Green City Market

A weekend or two ago we drove into the city to go to the Chicago Green City Market. The Market is held from May and runs through October. Market days are Wednesdays and Saturdays from 7:00 am - 1:30 pm. It's in Lincoln Park (as in, actually in the park, not just the neighborhood). Parking is a bit of a hassle, but not too bad, if you come in on the right street (which, of course, we didn't).

It's not a huge outdoor market, but it's a decent size. Lots of farmers, lots of produce, and a fair amount of bakeries and a pretty good crowd walking around. Fair amount of meat-producers too (lamb, chicken, beef, pork). No heritage turkey though (the once place we saw taking orders for Thanksgiving turkeys -- we asked them what kind of turkey they had and the one guy was completely nonplussed and the lady says "Uh....white.").

We bought some good lamb and some potatoes and I got some radish sprouts. That was about it for us. Oh, and a chicken. But we can also buy chicken here at the farm from Red Tail Farm. Sandhill Organics at Prairie Crossing kind of acts as an incubator for other small farming ventures. I bought one recently, but we haven't cooked it yet. I'm sure it is good though. :)

Osaka Japanese Restaurant

1452 S. Butterfield Road, Mundelein, IL 60060, (847) 549-9944

So, along with pregnancy also comes cravings. I don't care what some people say about that being a crock. Tell it to my tummy.

Lately, one of the things I've been craving is sushi. Specifically, I really, really want a Tampa roll. Of course, you're not going to find one of those around here (it's fried grouper, onion, mayo, and cucumber slices in a roll). And, according to the doctors and the books, I'm not supposed to be eating any raw fish (what exactly do women in Japan do, eh?).

The no-raw-fish thing makes for an interesting sushi experience, but it is doable. We went on Wednesday to Osaka in Mundelein. We really like Kamehachi, but it is quite a jaunt, so we figured we should try something closer.

Osaka is in a strip mall and it isn't a huge place, but it does have a little sushi bar. The people were all friendly, including the sushi chef, who would randomly smile and go "Hai!"

And -- it was real sushi. Not fake-fancy-schmancy sushi with funky names. It was a pretty extensive menu of classic sushi. I did get the closest thing to a Tampa roll, which turned out to be a Chicago roll (go figure), though it was deep fried. Also got a tempura ebi (shrimp) roll that was quite good. The cooked salmon roll was okay, but better after a good wallop of wasabi. Tony had one thing that was kind of cool -- the inside of the roll had tempura crunchies and the topper was a spicy tuna mix. I tried one of those, just knocked most of the (raw) spicy tuna off.

Oh, and they give you a little bowl of miso soup and a salad to start with. The miso had a nice flavor. The salad was in a nice dressing, but the lettuce was a wee bit sad.

Tony had an American made saki that he liked a lot and I stuck to green tee and water. All in all, I got my sushi craving satisfied. We'll have to try some more local places and see how they are. That is one thing we miss about Florida. There was some really good sushi there.

And another nice thing abou Osaka -- we got the leftover remains of some rolls to go. The waitress had noticed that I was going through the ginger (love the stuff, pink dye notwithstanding) and had the sushi chef give me another big dollop of it. They also added more wasabi and even a little container of soy sauce. A nice touch, though we didn't actually need any of it...we've actually got soy sauce, wasabi, and even the ginger at home. But most people probably don't have all three.

A home without soy sauce isn't a home at all. But maybe that's just the Chinese in me talking.

Wayne's Pizza & Jimano's Pizzeria

Wayne's Pizza & Ice Cream Parlor
34197 N Us Highway 45, Grayslake, IL 60030, (847) 223-2441

Jimano's Pizzeria
2952 W. Rte 60/83, (847) 949-8400

Actually, I hope that's the right address for Wayne's. I'd ordered off of a coupon a couple of times and I know it's a place named Wayne's...and this is the only one that comes up in a Yahoo search. So presumably it is the right place. I'll have to keep an eye out for another coupon.

We've actually ordered from Wayne's twice -- both times we got the thin crust. Maybe it's a Mid-West thing (I dunno), but it comes sliced into little squares instead of regular pizza style. The Jimano's thin crust came the same way.

Jimano's is pretty good, but I have to say I think I like Wayne's thin crust just a tad better. Both are good kind of NY-style thin crusts. Jimano's is actually probably better for you...the thing that was yummy about Wayne's is that it's got more of a greasy street-vendor feel to it.

Both got here to the house in a reasonable amount of time and were still nice and hot.

I should also mention Italian Ovens (847-223-2717). We *must* have ordered a pizza from there since I have a coupon page from them with a coupon cut out of it. But neither of us can remember remotely what it was like. Which is strange, since we've got pretty good food memories. So I'm guessing that it was okay, but nothing to write home about. I guess we'll have to give it another shot sometime and see. I know some people in the neighborhood recommend it.

Charlie's Pizza Factory

15 Commerce Suite 100, (847) 223-9300

I actually need to do entries for a whole bunch of pizza places. Ok, well, not a *whole* bunch, but quite a few. So, what do I do? I start off with a pizza place we haven't actually eaten pizza at.

I stopped in at Charlie's this past week after dropping off a (ton) of packages at the Post Office. Given the whole pregnancy thing, I get hungry pretty regularly now (still haven't gained any weight, though, which is weird...though I have gained a belly).

I decided to try one of their "hot oven classic sandwiches" and went for the Pizza Factory Meatball. It was actually really good. One of the better meatball sandwiches I've ever had, actually. Everything was nice and warm, the tomato sauce had the right amount of spice and actually had some flavor to it, the meatballs were a good consistency and size and you get extra sauce on the side. Since I was being bad, I went ahead and got the melt-y cheese too (I recommend it).

I guess the next step now will be trying their pizza. They offer thin crusy, double crust, and stuffed. They also have pastas, subs, and salads.

One funny note - I was the only customer eating in that particular afternoon and the guy behind the counter was middle-aged-ish. But on the TV? Days of our Lives. Is it just me, or is that kind of funny?

Tony's new blog

Tony's started up a new blog - How I Eat - kind of a slow food type of thing with recipes and his culinary experiments. Lotsa pictures; he's been documenting a bunch of meals and the stuff he's canning. Check it out.

And yeah, yeah, I should hopefully update my blogs soon...got the first round of revisions on my novel done, an article sent off, and I seem to mostly be over the morning sickness thing now.

B.B. King and Joan Osborne at Ravinia

So, on our "dating" anniversary (Aug. 28) we went to the B.B. King and Joan Osborne concert at Ravinia. It was our first time at Ravinia, though it was supposed to be our second. We'd had tickets to the Gipsy Kings, but it rained. We had lawn tickets both times, so rain made it a no-go. But this past Tuesday was great. Perfect weather. I packed a picnic lunch and picked Tony up from work and we hung out there all night on the lawn under the stars and the soaring dragonflies.

It was my third time seeing B. B. King. I've seen him just about very decade or so -- once when I was 16 (my mom helped me get his autograph, as well as the rest of his band -- who were surprised we asked, I guess since usually people only asked B.B.), again 11 years ago (me and Tony in St. Pete at another outdoor venue in downtown -- it POURED rain, but it was worth it...it's B.B. King. Also there were Dr. John and Edgar Winters). He's a funny guy, B. B. He likes to chat between songs.

Joan Osborne was good too. Better than we'd thought it would be, actually. I like the two songs of hers that I know (that God one and the Sister Teresa or whatever it is) but hadn't ever paid her too much attention. We might have to check out one of her CDs now. She's got some blues-y influences, which I guess explains the pairing.

Ravinia itself is also really cool. We definitely have to do that again next year.