Category Archives: Food & Beverage

The Great Grill Collapse of 2015

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The dog, she is fond of newly cut grass. I didn’t manage to get a picture of her rolling in it, but I can assure you she does.

Payton, May 18, 2015When moving my grill to mow the grass under it, I heard a pop and one of the tripod legs had snapped completely. Chalk it up to old age. The ovoid tumbled to the ground, narrowly missing my foot.

Weber grill wreck, May 2015The grill and I, a Weber by brand, have a history. Eight years ago, I wrote, “We visited our friends near Coal City, Illinois, on Saturday, and down that way a subdivision was hosting dozens of garage sales at the same time. So naturally we went, and the prize catch was a black ovoid grill for $5. Not new, of course, but in much better shape than the one we’ve been using since we moved here in 2003. A leg fell off of it a few days ago, fortunately when it was cold. Its bottom is partly rusted out, too.”

Here are pictures of the grill in action, when I had a mind to burn parts of our 2009 Christmas tree: “It took a little doing to get the tree alight. I needed to use a piece of paper as a starter. But once it got going, it created a fast-burning needle fire with some cool popping and crackling sounds to go with it, plus the unmistakable smell of burning evergreen.”

I don’t feel like learning soldering or welding — not sure which of those it would take — to fix it, so it’s time for a new one. Doubt if I can find one for $5. That was just luck.

Original Dairy Queen Sign 1955: So Says The Plaque

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Lombard, Ill. May 2015How many Dairy Queens have metal plaques on their side? I couldn’t say, but I did notice that the Dairy Queen across the street from the Maple Street Chapel, there at Maple St. and Main St. in Lombard, Ill., has one.

A fairly new plaque, by the looks of it. Someone on the Lombard Historical Commission, or maybe a committee of someones, decided that the Dairy Queen sign, vintage 1955, was worthy of note. I wasn’t in the mood to find just the right angle at which to get a full picture of the sign, especially since it meant crossing and recrossing a fairly busy street, or maybe standing in the street. But I did stand under the sign and snap the neon cone.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERABesides, the Internet can be counted on to provide pictures of original Dairy Queen signs in various parts of the North America, and sure enough here they are. Including the Lombard sign.

There’s a pair of benches next to the shop. We sat there and ate some ice cream.

Consider the Fish

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Take raw fish.
Fish for Dinner, Pre-Cooking PhaseApply heat. Turn over a few times. Wait.
Fish for Dinner, YumThat was the protein part of dinner. The second picture might not look that appetizing, but the fish were tasty. The exact chemistry of how that happens, I couldn’t say. Just another one of those daily details that usually passes unrecorded.

Molly’s Cupcakes

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A splendid Easter to all. Back on Monday.

As usual in a different city, we poked around some of the local retail. I was especially glad to check out the selection at Iowa Book on South Clinton, which is what it sounds like. In the remainder bin, I found Under the Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin (2010) for all of $3.49 + tax. It promises some interesting bits, when I get around to grazing it, which is what I usually do with letter collections.

Picked at random (p. 204) is the following — but I think it conveys some sense of the man. Part of a letter to Joan Leigh Fermor, whose husband was Patrick Leigh Fermor, November 30, 1971:

“I do hope to see you in England. When do you come? Paddy [Leigh Fermor] I know is going to D[erek] Hill for New Year, and we are supposed to be in Ireland for Christmas. But I have the most itchy feet and want to go to Niger — more nomads, the Bororo Peuls, the most beautiful people in the world who wander alone in the savannah with long-horned white cattle and have some rather startling habits, like a complete sex-reversal at certain seasons of the year. So I may be off.”

Not far from Iowa Book is Molly’s Cupcakes. One of the 10 Best Cupcakes in the Country, a sign proudly says, citing USA Today, and another says the joint was the Winner of the Cupcake Wars or some such. I was intrigued enough to pop inside when everyone else was still in the bookstore, just for a look.
Molly's CupcakeLater, I brought the family back for cupcakes. I can’t say that I’ve bought too many cupcakes in cupcake specialty shops over the years — it seems like a example of the Starbucks syndrome, making something simple more complicated to charge a premium — but why not? We were on a road trip.

At $2 for a basic cupcake, and $3 for a filled one, you do pay a premium. But damn, they were good. I had a red velvet with vanilla frosting.
Cupcake 2015I managed by accident to take a portrait of the entire family during our visit to the shop.
Us 2015The girls as the main subject, but Y and I in the reflection.

The Telephone Pole Faces of E. 57th

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On Sunday, Lilly and I drove to Hyde Park, home to the University of Chicago and neighborhood eateries such as Salonica, a Greek diner on E. 57th St. at Blackstone Ave. Yuriko, Ann and I ate there last year during our visit to see the Robie House and other Hyde Park places.

This time, Lilly and I ate there. It was busy at about noon, but the line wasn’t out of the door. The patrons were a good mix of students and neighborhood residents. At least, I’m fairly sure that the grayhairs and young families were locals; and the young men and women — every jack one of the men with a beard — were students.

Salonica, Hyde ParkLilly had an omelet, I had pancakes. It’s the kind of place that serves tasty breakfasts all day, besides Greek items and sandwiches. In a place like this, breakfast is the thing for me. If I’ve already had breakfast that day, I have another. So it was this time.

