Sausage, ham, bacon, chorizo- pork can be cooked oh-so-many ways. Diners ate more than their fair share of the sweet meat at the 2nd annual Slow Food Pork Roast on Sunday.

You could say that this has been my year of the pig. I’ve eaten boudin blanc at The Publican, fried pigs ears at The Purple Pig and pork belly at Big Star. Grilled sausage with a fresh tomato salad has become my staple summer meal and I’ve attempted not one, but two of the city’s rib fests. So my heart soared when I heard about the event to top it all off- Slow Food Chicago’s 2^nd Annual Pig Roast.

This past Sunday, Goose Island’s Ukrainian Village brewery opened its doors for some of the city’s best chefs- think The Gage, The Publican and Mado- and a crowd of hundreds. Each chef was given one local swine to do with what they may. Some roasted, some shredded, some stuffed into sausage casing. David Burke served a tostado with shredded pork and sweet mole, Kith & Kin served ham and rye sandwiches with Dijon mayo, and Longman & Eagle served confit porchetta with a white and green tomato salad. The kicker? A black truffle sausage served with foie gras from N9ne Steakhouse.

In between plates of pork, diners sipped on cold Goose Island beers (Sophie, Harvest Ale and 312), sodas, and freshly brewed coffees from Intelligentsia. After eating, groups toured the Goose Island brewery, a twenty-four hour operating facility that brews and bottles the more than 50 varieties of the companies craft brews. But the day was really all about the pork. Three hours of eating sausage, pulled pork and spicy chorizo and it may be time for the year of the cow.

The festival may be all about the music, but with a chef who knows his stuff in charge, this year Lollapalooza shakes things up with an array of food offerings with everything from truffle fries to pork belly sliders

With a last minute decision to go to Lollapalooza, I was excited about the music, of course. But more importantly, I wanted to try the food. Buzz had been brimming for weeks about Graham Elliot Bowles’ culinary direction for the festival, and instead of the normal hot dogs, barbecue chicken and popcorn, we could look forward to pork belly sliders, truffle/Parmesan popcorn and Mexican style corn.

With music blaring from all corners, the food was everywhere. The crowd swarmed with huge plates of perfectly fried chips from BJ’s Market, baskets of thick-cut truffle fries from The Southern or folks cooling off with chocolate covered frozen cheesecakes on a stick from Windsor Ice Cream Shoppe. The sea of American Apparel and Urban Outfitters clad kids, hoping to hear Metric, The XX and Phoenix, were more than happy to wait in line for Kuma’s Corner, Big Star, and Franks N’ Dawgs. Hipster music, hipster food. If people weren’t eating they were talking about food. “What’s that?” someone asked, pointing at our tostada. “That was so good,” another guy said as we walked by.

“That doesn’t look like a cupcake you see at a festival,” a fedora-sporting girl said as we waited in the massive Kuma’s line. The black-and-white More cupcake ($4), topped with perfect marbled chocolate curls was intense. “It’s like fudge on top, bread on the bottom,” my boy grinned as he dug in.

Kuma’s didn’t disappoint, the gigantic Judas Priest burger easily the best deal at $10. Pretzel bun, huge beef patty, dried cherries, blue cheese dressing, walnuts and apples- just like at the restaurant. Another favorite, Big Star’s tostada ($7)- pork belly with black beans, red onion and cilantro- was filling and a good rendition of the restaurants version. Graham Elliot’s lobster corn dog ($9), with a tangy lemon aioli, was a bit small for the price and not quite crunchy enough although the aioli was perfect with the lobster.

For all the great food, the beer selection was traditional festival ware, leaving much to be desired. Budweiser and Bud Light tall cans for $7 is not what you want to drink with a lobster corn dog or truffle French fries, and with Goose Island as a vendor, it would have been great to have a Matilda. Maybe next year?

On the train ride home, mixed in between conversations of the previous day’s Lady Gaga performance, people were still all about the food. “The burrito was awesome, it had spicy black beans and goat cheese. It made my life,” a girl nearby us said. It just goes to show that funnel cake and hot dogs won’t cut it anymore. Three cheers Mr. Bowles.

When you read about the Purple Pig, with it’s focus on small plates of housemade charcuterie, cheeses and classics from the Mediterranean, you might think you are going to a small, neighborhood spot where a heavily accented waiter will serve you rich red wine and hopefully whisk you off to Italy.

