Louisa Chu | WBEZ

This week in food events: Mardi Gras, blind tigers, and more (oh my)

by Louisa Chu | Feb. 20, 2012

Did you get your Baconfest Chicago 2012 tickets today? Yes? I'll see you there! No? They're sold out! Demand rivals Next vs. El Bulli. But Bacon Nation, do not despair! Watch the official BFC Facebook page for ticket giveaways, including your chance to enter the Amateur Bacon Cook-off. In the meantime, this week laissez les bon temps rouler, plus a chocolate fest and an intimate rib feast. After all, BBQ is chocolate for men, to paraphrase Anthony Bourdain.

Monday, February 20

We all know about speakeasies in this town, but blind tigers? Back during Prohibition, speakeasies were respectable law-breaking drinking establishments, while blind tigers were a bit seedier. They...

...Read Full Entry

Restaurant Week wars

by Louisa Chu | Feb. 17, 2012

(1)

The fifth annual Chicago Restaurant Week kicks off at lunch today, but it's not actually a week; it's 10 days, and officially ends next Sunday, February 26 at dinner. Some restaurants extend until the end of the month, this leap year, the 29th.

But it can be a love/hate relationship, with both diners and restaurants, and sometimes a battle for reservations—and in some cases, no reservations at all.

Here's the deal: restaurants offer special $22 lunch menus and/or $33 or $44 dinner menus. But it's wise to confirm if the Restaurant Week menu is being offered during your desired dining time. The special menus may not be available on certain days or certain meal times—like Sunday brunch for example.

Any restaurant in the greater Chicagoland area could participate, and this year more than 262 restaurants are in (despite what the...

...Read Full Entry

This week in food events: Paczki Day, Smart Feast, and more

by Louisa Chu | Feb. 15, 2012

(1)

Fat Thursday or Tłusty Czwartek. Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras. No matter what you call them, Chicago is the only city in the world that widely celebrates Pączki/Paczki Day on both days. A pączek is the jelly doughnut's Polish cousin with a richer, eggy pastry, but only modestly filled. Paczki (POONCH-kee) can be found here year-round, but some bakeries only offer old world fillings like prune or rose hip jam this Thursday and/or Tuesday, along with new world favorites like strawberries and cream. And in our world, there's even a paczki-eating contest that still needs eaters on Saturday.

Wednesday, February 15

The Journey of a Sweet Leaf: In Search of Plant Originated Sweeteners at the Garfield Park...

...Read Full Entry

The importance of heart-shaped pizza

by Louisa Chu | Feb. 13, 2012

(6)

I'm a sucker for limited edition food. Make it heart-shaped, and I'm a hopeless fool. If it's one—or two—of my favorite pizzas in the world, I'll plan my life around it.

Because pizza, reminds us of all that once was good—and that could be again.

Chicago is home to some of the best restaurants in the world right now, and even on Valentine's Day—or especially on holidays like today—they step up to the plate and knock it out of the park, whether or not they're serving special prix fixe menus for deux.

But pizza is meant for sharing—or at least here it is. And that's how it differs from our other iconic foods. Our pizza selflessly adapts in form and function to a day of love, beyond romantic love. Try to imagine: a heart-shaped hot dog or Italian beef?

...

...Read Full Entry

Chicago Auto Show: Food Trucks, Food Drive, First Look, and more

by Louisa Chu | Feb. 10, 2012

(2)

Food trucks and cup holders—not concept cars or hybrids—dominated car talk among food-focused attendees at the Chicago Auto Show 2012 media preview days and First Look for Charity event last night.

Nissan customized an NV2500 van as The Southern Mac & Cheese Truck just for this show. A Nissan rep showed me the model's notable features for use as a food truck: a high roof that can accomodate someone standing up to six-foot two; straight, drill-able sides for more efficient, customizable storage and use; and an engine moved forward to allow more leg room for driver and passenger, as well as work room by removing the bulky box up front, known among van experts as "the dog...

...Read Full Entry

This week in food events: Next vs. El Bulli; Beatles vs. The Stones; and more

by Louisa Chu | Feb. 08, 2012

(0)

Wednesday, February 8

Next: elBulli opens, and runs through May 27, 2012 only. The first course will be El Bulli's 2004 "caipirnha-nitro con concentrado de estragón" (liquid nitrogen Caipirnha with tarragon concentrate). Hey I made that when I staged there that year! Then and there it started with a big bowl of limes and bunches of tarragon; then hand-muddled juice, sugar, and cachaça were frozen with liquid nitrogen at the table; and served with a touch of intense tarragon, extracted by centrifuge. The liquid nitrogen freezes the highly alcoholic cocktail to a Mario's Italian ice texture. The insulated table-side bowl always came back to me—and yes, I drank the leftovers. For ticket information, check out...

...Read Full Entry

A field of dreams and swans in Sendai, Japan

by Louisa Chu | Feb. 02, 2012

(2)

Nanohana miso soup

In downtown Sendai, the biggest city hit by the earthquake and tsunami last year, you can't see any signs of the destruction that my cabbie said hit every single street corner. Unless you look closely. He points out a few modern, mid-rise buildings—that look like they're plucked off Daley Plaza—completely Christo-wrapped in graphite grey construction tarp.

Back to business as usual, it seems, with a 24-hour FamilyMart convenience store behind my hotel, where I pick up a late night snack of a Haagen-Dazs green tea ice cream sandwich, a Muji green tea waffle, and a hot can of Fauchon green tea latte.

Nanohana seeds

But drive half an hour to the coast and there's...

...Read Full Entry

An artisanal sake brewer survives—and thrives

by Louisa Chu | Feb. 01, 2012

(0)

After a cold, snowy, early morning visit to the Kesennuma fish market yesterday—and a quick breakfast including onsen egg and natto—I visited an artisanal sake brewery. After fish, sake is the next biggest business in town. But like fishing here, sake-making is more than business, it's family.

To get to the tiny Kakuboshi brewery, you take the two-lane main road by the water—which I learned seems perpetually at high tide because the land here actually dropped over two feet. The snow's covered everything, so it looks like a picturesque port town, with mountains in back, but turn up the hill to the brewery, and you see buildings that don't seem to make sense: narrow, free-standing, random. The others were washed away by the tsunami, or the debris cleared away by one of the many cranes in action.

Kaichiro Saito, who's family has been making sake for 109 years, greets me and gives me a...

...Read Full Entry

Louisa Chu

Louisa Chu is a chef, writer, producer, and adventurer. She has cooked around the world, from Paris to Alaska. She trained at El Bulli, Ducasse, Alinea, Moto, and other restaurants. She graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris with Le Grand Diplôme for concurrent studies in cuisine and pâtisserie. She has appeared on Food Network's Iron Chef America, Travel Channel's Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, PBS's Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, and other outlets. Her writing has appeared in Gourmet, CHOW, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, and other publications.