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Alinea
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Chartreuse
Monday, July 21, 2008
By now you’re probably aware of the full-scale absinthe revival happening in the U.S., but my decadent green elixir of choice is chartreuse. Like its notorious cousin, it’s anise-y, high in alcohol, and supposedly contains small amounts of thujone, the chemical in wormwood wrongly blamed for the absinthe-fueled death and dismemberment back in the day. Chartreuse also boasts a history filled with enough intrigue to rival absinthe’s — for starters, it’s distilled by Carthusian monks in the French Alps, only two of whom know the 130 herbs and plants required to create the liqueur, and neither has the entire recipe.
Chartreuse is a sweet, extremely fragrant liqueur with an incredible amount of complexity, no doubt due to its large number of ingredients. Sipped straight, I’m hit with an explosion of herbal and spice flavors — fennel, star anise, cinnamon, clove, black pepper. What I love most about chartreuse is its chameleon-like ability to transform and play off other ingredients in a cocktail. Sometimes it’s green and vegetal, other times it’s warm and spicy, and there’s always something slightly mysterious and elusive about it, which makes it so delicious and utterly beguiling.
The gentlemen at The Violet Hour are true chartreuse connoisseurs and will expertly guide you through your slow descent into chartreuse obsession as they’ve done for me. It’s not on the menu, but ask for their riff on The Last Word, a classic cocktail made of equal parts green chartreuse, gin, maraschino liqueur, and lime juice. If you fancy herbal, medicinal flavors, try the Art of Choke, pictured left, which contains Cynar (an Italian artichoke-based liqueur), rum, green chartreuse, and fresh mint.
N.B. There’s also a sweeter and milder yellow chartreuse, but the liqueur I’m talking about is the green variety.
Sugar snap peas
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
When I was a kid, my grandmother lived with us for several years and planted a little garden that ran along the perimeter of our house. She was an incredibly capable woman who grew a large variety of vegetables for her own family of eight children back in Taiwan, so it was easy for her to coax a few small crops from our suburban soil — pungent garlic chives, warty bitter melon, some Asian greens, and a couple of others. My favorite was sugar snap peas. I loved everything about them — the lush green leaves, the delicate vines and tendrils, the tiny trumpet-shaped caps that crown the tops of the pods. Most of all, I loved sitting with my grandma and sister in the kitchen with a mound of sugar snap peas in front of us, snapping all the tops off before we rinsed them and stir-fried them, sizzling and piping hot for dinner.
Our urban apartment isn’t very conducive to growing anything — it doesn’t even have a balcony — and my parents have since let the garden go, so I’ve been visiting the farmers markets quite a bit lately. Sugar snaps are in season here and just about perfect right now. They’re at the peak of their sweetness and crunchiness; wait too long and they’ll be tougher and blander like the kind they sell at the grocery store.
My grandma cooked everything simply, which is always the best way to showcase the flavors of garden-fresh vegetables. Snap the tops off the sugar snap peas, pulling off the tough-ish fiber along the side of the the pod. Rinse. Saute in a bit of olive oil till they turn bright green; they should be crunchy and never allowed to reach the soft or mushy phase. Sprinkle with sea salt. Serve hot, but they’re good cold, too.
Great Chicago Places & Spaces for foodies
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
This weekend, the City of Chicago presents the 10th annual Great Chicago Places & Spaces, a program that features more than 200 free tours covering a vast array of topics such as art and architecture, neighborhood history, shopping, and of particular interest for wasabigelatine readers, food. All events are free; the caveat is that you can only get tickets starting at 7:30 AM the day of the tour you’re interested in. Expect long lines.
To make things easier for my delightful readers, I’ve sorted through all of the listings and present only the food-related events below.
Saturday, May 17
Chicago Chocolate Tours
Enjoy a fun, educational walking and tasting tour of select chocolate shops. See the architecture and gardens of the Magnificent Mile in a new way and discover some hidden chocolate treasures.
2:00 PM/2 hrs.
Eat Out with Time Out Chicago
Discover how the interior of a restaurant can enhance a dining and drinking experience. Cutting-edge design, historical significance, color scheme and the vision of owners and chefs can be just as revealing as the cuisine being served.
12:00 PM/2 hrs.
Fraiche Kitchen
Tour two of Chicago’s premier farmers markets with chefs that are dedicated to local, seasonal, and sustainable food. Also visit a restaurant with an award-winning design and intriguing menu.
9:00 AM/2½ hrs.
Gyros and Burritos: A Tour of Greek Town and Pilsen
Tour Chicago’s Greek Town and Pilsen neighborhoods and experience the unique sights, sounds, and smells of these two great cultures. [That’s Mexican culture for Pilsen. No word on whether there will actually be eating involved on this tour.]
1:00 PM/1½ hrs.
Taste of Design
Feast your eyes on some of Chicago’s uniquely seasoned designed restaurants. Overload the senses with deliciously prepared spaces and sweetly designed decor.
11:45 AM/2 hrs.