Instead, the rustic wine bar, an open kitchen looking out onto deep wooden, high-top communal tables and Spanish-style tiles framing the walls, finds its home on Magnificent Mile, and by mid-afternoon it’s full of the busy, worked men and women of the financial district, desperate for a glass of Sangiovese and a plate of fried sardines.

The menu is alluring and tempting, full of antipasti, cured meats, cheeses, and smears – everything is here from pork liver pate to roasted bone marrow. The section devoted to “fried things” is reason enough to come, with options like fried manchego – the earthy, musky cheese covered in ground panko crumbs and fried to a warmed state, served alongside sweet quince jam-  and fried pig’s ears with pickled cherry peppers. Tiny, crisp arancini are filled with sweet mashed peas, placed on top of smooth, creamy fresh ricotta and bright, lemony mint pesto – the perfect combination of the textures of crunch and creamy, and flavors, salty and sweet.

A la plancha offers hearty lamb leg with fava beans and jamon serrano served with a fried egg and grilled bread, alongside lighter dishes like sepia with snap peas or skewered scallops layered with bay leaf and served with a chickpea aioli. The sepia is lightly grilled, and toasted with darkly roasted almonds and bright, crunchy snap peas, in a warm, tangy vinaigrette. It’s the perfect summer afternoon dish.

Antipasti includes staple marinated olives, classic beets with goat cheese and pistachio vinaigrette, and playful olive oil-poached tuna with Greek lima beans.

While the menu is enticing, the food itself is a bit unbalanced in it’s preparation, leaning too heavily on vinegar or lacking seasoning. Artichokes served with potatoes and salami are soaked in an stringent mustard vinaigrette, the potatoes are unevenly cooked, some are soft while others are too firm, and the flavor from the Tuscan salami is lost in the vinegar. Grilled lamb leg is on the edge of being over seasoned as well, quite salty, and the accompanying fava beans are mushy and overpowered by the tart, salty Kalamata olives they are served with.

Dolci includes a piping hot, golden brioche donut, filled with fresh ricotta and chocolate chips- sweet, crispy, and delicious. Butterscotch budino is not as satisfying, the pudding is slightly overcooked and lumpy, the flavor off.

Whether it’s after a long day at work along the strips of the business buildings of downtown or during a shopping break, The Purple Pig is a nice spot for a glass of wine, some cheese, and nibbles. Go early to avoid the early evening hours, the food and service is better without the clatter of the full restaurant, and you’ll miss having to wait for a table.

Mixing Korean and Puerto Rican? Try it at Bucktown’s Belly Shack.

Under the train tracks at Milwaukee and Western, Belly Shack mashes up two cuisines in a bout of creative, culinary charm. Urbanbelly’s Bill Kim and Yvonne Cadiz-Kim mix their Korean and Puerto Rican heritages at this bare bones, industrial feeling BYO.

Soft Puerto Rican bread is filled with earthy lemongrass meatballs and topped with rice noodles and spicy sauce, or fill your own with the Korean kogi, sweet barbecued meat and tangy kimchi. Crispy fries in tograshi spice pair with a rich curry mayo. End with sweets – soft serve topped with crumbled bacon bits and chocolate chip cookies or drizzled with dark caramel sauce and Vietnamese cinnamon.

Although you can’t help but feel that the place is a rip on David Chang, this is Chicago, miles from New York City, and the kimichi sandwiches and played up soft serve go down nicely.

Unfortunately, the food is a bit overzealous in the seasoning, probably much better at 2 a.m. after a long night of drinking. The tograshi fries are swimming in spice, the curry mayo is overpowering. And the subtle flavoring of the Asian meatball sandwich is lost in overwhelming, spicy sauce.

And one last thought, at a place called Belly Shack, where is the pork belly?

by Katherine Sacks/MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

The benefits of the heart-healthy Mediterranean lifestyle may be due, in part, to phenol-rich olive oil, a new study reports. The phenols-or micronutrients found in olive oils-repress gene expression linked to inflammation promotion, which in turn could boost the immune system.

