Christkindlmarket Chicago 2005 @ Daley Plaza

10 Years – Christkindlmarket Chicago!
November 24 through December 22
Daley Plaza – Chicago, IL
Open Every Day
www.christkindlmarket.com

on Daley Plaza
in the heart of Downtown Chicago • Washington, Clark & Dearborn Streets

Sunday to Thursday 11 am to 8 pm • Friday & Saturday 11 am to 9 pm

Soft Opening
Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2005, 11 am to 4 pm

Grand Opening Festivities
November 25, 2005, 11 am to 9 pm
featuring Grand Opening Ceremonies at 4 pm

Featuring the largest holiday ornaments & decor exhibit in Chicago • Glass blowing, wood carving & candle making • Great entertainment & a magical Children's Lantern Parade • German Food & Specialty Drinks - Taste the famous Glühwein - a hot, spiced red wine •

Four weeks of holiday fun! • Admission is free!

Here's last year's thread, with pics and plenty of food reports.

If the tarte flambee/flammekuchen guys are back, you'll want to go early and often, as someone once said.

Here's a link to the official site with info about food and matters of lesser importance: http://www.christkindlmarket.com/

Great European chocolates and candies in the big house o'candy too. My Czech nanny was so happy when I brought her some of her favorite brands that are hard to find elsewhere.

I just love this market. I got such cute Christmas presents there last year.

Here's the current listing of chow available at the market (this is a portion of an email sent to me by German American Services, reprinted here with their permission):

What would be a Christkindlmarket without the famous German Glühwein, a hot, red spiced wine. This year we have two different Glühwein's for the first time at the Christkindlmarket.

We have the Glunz Family Cellars & Winery who produce their own Glogg/Glühwein based on an original German recipe that the Glunz family brought over generations ago. Its' uniqueness is that the Glühwein is based on a port wine vs.. red wine. Christkindlmarket Chicago visitors love this wine. They also offer apple cider (non-alcoholic), wine and port

The new wine that we have is an original German Glühwein from Nürnberg, the Nürnberger Christkindles Glühwein, imported by Great Lakes Wine Company, and the non-alcoholic Glühwein (great for designated drivers who don't want to miss their Glühwein), the Sternthaler Glühpunsch

On beer we have the German Hofbräuhaus, the Austrian Stiegl and the domestic Berghoff

The popular staple of German Brats, the Nürnberger Brats, Kilometerwurst (a spicy red sausage) served on a bun with sauerkraut are a great hit. They are offered by the German Grill Company. They also offer two kinds of potato pancakes w/ w/out bacon served with applesauce respectively sour cream, the Leberkäse, a Bavarian meatloaf, smoked pork loin, grilled chicken sandwich and German fried potatoes, a kind of hash browns and a wide selection of soups

Our other line of hearty foods are by Brutzelbude Kahla who offer wiener schnitzel on a bun, the popular German Burger, beer meat with Tzaziki, all served either on a bun or with potato salad; burgers are served with french fries. They also offer homemade potato pancakes and crepes. As soups they have Goulash & a German style Chili.

Hot soft Pretzel with different fillings are served by the Hot Pretzel Booth; Austrian soft & twisted pretzels by Nuts About You who also features Helmut's Austrian Strudel (with the same thinness and puff pastry that you find in Austria, Switzerland & Germany. Nuts About You also serves puff pastry with vegetable fillings.

The locally renowned Dinkel's Bakery offer their own line of stollen, strudel, linzer cookies, spirit cakes and cookie boxes and of course brownies. Stollen, Brownies, Strudel are also served by slice.

Not enough for the sweet tooth? Sweet Swabian & Sweet Castle both from Germany. Both offers wide selection of roasted nuts, German chocolates. Sweet Castle is a walk in cabin who features a nice merry-go-round in the middle of the store. They also offer Stollen, Pralines, Lebkuchen (ginger bread) etc. And then there are the fruits dipped in chocolates for those who need to mollify their inner voices to eat something healthy by Handelsagentur Frank Rauscher.

All food vendors also serve soda, hot chocolate and coffee

And as mentioned before this year for the first time we have a barkery. This might not be a traditional holiday product line but we thought as Chicago is such a dog loving city and we all like to treat our pooches to special holiday tidbits too.

is antonious ok? he hasn't posted on this yet
but, seriousl folks, let's see if we can coordinate a vist this year
then i can rant in person if need be!

