I've never been to the Taste of Chicago before. What should I do to make the most of the day? What foods are you most excited to get in your belly? Thanks!

In order to make the most of the day you should start by eating somewhere other than Taste of Chicago.

jesteinf wrote:In order to make the most of the day you should start by eating somewhere other than Taste of Chicago.

Bravo. I just love laughing out loud when I'm alone.

I was going to write something similar (though not nearly as funny), but then thought "why be negative? I'm sure *someone* could find something worthwhile." Upon reflection, maybe it's better to be negative, er, honest.

I look at Taste in terms of self-defense. Know the pitfalls and you can have a reasonably good time.

Pitfall #1: It's crowded.

This says two things to me. One, go during the work week, when it's less crowded, to check out the food. (The big day, when it's a million-plus people, I'd avoid entirely, except everyone should do it once in their lives, just because you're too young to have been in the evacuation of Shanghai.)

Two, don't stand in line for an hour for rewarmed pizza from Bacino's. You can have Bacino's all over town. Look around for the little oddball places that got in and try what they have to offer.

Pitfall #2: It's expensive.

Another reason not to eat a $4 slice of Bacino's but to try the less expected things.

Pitfall #3: It's far from ideal kitchen conditions.

Let's face it, 99% of the interesting little places in Chicago are not set up to serve 10 million of anything on a stick in a tent in the hot sun. So part of getting into taste is just proving you can serve up the numbers of something-- as I've posted before, that's how the folks who made eggrolls for United Airlines got in for many years, cranking out millions of literally airline food-eggrolls as the representative of Chicago's Chinese food. From your perspective, that means looking carefully at what places are offering, judging for yourself how good it looks and how well it is likely to survive the conditions under which it's served.

Now, having made it all sound like a bummer, I'm going to defend the Taste. If you go during the week when it's not insanely crowded, dig the oldies and semi-obscure acts who fill up those times, and are smart about how you pick out your food, it's a fun festival and one of those things everybody in Chicago should do once, or once in a while.

Places I would look at, I haven't tried these things under Taste conditions:

Arya Bhavan
BJ's
Bolat
Kasia's
Lagniappe
Original Rainbow Cone
Sabor Latino, if you've never had a jibarito
Vee-Vee's
Vermilion
Zam Zam

ToC is all about "convenience," and, yes, I am using those quotes tongue-in-cheek. But where else can you eat samosas from Devon Ave and follow them up with an Original Rainbow cone in under a half hour? Trying to do both in one day otherwise means driving 160 blocks through the city!

I get the sense that most people think the Taste is pointless/worthless. I'm having second thoughts of attending now. haha

But on the other hand, if you work in the Loop, it's no big deal to stroll over on a weekday, try a few things, and spend an hour or two there. I guess that's why I don't join the out and out Taste-haters-- it's just no big thing to give it a shot, for many people.

That said, since I don't work in the Loop any more, my idea of a fest or outdoor stuff-your-face event to attend is more like this one or these.

Maybe my friends and I will forgo the Taste and hit up ribfest? I could just scope out which rib stand has the longest lines and place myself in it. In the past it seems that all of the vendors have a plethora of trophies, awards, and medals to show their barbecque expertise so it makes it difficult to decide which booth is the best.

As a Taste-hater, I've still been known to head over on a Thursday during lunch when no one is there (I work in the Loop). If I go, that is the only way I will go.

spiffytriphy wrote:I get the sense that most people think the Taste is pointless/worthless. I'm having second thoughts of attending now. haha

As one of the earlier naysayers....if you haven't been before and you aren't totally put off by large crowds, it's worth going to once so you can make up your own mind.

Mike G's comments above are great. Try to during a weekday, if you can.

I remember my first taste of crawfish was at the Taste years and years ago. I'll always remember biting off that head and sucking out the juices. Not sure what restaurant that was, or if it's still there. But it was a fun experience. But I was much more tolerant of crowds back then.

I have gone to the Taste the past couple of years, and had a decent time. When I went I arrived just as the event was opening for the day, and got out of there after a few hours, and before the crowds got large, and crazy. For me it was a chance to come downtown, and enjoy a summer day in the beautiful city of Chicago.

