Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
Loosen your belts. It’s that time of year again. Starting today at 11 a.m. and continuing for the next 10 days, we’ll all be in a feeding frenzy at the 22nd annual Taste of Chicago. “We’re very excited about this year’s Taste,” says Cindy Gatziolis, director of public relations for the Mayor’s Office of Special Events. “We’ve got some great restaurants serving all different kinds of food, from Italian to Jamaican to Korean to Thai.
A downtown office worker was so offended by the smell of a colleague’s spicy lunch, she called security. Now that’s passive aggressive.
Vanilla gets a bad rap. Vanilla ice cream is dismissed as bland. Boring celebrities are put down as vanilla. And let’s not even get into Vanilla Ice. But Coca-Cola hopes to boost the hip factor of the much maligned flavor with its latest soft drink, Vanilla Coke, which debuts today at stores nationwide.
Good English food was an oxymoron until the Brits invaded America. Again. While they’re barging through our kitchens this time, we’re not so hot to keep them out. It helps that the latest imports such as Jamie Oliver, that hottie on the Food Network’s “The Naked Chef,” are easy on the eye. These days foodies are raising eyebrows at the sexy star of “Nigella Bites,” the delectable Nigella Lawson. She’s slim with model good looks, and this recent widow is raising a family without complaint or a ladle out of place.
At Brian Eccles’ Final Four party this year, he’ll offer his guests pizza and beer. But don’t look for a platter of crudites anywhere near the buffet table.
Step aside, Anna Kournikova. You’ve got some tasty competition on the pinup calendar front. More than a baker’s dozen of top Chicago area chefs have struck a pose to help fight hunger. Unlike the beefcake and cheesecake calendars flooding the market, there were no age, sex or physique requirements for these models, who gladly posed for the Northeastern Illinois Area Agency on Aging’s Holiday Meals on Wheels (Out of the Kitchen to Fight Hunger) calendar.
Let’s face facts. There’s a 50-50 chance that the lunch you pack for your child will actually be consumed by him. She may trade it for a Backstreet Boys poster. Or throw it out and buy a burger instead.
By Jae-Ha KimChicago Sun-TimesAugust 22, 2001 Leave it to kids and they’d likely want cupcakes, milkshakes and pizza for lunch every day. We checked with a few pint-size and teen food critics to see how […]
Nothing signifies the arrival of summer like a big, refreshing bowl of ice cream. Whether it’s the tinkling of the Good Humor truck or simply the sight of scoops being doled out at Ben & Jerry’s, ice cream brings us to a place that makes us feel young and carefree.
Back in the day, celebrity chefs started and ended with Julia Child and her messy but amusing style. But thanks to the advent of cable television in general and the Food Network in particular, the faces of a new breed of hot-shot chefs are becoming familiar. Joining the ranks of Emeril Lagasse, Ming Tsai and those poker-faced Iron Chefs are a couple of young guns–Tyler Florence and Bob Blumer.
Chicago is good enough to eat. Just ask Bon Appetit, which features eight Chicago restaurants in a list of its 100 favorite restaurants nationwide.
Nestled in the cavernous Woodfield Mall, Fuji Grill is a treat for shoppers jonesing for something other than fast food, smoothies and pretzels the size of their heads.
People always complain about the lack of good restaurants in the suburbs. That’s because they don’t know where to look.
When Jerry Kleiner first set foot on American soil, the 7-year-old Russian immigrant thought his new homeland was throwing a party for him.
For meat-eating parents, a child proclaiming his or her desire to convert to a vegetarian diet may indeed be a scary prospect. But it’s something more parents are facing on a daily basis. There are now more teenage vegetarians than ever before in the United States. According to a recent Roper poll, 11 percent of girls aged 13 to 17 said they eat no meat. And some 15 percent of the nation’s 15 million college students reported that they eat vegetarian meals at school.
Let me preface this by saying that if a straw’s the only utensil required to “eat” my meal, I generally don’t consider it a proper meal.
The death of Pattie’s Heart Healthy has been greatly exaggerated. After closing at 520 N. Michigan in February 1997 – thanks to the Nordstrom project – the health-conscious eatery moved two months later to a snazzier location on Michigan Avenue.
Finding a good Thai restaurant in the suburbs isn’t an easy feat. So when you find one that you like, you want to share the news. Frankly, I never knew that the Bangkok Cafe of Arlington Heights existed, even though it’s located just a couple miles east of Woodfield Shopping Center (which I know very well). But there it lies, tucked away in a small strip shopping center at the corner of Golf and Arlington Heights in the northwest suburbs.
I’d never really thought of sushi as a to-go option like I do with Chinese, Thai or Italian. But when you’re craving an uncluttered, fresh and filling meal, sushi – bite-sized creations based on flavored rice and other ingredients, often raw fish – makes a delicious change of pace from a burger and fries.
You have died and gone to heaven. You are inside the West Town factory where Fannie May and Fanny Farmer chocolates are manufactured, and you are thisclose to vats of caramel, chocolate and pecans. Never mind that there is a TV crew filming a news segment (there are no public tours), and you’ve been spotted wearing a hairnet and a white lab coat with the name “Catherine” embroidered over your pocket. Never mind that you’re not Catherine.