ronnie_suburban
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Posts posted by ronnie_suburban
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So has this "event" already happened? Is there a date set? How about an upcoming weekend as a time frame?Ok, the weekend of June 5/6th it is. On your mark, get set, go! Do it together, do it in conjuction with the Recipe Smackdown Contest, do it alone, or do it virtually with others, just do it
It's coming up!
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This review, and story about FH, by Mike Thomas was published in today's Chicago Sun Times.
Over the years, Henderson has increasingly emerged as St. John's public face, garnering plaudits aplenty for bravely going where few, if any, of his culinary contemporaries have gone before. At least, not with his degree of purism and commitment. "If you get nervous or frightened of your ingredients, they'll misbehave," he has said. "The ingredients know what you're thinking."=R=
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The Chicago Reader has posted a review of Green Zebra on it's web site.
GREEN ZEBRA, the new, mostly vegetarian restaurant from Spring owners Shawn McClain, Peter Drohomyrecky, and Sue Kim-Drohomyrecky, the dishes have so much flavor and texture you'll never miss the flesh.=R=
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May 26, 2004...
From today's Chicago Tribune - Good Eating section:
Weber world!...Bill Daley reports on the Weber grill's status as a cultural icon.
Cinnamon: A spicy balm...touting the potential health benefits of Cinnamon--especially in certain diabetic patients.
Requiem for a grape?...is Merlot dead? Tom Hyland reports.
Stewart's Bar & Grille...in Buffalo Grove. A "Cheap Eats" review by Carol Mighton Haddix
Illinois wines strut their grape stuff...Bill Daley reports on last week's 7th annual Illinois State Fair Commercial Wine Judging contest.
New bakery blooms in Lakeview...Nancy Maes checks out newly-opened Sunflour Bakery on N. Southport.
Wine selections expand in suburbs and city...a blurb about Bin 36's expanding retail selections.
Market Basket Marketplace...A blurb about The Artisan Cellar in the Merchandise Mart.
Waging fight against hunger from a restaurant kitchen...Biggs Steakhouse donates meals to cafe for homeless.
Hunger Awareness Day puts bite in the fight...Bill Daley reports on local Hunger Awareness Day efforts.
Spicy read...Larry Bingham reviews Madhur Jaffrey's newest book, From Curries to Kebabs: Recipes From the Indian Spice Trail.
From today's Chicago Sun Times - Food section:
The Whole food experience...Mike Thomas reviews Fergus Henderson's The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating
Forever a teacher John C. Roper reviews John Ash's latest tome, Cooking One on One: Private Lessons in Simple Contemporary Food from a Master Teacher.
Upcoming Chicago-area food happenings compiled by Denise I. O'Neal...including an upcoming brunch event at the Ritz Carlton Dining Room to support the Home Grown Wisconsin Cooperative, a group of 25 sustainable family farms and a follow-up on the recent move to Chicago by the Jill Prescott Culinary School.
Tastings Around Town...including events at Salud and Le Titi de Paris.
From the Chicago Reader:
New Spots for Herbivores, Carnivores, and Jocks...includes a review of Shawn McClain's recently-opened Green Zebra.
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Quite a comedown from the original hype and extravagant attention the show initially garnered. Perhaps one season of Rocco would have been sufficient ... and NBC is no doubt just trying to last through the end of the series with no monetary damage ... Pity ...
I'd guess they (NBC and Burnett) are seriously regretting their decision to go with a 2nd season of Rocco instead of finding another restaurant to build the show around.
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I like Treasure Island on Ridge...they carry Meyer Lemons
and everyone there is very friendly. The store seems more than a little grungy to me but I can live with it.I love Lincolnwood Produce and I think it's the best 'grocery store' in northern Chicagoland--especially for produce. But, I sent some friends there who told me they thought it was filthy
I don't agree with them but it's really far from my house anyway, so I don't get to shop there regularly.And I do love Produce World too. Haven't been there since mid March but I was able to successfully do about 90% of food shopping there during the 1st quarter of the year. Then, GFM opened and ever since, I've been choosing the shorter trip over what I believe is the better store.
