Friet Out!

If you’ve ever listened to the car crash that is the WBEZ radio programme called “848″ you probably know that the bar is set pretty low for Richard Steele to considering something “news.” But 848 may have just earned itself a pass for life by reporting on what I consider the most important food story this year:

A REAL DUTCH FRIET STAND IN CHICAGO!

Netherlands-native Jeroen Hasenbos brings Amsterdam’s traditional Frietkoten ‘fry shack’ experience to Chicago for the first time, with hand cut Belgian fries that are served in a paper cone and distinguished by a crisp outside and soft, delicious potato inside.

In keeping with the popular ‘fry shacks’ in Amsterdam, Frietkoten offers these traditional Belgian fries with up to 20 different sauces to choose from every day. Frietkoten also serves up Dutch and Belgian beers and ales to complement these traditional grab-and-go Belgian fries.

Have you ever had Patatje Oorlog (french fries “war style”)? It’s fresh cut fries topped with diced onions, mayo (a special frite mayo, actually), and peanut satay sauce! If that doesn’t give you a total boner i don’t even know.

Although, I have some serious doubts that they’ll have the famous Rotterdam treat “Patatje Kapsalon” (French fries “hair salon” style).

Latke v. Hamantash

Tonight is burrito night the annual Latke vs. Hamantash Debate at the University of Chicago.

It’s free. At 7:30 p.m. in Mandel Hall, 1137 E. 57th St.

It’s a tradition where the hyper-educated make fun of Jews and Jewish food — but it’s ok cause some of them are Jews too. The set up is: which is better, the placki kartoflane latke, or the kolache hamantash? Professors then commence using their expertise to win the point and some laughs. It’s been going on for a long time and is enormously popular, if anticlimactic — the potato pancake-like latke always wins.

But it’s humorous, in an extremely high brow way.

Psychologists tell us that our states of soul make the world, not the world our states of soul; that, in Plato’s formula, latkes and hamantashen are good because we are Jewish, not that we are Jewish because they are good. You see the relativistic consequences of all that. If you think that economists attribute nasty motives to human beings, wait ’til you find out what psychologists believe.

In truth they all follow their false messiah, Freud, who was secretly in the pay of, yes, the Manischewitz people, who out of economic motives wanted to spread the appeal of their products beyond the Jews and turned to the psychologist for help. So Freud, for popularity’s sake, interpreted the latke, the male, Maccabean food, as in its circular forms symbolic of the male goal—I need not elaborate on this lascivious suggestion; and the hamantash—the joyous token of Esther’s success, the female triumph—he explained by means of its angularity, its pointiness.

Propriety forbids my going further.

— Professor in Social Thought Allan D. Bloom, “Restoring the Jewish Canon” (1981).

The most successful are the profs who jab at academia with the vigor of someone who carries serious doubts about the usefulness of pure scholarship. Austan Goolsbee, the now staff director and chief economist of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, was hilarious two years ago.

Recipes excerpted from “The Great Latke-Hamantash Debate” follow.

Continue reading…

Chicken heads

I’ve been getting chicken down the street at Alliance Poultry, where they let you pick out which live chicken you want to eat.

And they give you the feet and liver and heart and all the things I know what to do with — make a stock.

But what do you do with a chicken head?

More on Alliance soon.

Vella closed

A quick note:

A pretty enjoyable brunch place, Vella Cafe, closed a couple weeks ago. I ran into a couple of the girls who worked there at the Logans Square Farmers Market and they said the new owner was going to open a Mexican-Chinese fusion restaurant.

Addendum:

Apparently, Vella was bought out by the couple who run Urban Belly, which has a weird concept that Chris said he’s going to explain.

Bill Kim: So I have a vision for the food, while Yvonne and Yasmina take that vision along with their own style for the design. What are we calling it?
Yvonne Cadiz-Kim: Reclaimed industrial.
Bill Kim: Right, reclaimed industrial.

Reclaimed industrial? We’ll see, I guess.

Jam

I thought Sweet Cakes was suddenly popular seeing the line at Damen and Walton. But apparently there’s a newish restaurant there that’s popular, Jam.

