Food Planet Tour

On Tuesday my best friend and I took a trip to Chicago for Food Planet's Near North Food Tasting and Cultural Walking Tour. We took a one and a half mile walk through the Lincoln Park, Old Town, and Gold Coast neighborhoods of Chicago with a group of 6 others. We visited 7 food locations all providing us with a wealth of food knowledge, food samples, and coupons for a return visit. Most of the businesses are family owned and was served up by the owner themself. That is what made the tour so special. In between stops we found out fun facts about the neighborhood architecture including seeing the original Playboy Mansion. Here's where we went:

Ashkenaz Deli
Sampled a thick potato pancake with sour cream and apple sauce. (I previously tried potato pancakes at Walker Brothers pancake house and wasn't impressed, I had no idea how wonderful they could be until I tried the ones at Ashkenaz) definately want to try recreating the recipe.

(pictures are included but with the exception of the smore cupcake picture, the others were pulled offline as I was busy tasting and didn't take many photo breaks)

Tea Gschwendner
I found out that all varieties of tea: black, white, and green come from the same tea plant. I sampled a cup of hot Rooibos tea. Rooibos varieties are the future of tea. Even though they are called tea, this variety comes from an African plant, not the tea bush. Rooibos has more anti oxidants than green tea and unlike green tea, is caffeine free.


The Spice House
The Spice House is America's authority on spices. All spices were ground within the last 5-6 weeks where as spices on the shelf of your local grocery store may be up to 6-8 months old at the time of purchase. Spices lose potency overtime so it is important to buy as fresh as possible. Prices at this shop are also cheaper than those at the grocery store. You can also buy spices in small amounts if you only want enough for one recipe. We learned about various types of cinnamon. Cinnamon is European and has a chalky taste, what we know as cinnamon is actually cassia. There are several types with potency varying depending on the amount of oil in each piece of cassia bark. The saigon "cinnamon" cassia was my favorite, it had a flavor cinnamon to Big Red gum.


Old Town Oil
Sample balsamic vinegars and extra virgin olive oils. The White Peach Balsamic Vinegar mixed with Blood Orange olive oil was my favorite combo. Perfect drizzled on chicken, fish, or a salad.


The Fudge Pot
Sampled Chocolate covered toffee served up by the owner. At the end of the tour we were asked to name our favorite place we visited, overwhelmingly people liked the fudge pot best.



Catering and Chocolate
This place caters large events for political figures such as former President Clinton. We sampled cheese and crostini served up by the owner himself. Their smore cupcakes looked amazing. They also sold fresh butter with the claim that it would "blow your mind." I've tasted some very fresh European butter that my Grandma used to buy and wondered it the butter here was even better than that.



Bacino's Pizza
Samples America's 1st heart healthy pizza served up by one of the Bacino sons. Their deep dish isn't greasy like Uno's. Bacino's is my new favorite deep dish. I definately want to take C here sometime to sample their pizza.