on the couch, stomachs growling. they wanted thai but were not willing to go out. then i remembered that thai lagoon delivers, and has maki! so i called in their dishes (pad siew and chicken cashew), plus two orders of the tuna rolls with mango and red pepper for me. yep, mango and red pepper tekka-maki: not a combination i would have come up with myself, but the flavours compliment each other well. as for dining out, i wouldn't go to thai lagoon for just sushi (itto, what!), but they sure came through last night. plus, i'm warding off a cold (hence the sushi crave? whenever i eat it i feel stronger, kind of like spinach). i've never really liked ginger much; i know it's good for you, but i had some bad stuff years ago and have been haunted ever since. however, last night i consumed every last bit of pickled ginger that came with my order, and most of the wasabi. perhaps yet another of my tastes is shifting... 2002.february.18 ---------------- let's talk about tortillas. we've been on a taco kick at my house lately, a nice change from burritos (last summer's kick) and quesadillas (last fall). yesterday afternoon, on the way for some vitamin g (that's greasyfood-as-hangovercure), i saw a van delivering fresh tortillas to pete's; i believe the company was atontolico, though i can't find any information on it. the address on the side was somewhere in chicago, somewhere close. i've always been partial to soft flour tortillas, because you can fold them. and they come in such an assortment of sizes...ok i'll admit it, i'm biased. i've never really liked corn tortillas, until recently that is. they're too much like potato chips, which i'm not a huge fan of either. however, tastes evolve, and mine are no exception. the first thing to change my mind about the whole corn situation was el ranchero chips, the best chips i've ever had. besides the fact that they're super crunchy, thick, and have the perfect amount of salt on them, they're always fresh: the company that makes them is only a couple miles from my house, on kedzie. that's one of the awesome things about my neighbourhood: the abundance of fresh, locally-produced mexican food staples. we ran out of tortillas friday night so ellen walked a few doors down to pick some up, but wasn't sure how much money it would be. she brought a dollar and some change; a pack of ten ended up costing twenty cents or so. as for soft tortilla, i prefer flour to corn, mostly because they're more substantial, though it's a flavour thing too. however, this weekend i tried hard corn tortilla tacos and really liked them. from now on, i'll be switching up the soft and hard shells in my taco assembly, though probably at a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio. 2002.february.16 ---------------- one of my college roommates, sara jane, flew in from north carolina today. ellen took the blue line to o'hare to pick her up, and they stopped at panadaria la central for some bread on the way home. for lunch we had warm goat cheese and roasted red peppers on french bread, accompanied by a salad of endive, with the cheese and peppers, and some balsamic vinegar. in addition, i made salad caprese with those great tomatoes from cyd & d'pano. where to buy goat cheese had been an issue; i looked around in greektown, but found mostly feta, in bulk. i know there are some good cheese shops in town, but didn't have the time last night to seek them out. ellen had to go to whole foods for the peppers, so i accompanied her (though i purchased nothing there). the cheese section of whole foods is pretty nice, three cases full, well developed selection. i wasn't surprised; whole foods has a lot of stuff that i'd love to buy. but i didn't even let myself look around while we were in there: once i saw the strawberries for seven dollars it was over, i had to close my eyes to the place. i tried to go to whole foods this time with a somewhat more open mind, since my last visit there was so terrible. too bad my feelings for it were just reinforced. it pisses me off that they have so much food that i would love to cook and eat but can in no way afford. plus the mass marketing of a holistic lifestyle weirds me out. it shouldn't; almost every culture seems to be up for co-opting, easily commodified, profited from. anyway, lunch was exquisite, it's a nice day, and old friends are in from out of town, will be gathering at our house tonight. this is shaping up to be a good weekend! 