Mealsharing: Sharing authentic home cooked meals with locals

A Chicago startup called Meal Sharing (http://www.mealsharing.com) has been connecting people through homecooked meals, and they have a few events happening tomorrow! Anyone care to join?

It looks like the hosts are promising these dishes
On Wednesday:
Homemade Pizza + Cold Beer (Purple Pig Pizza!) - http://www.mealsharing.com/events/6

On Thursday:
Vegetarian Pre-Thanksgiving - http://www.mealsharing.com/events/5

*UPDATED* On Friday:
Authentic Indian food - http://www.mealsharing.com/events/7

Interested? Just sign up to view the event for more information. If you can't make it to these events, Meal Sharing has quite a few Chicago hosts that open their homes for gatherings.

So far I’ve gone to a Colombian Brunch through Meal Sharing and the food and people were great. Met some Colombian Americans who let me in on secret foods in their community. I chipped in a small amount for the ingredient costs before going, which made me feel like I contributed to the event.



A weekly Meal Sharing event happening in Madrid, Spain

http://www.facebook.com/mealsharing

Hi,

I clicked to one of your links that insisted I register before going further. Could you please copy and paste the particulars for one of these events to get a feel for it?

I don't like to register, then get countless e-mails later, for something I want to check out.

Regards,

Sure thing, Cathy! Here are some details; the only thing is that you'll have to register if you want the exact location details and contact information.

Tonight's Homecooked Pizza:

Details: Come take a slice out of John’s kitchen with his delicately prepared home cooked pizzas. John’s variety of ingredients keeps your palette on edge with a toss up of styles ranging from a Purple Pig Pizza, Vegetarian Greek Pizza, Sausage and Giardiniera Pizza. Not enough carbs? Good because he’ll have beer as well.

Time: 6pm-8:30pm
Location: Ukranian Village

Wednesday Vegetarian Pre-Thanksgiving

Come experience a great meal from one of our experienced Meal Sharing host, Katie. Katie will prepare a great meatless Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving meal. If you’ve ever wondered how Thanksgiving would be without all the thigh and breast talk, this is the event you need to be at. She’ll make you smile with a variety of cheeses, a brussel sprout salad, homemade butternut squash gnocchi with a delicate brown butter sauce, and if that wasn’t enough she’ll top things off with a delicately flavorful apple pie for dessert. Oh wait, did we say there will be great wine and beers?

Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location: Near Northside

Thursday Authentic Indian Food

This event's actually hosted by the founder of Meal Sharing. "Happy Diwali to you all. Come over to my house to indulge in authentic Indian potatao saag and basmati rice and freshly squeezed juice (lime, mint, watermelon, orange). It’s the perfect time to come together as a community and celebrate new friendships and traditions."

Time: 6pm - 9pm
Location: South Loop

And the chip ins have been around $6-$8. Let me know if you have any more questions!

s'all good, nr706.

nr706 wrote:

hfc wrote:Good because he’ll have beer as well.

Will the beer be made in-house, a local craft brew, or some sort of mega-swill?

I believe John's serving local craft beer. The house is getting hoppy tonight.

What I really want to try is the purple pig.

Hi,

I am reading their homepage and some of the profiles. Do people read a profile and food offering that interests them, then contact this person asking for a meal at their home? All the host cooks want is compensation for ingredient expenses only?

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I am reading their homepage and some of the profiles. Do people read a profile and food offering that interests them, then contact this person asking for a meal at their home? All the host cooks want is compensation for ingredient expenses only?

Regards,

Hi Cathy,

I can't speak for others on the site, but personally I like to read others profiles and get an idea of who they are before contacting them for a real meal. I just recently joined the site so not completely sure about what the hosts are expecting.

Hi,

I hope you will let us know as your experience there progresses.

I didn't see too many in the suburbs. There is a person featuring Filipino in Mundelein and a few others who offered a healthy experience.

I may go to something just to understand what this is all about. Thanks for highlighting it and do let us know what is expected once you figure it out yourself.

Regards,

Mealsharing allows people from all over the world to share homemade meals with new friends. They are growing fast in Chicago, with really cool meals happening almost every day. I've been to about a dozen meals since January, and have tried various cuisines and met a great network of people.