“These findings strengthen the relationship between inflammation, obesity and diet and provide evidence at the most basic level of healthy effects derived from virgin olive oil consumption in humans,” said Fransisco Perez-Jimenez, of the University of Cordoba, Spain in the journal BMC Genomics.

The study, published on April 19, focused on 20 patients who presented pro-inflammatory, or inflammation-promoting, symptoms, including high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Study participants avoided all drugs, vitamins and supplements before the study. During the study, the subjects ate a controlled breakfast that included phenol-rich olive oils.Through analysis, the researchers identified 98 different genes when comparing in the intake of phenol-rich olive oil with low-phenol olive oil.

“Our study showed that intake of virgin olive oil based breakfast, which is rich in phenol compounds, is able to repress in vivo expression of several pro-inflammatory genes, thereby switching activity of peripheral blood mononuclear cells to a less deleterious inflammatory profile,” stated researcher Antonio Camargo Garcia, in e-mail.

This may explain the link between those who eat a “Mediterranean diet” and the reduce risk of cardiovascular disease, according to the researchers. The research suggests that diet can, in essence, inhibit genes which are normally pro-inflammatory. Many of these gene are also linked to obesity, type-2 diabetes, and high cholesterol.

These findings aren’t surprising, said Dr. Karen Moncher, a physician in the preventive cardiology program at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison. She said the best way to get heart-healthy benefits is by following eating habits similar to the Mediterranean diet, which previous studies have shown to reduce risks associated with cardiovascular disease and stroke.

“This study shows that it appears that the olive oil and the monounsaturated fats in olive oil are the things that really make a difference,” said Moncher, “but we just don’t know that for sure.”

Although the study finds preliminary ties between olive oil and reduced cardiovascular disease risks, Toby Smithson, registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, points out the small number of participants in the study.

“There were only 20 people. It was a small study,” Smithson said. “I heed caution when the numbers in a study are so small. On the other hand, olive oil doesn’t raise cholesterol, so that’s a good thing.”

Olive oil and other monounsaturated fats tend to be seen as healthy fats and are linked to reducing risks of heart disease across the board. They can be thought of as simple fats- monosaturated fats are made of a chain of fatty acids and carbon acids that have a single bond.

The results of this study may show that olive oil is a key component of the Mediterranean diet, which includes fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts and fish, all heart healthy choices, according to Smithson.

“Teaspoon for teaspoon it’s the same amount of fat and calories,” said Smithson. “But the type of fat is what’s beneficial about olive oil because it’s a monounsaturated fat.”

But both Smithson and Moncher said to keep moderation in mind in the case of olive oil, and when eating in general.

“The concern is the amount, to make sure it fits into your calorie intake,” said Smithson. “You don’t want obesity to result because of the higher fat content in the diet. It’s the right kind of fat, but again I heed caution with the amount.”

Although the study shows a health link to olive oil, Moncher stressed the importance of adapting an inclusive healthy lifestyle.

“In the Mediterranean diet in general, across the board everybody emphasizes the combination of things seems to make the difference,” said Moncher. “So this may be more grains, more vegetables, more fruits, and it juts goes back to the whole there’s no one miracle food. It’s always a lifestyle change. There’s no miracle food, it’s just a matter of eating well on a daily basis.”

by Katherine Sacks/MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Chicago is a brunch kind of city. A late Saturday out-on-the-town night can easily turn into very early morning drinks, and everyone seems to show up somewhere for Sunday morning brunch. The Publican, in the Fulton Market Warehouse district, is not a bad place to end up. Just make sure you manage to arrive early, as everyone in town has this restaurant at the top of their brunch wish list.

With a wonderfully long beer menu, a menu that highlights sustainable and local products, and a waitstaff so pleasant it’s hard not to think they’re all on some sort of hallucinagans, the Publican is full of charm to the inth degree.

The food is effortless; well-seasoned, straightforward, and unassuming. This is a gastropub with a simplistic menu done well. With an ever changing menu based on the seasons, the chefs have a real connection to their food. Helmed by Executive Chef Paul Kahan and Chef de Cuisine Brian Huston, the menu focuses on the essential ingredients of a dish. Described by Kahan and Huston, the cuisine is “pristine product, simply prepared.”

