Culinary Exploration

I mentioned in my last blog about the culinary delights that Joe and Amy introduced me to in our tour of Chicago. Thought I should probably say a little bit more about them.

The first was Garrett’s Chicago Mix popcorn, a mixture of CaramelCrisp and CheeseCorn. The first of these is, I guess, similar to Butterkist, basically popcorn in a sweet, caramelized coating. The second is hot air popped popcorn which has had melted sharp Cheddar stirred in, which was a whole new taste experience. Reminded me a little of Cheese puffs, and yet different. Combine these two together and you get, in my opinion, a slightly strange combination of flavours! Garretts, dating back to 1949, is obviously very popular. There was quite a queue, and we were just talking a popcorn store! Besides the two mentioned, there were several other flavours. The tin sizes were quite extraordinary, the largest size being 6.5 gallons. Even with the US gallon being smaller than the UK one, that’s a lot of popcorn!

The second place was Gino’s East pizza. Again, a queue, though we were there at about 4:30pm to avoid the lines later on. This was a newer establishment, started up in 1966 when two taxi drivers and a friend, frustrated with rush hour traffic, decided to open a pizzeria just off Michigan Ave. and Superior St. in Chicago. ‘Each deep-dish pizza is created with a secret, golden crust, fresh vine-ripened tomatoes, and loaded with your choice of fresh ingredients. Once baked to perfection these enormous pies are brought to your table in our well-seasoned pans.’ And they were good. Very different to any pizza I’d had before. Not sure if that was the crust or the filling – or both. The other different feature was the graffiti all over the walls, something which is actively encouraged (though the restrooms were designated as graffiti-free zones). Some people get quite creative in how to write over what's already there.