El Panzone wrote:is antonious ok? he hasn't posted on this yet

Yes, El Panzone, I'm fine; thank you for asking.

I've been busy making plans. See you at the Imbißbude.



Der heilige Antonius

I have received word that the beloved Alsatian flamed tarts will not be part of this year's lineup of comestibles.*

Apparently, the city has a new law regarding open flames.

E.M.

* You and I both wish that I were joking.

Oh man, that is tragic.

Erik M. wrote:I have received word that the beloved Alsatian flamed tarts will not be part of this year's lineup of comestibles.*

Apparently, the city has a new law regarding open flames.

E.M.

* You and I both wish that I were joking.

What some of the Dusselkoppen who run this town can come up with never ceases to amaze me. Somehow, Europeans have managed to prevent such open flames from bringing about the destruction of their towns and cities but here in Chicago the risk is too great. I feel very safe...

Those Flamme Küchen were quite good, with the little oven (in which, I thought, the flames were in fact enclosed) imparting a nice smoky edge to the tarts which is traditionally a part of the dish. A tragic loss indeed...


Luckily, they can be made in the safety of your very own home or backyard.

Mike G's handsome grilled version:

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=33043#33043

My indoor version (I passed my own open flame ordinance last year, though I confess also to violating it sometimes when the spirit moveth me ):

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=29441#29441

Ho ho ho.

Antonius

What some of the Dusselkoppen who run this town can come up with never ceases to amaze me. Somehow, Europeans have managed to prevent such open flames from bringing about the destruction of their towns and cities but here in Chicago the risk is too great.

Hey, this city was burned down by a cow! Imagine what humans could do...

The firephobia is nothing new. Years ago I went to see Penn & Teller at the Shubert and they (or, rather, Penn) had to explain that the fire marshal had barred them from performing one bit which they'd never had trouble with in any other city because it involved fire. Of course, considering this, it's understandable why there's institutional cautiousness toward fire in theaters. It's much less clear what they think a stone oven out in the open of a concrete plaza, which operated all last winter without burning anything more than the occasional crust, could do.

In any case, it makes me want to step up my efforts to replicate those little marvels; the attempt I showed above looked perfect but was only halfway there in taste.

I think this is an excellent opportunity for those of us working in the loop to get together for lunch. Let's check the weather after the market is open and find a day to dine together!

Suzy

is much smaller. only in daley center this year. hofbrau at $6.50 for small plastic cup. all other stuff the same. wider pre-made candy selections.

El Panzone wrote:is much smaller. only in daley center this year. hofbrau at $6.50 for small plastic cup. all other stuff the same. wider pre-made candy selections.

Yep... I'm kind of disappointed in the whole layout. It’s half the size from last year and missing a lot of the things I enjoyed from last year. Namely that walk-in candy shop and the big skillet of German potatoes one stall was making they had last year.

Prices on average are about $0.50 - $1 higher than last year for comparable food items.

/polster

I've never been to this but I am going to check things out late this Thursday afternoon.

Any suggestions of "must try/don't miss" items while at the market?

foodie1 wrote:I've never been to this but I am going to check things out late this Thursday afternoon.

Any suggestions of "must try/don't miss" items while at the market?

I think you should go through the long thread from last year, to which Mike G provided a link above (second post of thread). There's lots of discussion and pictures to help you narrow your focus.

Antonius

I have to agree that it seems a bit diminished this year, and I don't think that it's just that it grew in the memory. The tarte flambee is missing (a grievous loss) and I, too, looked in vain for the big skillet guys, though I didn't have a chance to determine for sure they were missing.

On the other hand, the Plauen stands have many good things (I'm less impressed with the Schonwald ones, of curry-wurst fame), and though I didn't go in (I had the kids and might never have gotten them out) there is a candy store which was making wonderful-smelling caramel nuts of some sort while we were there. So even if it's not as good as it was last year, it's certainly worth a trip downtown, however long or short a trip that is for you, for this once-a-year collection of hearty food that only gets better the colder it is when you eat it. Prost!