The food was nothing special, but as I mentioned above I would come downtown, get some sun, enjoy a few tastes of different foods, have a couple of beers, and then go out for a good meal somewhere else in the city before I went home.

I doubt I will be going this year since we have an 8 month old daughter, & now that I live 70 miles away from Chicago. The cost of gas, and parking make me more likely to stay out west, get dinner at Ron's Cajun Connection out near where I live, and come out way ahead in the wallet, driving time, and foodwise.

Given the crowds, high prices and so-so food, we tend to avoid the Taste, even though we live right next to Grant Park. If by some chance we go, it'll be a weekday morning right when it opens. A little rain wouldn't hurt, either.

I haven't gone in years, but when I used to go I found that the magic hour was around 3:00 - 4:00 in the afternoon on weekdays. Whatever lunch rush there was had died down and people hadn't yet started to stream into the park for the evening's entertainment and after work noshes.

spiffytriphy wrote:I get the sense that most people think the Taste is pointless/worthless. I'm having second thoughts of attending now. haha

I would definitely go .. although you should buy tickets in advance at Dominicks to save some money.

Having done similar events, it is a difficult to really produce 1st class food for millions in the middle of a downtown park. Some of the restaurants doa pretty good job (BJs) while others are less successful.

I would go and check out a few of the places for future reference.

stevez wrote:I haven't gone in years, but when I used to go I found that the magic hour was around 3:00 - 4:00 in the afternoon on weekdays. Whatever lunch rush there was had died down and people hadn't yet started to stream into the park for the evening's entertainment and after work noshes.

for the frugal minded, near closing time i've witnessed firesale-esque liquidations at some booths. might be fun for the family on July 8th.

Mike G's comments above are great. Try to during a weekday, if you can.

Ditto. Following Mike G's rules I've had an enjoyable to passable experience almost every year of ToC, and I've rarely waited more than a couple of minutes for anything. Off-hours, off-days is the key.

Couple of other "rules":

1. Avoid anything that's deep-fried for the obvious reason that anything that's deep-fried should be eaten immediately.

2. If it would work in a cafeteria, it's got a better chance of working here.

3. Take advantage of the "tastes" offerings (2-3 tickets). Everything is so hit-and-miss you're not risking much if your "taste" is a miss. More and more booths are now offering this option, so you can even fill up on these things.

I'm actually going to defend the Tast of Chicago for a few different reasons. All of the pizza and foods-on-a-stick aside, there are some really good things served by the ethnic vendors especially. Because I live so close to Grant Park and also have two small kids, I look at the Taste as an opportunity to get a few favorites that are otherwise difficult to get because their storefront locations are so of out of the way for me. I would ditto Mike G's recs for places to try, and I would recommend that you plot them out on the little map they give you with your tickets so that you can avoid wandering around too much.

I think that the best (and arguably only good) time to attend the Taste is either right when it opens at 11am, or around 3pm on any weekday other than the 3rd or 4th. The smaller taste portions are really a good way to go on most things and are often a better deal than the full portions (except maybe the catfish from BJ's, which is always so fantastic that I end up eating the entire full-sized portion by myself and consider going back for seconds.)

The mustard catfish at BJs (served at the Taste of Chicago) is as good as the produce they serve down on Cottage Grove.

As for the best time to go, I would argue that you should get there as early as possible on Sunday morning before the crowds get down there.

If the Taste of Chicago would go away, there would be a number of restaurants - most on the southside - that would go undiscovered by a good number of Chicagoland residents.

jlawrence01 wrote:If the Taste of Chicago would go away, there would be a number of restaurants - most on the southside - that would go undiscovered by a good number of Chicagoland residents.

Maybe, but that probably wouldn't effect LTH Forum so much. I doubt that any of the Southside faves on this board were discovered via Taste of Chicago. I'd be more afraid of losing ReneG.