Sunday, May 18
Chicago Chocolate Tours
Same as above.
3:00 PM/2 hrs.
New Maxwell Street Market
Come ready to shop and bargain at the relocated site of the original Maxwell Street Market. Catch some local blues and explore vendors of diverse ethnicity with goods ranging from food, produce, and spices to new and old goods. [Note: there are some really tasty tamales and gorditas at the market.]
11:00 AM/2½ hrs.
Tickets are available only at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, 224 S. Michigan. For more info, visit www.greatchicagoplaces.us.
The emperor’s new candy
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
London artist Greetje van Helmond creates lovely jewelry out of sugar crystals like the chunky necklace and ring pictured above. But with prices starting at £120 a piece — over $240 for a bauble that’s history if it falls into a cup of coffee — you can buy sugar for enough edible rocks to outbling Jacob the Jeweler. Save the money for some real diamonds and make your own rock candy necklace for less than $1 using this simple recipe.
Rock Candy Jewelry
4 cups white sugar
2 cups water
food coloring (optional)
additional sugar and water
large glass jar (the taller the better for longer lengths)
cotton string
chopstick or pencil
paperclip or washer
1. Cut string to desired length plus a couple of extra inches which will be wrapped around the chopstick or pencil for suspension.
2. In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil.
3. Completely dissolve the sugar in the boiling water, stirring constantly until the liquid is clear and reaches a rolling boil. Remove from heat. Add food coloring at this stage, if applicable.
4. Cool sugar solution slightly and pour into the jar.
5. Thoroughly wet the string with water and roll in the additional sugar, making sure the string is completely coated. The granulated sugar serves as seed crystals on which the rock candy will form.
6. Tie the paper clip or washer to the end of the string. This will be used as a weight.
7. Suspend the string from the chopstick or pencil by tying it around the middle of the stick. Lower the string into the jar of sugar solution and rest the stick across the mouth of the jar. Adjust the string length if necessary so that there’s at least an inch between the bottom of the jar and the paper clip/washer.
8. Let jar sit, undisturbed, at room temperature for several days. Noticeable sugar crystals should start to form in a few hours and will take about a week to create something worth looking at.
9. When crystals grow large enough for your liking, remove from solution and let dry on parchment paper. Do not rinse!
10. Tie into a necklace, or bracelet if it’s shorter.
11. Take a few pretty pictures, create a nice website, write some pretentious copy, and sell for outrageous amounts of money.
More blood orange beverages
Saturday, March 22, 2008
A while back I wrote about blood orange juice, my favorite winter beverage. If you like it a little stronger, Sepia in the West Loop offers a couple of seasonal drinks that really showcase the flavor of this delicious purple-red citrus fruit.
The Blood and Stone, pictured above, is the blood and sand’s deeper, darker cousin — a beautiful concoction of Vida reposado tequila, Heering cherry liqueur, sweet vermouth, and blood orange juice. It’s a sweet drink, but by no means girly, as it packs a well-balanced punch with the slightly oaky tequila and the tartness of the citrus.
On the lighter side is the Blood Orange Pisco Sour made of blood orange-infused pisco, lemon sour, and egg white, finished with house-made blood orange bitters. This one’s a good chaser for the Blood and Stone because of its refreshing tanginess, and I love the smooth frothiness of any drink shaken up with egg whites.
Mini-review: bin wine cafe
Thursday, March 20, 2008
bin wine cafe
1559 N. Milwaukee
773-486-2233
bin wine cafe is the casual neighborhood outpost of River North’s Bin 36. The fare is basic, though not generic, and pairs well with the extensive, affordable wine list.
Vibe: Wicker Park hipsters and Bucktown yuppies in a loud, cozy space.
Cost: $5-$18 for appetizers and entrees; $13-$15 for wine flights
Must-try: Crispy tempura string beans with citrus aioli (pictured above).
Avoid: Pizzas. They’re smallish, nothing extraordinary, and not worth $10-$12.
Also: The wine flights are creative, accessible, and a good introduction to a wide range of varietals — one of them features nebbiolo, zweigelt, vinho tinto, and valpolicella. And they actually serve their reds at a proper temperature. Imagine that!
Top Chef Chicago starts tonight!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
After Dale’s fantastic run all the way to the final last season, we’re rooting for another Chicago talent to take home the big Top Chef prize this year. My bet’s on Stephanie Izard, former chef/owner of Scylla in Bucktown (now occupied by Restaurant Takashi). I’d only been to Scylla once, but if the succulent roast chicken I had was any indication of her mad skills, those other contestants had better watch out — it takes a killer chef to do anything rave-worthy with chicken, and her specialty is fish.
Of course, I’m talking as if this hadn’t been taped several months back, but that’s the illusion of reality TV. If you’re interested in spoilers, Time Out Chicago has a little something to whet your appetite here. (Spoiler alert: the article doesn’t give away much of anything, so go ahead and read it.)
