Another great food year, obsessive as always- the day’s (and sometimes the week’s) food plans are first and last things on my mind every day. I guess I broke the past two years’  trend of thriftiness- things went a bit more indulgent this year- what with a $26 dollar burger in the following list. That burger was the crown jewel of a pretty decadent whirlwind tour of NYC chow spots that also included a $16 bagel with “everything” (all their smoked fish) at Russ & Daughters, killer roti and crazy fish head curry at Skyway in Chinatown for Malaysian, among other good eats. In other travels, I ate some damn good fried chicken at a comically greasy roadside soul food spot with Ben Steamer and loved some Haitian at Tap Tap in Miami- fried goat, grilled conch, Scotch bonnet sauces. A recent food-intensive jaunt in LA yielded more than a few phenomenal bites including ramen at the reliable Daikokuya, the realest deal Oaxacan fare outside of Mexico, and so much more. Perhaps the best aspect of the trip, though, was easing up on my typically overzealous command of the itinerary and letting my good friends tour me around to spots they love to eat at, especially Mr. Craig Doty who not only guided me on a taco truck crawl and shared in my first In N Out burger experience, but was also responsible for the best bite of the trip (and one of the best of the year) taking me for “underpass chicken”, pollo asado- aggressively marinated, and perfectly smoky grilled over lump charcoal by a couple of dudes in ponchos with little more than a 55 gallon drum grill setup. The best food ate while traveling, though, was made by yours truly on my Coleman camp stove, which I will relate in the list below.

There was more eating out for sure, partly due to my hectic school schedule, which led me to discover new cuisines in unexplored nooks of Roger’s Park- such as amazing Haitian at Sweet Nick’s Carribean and homestyle Somali at Barwaqo Kabob. I also rediscovered overlooked spots for cheap eats right in my own backyard, which I will elaborate on shortly. There were also plenty of great things to celebrate this year with decadent feasts. A Bacchanailian birthday meal at the Publican was perhaps the best of those meals, all of my favorite things- oysters, house made sausage, soft shelled crabs. I devoured my first (very belated) dish of sweetbreads, which somehow pulled off- in the best of ways- the effect of a refined Chicken Mcnugget, supple creamy meat encased in a crunchy fried shell. The beer pairing, dish by dish, by the talented Michael McAvena was revelatory in its calibration with the food. I can never exactly recount every detail of meals like these as I am swept up in the reverie of the moment and the focused attention of my dining partner. Another such meal was a brunch at Takashi on a glorious May morning. Cocktails on the patio and a few amazing bites- a mighty fine pork bun and amazing, delicate enoki mushrooms in a smoky dashi broth. The ramen was good, but the gratitude for love in my life, friendship, community, and just being in a perfect moment is the memory that sticks.

So, if I had to call a trend or theme for my list of food highlights in 2010 it would be eating and cooking with others. Food brings us together, its one of the most communal practices we have in life. This has been a central concern of my art practice, which led to a few memorable interpersonal connections. A particular such moment was connecting with the owner of Super Sub, Bali, who enthusiastically fried up pigeon for me in his signature batter and really understood the nature of my project. “Americans are silly in what they won’t eat. Pigeon has been a source of meat for many cultures, its funny that Americans see it as disgusting”. There were a few other profound moments of cultural exchange that I will discuss below that happened in Ox-Bow’s kitchen- cooking biryani with Sadia Uqaili and experiencing Ye Qin Zhu’s fish cooked Guangdong style. I love it when others cook for me too, which doesn’t seem to happen enough as I guess I just always have the plan and always jump in there (sometimes without being asked to). Alright I’m rambling in this intro, I guess it’s tricky to nail down a list of just ten things when I eat so well everyday:

10. Ground Cherries

One thing I love about the slow food/ seasonal /local/ sustainable movement is the championing of old school, heirloom varieties of produce. This year at the Holland, Michigan Farmer’s Market I came across a new-to-me fruit that astonished my tastebuds- ground cherries, acquired from Blue Sky Farms, who also made # 10 on my 2007 top 10 for their exceptional heirloom cherry tomatoes. These things looks like miniature, albino tomatillos. Peal back the papery outer skin and you’ve got a small ivory colored tomato-like berry. Bite into it and you experience a Willy-Wonka like spectrum of flavors that ranges from sweet tomato to bubblegum to yeasty bread, unreal. When I returned to the city I spied the fruit at other markets. The future is the past.