2002.february.15 ---------------- after work yesterday atom and i drove around to a plethora of stores (ok, four), securing ingredients for dinner, and crackers and applesauce for a sick zoe. first stop: cyd & d'pano, the just-opened gourmet store at 1325 w. randolph. i walked in and was immediately taken with how beautiful all of the produce was: a dozen different kinds of apples, hearty asparagus, chunky broccoli. once i got past the fruits and veggies i noticed the incredible amount of fake meat they stock, as well as fake cheese; this is a very vegan-friendly store. in addition, they had every kind of silk available, including silk chai, which i didn't even know existed! as for their deli, it could use a little work: your basic salads (tuna, chicken), some pasta, some meatballs. i spotted the fresh mozzarella balls and had to try some, which of course, meant picking up some tomatoes for salad caprese. we had one of the plum tomatoes last night and i must say it's the best tomato i've had all winter, not at all gamey, sweet to taste, deep red, juicy. i had the tomatoes and mozzarella, so i had to pick up some fresh basil, which was next to the bulk sun-dried tomatoes. another thing i saw there that i wanted to try was their own olive oil, infused with rosemary and garlic. their freezer case contained a lot of greek stuff: phyllo dough and such, which seemed a nice homage to the proximity of greektown. last stop was the bakery case, which seemed kinda sparse. i'm giving them time though, they just opened. i picked out a rum ball to split with my roommates, and headed to the register. my total was less than i thought it would be, so i splurged and got the asparagus, bringing it to: + 1/4 lb. fresh mozzarella + 5 plum tomatoes + some basil + asparagus + rum ball total: nine dollars and some cents overall i was happy with my experience. the staff was very helpful, and friendly; i'm sure they'd order special stuff on request. family fruit market still has better fresh mozzarella, but i would definitely go back, and not just because it's so close to my office. oh, and they give away caramel apples to kids. --- after that we headed to the intersection of california and milwaukee for non-gourmet foodstuff. the juxtaposition of cyd & d'pano with los cuatros caminos supermercado was rather mindblowing in the use of space alone. cyd & d'pano was lofty, plenty of unused open space, whereas the supermercado was like almost every little store in my neighbourhood: tight aisles, crowded with products, kind of dark. i didn't buy anything at the supermercado, though atom did (crackers and applesauce for zoe). there's a definite correlation between a store's use of space and median cost per item; the more wasted space in a store, the more likely their products are expensive (i first noticed this at fox & obel). --- the last two stops were vas foremost, where i picked up a bottle of bordeaux for dinner, and panadaria la central. the panadaria will probably inspire me to get off the train at the california stop more frequently now, instead of western. it's self-service: grab a cafeteria tray and some tongs and go to town. i got three huge cookies, which came to 86 cents. next time i'm trying the sweet breads. when i got home, ellen was browning some beef that she'd picked up at pete's for $2.08/lb. i haven't really bought meat (ever, it's just something i order in restaurants now), so i'm not sure if that's expensive or not, but it doesn't seem to be. we spiced it up and made some killer tacos, which we shared with ana, accompanied by the bordeaux, followed by the rum ball and cookies. quite a lovely dinner! 2002.february.13 ---------------- i've been thinking about packaging lately, the role it plays in peoples' selection of products. remember when all generic food came in black and white labels? i do. when i was in grade school, dominick's had a generic aisle, nothing but black block text on white labels. now, generics are not only integrated with brand-name products on the shelf, but also have coloured, designed packaging, often emulating a popular manufacturer. what i want to know is: how much of a difference does the packaging shift make? evidently it does matter; if you do a google search for "generic packaging" most of the results are tobacco-related. the only generic that i buy on a regular basis is wal-phed, the walgreens version of sudafed. i'm not opposed to generic food; when i was vegan i compulsively bought generic sugar wafers, since they were usually animal byproduct-free. oh boy, i just opened up the brand loyalty metaphorical can of worms. it's true that most people prefer one manufacturer's version of some product over another; just a few weeks ago i did the goya / la preferida taste test for chickpeas (goya won). what's interesting about brand loyalty is the reasoning behind it. for example, i buy green giant canned green beans because my mom always did, i never bothered to do a comparison. something tells me i wrote a paper on this subject years ago, and i'm kind of busy today, so i'll shut up now. 2002.february.12 ---------------- it's fat tuesday, do you know where your paczkis are? we got ours from bake for me, on roosevelt. i'd review the place but i didn't go; patti brought them in to work. so it's only tuesday and i'm already kind of sick of pastries; yesterday someone brought in danishes from dinkel's, and tomorrow, as all wednesdays are, is bagel day. last week was all about muffins from red hen and donut holes. my company sure likes its pastries. sitting with a bellyfull of paczki, i realize once again how much i really need to find a place that will sell me rice dream by the case. i feel a mission coming on. for now i'll make due with some coffee. this month i discovered the lo-fi goodness that is the french press when someone brought one in for work; now i'm wanting one for home. i really can tell the difference, though when i try and describe it i end up sounding like a coffee ad: more robust flavour, straight to the head. one thing to be aware of about french press coffee is that it's best consumed right away. if you leave it sitting around some of the more fine grounds settle to the bottom, though not to the scale of greek coffee. 