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Wondering what's up with Check, Please...I haven't noticed a fresh episode in months. Does anyone know if this show is still in production? I definitely miss it.
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But this place is all about being pampered by food.
Sounds like my kind of place. Thanks Brad, for the great report.
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WHOA! Had two slices of sausage thin today at Marissa's.
Not good, they were missing the thin crust that I enjoyed last time.
Certainly an off day.
That's too bad. Sorry to hear it Willie.=R=
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The place is decent but why go there when Sunset Foods is nearby? The quality at Sunset is at least as good and they excel at kissing up to customers. There are a few specialty items at Garden Fresh that aren't at Sunset but I can't see hitting this place for much else.
I dunno. I definitely like Sunset, but I always feel like I'm getting gouged there. That said, they do carry excellent quality goods at Sunset--albeit mostly mainstream stuff--and the selection is pretty decent. It is an excellent, small chain of stores. But, they don't carry things like pork butt, ultra thin pita bread, etc. at Sunset so I find it somewhat incomplete for my regular grocery needs.
But I like 'shopping on the fringes' (which is hard enough to do in suburbia) and that's what I like about GFM--the unusual items, less common cuts of meat & offal, imported dry goods, etc. are what keep me going back there. And as long as I'm going to GFM, it's nice not to have to hit a 2nd store. That said, Sunset will always be in my 'rotation.' And clearly, Sunset's produce is superior to GFM's--even if it is substantially more expensive.
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Easily one of the best pizzas in my life was a Sicilian rectangular slice from L & B Spumoni Gardens in Brooklyn. A friend who grew up in Brooklyn took me here. Unbelievable how good the rectangles were. Had one, then two, then three. I only stopped at three because I did not want to make a pig out of myself.
Pillowy light with a delicious light crisp crust, just the right amount of toppings. ohhh!
L & B Spumoni Gardens
2725 86th St., Brooklyn, NY 11223
Restaurant - 718.449.6921
Pizzeria - 718.449.1230/718.372.8400
Looks like the NYC Pizza surveyors will be hitting Spumoni Gardens soon...
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Ronnie, have you mentioned to them how much you enjoy the store and how you wish the produce were fresher? It might make a difference. We have recently moved, and in our old Minneapolis neighborhood, I had a couple of markets that seem similar. Here in the northern Twin Cities 'burb that we settled in, my choices are much more limited. I'm jealous!
Susan,
I think that's a good idea and I've had success with it (at other places) in the past. I just haven't run into any 'managerial' types and it hasn't seemed worth it to go out of the way and ask to speak to one. I'll give it a couple more trips and then maybe ask to speak to someone. Of course, this time of year maybe the produce will start to improve, by default.
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Ron, where is this located? And is Lincolnwood Produce the place on Lincoln Ave. across the street from L. Woods?
I'm always looking for great markets on the North Shore and think that Carrot Top is a bit overpriced.
Thanks!
DOH!
It's on Skokie Boulevard (east side of street) between Dundee and Lake Cook in a strip mall and in the former Linens N' Things space. And yes, you are correct about LP's location.
I haven't been to Carrot Top in years. That's the place on Willow (between Waukegan and Shermer), right?
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Overall I like this store, which opened back in March. It offers a lot more good than bad and I've noticed steady improvement in both quantity and quality of goods each time I've been there.
I find the name to be somewhat ironic since their produce is the thing I like the least about Garden Fresh Market. The selection is better than what the mainline grocery chains offer but it still rates behind other northern Chicagoland outlets like Lincolnwood Produce, Produce World and some other markets that were discussed in this thread. Not only is the selection not as nice but the quality seems lower too. Selection of greens is particularly poor and carrots and broccoli are routinely soft and rubbery. Luckily, in this 'farmers market time of year,' bad produce is less irritating than it will be come next winter.
But, there are other areas which GFM covers very well. The fresh meat department, while not an on-site butchery, offers fresh versions of all the familiar staple cuts plus less common items such as veal breast, chicken feet, pork livers and ground lamb. Skirt steaks I've purchased there for $6.99/# were outstanding as were Beef Shanks which I bought for $2.59/# and Pork Butt which runs about $1.29/#, IIRC.