9. Italian Subs

I’ve been eating at Bari for years, since Matt Federico first brought me an Italian to his studio back in the mosaic making days. When we were building out Roots & Culture, I would run down to Grand to pick up sacks of subs for my Uncle Ed and the crew diligently building out the space. They are a satisfying on-the-go food for both hectic workdays and convenient to bring along when traveling. And now being a student with a hectic schedule and less time to cook, the convenient and durable subs are a natural go-to. I nominated Bari for a Great Neighborhood Restaurant award on LTHForum at the end of 2009. There was a bit of contention whether a so-so (in some opinions mediocre) bodega that turned out quality sub sandwiches was a restaurant at all. The challenger of my pick also happened nominate J.P. Graziano’s that year, so it became something of a prideful allegiance of mine to stand behind my neighborhood favorite. Both sub shops won their awards. With Grazi’s in the heart of the West Loop it is a natural lunch favorite for my friends who work in the galleries, many of who had been singing its praises for some time.  In the summer, I go on a gluten free diet, mostly to control my waistline but also to protest against the shitty bread that I unfortunately have to offer at Ox-Bow. So, come September, I am ravenous for all things doughy. A favorite bready treat- both these sub shops source their fantastic Italian sub rolls from D’amatos (another GNR). So, I figured it was time to try Grazi’s and, of course, I loved it. Same great bread as Bari, higher quality imported deli offerings (they are a wholesale importer first and foremost), although without the homemade fantastic giardiniera of Bari. A fairly equal tie I’d say. I’ve also branched out beyond the baseline order of the Italian, hot. Carmen loves the comforting simplicity of the Ham and Cheese (or Americano at J.P.G.) and he’s really onto something- the sub transports me back to childhood, subs I ate with my grandmother in Oak Lawn, nothing more than bread, ham, American cheese, lettuce, and mayo. All said, I discover J.P. Graziano’s at an opportune moment- this year they released the Mr. G, the most sophisticated sub on the block and one of my favorite bites of the year. Behold- hard imported provolone, hot sopressata, prosciutto di parma, volpi genoa salami, truffle mustard balsamic vinaigrette, hot oil, roman style artichoke, fresh basil lettuce w/ red wine vinegar & oregano. There is little arguing that this is the best sub in town, perhaps anywhere, ever. But at $7.25 this isn’t your workaday order. So, who makes the best subs overall? I guess I don’t care, Bari and Grazi’s both have their merits and I will continue to hit up each of them regularly.

Bari 112o W Grand Ave. Chicago, IL 60622 (312)666-0730

J.P. Graziano’s 901 W Randolph St. Chicago, IL 60607  (312) 666-4587

8. Food Other People Cooked for Me

Being the “chef/food guy/obsessive” I seem to be the one with the plan, the one always cooking for everybody. And I do love the part. However, I do not mean to intimidate others or nudge them out of the kitchen (even if this may perhaps be true). Truth is, I love it when other people cook for me and proof of this alone is in my passion for dining out. But food always tastes the best when it’s a good friend or loved one at the stove, that loving touch alone makes everything taste a million times better. Recent amazing meals by friends and loved ones include Jessica’s perfect omelets, Noah Singer’s decadent pork shoulder ragu (with a fried duck egg!), Eliza Myrie’s ethereal garlic soup, and my mom’s onion foccacia, redolent of olive oil and caramelized red onion. My favorite of these meals, which was in part collaborative (I made a decent Hungarian mushroom soup with the last of the season’s foraged bounty) featured a rabbit pie made by Kate Gronner’s boyfriend Chris, who is a really cool and interesting dude and apparently a killer cook because this pie was amazing- a mastery of rich, flaky pastry filled with savory and slightly sweet braised rabbit. It humbled me, but I ate the shit out of it.