2002.february.11 ---------------- lots of food shoppin' this weekend, and consumption. it began friday night, when some friends came in from out of town bearing gifts. martin showed up from ann arbor with the most michigan of beverages, vernor's, and a bottle of jack. another friend, frank, flew in from the netherlands with a box of leonida's chocolates for me. nice way to start the weekend huh? saturday morning i got to check out cermak produce, the store i'd been wanting to try at north and washtinaw. we were just there for bacon, eggs, and oj; i was too bleary-eyed to really shop around. but i want to go back! their produce section is huge, reasonably priced, and everything looked fresh. i think i've found my new broccoli connection. overall, it seemed to be a souped-up jimenez, not so dingy, and with a frozen food section. saturday afternoon we ventured down to fox and obel, i finally got to see what all the hype is about. the deli certainly was spectacular; i was very tempted to buy the beef and veal meatloaf, and a couple of their salads. i would definitely buy steak there, they had some wonderful looking porterhouses, and other interesting raw meat creations. and the wall o' vinegar. wow. now i know where to go when i want to try a different kind of balsamic. the rest of the store was just ok, seemed to be an inefficient use of space. they had specific ethnic sections, asian, mexican, middle eastern, but i all i could think about how much cheaper stuff would be at ethnic specialty stores, where there would also be ten times the selection. the olive bar was a good example of this; i can think of three stores within a block of my office that sell more, better olives for less. what really blew me away, though, was the chocolate bar. the bakery looked ok, (artopolis has it beat, hands down), but i was taken with the designer chocolates: vosges and christopher norman. vosges tended to be spheres, truffles about an inch around, selling for $1.80 each. they were filled with unusual mixes; i saw one that was wasabi and ginger and dark chocolate. christopher norman specialized in the eight-bucks-a-piece range, though i had never seen chocolate like that. really want to go back and try it sometime: two-inch miniatures of caramel apples, pyramids with gold painted hieroglyphics, a mock cappuccino cup. if i didn't have hand-imported belgian chocolates at home i could've blown quite a wad on chocolates at fox and obel. as it was, i left with just a jones cream soda. --- admin note: my email was bouncing for most of this weekend. it should be fixed now. 2002.february.08 ---------------- lunch in bridgeport got me thinking about neighbourhoods, a subject that has already been on my mind this week. there was discussion at a meeting on wednesday (for an upcoming project) about how to define "my neighbourhood": by a radius of blocks or miles, or by arbitrary streets that have become symbolic borders. i had said lunch with rob, who lives kind of near me, and maria and patti, who live in bridgeport (just south of chinatown). they've lived there long enough to know the name, business, and interests of almost everyone on their block, and in turn, their neighbours know them. they've gotten familiar with their neighbours' habits and friends, and don't hesitate to check up on each other when there might be cause for concern. so what makes a neighbourhood? i believe it goes beyond geographical proximity, to familiarity and even camaraderie with the people who live around you. at lunch, maria declared that she doesn't consider places like lincoln park to be neighbourhoods because <generalization>most people there don't even know the people in their own buildings, much less their neighbours down the street. they're more interested in what the neighbourhood can offer them than what they can offer the neighbourhood, other than property taxes.</generalization> have i pissed anyone off yet? i know, i've been in quite a mood this week. but i'll continue. i think that a lot of people move to the suburbs in search of a community, which they equate with security, which they equate with homogeny. those who subscribe to this line of thought are really missing out; there are many thriving communities to be found throughout the city of chicago. which brings up the issue of property, since that's the primary way people become a part of a neighbourhood: within many of these communities, houses are passed on within the family, or sold to friends. i'm not a property owner, though someday i would like my own house. i do live within a few blocks (well, a few blocks + 4, since we moved off maplewood) from a lot of my friends, some of whom i carpool to work with. in a way, we have created our own community, the #mw skin overlaying logan square. this brings me back to the gentrification thing: i've decided to get over it. i don't want to feel bad about where i live when in fact, i love my neighbourhood, from the corner store to my neighbours that i'm getting to know to the crackhead whores. maybe not so much the whores, but still. someone pointed out to me that chicago has always been about shifting neighbourhoods, and he's right. everyone's just trying to find their own place, a corner of this city to call their home. --- as for my corner of the net, j3s.net is back up; queued email should be rolling in soon. it's friday, the weekend is here, and i'll soon go back to happily talking about little neighbourhood food stores, enough of this socio-economic rambling. 