Chicago dining – In Good Taste

Five Things You “Knead” to Know About Homemade Pasta

Maris Callahan — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 06:06:51 +0000

The first time I tried making homemade pasta I was sure I was going to break it, drop it or roll the delicate sheets so thin that I could barely lift them without poking finger sized holes into the pliable dough. I wish I could finish this anecdote with a heroic tale of how I hit my linguine out of the park but actually? I did all three of those things and at the end of my class, still ate some magically delicious pasta. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I was cooking the pasta with a dozen other people considerably less clumsy than I am in the controlled environment of a recreational cooking school, so please try not to kill my fantasy. Despite plenty of bumps in the road (and in the dough) I can crank out a halfway decent sheet of lasagne and make just enough not-screwed-up wontons to stuff a melt-in-your-mouth ravioli, but I’m far from a master pasta maker. Enter, our friend Phil Rubino, former sous chef at Cicchetti Restaurant in downtown Chicago, now helming the kitchen at Dusek’s in Pilsen. Rubino has just a tad more experience handling fresh-Italian focused ingredients than […]

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Where to Get the Best Fried Chicken in Chicago

Maris Callahan — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 03:52:22 +0000

This past fall, I began writing for Chef Magazine, a trade publication for chefs and foodservice professionals. My most recent story ‘Let’s Play Chicken‘ was about some the ways that chefs across the country are putting their own spin on the ubiquitous bird (hint: a lot of them are partial to fried chicken). I interviewed a lot of chefs and researched a lot of cooking techniques and two things were very apparent: even though chicken is one of the easiest things to cook at home, people love to order it in restaurants, and wow do people really love chicken when it’s fried. Growing up, there was a fast food joint in my hometown called Chicken Holiday, where you could order chicken to feed a family of four for under $10. I’m pretty sure that Chicken Holiday would fry anything that could be fried — shrimp, clams, scallops — but my family was usually partial to the blue and white striped buckets with chicken breasts, thighs and drumsticks. There was also a robust side dish menu that in retrospect, was a fat kid’s dream: crinkle-cut French fries, corn fritters, cheesy broccoli, macaroni and cheese, dinner rolls. If my current preferences are any indication, […]

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Chicago: Tacos & Ceviche at Cantina 1910 – NOW CLOSED

Maris Callahan — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 05:00:29 +0000

Located in Andersonville, Cantina 1910 is a Mexican restaurant that merges the diverse cuisine of Mexico with the bounty of Midwestern farms and producers to innovate traditional Mexican dishes. Do you like to visit restaurants when they first open, or do you like to give them some times to iron out the kinks, perfect the service and tweak their menus? Even though there is definitely an excitement to getting a table at a hot new restaurant the week it opens, I’m on Team Wait. I like to read reviews, hear feedback from friends and know what I’m getting into before I eat someplace. Of course, there are exceptions, but I’ve also been to far too many openings where I was so excited to eat amazing food at a new spot in town only to be hugely disappointed in the experience. In the past month or so, I’ve been to two much hyped spots within weeks of their openings. At one, the food was hugely disappointing and at the other, the service was awful. Both had potential to be far better, so I wonder if had we waited longer to try each restaurant, we’d have had a better experience. Even so, I hesitate to […]

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A Conversation With Dana Lanier

Maris Callahan — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 16:51:06 +0000

There are doughnut (donut?) shops cropping up all over Chicago that take the much beloved pastry beyond old fashioned and chocolate glazed. One of these such wonders is Doodle’s Doughnuts, an Old Town shop known for three glorious things: doughnuts, bacon and coffee. The brainchild of San Jose native Dana Lanier, Doodle’s Doughnuts was born from the idea that every neighborhood should have its own independent doughnut shop. A lifelong baker, Dana’s love of sweet treats is evident in her menu: you’ll find flavors ranging from double chocolate cake and maple bacon to pink lemonade and the shop’s specialty: filled bismark doughnuts with white icing, each of which offers a delicious canvas for your own creative design. We chatted with Dana to learn more about this successful entrepreneur’s background and how she finds the time to make the doughnuts. What was your first job out of college? My first job out of graduate school (University of California at Davis, MFA in Dramatic Art, emphasis directing) was as a technician in a small municipal theater. I liked it because it was an opportunity to make money in a field where all anyone ever talked about was how you can’t make money in the theater. […]

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How-To: Make a Lobster Roll

Maris Callahan — Wed, 16 Jul 2014 14:01:20 +0000

For me, lobster is proof that some of the most delicious things in culinary life are the simplest. Though there are plenty of opulent ways to eat lobster, from from thermidor to Newburg and from scampi to bisque, but the best way to enjoy lobster is plain, cooked fresh and tasting slightly salty like the Atlantic ocean. The next best way to enjoy lobster is far and away in a lobster roll. Some claim the lobster roll first popped up on the menu at Perry’s in Milford, Connecticut, in the 1920s, as a riff on lobster salad; but Bon Appetit says no, it was Red’s of Wiscasset, Maine, that became the first in the 1970s, serving shucked, one-pound lobsters on buttery hot dog buns, with creamy mayo served in a cup on the side. Today, the lobster roll isn’t much different, though you’ll find variations on every menu across the country, even in the least likely places you’d expect to see lobster. When we visited chef Ashley Elech at Joe Fish in Chicago, she gave us a few quick tips for building the perfect lobster roll. The Buns “The most important part are the components, beginning with a New England […]

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