7. Cooking with Erin

The most rewarding aspect of this year’s summer culinary internship at Ox-Bow was the chance to cook beside Erin Chapla for several full weeks in a row (rather than her usual one day a week schedule). I love the entire kitchen staff, of course- we have all worked dutily side by side for many, many years, and perhaps I take for granted the chemistry of the dance we perform day in and day out. That said though, Erin and I, in particular, have pretty synched up interests in food- namely obsessions with spice and the vast cuisines of the world. Cooking with Erin is thrilling, she has a professional background (that the rest of us lack outside of our humble camp kitchen) and hence displays a sort of effortless hustle that is truly graceful and everso pleasant to work with. I always learn in the kitchen with her, she’s a true perfectionist but also a risk taker, throwing just a little more spice into the mix. Oh, and her homemade tempeh turned around my distaste for the funky soy cakes, simply pan-fried and snacked upon, one of my favorite things I ate this year.

6. “It’s all about the onions”

One Wednesday afternoon in June I had the pleasure of cooking dinner with a lovely and talented woman named Sadia Uqaili, an artist taking the etching class at Ox-Bow. She volunteered to demonstrate how to make a classic biryani and prepare it with us. This was a first time for me cooking this regal dish with history dating to the late Mughal empire. I am rather familiar with Indian and Pakistani cooking, but learned one great lesson that afternoon. Onions are, of course, a base for much of this cuisine and during a typical session, we can process through half of a 50 pound case to make curries for 80- 100 people. That day, Sadia kept requesting more and more onions until we had probably chopped up ¾ of a case, insisting that we thinly slice them to ensure that they would brown properly. That’s the trick, to caramelize them to a deep golden color. The onions were cooked low and slow for about an hour or more, Sadia keeping a keen eye for just the right amount of color. They began to melt into an unctuous goo that became the base for our biryani. Onions, when cooked properly in this method can create a sauce of their own, sweet and deeply nutty flavored. This is the secret to good curry making- the kind without a heavy hand with tomato to extend the sauce- something that had taken me this long to figure out. For the duration of the summer, I adapted a more patient method to cooking onions, whether for a pot of beans, soup, or for a luscious onion gravy consisting of little more than flour, slowly sautéed onion, and water. I’d like to thank Sadia who taught me the mantra of “It’s all about the onions”.

5. Burger at Minetta Tavern

Wow, another burger makes the list. Two years in a row. And I thought the burger trend had relinquished to the barbecue fad or the charcuterie craze at least. Although this entry might point to the fact, I am not a burger hound. I like a burger, I eat them probably once a month tops- I eat a lot more tacos, burritos, subs, etc. I guess it’s a good blank canvas though and while I usually appreciate the traditional, once in awhile, a truly transcendent experience can teased from this simple medium. I got the idea from Anthony Bourdain’s “Obsessed” episode of course- the Black Label Burger at the Minetta Tavern, New York. A totally charming old school place- classic cocktails, polished brass and service alike. And that burger. It really was all that. Perfectly crisp, caramelized crust flecked with course ground salt and pepper, yielding an exact medium rare interior, oozing, full flavored to the point of near funkiness from dry aged beef. Sublime. The roll was ideal, browned on the outside and pillowy on the inside, caramelized onions adding a sweet note that was, as suggested, the only condiment really worthy of this beautiful creature. I applied an occasional tiny dab of dijon to every fourth or fifth bite to perk things up, but this is about beef. Worth $26 for sure. Best burger ever? Ground prime cuts of dry aged beef, griddled crisp and juice-maintaining, cooked perfectly to order. Yup, best burger.