$2.50 Poag Mahone’s burgers
Monday, February 25, 2008
They made GQ’s list of 20 hamburgers you must eat before you die. Oprah’s BFF Gayle King loves them. And they’re only $2.50 every Monday night until April 14, so go out and get a Poag Mahone’s burger already!
Poag Mahone’s: 333 S. Wells, 312-566-9100
Gumbo
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Hearty, spicy, tasty, and easy to cook, gumbo just might be the perfect meal — especially if you have a crowd to feed. Here’s a recipe courtesy of Fox & Obel.
Fox & Obel’s Chicken and Shrimp Gumbo
Makes about one gallon
2 large yellow onions
2 red bell peppers
2 green bell Peppers
1/2 head celery
1/2 pound Andouille sausage
1/2 stick butter
1/4 cup flour
1 28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes with juice
3 quarts chicken stock
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
1 tablespoon gumbo filé
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
salt (to taste)
black pepper (to taste)
1/2 pound okra
1/2 pound shrimp 51-60 count (peeled and de-veined)
1/2 pound shredded cooked chicken breast
Preparation:
Cut onions, peppers celery into a medium dice.
Cut sausage into 1/4″ thick rounds. Cook sausage in a large stock pot over medium high heat until well-browned, then remove. Add onions, peppers and celery and cook over low heat until onions are translucent.
Add butter and melt, then add flour and whisk over low heat until the mixture becomes dark golden brown, about 10-15 min.
Add tomatoes, stock, seasonings and okra and simmer for about 35-40 min.
Add shrimp and chicken breast and simmer for 5 minutes or until shrimp are cooked.
Kshocolât’s chocolate-covered something or other
Friday, February 22, 2008
In another example of the package looking better than the product tastes, Scotland’s Kshocolât offers a duo of beautiful, sleek cardboard tubes filled with chocolate-covered strawberry pieces and orange peel — or so they say.
The Mini Strawberrettes are described as “tiny pieces of dried strawberry enrobed in luxurious milk chocolate and glazed with a thin cocoa butter coating”. They’re dull, shapeless, and indeed tiny little brown pellets and taste just as unappealing, vaguely of stale, chopped up fruit roll-ups. While the sweet creaminess of milk chocolate usually complements the juicy tanginess of fruit, this “luxurious milk chocolate” coating does absolutely nothing for it; there’s something slightly fruity and sort of chocolatey coexisting in your mouth without any sort of harmony, like an estranged couple sleeping on opposite sides of the bed.
Closer inspection of the label reveals there are no strawberries in this product at all! The ingredients include “concentrated fruit”, pectin, and “fruit and vegetable extracts”, but no mention of any specific fruit by name, which makes sense since there exists no fruit in nature nearly as tasteless as whatever’s in there.
The Mini Orangettes fare a bit better. “Orange” is listed as the first ingredient, so I’ll take their word for it, though they don’t taste much like “crystallized orange peel”, which I expect to have a nice balance of sweet, sour, and bitter. Instead, the product looks and tastes a lot like Good ‘n Fruity — sweet ‘n waxy — but costs about ten times as much. No kidding. The dark chocolate shell, while better than the Strawberrettes’ milk version, doesn’t justify the markup. And at least Good ‘n Fruity never had any gourmet aspirations.
Don’t waste your money and don’t be fooled by Kshocolât’s extremely disappointing little confections. I can’t speak for their chocolate line, but I will say they ought to spend more time on product development instead of sexy packaging and pretentious naming conventions.
Tejava iced tea - works every time
Thursday, February 21, 2008
The other day my husband was carrying a bottle of Tejava iced tea up to the house, and some folks mistook it for a forty.
What do you think?
wasabigelatine’s very own tea blend
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
In my Holiday Gift Guide, I mentioned a company in the UK that creates custom tea blends. Visit the Blends for Friends website, fill out a form with a bit of information about the recipient including tea preferences and personal characteristics, and receive 125 grams of bespoke loose leaf tea packed in an elegant tin adorned with a clever label describing both the tea and the tea drinker.As a passionate tea enthusiast, it was necessary to put the service to the test. I typed a few things into the order form and selected “leave it to the expert” to create the style of tea — as opposed to choosing black, green, or herbal infusion — and trusted master tea taster Alex Probyn to work his magic.
In just over a week, I received the wasabigelatine blend — a wonderful infusion of Taiwanese Spring Pouchong (oolong), Chinese Bai Hao Silver Needle (white tea), lemongrass, hibiscus, and calendula. The result was a light, refreshing tea with a hint of tartness, and the colorful petals in the blend made it look as lovely as it tasted.
wasabigelatine is giving away five samples of its very own tea blend! Leave a comment about your favorite cold weather beverage. Winners will be chosen at random.
Chicago Restaurant Week
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Chicago Restaurant Week is February 22-29. Sponsored by the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau, participating restaurants offer three-course prix fixe meals, $21.95 for lunch and $31.95 for dinner. Restaurants include Aigre Doux, David Burke’s Primehouse, Fogo de Chão, and Naha. Click here for a full list of participants and to make reservations.