The deli is also very good. They offer a wide assortment of European-style products from several smaller domestic manufacturers, a good amount of imported products and also carry a full line of what I think is the best of the "major" brands, Boar's Head. Fresh wieners and sausages from several countries are abundant. There is a decent selection of fresh, imported cheeses (Fetas of several origins, for example) which are very good and large selection of salads which I haven't sampled.
Dry aisles (including household items) are also well-stocked and the choices are multitudinous. On my last trip there I bought Sriracha, Fish Sauce, Chickpea flour and curry paste to name just a few. Several Middle Eastern, Asian and European cultures seem well-represented in GFM's aisles. Another nice aspect of GFM's dry section is the large quantity of standard, domestic items such as pop, cereals, crackers and snack foods. This element is nice because it virtually eliminates the trip to the 'regular store' in almost every case. This makes it much easier to accomodate my kid's kid-like food whims.
Breads are also good at GFM. Many local bakeries are represented and you can get anything from Russian Sourdough to Pita to Kosher kaiser rolls. There are also kiosks within the store where breads such as ciabatta, croissant and bagels are available. I've found the quality of these breads to vary more than with the (other) local bakery products.
There is a very large kosher section at GFM which, I'm pretty sure, includes an on-premise butchery. I'm not totally sure about that, but it seems there is always a Rabbi present when I am at the store--not something I think pre-butchered meat would warrant--so I assume there is continuous inspection at GFM that goes beyond the receiving dock. The kosher meat department is large and there are also full aisles of dry and frozen Kosher items too.
The selection seems to be improving at GFM each time I go back. There are so many great items that I haven't mentioned too. I can really get lost in the aisles just perusing the products and reading labels. I do hope the quality of the produce eventually lives up to the name of the store (they are actually a small chain with 4 GFM stores from what I can tell) but for now I'm quite happy to have a store very near me that accomodates my 'serious' grocery needs as well as my family's needs for the basics.
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Having things made to order is convenient and sometimes saves me a step or two as I have a couple of blends that I would normally make myself.
For me, the best advantages of shopping at The Spice House's physical location are 1) being able to smell or taste an item on premises and 2) the freshness factor, which is always high.
I generally don't buy blends, although the whole, garam masala mixture (grind it up at the time of use) I bought at The Spice House was fantastic.
Of course, once you have a vendor you can trust, and you know their products, mail order/internet is a great option since the variables are reduced. Still, as a shopping experience, it's hard to beat 45 minutes at a spice store IMO
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Patty,
Thanks so much for stopping by. It's really nice to hear from you.
I know that you host events at your stores on a regular basis, so please feel free to update us here on any upcoming event which you feel may be of interest to us.
And thanks again for being there. For me personally, it's a great pleasure to have your Evanston store at my disposal. I'm in there probably about once a month and I feel downright spoiled to have it so near by.
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Thanks for the great write-up (and the link) yellow truffle. It sounds like you thoroughly enjoyed yourself.
(just a guess as I forgot to bring my tape measure)
BTW, they are still a BYOB, which kept the cost down. We did not know this going into the place, but fortunately for the wino that I am, I had a case of wine in the trunk of my car....now, this is just old-fashioned, solid planning in my estimation
Thanks again for sharing your experience with us. BTW, is Check, Please still in production? I haven't seen a fresh episode of it in what seems like months.
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Ronnie, It looks like you've got some capacity in that new smoker. Is it wood/charcoal-fired, or electric? I first started smoking with a huge smoker I built that was plain wood-fired, but gave it away when I moved. Then, a few years ago, I got a Brinkman charcoal smoker, but that required constant tending and wouldn't go low enough for fish.
It's actually gas or wood/charcoal depending on preference--it's convertable to either format. I'm going to start out with the gas set-up since my other smoker is strictly wood/charcoal and I'm seeking more fine control over temperature, etc. If the gas set-up isn't to my liking, I'll remove the burner pad and set the unit up as a wood/charcoal unit. Of course, then I'm back to square one...but at least it'll be with a lot more capacity
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Nick,
Here is a pic of my smoker--although mine's stainless...
