World Music, PR Food: Humboldt Park

World Music, PR Food: Humboldt Park

Tonight, The Wife and I went to the Humboldt Park boat house to catch some of the World Music Festival, which is taking place in Chicago through Sept 23. We saw a wild Afro-Caribbean percussion band followed by the even wilder Mamady Keita who got some remarkable sounds out of a Guinean drum. Most entertaining were people from the audience who jumped up and did some jaw-droppingly gymnastic dancing: kind of like controlled seizures.

We had intended to go out for food afterwards, but much to our surprise, it turns out that La Palma, the Puerto Rican joint on Homan, has set up operations in the Humboldt Park boat house as the in-park concession. This is an excellent example of the traditionally powerful imagination of the Chicago Park District - instead of offering Frito-Lay products and predictable crap, they've invited a good PR restaurant to offer good chow at good prices in what has got to be one of the most beautiful public venues in the city.

We got a bunch of stuff: some pasteles, yellow rice with grandules, yuca (or do you say cassava?) with garlic, and something they called a 'yama,' which is a red yam. The pasteles were my favorite: stewed chicken, nestled in green plantain cooked almost to the point of gelantinous transparency. The yuca was also good, and if you try it, I would definitely get it with the garlic - without, it's just another bland starch (like the red 'yama'). There are also a lot of 'edgier' items on the menu, such as Fried Pig Ear Stew and Liver and Hearts in Onions. You can also get blood sausage and fried, thick PR bacon by the pound. Many of the items are stews, or guisados, so they transport quite well, and I saw a van pull up every now and again to drop off new hot table items.

What made the meal more delicious was the setting. The boathouse is a recently (and flawlessly) redone Prairie School structure, and it looks out over the lagoon and garden, designed by Jens Jensen and recently 'renovated' to its original glory using old postcards of the park as planting guides. There are tables set out on the terrace, and eating this very capable PR food and listening to free and very good music is fine way to spend an evening. With the sun setting golden, and gulls sweeping over the lagoon, the peaceful scene framed by the leaping arches of the boat house reminded me of a Maxfield Parrish painting.

There are free World Music events throughout the coming week in Humboldt Park and at other places in the city; find out more at World Music Info

This good PR restaurant in the spectacular setting is a promising location for a future LTH event.

Dave,

The world music shows at the humboldt park boathouse are probably my favorite public events of the year. You're right - the setting is spectacular, especially when you have music, laughter and dancing wafting over the lagoon as well.

I'm not a big fan of the la palma at the boathouse however. I don't think any of the frying is done on sight (Do you need a separate sort of license to do that?), I always notice the little la palma van pulling up outside to deliver the food from the mothership. Much better in my opinion (which I've done before to the world music events there) is to pick up some papa's chicken (in fact it was this setting where I first tasted Papa's) and to rip apart a bird and munch on those garlicky tostones while enjoying the music. Another option would be to pick up jibaritos from the borinquen almost around the corner on california.

Zim, you're right. I don't think any frying was done on site. Many of the dishes, however, were stew-like, and so they made the trip from Homan to the Boathouse in fairly good condition.

One thing I like about the "new and improved" Humboldt Park is that it seems like there's a lot to discover there. It's a place that invites exploration, laid out to provide visitors with unexpected vistas and horticultural surprises.

The Wife is going to hear a fado singer tonight; we'll see if they serve Portuguese food at the event.

Hammond

David Hammond wrote:One thing I like about the "new and improved" Humboldt Park is that it seems like there's a lot to discover there. It's a place that invites exploration, laid out to provide visitors with unexpected vistas and horticultural surprises. Hammond

Plenty to explore - Saturday mornings features a small farmer's market also featuring an artisan's hand-carved walking sticks. This is near the south-west corner of the park beginning around 9am saturdays. Usually at least 4 or 5 dudes still shooting-up in various locales around the park at that hour too, so expect some interesting characters.

There was no food at the fado concert, which was excellent. Mariza is spectacular, and a particular favorite of my little African parrot.

Chicago seems totally lacking in Portuguese food.