A block and half west of Salonica are two telephone poles flanking the spot where the alley between Dorchester Ave. and the small Bixler Park meets E. 57th St. Each of the poles is painted with a green image at about eye level. Facelike, green with a yellow outline and blue and orange details. Maybe it’s not supposed to be a face. Whatever it is, it’s a lively work.

E 57th St ChicagoI remembered seeing them last year, so they’ve been around at least that long. If you go to Google Streetview, you can see them as green splotches.

Nothing like a little local detail. Hyperlocal detail, it is. Not even the most experiential-oriented, don’t-ever-admit-you’re-a-tourist-even-though-you-are guidebooks or web sites can cover that kind of thing.

Happy Turn Rice Crackers

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Yuriko bought some Happy Turn rice crackers (senbei) recently. They’re oval crackers with a light sweet-soy flavor. Happy Turn is the name — or rather, the English rendering of the katakana name, ハッピーターン. A product of Kameda Seika Confectionery.

Happy Turn rice snacksThey’re very popular in Japan with both adults and children, and they didn’t last long in our house. I prefer Bonchi rice snacks myself, which are shaped like small bowls and are a bit saltier, but I’m fond of these too. Been a while since we’d had any.

Moo & Oink

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All of the holiday-themed merchandise you’d actually want to buy is long gone by now, snapped up at discounts in the days after Christmas. That leaves the likes of the Ugly Christmas Sweater Cookie Set that I saw for sale today: a ridiculous item at a very steep markdown. Makes 6 to 8 ugly sweater cookies, the box said. It was illustrated with cookies shaped like brightly decorated sweaters.

When and how did the notion of ugly Christmas sweaters become popular? It happened while I wasn’t paying attention. I’ll continue to be apathetic about it, so I won’t bother to look into it. (But I will record here that Lilly went to a party with that theme this year.)

I didn’t buy the cookie set. I did need some barbecue sauce, and happened across an 18 oz. bottle Moo & Oink High 5 BBQ Sauce. That I bought.

Marketing verbiage on the bottle says: “Let’s face it, you take your BBQ seriously. So when it comes to what you put on your ‘Q,’ serious BBQ lovers are brushing on the thick & tasty blend of ingredients in HIGH 5™ BBQ Sauce.” The first ingredient is high fructose corn syrup.

Seems to be residuum of the Moo & Oink grocery stores that used to be on the South Side of Chicago, but which closed in 2011. I never went to any of their stores, but I did occasionally see the commercials.

The Sounds of the Solstice Breakfast

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Longest night, shortest day just passed up here in the Northern Hemisphere. Like most other days, I got up and made some breakfast.

Actually, not quite everything. Lilly made eggs and brewed coffee. This is what both of those sounded like together: frying egg and the drip-drip-drip from nearby Mr. Coffee.

Eggs and Coffee Dec 2014

The toaster oven tick-tick-ticks. I prefer that mechanical sound to the hum of something digital.

Toaster Oven Dec 2014

Here’s another breakfast sound that might be a little hard to guess.

Grits Dec 2014

Yes, it’s the bubbling of grits when the pot is nearly done. Big steam bubbles rise from the bottom and puff their way through the surface of the grits. Reminds me of the films you see of bubbling hot mud.

Ecuadorian Choco

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Those jokesters at Trader Joe’s, or at least their hired copywriters, are still coming up with too-clever-by-half product names. We were at one of the stores recently, and noticed Moral Fiber brand bran muffins. What’s the subtext of that? These muffins promote ethical digestion?

We didn’t buy any of the muffins, but we did buy Inner Peas – a bag of green pea-based snacks. Or, to quote the bag, “Trader Joe’s Contemplates Inner Peas.” Maybe they’ve been visualizing whorled peas, too.

It doesn’t have a twee name, but we also bought 65% Cacao Dark Chocolate-Single Origin-Ecuador. I don’t ever remembering trying any Ecuadorian chocolate, so that was just about enough to make me part with $2 for the opportunity. The verbiage on the box promises that it’s made only from “Arriba cocoa beans that are native to Ecuador. The bean are grown exclusively in the cocoa plantations located along the Guayas River…”

Turns out that Ecuadoran choco is making a comeback. According to the BBC: “Over the last decade, as the demand for more flavourful cocoa has risen, Ecuador has emerged as the pre-eminent exporter of fine beans.

“It is a favourite destination for globetrotting chocolatiers in search of the best, and cocoa production has also become a sustainable source of income for Ecuador’s farmers.”

The Globetrotting Chocolatiers. There’s a band name or a title of something in that somewhere. Anyway, we’ve tried the Ecuadorian chocolate, and it’s high-quality stuff.

Thanksgiving ’14

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The Thanksgiving meal, served at about 5 pm on Thursday, minus the rolls and olives.

Thanksgiving dinner 2014

Lilly insisted on making all the starches: from left to right, genuine mashed potatoes, boxed stuffing, and her own mac & cheese creation. The meat – between the potatoes and m&c – was tilapia, though roast beef was available as well. Non-alcoholic cider came in wine-style bottles: once again, Martinelli’s Gold Medal Sparkling Cider.

The meal was good, so was the time we spend preparing and consuming it. Even better, the holiday represented three whole days when I didn’t have to pay attention to my laptop or email or or clients’ web sites or Google News or any of it. Some of Wednesday and Sunday, too, so you could call it four.