2002.february.07 ---------------- food poisoning sucks. i'm going back to bed. 2002.february.06 ---------------- i have been keeping a running list (in my head) of stores to check out, and i think it's time to write it down. first, there's a big produce market on north and rockwell that looks promising. i can't remember the name, but it's a four or five block walk from my house, so i should check it out soon. too bad i never think to walk in that direction; it's not on my way home from the el. cyd and d'pano just opened and i'm dying to try it. apparently it's run by the son of stanley, the guy who owns stanley's produce, and specializes in gourmet stuff. they're supposed to have lovely fruit and vegetables, though i hope they'll be a little more fresh than the average stanley's crop; almost everything i buy there has to be used right away. it's near my office, so maybe if the weather gets a little warmer out i'll walk over during lunch. the other gourmet store whose hype i'll believe when i see it is fox and obel. i usually stay away from the whole navy pier area, it's kinda scary in a tourist way. but i cannot resist a good deli. to be redundant, there are more places that i've expressed interest in for a while but still have yet to try: treasure island, chicago food corp, devon market, thai grocery...the list keeps growing and i want more suggestions. this would be much easier if i had a car, but at least i like riding the train. --- admin note: my main site, j3s.net, will be down for the next few days due to server upgrades and such (thanks, pete). if you email me, it will queue. in theory, everything will be back up by friday or saturday. 2002.february.05 ---------------- last night i finally got around to doing something with ibarra, sweet crystallized mexican chocolate blocks infused with cinnamon. i've seen the familiar yellow packaging in every store in my neighbourhood, and was excited to finally get around to whipping up a batch of hot chocolate. instructions on the box called for two wedges of ibarra per cup of hot milk (rice dream for me) to be mixed in a blender. the result was a steaming cup of frothy chocolate that got thicker as it settled, which my roommates and i enjoyed. i guess you can make it with hot water, but i don't think i'll be trying that anytime soon. afterwards, since the blender was out, we made a couple rounds of margaritas. so now i'm curious about what else i can do with this stuff. i'd like to try it chilled, or in some kind of smoothie. i found some recipes, though who knows when i'll get around to trying them. generally, when i feel like spending a lot of time preparing food i make a big dinner, don't really do much baking. thank goodness my roommates have that covered. --- more on the chocolate-hot-in-a-mug tip: mark just clued me in to the existence of oregon's chocolate chai, and now i must try it. admittedly, i'm a chai snob, prefer my own 12-hour brew to anything that comes from a box. however, oregon is one of the few chai manufacturers whose drink i actually enjoy. i prefer sweet but spicy chai, and like to use honey or vanilla syrup to that end; i've tried it with hershey's syrup but it never quite tastes right. however, oregon uses ghirardelli cocoa, so i'm keeping an open mind about their implementation. 2002.february.04 ---------------- yesterday i turned down a trip to maxwell street market in favour of staying home to get some work done and exploring a new deli that we just discovered nearby: lil guy's. they seemed to be all about overstuffed sandwiches and hawaiian bread, great pasta and potato salad. they also carry sprecher's cream soda, one of the best, and some salt and vinegar chips that i wanted to try but didn't (i'm not a potato chip person). --- some food blogs i've been meaning to link to: foodwords, eating journal, the joy of soup, and a collection of other people's grocery lists. been meaning to write to the admin of that last one, might send him an old list scribbled on the back of an envelope. --- tried something new this morning: i thought i'd had mochi before, the sweet japanese brown rice dessert that you bake. but jen brought in a different kind of mochi today: soft, white squishy patties filled with sweet red bean paste, dusted in some kind of starch powder. interesting to chew on, still have some of the flavour stuck in my teeth five minutes after eating. i don't know any japanese, but i'm guessing now that "mochi" just refers to the brown rice flour that serves as a base ingredient to both of these snacks. 