My Own Taste of Chicago

Summer is coming up and if I had control of the "Taste" booths here's the dream lineup I'd propose in small portions:

Pizza: corner slices of Barnaby's thin crust

Ribs: Two baby back pieces from Carson's (miss their Harwood Hts. outpost!)

Chinese: Chicken Curry Puff from Won Kow (Wentworth)

Shrimp: Two pieces of fried jumbos from Capt Alex (Niles)

Sandwich: Miniature skirt steak from Boobie's (Niles again)

Thai: Pad Thai from Siam's House (Yes, Niles again)

and for dessert...

Ice Cream: Thimble-sized servings of Homer's Peppermint

I grew up in Wilmette, with Homer's as one of our two go-to places for ice cream (Peacock's being the other). Peacock's is gone, but I forget the Homer's is still around. Now I want to go get some of their peppermint ice cream again!

By chance, just a few minutes ago my girlfriend of 30+ years & I shared a delicous chocolate ice cream soda from Prairie Joe's (they use Homer's ice cream).

Got me thinking about summer treats. One of the GF's favorites is Homer's peach ice cream. They use fresh peaches so it's only available after the weather gets warm.

And my sister and I had a Peacock's reminiscence over some ginger ice cream with mango/papaya ice last week.

My Taste of Chicago dream would be:

Jim's Polish, Johnnie's Beef, Penang Satay, some food trucks chili'ed fruit salad, a little carnitas taco from one of about 5 possible places, a bag of Troha's shrimp, Chef Luciano's fried chicken, chive dumplings from Shui Wah, some rib tips and links from Barbara Ann's, all munched on while watching Taste of Chicago bulldozered into oblivion with its crowds, overpriced and generally lousy food.

Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

More seriously, is there such a thing as really good festival food? I went to the Breaux Bridge Crawfish festival a few years back with high expectations - this was going to be it. And the food was just okay (one exception - a seafood boudin was great). Then the next day we just drove around the area, grazing at different places and the food was just wonderful. Even in the heart of Cajun country, they could not deliver the best food in the festival conditions - the music and atmosphere was good, however, and I do recommend the festival. Coming up soon, too, the Breaux Bridge Festival kicks off the Louisiana festival season.

More seriously, is there such a thing as really good festival food?

Yes! TheEthnic Festival in Kansas City. No question.

take back the streets...foodwise, that is.

tamales, elotes, tacos...

sausages - all ethnic varieties

chicken - again.... all ethnic varieties.

frozen creams and ices.


c'mon now... back to the original concept of one handed, plateless, open maw fillers.

dicksond wrote:More seriously, is there such a thing as really good festival food? I went to the Breaux Bridge Crawfish festival a few years back with high expectations - this was going to be it. And the food was just okay (one exception - a seafood boudin was great). Then the next day we just drove around the area, grazing at different places and the food was just wonderful. Even in the heart of Cajun country, they could not deliver the best food in the festival conditions - the music and atmosphere was good, however, and I do recommend the festival. Coming up soon, too, the Breaux Bridge Festival kicks off the Louisiana festival season.

The food at The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is outstanding. There is heavy competition for the booths, and a team of tasters rates each booth every year & they weed out the weakest ones for the next year.

Oh, and there's some pretty good music too...

How I miss Peacock's.

Anyone have any idea what happened to the brand or its recipes?

I remember going to the one by Old Orchard as a kid and hanging out at the ice cream parlor/video game arcade on Skokie Blvd. by Strike N Spare as a teen. It was also served at Ravinia in the mid-80s when I worked there. They even still feature a Peacock's flavor, Cappuccino Crunch, even though they long ago switched to dishing out tiny scoops of Edy's for $3.50.