Eating on Jitneys

Both fortunately and unfortunately I am busier than I have ever been in my life.  Which is why the last few posts have been really few and far between.  I have barely even been cooking anything interesting, besides trying to replicate the most delicious deviled eggs known to mankind: the deviled eggs at The Velvet Hour.  If you live in Chicago, please go.  I can’t stress this enough.

So lately I have been spending most of my waking moments either at school baking and cooking or thinking about baking for the farmer’s market.  I even dream about this stuff.  Flavor combinations, packaging, logo design…etc.  If anyone reads this blog anymore (and I promise it will get great again), please tell me: what is your favorite spring/summer/fall flavor combination?

Lastly, does anyone know anyone that owns chickens in the city?  It’s totally legit.  In Chicago, you can even have “unlimited chickens” as long as you are using them for eggs or playmates.  Ahhh eggs.

Lately I have been trying to steer clear of Trader Joe’s. I got really into doing all of my shopping there for about 6 months. But whenever I got home I tried to find something to eat and realized all I had bought was bagels, cheese, mustard, and wine. Maybe some toilet paper. Oh, and cereal. You get the idea. It’s cheap for some things, like wine and cheese, but other than that all you can find are in a pre-packaged form. And their produce selection sucks. Do you really have to put three tomatoes in plastic packaging?

So since yesterday was the first semi-acceptable temperature in the past few weeks I decided to do a biking tour of some grocery stores in a four mile radius of my apartment. I had planned on going to a lot but my bag filled up and I had to go home. Here are some of my finds:

The canned items came from Al Khayyam in Albany Park. They were CHEAP, as well as pretty healthy. For example: the ingredients for the Baba Ghanoush are grilled eggplants, ground sesame seeds, citric acid, sea salt. Not bad. I wouldn’t go out of your way to come here. But if you happen to be riding up towards the 4700 N. block of Kedzie on a Sunday afternoon and are in need of either Middle Eastern canned foods or flavored tobacco for your hookah, you are in luck.

After leaving Al Khayyam, I headed east on Lawrence to Harvestime. This is my new favorite grocery store, for the time being. Right when I walked in I found those dried figs in the picture. They have a ton of produce for such a medium sized grocery store. They also have lots of international options while also selling…say…Diet Coke and Oreos. Not that I like Oreos, but if I did I would not only have the option of buying Italian, French, Mexican, Polish, or Lebanese cookies. I could also buy some Oreos. Their deli looked ok, but honestly I didn’t look too closely. I was more concerned with their cheese selection which looked just fine to me. Not quite Trader Joe’s cheese prices but very very close. They also have a humongous selection of spreads for very decent prices.

The moral of this entry is: go explore your grocery options. Especially if you live in Chicago. We have so so so many great neighborhood grocery stores in this city. Exploring is fun, and it’s for your own good. I realize that sandwiches are tasty and all, but sometimes it is nice to come home with dried figs and fancy italian pasta in your bag for the same price as that same old box of Annie’s Macaroni and Cheese.

Sidenote:
If my posts become more sporadic it is because I am spending all of my time doing this…

Yesterday I was having a really bad day so I decided to ride my bike to the House of Sushi & Noodles to get some sushi. I had never been there before and didn’t realize that it was an actual sit-down restaurant. Already feeling sad and angsty I wasn’t about to sit by myself amongst all of the stoned teenagers and hip Lakeview middle-aged women. So I took the Mexico Maki roll to-go and sat in a park on Irving Park.

The tin package was super adorable.

This particular roll was actually really tasty. I was skeptical about the quality of the sushi since they are known for their sushi buffet (all you can eat sushi for about $14…too good to be true?). However the rice was cooked perfectly and there was just the right amount so that it didn’t drown out the taste of the other ingredients - tuna, cilantro, jalapeno and cucumber.

Plus, I got two fortune cookies, which is where this sad story quickly becomes hilarious, and I finally get over myself and go home. After finishing off the 6 pieces, I sat on the park bench and seriously, honestly, I’m not kidding you, thought that the fortune in the fortune cookie was going to tell me something real. That it was going guide me in some direction and help me find reason in this cruel cruel world.

Here is my fortune, just seconds after cracking open the cookie:

I really hope that’s true.