Charred shortribs served with earthy sweet potatoes and tangy candied kumquats are topped with a perfectly cooked fried egg. Warm beer bread is topped with house made ricotta cheese, soft and creamy. Served alongside musky salted pistachios and soft, sweet persimmons, the entire thing is drizzled with honey.

The sweetness of fried french toast is cut with tart raspberry jam. The bread is an err too wet, crunchy on the outside, but gooey on the inside. Peppery apple sausage adds an earthy, savory flavor to the dish. A large casserole arrives steaming with weiswurst, a mild pork and veal sausage served with sweet Bavarian mustard, alongside a chewy, soft Hannah’s bretzel.

It’s hard to pass up an offering from the Publican’s extensive beer menu, but for brunch a mimosa or bloody mary is more in line. Publican style means with a brew, and the mimosa is served with a weiss beer, while the bloody mary, a concoction of house-made mix and celery bitters is blended with a choice: Tito’s Vodka, or possibly a stout, IPA, or another beer.

As for the design, the space and service is thoughtful down to the tee. From the complimentary coat check, to the three-tiered bar tables with a small top “drinks” level, it’s clear this is a thought out endeavor.

The space is inviting and warm. The sunny, yellow room holds long, communal tables and bright, round lamps hang from the ceiling. The cubby shelves, placed under each chair for extra storage space for guests, which the waiters thoughtfully point out, would almost seem over the top, if they were not so helpful.

After brunch is a time for refection and conversation at the Publican, and no time to hurry along on your way. Sundays are packed; the communal tables are crammed full of people by 11am, and the attentive service you receive early on may dwindle later in your meal. Sip on coffee or a cocktail, enjoy the last bites of short rib or weiswurst, catch up with friends. That’s what brunch is all about anyway, and in this setting, you won’t really want to leave.

Pumpkins, apples, parsnips, oh my! Chilly autumn weather brings a whole new crop of produce to celebrate.

Pumpkins at the Santa Monica Farmers Market

With the last of the hot, dry days of summer, juicy peaches and floral strawberries came to an end. Fall brings around a whole new group of fruits and vegetables to the farmers markets. Old favorites preserve through the winter months, sharing tables with short-seasoned, lesser known varieties. From apples to persimmons to litchi-like longans, fall’s produce splendor is worth celebrating about and certainly cooking with.

Winter Squash at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market

Chilly days mean root vegetables are coming into full flavor. “The freezing, frost gives a floral sweetness to root vegetables,” says farmer Alex Weiser, who sells beautiful parsnips, multicolored carrots, and fingerling potatoes. “It’s the terrior,” he says, meaning the vegetables gain their flavor specifically from their environment.

Parsnips from Weiser Family Farms

When it comes to persimmons, it’s just that frost that farmer Jeff Rieger worries about. This bright, orange fruit is available from mid October until the first freeze, when the fruit becomes soft and mushy. You can find several varieties at his Penryn Orchard stand, including fuyu, chocolate, maru, hachiya and the tanmopan, which have a strange acorn shape and are eaten when very soft. Penryn also has wonderfully tart and sweet pomegranates this time of year, available from September through November, although “they must be picked before the first rain or they will split and burst from juiciness,” says Rieger.

Penryn Orchard Pomegranates

Not so commonly thought of as a fall fruit, this time of year look for Walter Hole variety of avocado, a Mexicola type. This very dark skinned avocado has the highest oil content of all avocados and you can eat the dark black skin, which has a fennel like flavor. They are available into December.

Another lesser known fall fruit is the longan. This small, round, brown shelled fruit is similar to a litchi in flavor and texture. Peel back the shell and eat the jelly like, clear fruit inside(be careful of the seeds). Available from the end of October through November, they are grown in tropical areas. Californians can find them from Ventura County’s Mud Creek Ranch.

Longan fruit from Mud Creek Ranch

Of course the iconoclast fall fruit are apples. See Canyon produces some of the best in the Los Angeles area, using dry farming methods so that the fruit only receives ocean air and rain water. This produces a high sugar content apple with a richer flavor profile. Each week, Sea Canyons choices are different, but favorites include the ginger gold, braeburn, and splendor varieties. The season usually runs from late August, sometimes into late February.