Ok, so husband and I went to Taste yesterday for the first time and were so bitterly disappointed by our experience. The food was overwhelmingly deep fried fatty food. We were hoping to sample taste portions of a few things, but each vendor only offered taste portions in one item. We ended up buying a taste portion of saganaki which was overcooked and had been sitting out for a while, and then ribs from Robinson's Ribs, which were dry and not very good. We finished off with some pomigranite chicken legs which again were very average. We are from Australia and have a similar festival in Sydney which is, I suppose, why we were disappointed with this, we were expecting the Sydeny type festival where all the ethnic and very best restaurants come out for a day with all the key chefs manning the stations, and it is fabulous. If I was very new to Chicago and thought this was the "taste of Chicago" it would be even worse! Luckily I know Chicago does very good food indeed - to call this festival "taste of Chicago" does a disservice to Chicago food.

Just my 2 cents worth!

zr wrote: to call this festival "taste of Chicago" does a disservice to Chicago food.

Just my 2 cents worth!

I doubt many on LTH Forum will argue with this statemant. If you want the real taste of Chicago, check out the LTH Forum GNR Winners.

After declaring a Taste moratorium for the last twenty years, we are going Sunday with a friend (when it will be mobbed, natch), on the theory that it will be good "ironic fun." One thing I hate about Taste (and no doubt will hate again, unless I'm successful in putting an "ironic fun" context around it), is that there's no place to sit down and actually eat your food. Food-on-a-stick can work standing up, but some things require a knife and fork. How the hell are you supposed to use a knife and fork while you're holding your plate and standing up? (With a beer in the other hand?) Even if you can find a curb somewhere to sit down on, cutting your food on a plate that's balanced on your lap is less than ideal, too. All of this bothers me more than the mediocrity of the food does; I can handle mediocrity, if it's a nice sunny day. Well, that is, I can handle mediocre food mentally and emotionally; it's handling it physically that the problem I'm talking about comes in.

Thanks, Mike G, for the pointers; they could prove useful. (Even though we're flying right in the face of pointer #1.)

riddlemay wrote:After declaring a Taste moratorium for the last twenty years, we are going Sunday with a friend (when it will be mobbed, natch), on the theory that it will be good "ironic fun." One thing I hate about Taste (and no doubt will hate again, unless I'm successful in putting an "ironic fun" context around it), is that there's no place to sit down and actually eat your food. Food-on-a-stick can work standing up, but some things require a knife and fork. How the hell are you supposed to use a knife and fork while you're holding your plate and standing up? (With a beer in the other hand?) Even if you can find a curb somewhere to sit down on, cutting your food on a plate that's balanced on your lap is less than ideal, too. All of this bothers me more than the mediocrity of the food does; I can handle mediocrity, if it's a nice sunny day. Well, that is, I guess the truth is that I can handle mediocre food mentally and emotionally; it's handling it physically that the problem I'm talking about comes in.

I, too, had avoided the Taste since the late 80s. Still, I was downtown yesterday morning and stopped in at the Taste minutes before it opened for biz.

I wandered around, ran into Steve Dolinsky (who was also looking for a good place to eat, so I remained without compass), ended up on Jackson. I bought the standard 11 tickets for $7. My first stop was the Bud tent (because, if you don't start drinking in the morning, you can't drink all day); that took 8 tickets, leaving 3 tickets, with which I purchased a "taste" portion at Vee-Vee of jerk chicken and rice/beans; chicken was very good, nicely spiced, not at all dry, though the carbs were clumpy.

I repeated this strategy, this time going to another place with the same name repeated, Zam-Zam, and had a tasting portion of samosa, which was okay, but the hot green sauce was absurdly watery. The guy behind the counter said they were selling a lot of goat, which is a good thing.

Overall, a mixed experience: mediocre beer (if you spot anyone selling anything other than crap brews, it'd be good to post about); one good item, several just okay to mediocre.

Total cost: $14.00.

Big plus: the porta-potties were immaculate. I was thinking I should have brought my laptop; I could have gotten some work done before the game at Wrigley (which was way more fun than the Taste, though the food was even worse).

Long-term value: I don't feel I will need go to the Taste again until 2027.

Hammond

zr wrote:we were expecting the Sydeny type festival where all the ethnic and very best restaurants come out for a day with all the key chefs manning the stations

Right, this is nowhere near the case with the Taste, as I was also disappointed to find out a couple of years ago. And don't look for that to change any time soon, as evidenced by the crowds fighting over every last Flintstonian (and to me, repulsive) turkey leg.