Meals coming up:
Greek
Colombian
National Garlic Celebration Dinner
Chicken & Waffles
Indian Butter Chicken
German Grosse Kaffeetafel
and more!

Check it out at https://www.mealsharing.com/mealshares
You can use "first meal" and it'll be free. Hope to see some of you at some meals soon!

Hi,

Do you think you could explain the process? I have been to their website in the past and didn't quite get what was going on.

I live in the northern suburbs. When I last looked, there was someone in Mundelein who will prepare a Filipino dinner. Do I contact them to set a mutually acceptable date or do I wait until they announce they plan a meal?

A free meal is great, though I really want to understand what my monetary and social obligations would be going into the future. Does the host set a price or do I make a good will contribution and hope I hit the sweet spot? Should I tip or let the host relax while I wash the dishes?

At a restaurant, I know my part in the deal. When I dine with friends, I usually know what to do. When it comes to this dinner in someone's home where it is semi-private semi-business, I am not sure what I am walking into. Your experience and explanation of the protocol would be very helpful.

Regards,

Hey Cathy! Great questions.

There is a new "chip in" platform, where hosts set the menu, date, amount of guests, and the price that everyone will pay. To reserve your spot, you pay the set fee, and all you have to do is show up! That fee helps the host pay for groceries and supplies. No tipping is needed. You can access these meals at mealsharing.com/mealshares

However, you can also browse hosts according to your location. Then, you can request a meal from someone who catches your eye. To do this, you just go to mealsharing.com and type in where you are/where you're headed.

Guests are not obligated to bring anything, although sometimes people bring wine or their drink of choice. It's mostly a laid back environment, and hosts are totally welcoming!

Feel free to email Jessica, the community manager if you have any further questions or inquiries. Her email is jessica@mealsharing.com

Hi,

Thanks for shedding light on this.

Just curious, what was the protocol before the 'chip in' platform? I have looked at this one and off since original poster commented on this program last year.

Regards,

Hi,

Has anyone here done one of these? What was your experience?

Regards,

Hi- I just took a look at the site, and when I enter Evanston, I get dinners for the whole Chicago area. The only North suburban ones I found were Now we're Cooking in Evanston, which presents a seminar on how to get into the food business, and somebody that was putting on a gluten free Thanksgiving dinner in Skokie. Meetup has all kinds of groups that either swap meals or go out to eat in restaurants, but unfortunately most of the people that join these groups are not foodies, and are just there for the socialization, or they are looking for somebody to date, and some groups are only vegan or gluten free.

Cooking Light magazine has a board on their website, where people can form supper clubs. People that are into healthy cooking meet usually once a month at a member's house, and people take turns hosting. I believe the person hosting does all of the cooking, but I could be wrong. There are a few North Shore groups listed on their website. I think most of the groups try to limit membership to 10 or so. Hoping this helps, Nancy

Hi,

I figure I'd like to go once sometime. For a while, there was a Filipina offering to cook in Mundelein. A friend over the weekend mentioned it claiming there was a lot of activity in Highland Park and Lake Forest. I tried to do a search for the fun of it and got all Chicago area offerings, too.

Regards,

I've hosted and attended meals on mealshare and know the folks who run the company. It's a great community and they're based out of Chicago with members all over the world, but mostly in the US and with most of the meals in Chicago since that's where the company is.

Mealshare started off similar to couchsurfing as a way to request a home-cooked while traveling. Now, you can also host a meal or attend a meal someone is hosting. The host sets the menu and price. Hosts can get as creative as they want, so there's dinners to supper clubs (such as sombremesa) to cocktail parties to cooking classes, but usually the mealshare is a $12-20 meal in someone's apartment/home. Diners can look at the meals and profiles of the hosts and any reviews they have to get a sense of their cooking. If you ever see a meal that's "Indian in the SoLo", that would be hosted by Jay the founder of mealshare. Hosts are mostly regular folks who enjoy food and not in the culinary industry by profession. A lot of the meals tend to be the city, but as the community grows, it would be great to see more in the suburbs.