Fujui apples from Sea Canyon

Even with old fall favorites like apples and squash, a trip to the farmers market during the autumn months is sure to reveal a new variety, or better yet a new product. Head to your local market and ask farmers about a product you’ve never tried. In the colder months there is so much more to cook then plain old carrots and potatoes, just go see for yourself. And bring home some of that fall splendor to make dinner tonight!

Sum(mer) time for Jam

Even with the heat soaring, nothing’s better than juicy, sticky fruit thrown in a pot with sugar and cooked to a perfectly molten lava stage. Inspiration from the farmers market’s succulent peaches, tart plums and oh so sweet strawberries makes jam and jam means no more fruitless-winter blues. Even better is jamming with those who love jam, love fruit, and love the community.

This past Sunday, the Third Annual Publilc Fruit Jam celebrated all this and more with a bang. Neighbors from every corner of Los Angeles managed to find space in the Machine Project Gallery. Members of the Fallen Fruit Collective, a local art-activist group, brought along found fruits, sugar and pectin and the Jam was on. Jammers filled the space, cutting up fruit, veggies and herbs. Several bunsen burners slowly brought fruit to a boil, as participants stirred in sugar and pectin. Many followed the directions provided, groups gave advice and help to each other, and still others managed to figure out their jam decisions alone.

Fruit and jam was traded amongst the crowd, nectarines for strawberries, lemon-fig-lavender jam for yellow peach-zucchini. Some of the fruit came from the nearby Vons, others brought farmers market wares, and some found their fruit, like kumquats from a tree in front of a participants office. Stone fruit and berries filled the tables, and cactus, green tomatoes, tomatillos, and sapotes found their way into jams as well.

Organizers checked in on the jam process, making suggestions, and asking for a donation of one jar from each group. Hundreds of mason jars quickly filled up with the sticky liquids, and many enjoyed their jam right away, toasting bread and having a snack at the event. Although the heat was high, the fruit sticky, and the room crowded, everyone made jam with a smile, helping each other out, and enjoying the fruits of the labor.

Jam this tasty can’t last long. Strawberry-plum-fig jam spread atop sweet toasted challah makes the perfect breakfast or night time snack. Here’s to more hot summer days of jamming for a fruit filled winter.

Bastide, A Treat if You Please

Dining out has become a bit of a treat for me these days. The nights of my weekly restaurant reviews have passed and with them, sadly, the hours spent with college friends over bottles of wine and glorious food. Too little time(most now spent working) and too little money(most now spent on the sudden mass of post-college bills), means much too little eating out. And here in Los Angeles, glorious food is more likely to be found at a corner taco truck or tiny strip mall treasure then at the masses of highly celebrated restaurants too concerned with their A-list clientele than actual food . Even so, on the very rare evening off from work, the occasional fine dining experience is always a treat.

And at Bastide, dining certainly is a treat. Hidden away in the heart of West Hollywood, walking into this rare-for-LA culinary meccas feels as though you have arrived at a friend’s house for supper. A very wealthy friend indeed. The space is divided into several small rooms, each fitted with posh art deco furnishings, creating a warm but classy feel. Your server whisks you to a table as if he’s bringing you into his own home and the friendly sommelier places champagne at your seat. The scene is set.

Out comes the food. Chef Walter Manzke offers a five or seven pre-fixe tasting menu, each course titled by only an intriguing suggestion of what lays ahead. A refreshing ceviche of Nantucket baby bay scallops opens the palate topped with a citrus/lime sorbet. Uni flan with chicken broth and abalone is velvet, smooth and rich. And the beef course with melt in your mouth NY strip and braised short ribs with foie gras vies as a reason not to give up on Los Angeles cuisine. The meal comes to a sweet end with smooth caramel flan topped with pandan foam and rich chocolate souffle cake with chai ice cream(pictured above). While some of the courses feel sightly disconnected, perhaps afterthoughts, the meal and experience leaves you pleasantly content. And the bread service is simply sublime. There are perfectly-shaped crunchy french bread rolls, bacon brioche, rich and flaky, and wonderful fennel and potato rolls. Offered between almost every course, it’s hard not to fill up on the bread, and even harder not to want to go back the next day. Inspired by the breads created by pastry chef Marge Manzke, I tried French bread at home. Using a recipe from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, I managed a nice crunchy crust, but the flavor left room for improvement. For now, I suppose I’ll to wait for another treat at Bastide.

.