Having said that, there are always a few things that are pretty good. Zam Zam was the standout last year for me -- both the Chili Chicken (actually more like Frontier Chicken) and especially the goat biryani. Vee-Vee's is good but unreliable (sometimes the goat is tender and delicious, other times it's tough and inedible). Arya Bhavan usually has so-so samosas, but this year seems to be offering bhel puri, which may be worth a try. And I'm always happy to get BJs.

A couple of new places (Vermilion, Bolat) look promising. Avoid Pars Cove -- huge disappointment.

The best thing I've ever eaten at the Taste was a few years ago when they had a Taste of the States booth. A restaurant from, I think, Mississippi had fried crawfish tails with remoulade. Oh my God, they hit the spot -- we went back several times that day.

cilantro wrote:I'm always happy to get BJs.

Hey, who wouldn't be.

Returning to the topic at hand, I agree that the taste is generally skippable but will end up going for a couple hours to spend not-so-quality-eating time with friends or family. As far as food ol' reliables, I like the crab bites from Shark's (?) and usually end up grabbing some kind of tempura so I can fool myself that I'm getting some sort of vegetables along the way.

David Hammond wrote:My first stop was the Bud tent (because, if you don't start drinking in the morning, you can't drink all day);

A sensible precaution though of course I cannot approve of the beer selection at the festival either.

I ate lunch there yesterday, rode my bike down from the office. I appreciated the bike valet at the corner of Monroe and Lake Shore but I also noticed that many people had their bikes in the festival with them. It was awful crowded, being opening day during the lunch hour, and even walking from one place to another within the park was difficult so I'm glad I left my bike with the valets.

I had a taste portion of jerk chicken w/ red beans & rice and also sauteed goat with plantains from Vee Vee's. The plantains texturally weren't as good as they probably would have been at a restaurant, but they were tasty. The goat was really good; much more tender than it was on the previous occasion I had eaten goat.

I probably should have stopped there but I had bought 22 tickets and only used 11, so I found my way to the Sabor Latino booth. Several years ago Saint Pizza and I had really enjoyed the steak and onions with rice and pigeon peas from there, but this time I was after the jibaritos I've heard about, which they have in a taste portion for 3 tickets as well as the full-sized portion. I got the taste and was pretty impressed; I could have done without the slice of processed cheese but the smashed fried plantain with the garlic sauce was good enough that you could have put pretty much anything between two pieces of it and I'd have happily eaten it. For 4 tickets I also got something described as a banana dumpling stuffed with pork. I don't recall what the actual name of the dish was. It was interesting but mild and not something I think I'd try again.

We're going as a family some evening this week and I'm looking forward to it. Festival food may not be the best way to experience something but there are a lot of things to choose from and hey, it beats hell out of a mall food court.

David Hammond wrote:Long-term value: I don't feel I will need go to the Taste again until 2027.

Not even for today's Kenny Rogers look-alike contest?

d4v3 wrote:

David Hammond wrote:Long-term value: I don't feel I will need go to the Taste again until 2027.

Not even for today's Kenny Rogers look-alike contest?

I saw the ads for that "event." Too bizarre, though it made me a realize there are many, many subcultures about which I have no clue or appreciation.

JimTheBeerGuy wrote:For 4 tickets I also got something described as a banana dumpling stuffed with pork. I don't recall what the actual name of the dish was.

That's alcapurria and the version served at the Taste is both not very flavorful and quite filling. I tried it once and didn't feel much like eating anything else afterward. (Some might view this as a plus.) See also jbw's Rule 1.

We are from Australia and have a similar festival in Sydney which is, I suppose, why we were disappointed with this, we were expecting the Sydeny type festival where all the ethnic and very best restaurants come out for a day with all the key chefs manning the stations

zr,

As you discovered, ToC is an entirely different kind of a beast. An occasional neighborhood festival might come close to the Sydney model (I'm thinking of the Randolph Street one) but basically ToC is simply a typical street fair on steroids. Remember, it's an 8-day affair expected to draw 3.5 million visitors, and that alone dictates the kind and quality of the food that can be served, and (with the exception of special events) certainly eliminates any kind of special attention that can be paid to the dishes as they are served. I'm glad to hear, tho, that you know we can do better.