tell me what markets I've missed

I'm the author of A Cook's Guide to Chicago (Marilyn Pocius) and I'm working on a new edition. I'd love to hear about your favorite markets, delis and equipment sources in the greater Chicago area. I know I missed some the first time around (some of them on purpose!). My very personal criteria are that the store offer an unusual assortment of foods, ethnic or otherwise, and that it be within the greater Chicago area. This is quite arbitrary, but includes Arlington Heights, Naperville and Beverly, but not Lake Geneva or Southern Indiana. Tho exceptions can be made for something really great. The book is designed to help the home cook find "everything you need and lots of things you didn't know you did." If you don't have a copy (can't imagine why not), you can get one in the library, from amazon, bookstores, etc.

I look forward to hearing from this erudite crew.

Anybody know where to get fresh wasabi?

I believe mitsuwa sometimes has fresh wasabi..

My favorite little produce store is Edgewater Produce, on Clark street in Andersonville. Lots of cheap produce, odd spices in bags usually used for candy, and good things in jars.
Meat counter has all kinds of cuts, including oxtails and tripe, and the staff is very helpful and sweet.

I have your book at home so I cannot confirm if you missed my favorite market: Marketplace on Oakton.

They are a cross-cultural grocery specializing mainly in European and Asian foods with a little Latino thrown in. Their Asian produce is excellent. I love their frozen foods section, and they have a very good deli (which skews to Russian/Polish/Mediterranean.

Similar to Marketplace, but skewing much more to the Latino side is the Cermak Produce chain.

EatChicago Post on Marketplace

I really enjoy your book. The best find that I got from it was the knife sharpening service at Northwestern Cutlery.

Please see my post below about Westbrook Market.

Wow, this is great. I will most def check out westbrook, edgewater, etc. Can't wait to hear more. And while we're at it where does one get fresh hoja santo? How about smoked sea salt? Marilyn

PS Marketplace on Oakton is my favorite produce place. I'm always doing demos to promote the book and at Marketplace they have EVERYTHING I need from bitter melon to ajvar. Is there another Marketplace? Called Fresh Marketplace? Everytime I ask the store I get a different answer. And I'm sorry to say Marketplace was not in the first Cooks Guide. I didn't discover it until I started working in Lincolnwood.

cooksguide wrote:Is there another Marketplace? Called Fresh Marketplace? Everytime I ask the store I get a different answer.

It's funny you say this because I have had the same experience. I have seen other places with similar decor/logos/layout/etc. I have asked whether or not they own any other stores and I have never received a straight answer.

gleam wrote:I believe mitsuwa sometimes has fresh wasabi..

Ed,

I've been going to Mitsuwa on a regular basis since they were called Yohann. Never, and I both look and ask just about every time, have I seen fresh wasabi root.

I now rarely go to Mitsuwa, preferring to do my big-box Japanese supermarket shopping at Tensuke (True World), but would be thrilled if they now carried fresh wasabi. I've looked high and low for fresh wasabi root at groceries in Chicago, but have never seen it for sale. In fact, the only grocery where I've seen it for sale was in San Francisco, the grocery attached to the Japan Center.

Enjoy,
Gary

Tensuke/True World Market
3 Arlington Heights Rd
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007
847-806-1200

Mitsuwa
100 E. Algonquin Road,
Arlington Hts., IL 60005
847-956-6699
9:00AM - 8:00PM

Hmm, I must be mis-remembering. I thought I'd heard passing mention of fresh wasabi at one of the japanese or pan-asian supermarkets in the western suburbs, but I was probably hallucinating.

-ed

Pete's Market
5714 S. Kedzie

A large store with a very good Mexican and gringo selection of produce and grocery items.

I had no idea your book existed and I don't know if my favorite places were in it. I just ordered it from amazon.com so maybe in a week or so I could list places you missed.

Would you consider going onto Amazon.com and trying to enable "Search Inside" - this way I'd have been able to see if my favorite places were there.

Nancy

...that's the place that's much like Marketplace on Oakton, but way bigger and featuring an absolutely enormous kosher deli - and really good, cheap meat (USDA Choice skirt steak is currently on sale for a hair-raising $3.99 per lb!). Excellent produce, too - last time I was there, they had poblano chiles for a rock-bottom 69 cents per lb.

I highly recommend the new location at 275 Skokie Blvd. Northbrook, just south of Lake-Cook Road. Good find.

http://www.gardenfreshmarket.com/

I like Garden Fresh a lot. Their prices are much lower than most of the markets in the city of Chicago and the selection is out of this world. They have a wide variety of Eastern European specialties and a wide variety of smoked fish.

A market that I like better than Garden Fresh is Eurofresh Market on Northwest Highway in Palatine. Great produce at reasonable prices and a great deli.

Another great market is Armandos on US25 in Elgin. I think that they are one of the best Mexican markets in the city and have great meats at very affordable prices.

sundevilpeg wrote: (USDA Choice skirt steak is currently on sale for a hair-raising $3.99 per lb!).

I'm clearly spoiled by living in logan square: usda choice skirt steak here is expensive at $3.69/lb, and regularly advertised elsewhere at $2-3/lb, all still choice.

so very spoiled.

at caputo's in elmwood park it is usually $5-5.50/lb, so I can definitely see how it's a matter of perspective..

A few markets that I personally really like:

- Chicago Food Corp - Very large, great Korean grocery on 3333 N. Kimball, Chicago, IL. My favorite part is their panchan bar, but their selection (and prices) is hard to beat for Korean or Japanese items and ingrediants.

- Thai Grocery on Broadway & Argyle. Small shop, but a great selection, especially of Thai desserts and other dishes, friendly and helpful staff as well.

A great resource is at http://fuckcorporategroceries.net/stores.html which lists most non-corporate grocery stores in Chicagoland.