Minetta Tavern 113 MacDougal St. New York, NY 10012-1201 (212) 475-3850

4. Overlooked Gems in the Hood

Two of my favorite plates of food of the entire year were discovered at modest diners within walking distance of my place. I’m usually willing to drive far and wide to sample the best dishes our city has to offer. With a long commute in my life these days, I get a little grumpier with the prospect of spending hours in the car. So, for weekend brunches and our Monday lunch ritual I have been apt to suggest nearby options. It’s easy to get in a rut in the neighborhood, though between Coalfire, Bari, Podhalanka, and “Burrito Row” I could do a lot worse for dining options. There are a few unassuming spots that I have tried in the past year that have revealed diamond-in-the-rough plates of amazing homestyle food. The first of these meals saved my life one Sunday afternoon- I had woken up on my buddy’s couch after a long night of rye whiskey, completely depleted of nourishment. I needed a quick fix. I had read on LTHforum about how this diner on Grand called Uncle Mike’s Place was now serving amazing and huge Filipino breakfasts. I’d had pretty good plates of American diner fare there in the past and I’d heard whispers from friends about off-menu Filipino options. There was never such evidence in my few visits to the restaurant and I had been too timid to ask. At some point in the past year they went public with it. So with hangover in tow I ordered right off the front page of the menu, the Filipino breakfast with tocino. We were greeted with gratis lugaw, a homey, soothing, congee-like dish that was exactly what the doctor ordered, flecked with bits of chicken and sizeable chunks of ginger. The gargantuan main event was something of beauty- light, garlicky rice, topped with just- right over easy eggs. Sweet, salty tocino, which is Spanish for bacon but in this case strips of marinated and grilled pork- had a char siu thing going on with a subtle spicing and sublime char. I’ve since tried the longanisa sausage option, which has a similar flavor profile to the tocino in encased format.

The second remarkable plate of grub in the ‘hood was at Café Central, which is just about two blocks away from my place. It’s an incredibly charming little Boriqueña cafeteria with an incredibly friendly staff. I’d been there once before but I’d had a cold and just ordered soup. They offer a pretty good range of stews and roast meats- you pick a meat and it is served on a heaping plate of rice, beans, and a potato chunk. I’m hooked on the goat and it is some of the best in town (see the next entry for my very favorite) its ever so succulent and fork-tender. There are subtle and surprising moments to this food that reveal a serious complexity in their recipes (which I can only imagine are time tested), despite their seeming simplicity- an unpitted Spanish olive or two in the sauce, a hunk of rustic sausage in the rice, flecks of salty pork in the beans. Serious homestyle food in humble digs right around the corner.

Uncle Mike’s Place 1700 W Grand Ave Chicago, IL 60622 (312) 226-5318

Cafe Central 1437 West Chicago Avenue # 1 Chicago, IL 60642 (312) 243-6776

3. Birrieria Zaragoza

This place is relatively new, though the food-crazed mob of LTHForum started swarming when they opened a year and a half ago. I finally made it (again and again) this year and found it to be the essential family-run-restaurant dining experience. It might just be my favorite restaurant in the city and I’ll tell ya why in a second. The reason why it took me so long to get there is because it’s pretty dang far from me, at 49^th and Pulaski, almost all the way to my native turf of the southwest wilds. It’s an unassuming storefront turning out a perfect product. They operate the way the best Mexican restaurants do in Mexico- making one dish and prepare it perfectly. The plate at hand is birria, which is native to the western Mexican state of Jalisco. Whole goat is traditionally steamed in a pit over a cauldron of broth that collects the drippings of the meat. In a restaurant kitchen the goat is broken down and steamed in large cauldrons, approximating its rustic origins. The meat is either given a quick splash of the resulting consommé or added to a full bowl of the soup and eaten with tortillas and garnished with requisite onion and cilantro as well as toasted chiles de arbol. What sets Zaragoza’s birria apart- beside their use of Indiana-raised free range goats- is their employment of a style called tatemada in which the tender meat is smothered with a chile paste and roasted hot and quick, resulting in caramelization and a crisping of the meat- truly beautiful stuff. It’s really the whole of the experience of this place though- everything they do is done artisinally, tortillas hand formed and griddled to order, molcajete (mortar and pestle) ground salsa, adherence to recipes from the old country. On any given visit you are ever so graciously greeted by a handful of the Zaragoza clan. If you are a newbie to the experience they will guide you- they are careful to suit your preferences in cuts of meat- from clean meaty chunks to ribs and spine if you like nibbling from the bone to fatty bits laden with melt-in-your-mouth gelatin. And if you are so brave, they will treat you to an arsenal of variety cuts like intensely minerally liver and my personal favorite- machito, which consists of coarsely chopped nasty bits stuffed inside the intestine of the animal. It actually tastes rather mild and has an incredible interplay of textures. My willingness to devour such bites sparked a friendship between myself and Jonathan- one of the Zaragoza sons, who is a rather accomplished chef for his age with a zealous enthusiasm for his art. We always get locked in vigorous discussion about regional Mexican cuisines and on one occasion he invited me into the back and offered me a bite of grilled bison tenderloin smeared in their signature chile paste. Fittingly, their cooking facility has the look and vibe of a cozy home kitchen. I always feel at home at the Zaragoza’s, the kind of endearment which makes their masterful cuisine taste even that more incredible.

