Burrito Beach!

As a continuation of my last post, namely the idea of affordable grass fed beef, I have another happy announcement. Walking through the O'Hare airport last night, something caught my eye at Burrito Beach in the foodcourt where the H and K concourses split off. Burrito Beach, a local Chicago (healthier) fast food joint with a mere 7 locations, has teamed up with Bill Kurtis to offer his grass fed Tallgrass beef in one of its burritos: the Barbacoa Burrito, featuring only Tallgrass Beef. In addition, the company will donate a portion of the sales from each Barbacoa Burrito to the Green City Market in Chicago's Lincoln Park. And the price of all this? $6.79. Burrito Beach is partly advertising this as the next step in healthier options, emphasizing, for instance, that grass fed beef has as many as 100 fewer calories as the same portion of traditionally raised beef and lower saturated fat and cholesterol. I didn't happen to have one but hope to on one flight soon. (But note that Burrito Beach has only committed to carrying the Barbacoa Burrito through the end of the year -- so it may ultimately only be sold for about 2 1/2 months).

UPDATE: OK, today I finally got my hands on one of these and while I don't want to discourage people supporting grass fed beef, I don't want anyone to get their hopes up without reason either. The burrito was very mediocre. Worth a try if you have nothing better to eat.....

Pasta whore

Last night I had fresh pasta from Pasta Puttana -- or Pasta Whore.  This is a small business started by Jessica Volpe (not a Chicago native but living here now).  She makes a few varieties of pasta and sells them at the Edgewater Farmers Market, the Green City Market, and at Green Grocery (where I got mine last night).  The pasta was different in texture and flavor than I am used to.  It also cooks in 10 seconds.  How's that for fast food?  It's $8 for what amounts to a serving for two people -- if it's not all you eat for dinner this really is for two people -- so it's not that expensive.  The ingredients are not 100% organic but many of them are, and with one or two exceptions all are locally sourced.  The pasta can be frozen and just dropped into boiling water to cook still in 10 seconds (otherwise it spoils quickly).  You can read more about Jessica and her company here.  

This is the sort of business that deserves supporting: quality artisan products but someone who loves that type of food so much they want to dedicate their life (or at least their free time) to making it.  This is also the type of product you'll never find at a Whole Foods or a Trader Joes with a national buying system.  Shops like Green Grocer bring things products within our reach.  They spend the time finding them, and all we need to do is find the shops.  I know there are more artisan food shops near me.  I just need to find them now!

Farmer's Market!

One of the best things about summer is the farmer's markets.  Most of the Chicago neighborhood farmers markets have not started yet (they will open in early June), but some of the ones downtown and a few others have been open for weeks now.  I went to the one at the Daley Center on Thursday and was a bit disappointed as I remembered that the ones downtown are often more fairs then farmer's markets (ad of course you have to be pretty strategic about what you buy).  Today I hit up a little market off Armitage just east of Halsted, and then the mega Green City Market.  I'm embarrassed to say this was my first time at the Green City Market.  It's on Clark just north of North Ave.  GCM is huge with a tremendous variety, including all the grass fed and pastured dairy, eggs and meat you can imagine.  I walked away with two types of raw cheeses from Saxon Homestead Creamery (these are full milk fat from grass fed cows -- you can't get more authentic than this), goat meat, lamb kidney, lamb liver and lamb chorizo sausage from Mint Creek Farm (all totally free range grass fed) and turkey drumsticks from T.J.'s Free Range Poultry (completely pasture raised).  (I realize not everyone finds the thought of organ meat apetizing, but it is believed to be extremely healthy for human consumption -- something I'll talk more about another time.)  Mint Creek and T.J.'s also sell eggs from pasture-raised chickens and other vendors were selling milk from grass-fed cows (sadly it was all pasteurized but it's illegal otherwise).  I also picked up some amazing foraged mushrooms, farm-made pasta sauce, and some veggies.  

The meat was all frozen, which in some ways was unfortunate, but the only way to be able to buy any type of meat any time of year is to buy it frozen or to buy it from around the world.  Of course this is local, seasonal eating.  Asparagas was all the rage with things like tomatoes (that don't get going until later in the season) hard to come by (and not very good looking when you saw them).  

One of the things I was surprised to learn recently is that just like vegetables are seasonal, so are animals.  Farmers only slaughter certain animals certain times a year -- due to the times when they are born and then reach proper size and maturity for slaughter.  So if you want fresh chicken all year round, it can come from down the street when chickens are "in season" but 6 months later they will be coming from New Zealand.  So the freezer may be a decent compromise.  

I'm really looking forward to checking out the Green City Market in the future and exploring the neighborhood farmers markets as they begin to open over the next few weeks.