It's a Smokey Mountain Series 3000 (whatever the heck that means
) which I purchased over the winter. Until I saw your thread, got off my behind and assembled it, it had been sitting in its box in my garage for about 3 months. Up until now I've been using a Char Broil brand knock-off version of the Weber bullet smoker (which I bought for $29), but I decided to step-up to the larger smoker primarily to increase capacity. I just hate spending an entire day 'out by the smoker' and then having to portion off the output. This unit should remedy that situation, although I've also teased my wife that I am contemplating turning our bike shed into a smokehouse.
My plan is to fire it up for the first time this Sunday, as long as the weather cooperates.
Good luck with your new unit and thanks again for the motivational thread!
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There has already been some discussion of this rumor on this thread and I think it's best for the forum if we keep discussion of it there until we're talking about something more than rumors.
Thanks,
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Great thread, great list of resources.
Thanks everyone.
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Oddly, one of my favorite late night greek diner experiences came when I was living in Chicago....welll, at that point I was still in college in Evanston....we used to go out to the Omega on Gulf Road in whatever town it was that far out (they all ran together for meat that point). Maggiethecat...do you know it?
Pretty sure that's Niles...a loong way from Evanston.
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Damn!
I'm going to have to 'call in sick' one of these Wednesdays and hit the GCM.
Thanks for the reports everyone.
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Favorite Burger in Chicagoland
in The Heartland: Dining
Posted
Inspired by this thread started by yellow truffle, I am curious to learn what everyone thinks is the best burger in Chicagoland. There have been a few, fragmented discussions of this topic here but, from what I can derive via searching, no single thread exists where everyone makes their pitch for their favorite burger place.
I'm going to start out somewhat controversially by saying that certain places (in my neck of the woods) with heavy reputations are over-rated in my book. I'm thinking particularly of Charlie Beinlich and Hackney's. Sorry, maybe it's just that I've been going hitting these places for over 30 years, but they just don't do it for me at all (anymore).
Beinlich, for all its charm and wonderfulness, does not char their burgers, and even though their meat (sourced from Lakeside Foods) is outstanding, their burgers do not scratch the itch for me. For me, a burger that is not charred can never qualify as the best.
Hackney's turns out a decent product, but it's uneventful, boring and--as of late--inconsistent. I need something more than a mounded patty between 2 pieces of cold black bread and topped with a plank of raw onion to get me going. Yes, you can request grilled onions at Hackney's but that's not enough to push it into the upper eschelon, for me. The mustard options (Heinz Yellow or Grey Poupon) are virtually tragic. Great environment, terrific fried onion loaves, strong cocktails at the bar and average burgers.
Some places where I really like the burgers are Wiener's Circle and Gibson's. These 2 are at opposite ends of the spectrum but both satisfy fully. Wiener's Circle is clearly a lower-end joint but it typifies the 'Chicago-style' street level burger. Hot, juicy, greasy and you can choose from a dozen or so good toppings and condiments. Gibson's makes a fantastic burger too. It's a high-end affair, but very good quality and terrific flavor--even if it is somewhat pricey (although, not as pricey as the Kobe burger described in yellow truffle's thread
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My favorite burger (currently) is the very cheezily-named "2-hand Jam Burger" served at Player's Grill in Highland Park, IL.
At first I was skeptical--even as I was snarfing my first one down many years ago--but after ordering them again over time, I fully stand by my choice. It's a generous portion (1/2 pound before cooking?) of very good ground beef, charred nicely and cooked to order. Requesting a burger medium rare at Player's gets you a burger with some solid pink in the center. I've ordered it this way every time out, have always had it cooked as ordered and have never had any "uncooked" issues. There are no out of place seasonings on the burger at Player's and they are served on appropriately-sized egg buns which are not overly-dense, but just burly enough to host the burger properly. You can order it accompanied by ultra thin-sliced, fried onion strings which take the burger to an entirely new level. FWIW, Player's Grill also serves an outstanding slaw with their burger but their fries are, unfortunately, forgettable.
I'm really curious to hear what everyone's favorite burgers in Chicagoland are.
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