Haven’t been there yet, but the menu’s online and sounds good: Savory buckwheat crepes with braised lamb, Asian pear, hazelnut-sage glaze, and spicy mesclun for $11. Egg sandwich with pig’s cheek? Ok, yeah, I’ll try it. Cured trout quiche? Yeah, all right, I guess. Panini Cristo, a sort of French toast with prosciutto and sweet mustard jam? Nah, not for me.

For breakfast in Ukrainian Village, I’m still a proponent of Uncle Mike’s. Though the good stuff’s not on the menu. You have to get whatever Filipino breakfast they’ve got written up on the chalkboard.

Brewing in the Living Kitchen

Brewin’ with Tree in the Living Kitchen.

Sunday, Sept 27 – herbal beers
An introduction to homebrewing, including history and practical techniques for using uncommon herbs, spices, and fruits. Includes a vegetarian dinner, a tasting of unusual brews, and a half gallon of brew to take home.

5-8pm $70 (pre-registration $25 to paypal, deadline SEPT 23 – location TBA to registrants)
instructors: taylor harman and tree johnson

Homebrewer Taylor Harman resides in Humboldt Park with six housemates and six chickens. She enjoys incorporating plants from her garden, as well as wild plants, into her brews, and believes that it is important to reclaim and relocalize the tradition of brewing.

Tree Johnson is a homebrewer, mushroom forager, fermenter extraordinaire and a father of a very magical child.

The Burger Wars

Today, Time Out Chicago and Chicago Burger Project are hashing out who’s better at reviewing the best burger.

Chicago Burger Project’s TKO punch:

We took our time, took some pictures, and elaborated beyond “perfectly delicious” in our reviews. Childish? Maybe. More responsible than recommending Jury’s for the 10,000th time? I think so.

Sorry, TOC. There’s a new burger king.

Sunday Soup at InCUBATE

Quick plug for friends at InCUBATE who use a soup brunch to raise money for an artist grant. Diners choose from a list of applicants who should get the day’s proceeds. Food funds arts.

San Francisco chef Leif Hedendal cooks Sunday, Sept. 20. He’s got a website that makes his cooking look confusing and delicious. It should be interesting — he lists Lucky Dragons as a collaborator.

Sunday: eat at noon, lecture at 1 p.m. $10

An introduction to our newest Sunday Soup organizer, Jennifer Breckner

Cooking or baking can be a romantic gesture, a tool for seduction. It may encourage conversation, acting as a mediator between strangers. It is comfort and sustenance and history. My interest in cooking and baking was first influenced by my paternal grandmother Julia Ryznar Breckner’s ability to make the most humble and inedible ingredients appetizing–iceberg lettuce, for example. Her understanding that cooked and baked goods could be vessels to deliver one’s abundance of love and caring to others was also an inspiration.

Previously, my work as a cultural producer has included positions in Ohio as a gallery director, an assistant for the Cleveland International Performance Art Festival, and an independent curator, amongst others. In Chicago since 2002, I have expanded my interest in both non-object art that moves beyond the traditional gallery and concurrently in food, as a cook as well as in larger terms of its production and consumption. Currently, my research, and a potential future project, is focused on artists’ projects that utilize the meal. I am excited to work with the tireless, intelligent, enjoyable folks at InCUBATE on their innovative Sunday Soup Brunch program where my interests in food and art may come together in meaningful ways. Grants will be awarded the first week of each month.

InCUBATE’s worth supporting.

http://www.vimeo.com/4874090

Recommended: Cemitas Puebla

David, the founder of the elusive “Club Sandwich” sandwich club, turned me on to what has to be the best Mexican sandwich in Chicago. Most of us are familiar with the many delicious tortas around town, but if you think this is just another torta you have no idea how wrong you are. It’s called a “Cemita”, which is a local sandwhich from Puebla, Mexico. I can’t really describe how good this thing is. It’s so fresh and has the perfect balance of meat/sauce/bread/cheese. Worth the drive or bike ride out to sketchy West Logan Square.

If that doesn’t convince you, here’s a video of an overweight, loud, obnoxious, sunburned, “tv personality”  in a segment called Grabbin a Sandwich. Thanks Guy!

Chicago Fast Food

Whenever I don’t know where to go this website is there for me, like those sirens that make boats crash.