2002.february.03 ---------------- saturday afternoon ellen and i drove up to rogers park for the chicago bloggers meeting (which we were late for because we got sucked into an awesome used bookstore). a lot of energy and good ideas were generated in the back room of the chase cafe, accompanied by a surreal player piano soundtrack. thanks to all who contributed, i look forward to working with you - greasyskillet, kiplog, lay-c, marcneedham, me3dia, no commercial potential, phonezilla, smellen, and somnolent. it's not often that i make it that far north, and driving home up devon was like writing a wishlist: casablanca bakery, devon market, thai spice...i can't wait to explore more of that neighbourhood. 2002.february.02 ---------------- last night we went to visit my old roommates in hyde park. when we got down to the south side we stopped at the grocery store that i used to live a block away from, the hyde park coop, to pick up some wine. since the hp coop caters to the college crowd, i saw this as an opportunity to stock up on several of the items i don't have access to very often. it ended up, however, being an exercise in restraint. the coop stocks plenty of heath food and higher-end items, even bulk food, but everything there is pretty expensive. (members only get a 5% discount one thursday of the month.) i haven't had a decent head of broccoli in months; they had some gorgeous organic ones, but for almost five dollars a bunch. i was determined to only spend cash (i had a twenty bill on me), so i limited myself to: + 3 boxes of rice dream + 1 pkg jumbo smart dogs + 1 bag marshmallows + a big box of honeycomb + imported chocolate wafer cookies total: $20.05 i didn't buy the wine because ellen owed me some money, so she picked up the bottle of bordeaux i picked out. otherwise, i definitely would have had to have used a debit card. i usually buy two boxes of rice dream when i stock up but this time i figured what the hell, i'll go for three. they were $2.40 each, kinda pricey (two bucks is average), but i didn't really care. the marshmallows i got were to make rice krispie treats, so of course i got the big kind. i've been making rice krispie treats regularly since i was maybe eleven, but i wouldn't know how to make them with little marshmallows; through the years i've discovered that 44 is the perfect number of big marshmallows, yields my ideal consistency. whenever i've been to the coop since i moved away i never seem to make it past the imported cookie aisle. this time i got some awesome german dark chocolate wafer cookies, very thin, with a harmonious ratio of chocolate to wafer. before we left we stopped downstairs so my roommates could buy cigarettes in the liquor store. i noticed they carried georgia moon corn whiskey in a jar, something that's been an ongoing joke since return to armitage 2. in the end i got to eat broccoli anyway; tonette and julian had a bunch of vegetables and hommus and dip sitting out when we to the old apartment, upon which i grazed until dinner came out of the oven. afterwards, there was an overabundance of dessert. it was a nice night! next time it'll be our turn again to host the ongoing but sporadic ex-roommate dinner. 2002.february.01 ---------------- got some baba ghanouj last night from sultan's market; it's still my fave in chi. i still don't really know what to make of this place; it feels like a convenience store, but they don't have much shelf stock at all, and half of what they do carry is high-end ethnic food: tahini, special olives, big bags of cardamom, nori... perhaps they don't carry many shelf products because the focus of the store is the deli/falafel stand in the back. i also got a falafel sandwich last night, which was good and loaded down with chili (i ordered it spicy). the only thing that bothers me is that their falafel balls are served cold, but i got past that a while ago. sultan's market also has a decent-looking salad bar that i've never tried anything from, other than the dolmas (which were just okay). last night i noticed they had mushrooms marinated in oil and balsamic vinegar, which i was tempted to try, but ended up calling skips. seems like whenever i go there i always get falafel and baba ghanouj because i know they are good. next time i'd really like to try their lentil soup and a spinach pie, or maybe even one of their deli sandwiches. oh, they carry two kinds of san pellegrino in cans: limonata and aranciata, though jeff and i ended up just splitting a large bottle of lemon perrier. now that i think of it, their refrigerated beverage selection is more diverse than their dry goods. lots of quality teas and juices. a tangent: sultan's market is the closest thing to a convenience store that i've really patronized in the last five months. sure, i've stopped in the white hen by my office once or twice for a candy bar or something, but that's about it. i also haven't been to a target or any other megastore in what feels like a long time. can't say i've missed it. |