Birrieria Zaragoza 4852 S Pulaski Rd Chicago, IL 60632 (773) 523-3700

2. Ye’s Blugills

Every year during our last week at Ox-Bow we have a staff picnic, it’s the only day of the summer when the entire staff has the day off to bond and relax together before we are off to the “real world”. So the tradition goes that in order for kitchen staff to be able to chill, everyone has to pitch in on the task of feeding ourselves. This is a lot of fun, we can sit back and enjoy the day and everybody else gets a chance to show of their skills in the kitchen, after being fed three meals a day by us for three months. And inevitably we eat a lot of junk food- chips and dip, the kind of stuff that normally doesn’t grace our sophisticated from-scratch table. I usually offer to pick up supplies for people’s particular dishes in the week before the picnic and this year one of our fellows had an unusual request, Ye Qin Zhu wanted a whole tilapia. Okay, it’s not that weird- if we had been in Chicago I could have wandered down to the corner and procured a whole fish from any of a number of Mexican or Asian grocers. But it was already the day before the picnic and I didn’t have time to drive around Holland aimlessly looking for one fish. It just so happened that a couple of the other fellows had some skills with the old fishing rods and had collected bluegills to fry up for breakfast that day. They were kind enough to lend one to Ye and he did it up. A native of Guangzhou, China, Ye cooked it in a style that he says is popular all over southeast Asia, a quick boiling of the whole, gutted fish. On the side he prepared a tangle of aromatics- ginger, garlic, scallions, which were then scattered on the cooked fish. He heated oil and poured this on the fish and aromatics, releasing their bright flavors. A few splashes of soy sauce and a garnish of cilantro complete the dish. It was really lovely. I had never eaten bluegill meat and had completely avoided Ox-Bow lagoon fish after tasting bites of muddy bass and pike. This meat was sweet and tender, though scarce on the tiny fish, in a way, quite precious. Ye’s recipe is both simple and upfront with clean, bold flavors, just amazing- I’ve used the same prep for other fish at home since. This dish spoke to me on so many levels- eating fish from our own waters, sampling an everyday dish from a culture on the other side of the world, and connecting with Ye, a brilliant guy that I had not found enough time to get to know during that hectic season. Ye spent that afternoon pulling up a bucket load of more bluegills. After sundown, when we were all weary from a day’s activities in the sun and starved of real nutrition from eating French onion dip all morning, another round of invigorating and healthful fish was the perfect end to a perfect day. Thanks Ye.

1. Camp Cooking

I love to camp and so does Jessica. There is something about fulfilling the most fundamental needs of companionship, shelter, fire, and nourishment that helps me really appreciate my life. So, the basic, stripped down task of cooking with little more than a propane burner or even better a wood fire feels fundamental and virtuous. Forget all the fuss and pretension of cooking and dining in the city- working for these meals after a day spent physically exerting oneself in nature adds an appreciation for the most simple of foodstuffs.  Mind you, I do add a bit of flare to my campside meals. Some favorites: “northwoods quesadillas” with poblano chiles and corn roasted in the fire, which are stuffed in a tortilla with some local cheese curds and maybe some smoked trout. Or  risotto that bubbled away over live coals, the smoke of the wood fire just kissing the bouquet of the rice. And even better, a meal prepared with  ingredients actually foraged from the woods- a wild mushroom ragout (oyster, hedgehog, and lion’s mane mushrooms sautéed with onions and tomatoes) atop pan fried polenta. With a nice mug of red wine and a campfire to cozy up to, a true slice of paradise.