FNN

Can’t wait for the next season of quickfires and eliminations? Fan of former contestants Radhika Desai and Antonia Lofaso?
Then you’re in luck! The Trib’s Stew Blog is reporting that the Top Chef tour truck will be rolling into Chicago this weekend. Bravo says the six shows have closed for pre-registration, but that [...]

I’m usually not a rib person. There’s something very primal about ripping meat off bones with one’s teeth, and I’m not really a fan of that.
But I will never, ever turn down a chance to eat at Wagner’s.
It’s a bar, in Porter, Indiana, a good 45 minutes from Michiana by car. You can’t [...]

In preparation for my how-to video, which will be posted in the next few days, here’s the recipe for my mother’s meatballs. Done right, they’re tender and savory.
Ingredients:
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 onion, chopped
1 2.5 kg jar Ragu Traditional tomato sauce (or your favorite sauce)
3-4 tablespoons Italian (flat leaf) parsley, chopped
2 slices sandwich [...]

You know that restaurant in your neighborhood? You’ve been there a few times, the food was fantastic, but for some reason you don’t go as often as you should. In Michiana, that restaurant is the Duneland Beach Inn.
As the name suggests, the restaurant is, in fact, part of a hotel. I have [...]

In my opinion, no Chicago restaurant has taken the place of Hong Min since the tragic fire years ago. For good Chinese food, my family either schleps out to Palos Hills, where the other Hong Min location remains open, or we go to Oriental Pearl in Michigan City, Indiana.
The first thing you’ll notice when [...]

Michael Pollan just finished speaking to a crowd so large it required two overflow rooms at the Harold Washington Library.
In a conversation with journalist Bill Kurtis, Pollan talked about how the food industry managed to change conversations about eating less unhealthy foods into eating more healthy foods in the 1970s. Pollan said it’s happening [...]

Michael Pollan, author of such foodie manifestos as The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food will be appearing at the Harold Washington Library’s Pritzker Auditorium at 6 p.m. tonight.
Pollan will sign books after the discussion. Admission is free and on a first-come, first-served basis.
Here’s Pollan’s recent appearance on The Colbert Report:

The Colbert Report
Mon [...]

Ponzu Sushi is a friendly little neighborhood joint, right around the corner from my apartment. It used to be Edo Sushi, something of a Lincoln Park institution, but has since been re-invented twice. The first Ponzu was more hip and modern. I used to go there at least once a week for [...]

Something strange happened during my year in France. I found myself liking foods I had previously found distasteful. Like eggplant, or the vast array of goat cheese sold at the market (above), or cherries right off the tree. But my heart still sank one night when my host mother brought a beautiful [...]