This post is second in a slow-moving series of weekend-in-review posts. Visit "One Weekend" to read 2005's installment.
A visiting out-of-town friend this past weekend prompted a nice small tour of Chicago eats including both restaurants and great ingredients from local markets.
My weekend started off with a English beer tasting at West Lakeview Liquors, which I find to be the most interesting and friendliest liquor store in Chicago. West Lakeview Liquors is a small boutique-y shop with a hand-picked, eclectic selection and a staff that knows a little something about everything on the shelf. They're always having tastings, so it makes a lot of sense to be on their e-mail list. We picked up a few things including a six-pack of Orange Blossom Cream Ale from Buffalo Bill's Brewery in Hayward, CA. This was our BYOB selection to bring to...
Hoang Thanh, a new-ish Chinese restaurant on Argyle that makes one of my favorite dishes in town: Salt & Pepper Tofu. These are pillowy scallops of soft tofu, seasoned perfectly, fried and served with minced scallion and chili pepper. I can't resist this dish. It went nicely with their beef in black pepper sauce: peppery-sweet chunks of tender beef served on a bed of fresh watercress. Hoang Thanh is committed to fresh ingredients and it shows.
Breakfast on Saturday was Mexican chorizo and eggs, cooked at home, with house-made chorizo from Tony's Finer Foods. Tony's chorizo is spicy, inexpensive, and delicious. I consider myself fortunate to live in a neighborhood in a city where almost every meat market around me makes their own chorizo.
Saturday's light lunch of chicken shwarema over fattoush salad took place at Semiramis. We couldn't resist the sumac-dusted fries with toum (garlic mousse).
After lunch, I picked up some of my favorite lavosh at Al-Khaymeh Market and then stopped at Nazareth Sweets for some nutty-sweet semolina cakes (prompted by this thread at LTHForum).
Semolina Cakes from Nazareth Sweets
Dinner Saturday was pork spare ribs slow cooked for over five hours in my backyard. This meal was the result of step four of Prof. Wiviott's 5-Step WSM BBQ Lesson. The ingredients may be from Costco and the style of food may be from the south, but the Professor is bringing BBQ to the backyards of Chicago. (Picture below).
After dinner, we chased the spice with some creamy, sweet Argentinean gelato and sorbetto at The Pengiun. I'm partial to the dulce de latte.
A light Sunday brunch consisted mainly of homemade gravlax and deli-bought smoked sable. The gravlax was made from a beautiful fillet of Scottish salmon purchased from the helpful folks at The Fish Guy Market: This was my first attempt at home-cured fish and it turned out delicious. The perfect smoky, salty sable came from Kaufman's Deli in Skokie, one of my favorite deli's around.
Sunday dinner took place in a private backyard hosted by a variety of Chicago's most talented and hard-working home cooks. Our menu included smoked pork shoulders and hot links, a variety of pizzas made by a NY-resident pizza expert (one pizza included home-cured bacon), salmon and tuna tartares, fresh shrimp with multiple dipping sauces, fresh fava bean dip, and Green City Market-purchased rhubarb pie with Scooters custard, among other things. We washed it all down with two different homemade sangrias and excellent beer from Flossmoor Station (well worth the trip south for a half-gallon or two of their beers).Monday I fell into a food-induced coma. I hope your long weekend was as delicious as mine.
Backyard Spare Ribs
Check out...
West Lakeview Liquors
2156 W Addison
Chicago
(773) 525-1916
www.westlakeviewliquors.com
Hoang Thanh
1129 W. Argyle
Chicago
(773) 271-7328
The Penguin
2723 W. Lawrence
Chicago
(773) 271 4924
Tony's Finer Foods
Multiple locations
Semiramis
4639 N Kedzie
Chicago
(773) 279-8900
Earlier post on Semiramis
Al Kaymeih
4742 N. Kedzie Ave.
(773) 583-0999
Nazareth Sweets
4638 N. Kedzie
(773) 588-0490
The Fishguy Market
4423 N. Elston
Chicago
(773) 283-7400
www.chicagogreencitymarket.org
Scooter's Custard
1658 W. Belmont Ave
Chicago
(773) 244-6415
www.scootersfrozencustard.com
Flossmoor Station Brewery
1035 Sterling Avenue
Flossmoor
(708) 957-BREW
www.flossmoorstation.com
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