One Fine Day

It was a beautiful sunny day, the kind that contains only the slightest hint in the cool breeze that it will be among the last of its kind. And so I grabbed the boys and we went adventuring.



Always a good omen, a gorgeous dungbeetle-green 50s Caddy parked next to the carwash next to Pluton. Suddenly my kids love old cars and the few new ones with distinctive shapes, calling out "There's a mini Cooper" or "There's a Bug" and rejoicing in the sight of bright colors and flamboyant fins. They know the difference between today's glum Anonymobiles and the vibrant, life-affirming land sharks of yesteryear.



Our first destination: the farmer's market in front of CHIC, the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago, 361 W. Chestnut (Orleans). This market is like a best-of, there weren't that many vendors or patrons but it had a lot of the best stuff I've seen at other markets-- Nichols Farm for organic produce, the cheese guy I just spent $40 on at Evanston last weekend, etc. But here's who it had, at least today, that I've never seen anywhere else-- the chef from Cyrano's Bistro, selling frozen goodies out of cooler, pretty decent looking fresh-baked bread, and so on. I bought a frozen packet of cassoulet-- "Real cassoulet," the sign promised, apparently there's fake cassoulet on the street-- and a jar of duck rillette.

Here's a closeup of what Liam was looking at:



Apples. Hmm. Must be fall. Try not to think about it.

We went up the street to kill an hour at Sur La Table and Borders. I let them each pick out a couple of new cookie cutters, start the anticipation for Christmas now, I figure. Liam picked out a hippo and a train, Myles selected an excellent lighthouse shape. I see the frosting stripes already.



You know, taking Elston a lot I've driven past Taqueria El Potosi about ten million times, and yet despite the appealingly ramshackle patio, despite the approving post by RST some months back on some other board, I had never stopped there. Today, one of the last nice days perhaps, was a day for finally stopping there.



What the hell was I thinking? This is like, instant favorite place. Food seemed pretty good, I'm not going to claim that it's great. Menu's pretty basic in fact. But the patio, with its jumble of junk hung on the walls (old bicycles, Day of the Dead figures, etc.), and so tiny you're practically in the kitchen as you eat, is an instant trip across the border, I expect to see Warren Oates come walking across the sand, seen through shimmering heatwaves, the bag containing the head of Alfredo Garcia clutched in one hand. Oh, and Mexican Coke, too. I feel a fool for not eating here for years... in the summer.

[Note: can't seem to find an address. It's the bright orange place on the west side of Elston, a few blocks north of Addison.]



A few hours later it's dinner time. I make a salad with my new jar of pickled beets and some of the tiny tomatoes from Nichols Farms...

...and then, Tri-Tip a la Jamieson22, eaten on the patio. Fine end to one fine day.

El Potosi
3710 N. Elston Ave., Chicago
773/463-2517

Very good guacamole, as I recall.

Another advantage of the CHIC Farmers' and Artisans' Market is that it's year-round. It moves indoors in foul weather. You can also have brunch at the CHIC cafe. Besides the regular weekly CHIC brunches, they are doing a monthly international theme, with related vendors specially recruited for that week's market and a guest chef coordinating a four-course student-cooked brunch with paired wines. We enjoyed the Greek brunch last week with the chef from Dionysos.

On Oct. 17, they're doing a Spanish theme with Chef John Borras, who was opening chef at 1492 Tapas Bar, and now cooks in Michigan. A partial menu includes garlic mushrooms, goat cheese croquettes, solomillo en tostada, artichokes with ham, garlic shrimp and platanos al caramelo.

The "cheese guy," by the way, is the Giles Schnierle of Great American Cheese Collection. As I mentioned in response to your Pluton post, if you're served an artisanal domestic cheese at any restaurant in this town, or buy it in any gourmet shop, chances are they got it from Giles, who is not only a cheese seller, but an amazing fount of cheese knowledge.

One Fine Day: frybread at the Bison Blessing in Elgin

Crain's Chicago Business has a 10 Things To Do This Weekend column each week that we check religiously for things to do with the wild monkey boys, especially on rainy weekends like this one. Today brought us to one of their suggestions: the Second Annual Bison Blessing and Native American Cultural Days, in Elgin. We saw bison (unblessed as yet), and the kids offered to climb over the fence and ride on their backs. We learned the difference between a teepee and a wigwam:



A wigwam was used by the Great Lakes peoples, and had a permanent structure which they would come to each year and refurbish the exterior of, like a vacation cottage. A teepee, used in the western US where they followed the buffalo herds wherever they went, was entirely portable, like a motor home. At least that's how it was explained to us.

We made bead necklaces, played Native American games and learned how they helped train kids to hunt, and watched people make obsidian arrowheads. We bought cool stuff, a flute and a coyote jawbone, which wasn't TOO overpriced. We saw dancing-- here the kid brother of the dancers gets in on the act:



And of course we ate frybread tacos, or at least the adults did, the kids ate the frybread with cinnamon sugar, and it was a big hit with them.



The Elgin Public Museum, one of the sponsors, had free admission today and so we also went through its modest but kid-friendly exhibits of fossils and Native American stuff. One display was devoted to the French explorers and fur trappers, and since we had recently visited the portage monument while scouting out 47th street for the 47th-a-Thon, it was cool to see Myles putting it all together in his head and explaining the French fur trade to his younger brother. My favorite thing in the museum was a stuffed passenger pigeon, the first one of that legendary extinct bird I had ever actually seen:



Another thing Piers Egmont de Hoyden got to eat that I never will.

Between a gray drizzly day and Mother's Day the crowds at the Bison Blessing were pretty sparse, but the same organization looks to be holding a couple of bigger events later, including one next weekend at Starved Rock and one in the fall in Naperville: http://www.midwestsoarring.org/

Afterwards, while Dad smoked some ribs for dinner, we showed our appreciation of Native American culture and worked off our sugar and fry bread rush in the backyard.

Mike G wrote:And of course we ate frybread tacos, or at least the adults did, the kids ate the frybread with cinnamon sugar, and it was a big hit with them.

Mike,

Looks like a fun day, you sure do find interesting things to do with the kids.

Enjoy,
Gary