Hope this helps,

Shannon

Cooksguide,

Take a look at:

LINCOLNWOOD PRODUCE
7175 N LINCOLN AVE, LINCOLNWOOD, IL 60712
Phone: (847) 329-0600

Very old school, quite inexpensive produce, meats and deli products. Many unusual or imported items to cater to local Russian, Eastern European, Jewish and Mexican clientele. For example, game (rabbit), variety meats (honeycomb tripe, chicken livers by the pound), assorted imported bulk dried fruits, olive oil, rice, etc. Also imported Bulgarian feta to make skopska the way my wife had it in Bulgaria and (for CS Lewis fans) Turkish Delight from Turkey.

Mapquest

Hope this helps. I have your excellent book, from my sister for Christmas.

Thanks
Alriemer

thank you all! some of these places i have discovered, but there are so many new ones. went to westbrook market and was impressed.

Jerry's market I was aware of and it will be in the next edition along with lincolnwood produce and marketplace. do you know about the great meat market next door to Jerry's? Schmeisser's Meats. And old fasioned butcher shop with the best homemade thuringer! Which brings up my new query:
Since Chicago is such a sausage-centric town, I'm thinking about doing a sausage chapter. Does anybody have a favorite house-made sausage/butcher shop? And where is the BEST Polish sausage (not prepared, to buy) in town? Is it Gilmart's? Thanks, Marilyn

cooksguide wrote:Since Chicago is such a sausage-centric town, I'm thinking about doing a sausage chapter. Does anybody have a favorite house-made sausage/butcher shop? And where is the BEST Polish sausage (not prepared, to buy) in town? Is it Gilmart's? Thanks, Marilyn

Joe, The Sausage King on Western

How about some of the Mexican markets that are all over the city. Some that are reliable for at least some products are

Delray Farms
LaRositas in Lake and McHenry CO.
Armando's in Elgin

messycook wrote:My favorite little produce store is Edgewater Produce, on Clark street in Andersonville. Lots of cheap produce, odd spices in bags usually used for candy, and good things in jars.
Meat counter has all kinds of cuts, including oxtails and tripe, and the staff is very helpful and sweet.

Harvest Time On Lawrence and Rockwell is owned by the same folks that own Edgewater Produce. I prefer Harvest Time. It is a little bigger, wider selection. Great place.

I'm working towards a jan. 7 manuscript deadline, so you won't see me around LTH for a little while. New edition is going to be bigger, better, and, I hope, done soon. Printing next spring probably. Marilyn

Since hattyn bumped this thread (didn't see it before) I have a late addition to the mix:

Produce World Deli & More
(847) 581-1029
8800 Waukegan Rd (Dempster & Waukegan)
Morton Grove, IL 6005.

Good value-priced produce, similar to the Oakton Marketplace, lots of nooks and crannies in this crowded store, so it's fun to find interesting stuff. Onsite butcher and a good deli, along with a lot of interesting Russian, Georgian, and Greek breads.

Bump.

cooksguide: Any word on the new edition??

Can you describe your book "The Grilling Bible" that I see on amazon.com. Woefully little description on amazon.

Nancy

If she's not around, I can ask her publisher. She's a friend of mine. Or you could probably email them directly.

http://www.lakeclaremont.com/

HI,

Marilyn Pocius attends Culinary Historian meetings. I knew she wanted it our before Christmas for obvious reasons. I just phoned her now, she believes it is at the printer and will be out sometime in January.

Regards,

How about Moo and Oink for meat? Never been there, but have heard about them.

Not sure if you know about Bobak's, a Polish grocery with Naperville, city, and BurrRidge locations. I only went there once, but great prices.

Also, I think it's called Middlle Eastern grocery, but this is a smaller shop on Foster near Clark that I go to periodically.

HI,

One can get food tips just about anywhere. I was at a candidates forum yesterday where one of the attendees told me of a shop in Waukegan where you can buy Jamaican and Belizean food stuffs.

I stopped by this evening, according to their advertizing they sell Jamaican beef patties and Hardough bread. My friend advised they also make Jamaican meat pies on Tuesdays, though the counter help didn't quite understand my query today. My tipster has Jamaican friends she has treated with these meat pies, who said they were the genuine article. ( Jamaican beef patties are the meat pies ... oy!)

They also sell Belizean salad cream and vegetable salad. Trying to learn more about salad cream, I learned this is near and dear along with canned meat and condensed milk.

This vegetable stand is also a source for bacalao or Spanish dried cod.

There may be more to this vegetable and meat market, though I didn't have time to explore it further on this occasion.

Waukegan Fruit Market
951 South Lewis Avenue
Waukegan, IL 60085
Tel: 847/244-1505
Fax: 847/244-1402

I stopped by Andy's Fruit Ranch on Kedzie and Leland for the first time in a long time (certainly before they renovated and expanded) and was really very pleasantly surprised with everything I saw. Very clean, brightly lit and the meats and cheeses stood out. Whole baby lamb, many parts of lamb, and every part of veal that you could conjure. Seafood section looked good as well, especially the tilapia and buffalo. Fresh cheeses i.e feta and farmer's cheese were plentiful as well as the usual staples. We used to keep them on the radar for the Manila mangos (so much cheaper than Jewel or Domincks) but will definitely be going there more often. Btw the the thin-cut pork chops that I went there to purchase were about 30% cheaper than what I bought at Jewel the previous weekend.

Andy's Fruit Ranch
4733 N Kedzie Ave
Chicago, IL 60625

Nancy Sexton wrote:cooksguide: Any word on the new edition??

Marilyn Pocius' book was published last week. She will be a guest speaker at the Chicago Foodways Roundtable on March 25th, which will be posted on Events board this weekend.

Regards,