Posts Tagged ‘food’

Tips and Tricks for Surviving the Taste of Chicago

Posted by Val on June 26th, 2010 at 11:08 am | Permalink | No Comments » |

The Taste of Chicago is the biggest food festival in the city each year. If you ask, nine out of ten Chicagoans will tell you that the Taste of Chicago is horrible, expensive, crowded, not worth the time.* If you ask someone like me, that ninth kind of girl, you’ll get someone who says yeah, it’s expensive and crowded just like any other festival in the country, but, if you play it right, it’s also a yearly tradition and worth the time. I’ve pulled together for you a few of my tips and tricks on why you should visit the Taste and how to get out alive, fulfilled, and without going broke.

Satisfy my Craving
I love deep dish pizza, and with a strongly carnivorous group of friends a giant slice of gooey sausage is almost always placed in front of me when we go out for it. Which is totally awesome. But, sometimes, my inner veggie-lover kind of craves spinach deep dish…and this past week I’ve been fiercely craving it. So bring on the Taste. Luckily for me when I went on Friday the first booth I saw was Bacino’s and I knew that every year they had slices of spinach deep dish. I got a half slice for four tickets and my taste buds were officially thanking me.

Stuffed Spinach Pizza from Bacino’s

Skip the usual
Chicago is known for pizza, hot dogs, and beef sandwiches. But that doesn’t mean that is what the Taste is about. Even though it is tempting to get these tried and true favorites, skip anything that you get all the time anyways. Try new things and different places. A few years ago at the Taste I decided to try rice pudding for the first time. And afterwards I wondered how I ever survived without rice pudding in my life, and get it everywhere, and get it again every year.

Mango Rice Pudding with Dried Cranberries from The Grill on the Alley

Bizarre Foods
Have you ever been to a restaurant and thought, gee, I’d really like to try that sautéed goat…but I don’t know if I’ll like it, so I’ll just get the chicken. Well, the Taste is the perfect time to get a no-commitment sampling of foods you want to try but aren’t sure if you’ll like. If you love it, great, and you know just where to go to get it again. And if you hate it, you didn’t waste a whole meal on it. This year I tried a crazy mashed potato filled chocolate cupcake…I don’t think I ever need to eat one again, but I am glad I tried something new.

Mashed Potatoes Stuffed Chocolate Cupcake from Polo Café & Catering

I’ll Have What She’s Having
There are two phrases you’ll have to get used to hearing…and saying: “What is that?” and “Where did you get that?” Put aside any shyness and selfishness because everyone wants to know what everyone else is eating. People will stop you to ask what you’re eating and where it came from if they see something they like. And you should do the same. Don’t try to figure it out on your own (especially since many places have similar items) and take it as a compliment that someone else thinks you have a great taste in food.

Plan and Conquer
With several blocks lined with street vendors and crowds of people it’s easy to get overwhelmed. It makes it much easier to navigate and try what you want to try if you come with a plan. Listings of all of the participating restaurants and foods are available in booklets around the city and online prior to the event’s kickoff. Every year I go through and circle what I want to try and narrow that list down until I have a list of doable items. That way I know exactly what I want to eat and where to get it, which makes the whole thing very, shall we say, whelming. That’s not to say that I don’t deviate from my plan. Maybe I will see something someone has that looks too good to skip. And almost always by the end of the hot humid day I am dying for something like an Italian Ice.

Potato and Cheese Varenyky from Shokolad Pastry and Café

Take advantage of the tastes
Every restaurant has full portions of several items then offers a couple of items in smaller “taste” portions for two to four tickets. The smaller portions are a great way to try many different things while putting less of a dent in your wallet and your waistline. Last time I went I used about a strip and a half of tickets (a strip of 12 tickets is $8) and tried five different things: all Taste portions. Not bad if I do say so myself.

Irish Egg Roll from Abbey Pub

Bring your own drinks
Don’t waste your tickets on soda and water: bringing your own is much cheaper! Outside alcohol, however, is strictly prohibited, so if you want to drink you will have to shell out a few tickets, but if you just need some H2O hydration, there’s no need to wait until you enter the festival.

So, there you go, and I hope you go! Don’t shy away from the Taste just because someone says it’s not worth it. Hey, you have to eat lunch (or dinner, or brunch, or a snack) anyways! If you play it smart, you don’t have to spend a whole lot or get lost in a land of confusion. And you’ll end up with a new and different meal and hopefully a new favorite food.

*Statistic totally made up, but also pretty much true.

Site: Taste of Chicago
Location: Grant Park, Chicago, IL
Cost: Free to get in, food tickets are 12 for $8
Hours: June 25, 2010 – July 4, 2010, 11am – 9pm Daily
Date: June 25, 2010

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Superdawg Wheeling is now open!

Posted by Val on January 29th, 2010 at 10:56 am | Permalink | 3 Comments » |

Sometimes its 3pm and you’re at work, which means you are also on Twitter (hey, you’re only human) and you see the tweet you and many others have been waiting for too long: Superdawg Wheeling is open.

Superdawg was opened in Chicago in 1948 by Maurie Berman and his wife Florence. The neighborhood carhop is just as well known for its mustard/neon relish/pickle/onion/hot pepper topped dogs as it is for its 12-foot Maurie and Flaurie anamorphic hot dogs that perch on its roof. I’ve talked about Superdawg before here.

And 50 years later here we are again.

For months, eager Chicago-area-ans have been repeatedly asking one question: When will the Wheeling location open? Construction began, the building went up, ordering stations installed. And yesterday. At 3pm. Out of nowhere. We got the tweet: Superdawg Wheeling is open.

So, naturally, I dropped all plans for the night to drive 45 minutes for a hot dog in a cracked-window car on one of the coldest nights of the season. OK, so granted the entirety of my night was going to consist of baking a cake for my roommate’s upcoming birthday. And since she specifically requested a cake from a box I was able to bake it in under an hour and leave it to cool while I went to fulfill my new journey. (Hey, it has to cool before frosting anyways, and I had to kill time doing something.)

So I drove to Wheeling. Which is actually further than the original from me but hey, how often do you get to eat at a Superdawg on its opening day?

I pulled my car up and pressed my button to order. Everyone there seemed to be inside. But I think the greatness of the place is to sit in your car and order from the glowing menu box and eat in there. So I ordered a Superdawg and some Superveggies and a chocolate milkshake. And they were delivered to my window on a tray.

Within seconds I managed to knock over my veggies and to spill ranch dressing all over my floor. Maybe my klutzy self should have gone inside. But whatever. I recovered and ate them all. And I was good and didn’t even put ketchup on my dog. And I ate every bite. Because it’s Superdawg. And that means its super delicious.

Although they opened yesterday the signature giant hot dogs have yet to make it to the roof although sources say they will be up some time next week. I guess that means I will have to go back. Oh darn :-)

Site: Superdawg Wheeling
Location: 333 S. Milwaukee Ave., Wheeling, IL, 60090
Cost: Menu prices vary, CASH ONLY!
Hours: 11am – 1am Sun-Th, 11am – 2am Fri-Sat
Date: January 28, 2010

Superdawg Wheeling is now open! | 3 Comments » |

Sneak Peek of the Week

Posted by Val on June 15th, 2009 at 2:37 pm | Permalink | No Comments » |

I tend to spend so much time talking about watching other people eat that sometimes I neglect the places I eat myself! Food is an integral part to any road trip and this week I’m going to be featuring some of the delicious awesomeness of the places we stopped to eat in Missouri!