Welcome To Illinois!

Ok everyone, I did the best I could to clean up, and tidy things. Please don't put your coats in any closets or look under the rugs or beds. And help yourself to the goodies. I made some lovely snacks for everyone.

Why?

Oh, because Debbie invited the Blog Around the World crew to come take a tour of Illinois today. Be nice to the visitors.

Really, Illinois to me means Chicago. It's kind of like when I lived in Minnesota (Wayzata in case anyone really wants to know). There was the Cities and there was outstate. And yes, we actually called it outstate, as in not really a part of Minnesota. It's kind of like that with Chicago, too. I can name some suburbs, but even where they are is sort of hazy to me unless I've been there.

I'll toss in a tiny bit about the only other part of Illinois I know a little about. And I know this only because of my husband, who is from St Louis. Which of course means that he lived on the Illinois side of the river near St Louis. See, even people who live in parts of Illinois that aren't Chicago don't call themselves Illinois -- these guys identify themselves with a completely different state! (And for those who don't know me, this is completely tongue in cheek.)

So here's what I know about southern Illinois: They have the Cahokia Mounds. The mounds are big. They're in Cahokia, which means goose in an Indian language. There are several of them. Many schools take field trips there. They have a lot of steps and some ruins on the top.

And now I'm shamed into actually looking up and providing more accurate info on the Cahokia Mounds:

Ok. There are at least 109 mounds (although I recall climbing only two), which are the remains of one of the most advanced ancient societies in North America pre-European invasion. Monk's Mound is the main mound and has four terraces, making it the largest man-made earthen mound in North America. The mounds were abandoned more than 100 years before Europeans arrived, however, with no real knowledge about why they dispersed. It is now a protected national heritage site, and there's a pretty cool website with more info on it here.

Now back to Chicago. Where it's impossible to get lost so long as you know what number you're looking for because the city is laid out in a numerical east/west, north/south grid. Go ahead, quiz me on what hundred a street is! (Granted, Minneapolis with its going through the alphabet twice order for street names is pretty ingenious, too.)

One of my favorite things about Chicago is the food.

We do food right around here, as you can see from our typical girth.


The good news is that if I were a size two or four or six, I could find tons of really cute clothes on sale because so few people are small sizes like that. You don't have that luxury in places like oh say New York. Unfortunately, I'm not a size 2.

What do we like to eat here?

Some of my favorite is the pizza we do. The pizza we have is (duh) Chicago-style. Nothing against New York-style, which I am also a fan of, but this pizza rocks. It's deep dish, but not like what you'd get at Pizza Hut. This typically has the filling inside it instead of on top, with the filling and cheese mixed together and the sauce on top. It's definitely knife and fork type food. Spinach is a tradition -- and trust me, this is the only way you're going to get me to eat spinach on pizza.* And yes, there is also the meat gorging version that a lot of people eat (me, I can't mix cheese and meat -- I think I was Jewish in a former life).


* Unless it's Neopolitan pizza with fresh spinach wilted atop a white pizza from Spaca Napoli.

If you come to Chicago, don't go to Uno's or Due's or Gino's East. Those are not for the connoisseurs. If you want the good stuff, I prefer my Giordano's and Suparossa (which used to be sold in the freezer case when I was growing up in MN but I haven't seen it since high school) and sometimes Lou Malnati's (otherwise known as Lou's). When you're on a first name basis with your pizza, you know it's good.

The other stereotype is the Chicago dog, also known as a red hot. Do not, I repeat do NOT put ketchup on your dog. Eww. Mustard, relish (which must be a florescent green not known in nature), dill pickle spear, celery salt, sport peppers, onion, and tomatoes are de rigeur. Oh, and it's ok to add cucumber but not necessary. It's ok to leave some of those off, but do you really want to mess with tradition? And it must be served on a poppyseed bun.

Real hot dogs are Vienna Beef hot dogs. Any decent hot dog place in Chicago serves them. Especially good ones. Fluky's (the original). Mustards (a tradition before or after Northwestern games) -- officially called Mustard's Last Stand. I love the pun, don't you? Demon Dogs, Superdawg, Weiner's Circle (yep, we're all about our puns), Portillo's, and more.

Oh, a bit of a warning. You definitely need two hands to eat a Chicago dog. And I'd recommend a few napkins. They look good though, don't they?

Illinois is also where the first Mai Tai was invented. That's a bit of a surprise, isn't it? You thought they were invented somewhere tropical. Nope, Bob Chinn's is the home of the original mai tai. And they do great food outside the mai tai, but if you order one you get to keep the plastic cup it comes in. They have the most delicious rolls they serve before your food comes out. They're piping hot, and you can get them with or without garlic but really, who wants it without the garlic? Mmm, mai tai, a couple rolls and some fantastic shrimp, and I'm one happy camper!

Actually, you could eat anything you want in Chicago. Chinatown is one of the better ones I've seen (Royal Dragon has great dim sum), and up on Broadway on the north side there are a ton of great Viet and Pho restaurants. Or you can go upscale in the Loop with Tru or Alinea or any one of a number of others.

Even better, you can learn to cook all these kinds of things right here in Chicago. The Chopping Block is a cooking school for amateurs that offers classes on everything from knife skills to making pasta to basic meals and more. They're done in small classes either in a demonstration or hands on mode, depending on your preference. Either way, food is made over a couple hour period before you eat it and then take home recipes so you can recreate it. This is one of the places that nutured my interest in cooking and definitely honed my skills.

It's a real shame that Debbie wasn't featuring Illinois during early July. That's when we have the Taste of Chicago. I can't even compare it to other tastes that have popped up elsewhere around the country. I've been to a couple of them and been sorely disappointed after being spoiled by the original. Granted, it's crowded -- the secret is to go midweek during the first week during the day -- but all the heat and people and noise is well worth it to get little snitches of everything you could ever ask for. It takes all the flavors of Chicago described above and puts it into one place. Of course, that means for those of you who haven't been there before, only order the taste portions. You want to sample everything you can, and it isn't worth it to fill up on full size portions.

Now I'm hungry, and I hope some of you are, too! There's far more to Illinois than this (and to my blog, so feel free to explore), but I'm still working on getting back in synch after my lovely vacation to Orlando. Thanks for stopping by -- and thank you, Debbie!