With consumer goods prices burgeoning and my “still somewhat timid freelance writer” schtick not yet helping me rake large piles of cash into my wallet, I’ve been looking for more ways to cut costs.

Having sold my Ford Explorer (did I really drive that thing?) before I moved from Indiana to Chicago not long ago, I’m not feeling the pinch at the pump like you auto-owning Chicagoans are, but these days I’m riding my bike as much to save myself the $1.75 on the CTA as to get some fun summertime cardio.

I’ve been cutting my own hair. I’ve been sneaking snacks into the movies. I’ve been bringing my own food with me whenever I leave the house.

And I’ve been forgoing the convenience and selection of the Andersonville Jewel for the vastly cheaper and more interesting Edgewater Produce (5509 N. Clark St., near Bryn Mawr), a small Mexican grocery store right across the street from Jewel. Some prices might slowly be creeping up — the cheapest eggs have jumped from $.99 to $1.29 — but the produce and Mexican staples are cheap and delicious. They also have a small but nice baked goods selection, cheap tofu (if you swing that way), and a delightful assortment of strange and delicious Mexican candies and treats.

And while I go mostly for things like the bulk dried fruit and trail mix-type snack selection, even my boyfriend the foodie (who uses strange and fancy gadgets like skillets and spatulas) is happy with the selection of meats, veggies, and the colorful array of ethnic sauces and spices that populate the shelves there.

And the best part — the eagle-eyed shopper will spot little snapshots of comedy embedded in the Edgewater Produce experience, like the labels on the bulk foods. Exactly which pointy rice snack makes the “fancy Oriental mix” fancy? Does the energy in the “energy mix” come from the fake M&M’s? And how much of my RDA of ape-liciousness will I get from a half cup of “banana chimps?”

- photo by Bryan Bowden

It’s Monday. We’re back at work after a great Chicago summer weekend. What could Monday possibly have for us to enjoy? How about this:

All you can eat?!?!? I know vegetarians are probably disgusted, and as an omnivore even I’m thinking, “two pieces of bacon should be sufficient.” However, I know that bacon has some ravenous fans that will take up this offer (or challenge).

To find out more head for the Whiskey Road at 1935 N. Damen. Even if “all u can eat bacon” is not your thing, it’s still a nice little bar. They have tasty burgers (beef, turkey, crab, and veggie). It’s also the only place I’ve found that serves one of my favorite foods, fried pickle chips. Plus, Monday is not only “all u can eat bacon”, but also movie night. I go to Whiskey Road on Thursdays at 9pm for a stand-up comedy open mic run by the awesome Chicago comedian Adam Burke (here’s a sample of his stand-up).

Don’t like any of those things? Then draw on the chalk board walls or enjoy some one else’s chalk drawing of the physical embodiment of two euphemisms for self love.

If you go tonight, let me know how much bacon u ate.

Since 2006 Peter Strazzabosco has been taking close-up pictures of Chicago-style foods at GreaseFreak. The site is dead simple: photos of italian beef, hot dogs, turkey clubs, burgers, italian subs, chili, and gyros with a quick rating of taste, presentation, and ambience. But damn if I’m not ready for lunch.

(Thanks jkb and Troy)

Don’t Spit the Water is going to Hollywood, CA to audition for Comedy Central. That’s right! We are an amused programmer away from being on basic cable which is my glib nonchalant way of hiding the excitement of possibly doing comedy for a living.

However, traveling to LA is expensive. And we don’t make any money doing the show in Chicago, and we don’t make gobs of money working for a (from left to right in the picture) homeless shelter, Chicago public radio, and the Chicago public school system. In case you were wondering, I’m the guy in the lucha libre mask sans shirt.

That means we need your help to make this trip less expensive for us. All you have to do is join us for drinking, eating, and karaoke at Trader Todd’s this Thursday 8pm-10pm for Blewt! Sings! Your $40 will help send us on our way to stardom and on your way to all you can drink and eat and sing. The crazy characters from Don’t Spit the Water (recently featured on WGN morning news) will be there performing special songs just for the night.

If you can’t make it out on Thursday, then go our website anyway and donate what you can to help us out. Help Chicago’s favorite live comedy game show become America’s favorite live comedy game show!

It’s entirely unclear whether the people who might once wanted you to boycott Mojoes (2849 W Belmont) might still want you to do so. I’d love to contact them and ask them “why” but they’ve left absolutely no contact info on these stickers littered around the neighborhood. Which, in the age of free MySpace pages and Gmail accounts, is pretty inexcusable.

My dad was in town this weekend, which means I got to break the monotony of grilled cheese and cereal and eat at a Real Restaurant. Sweet. This week’s choice was Magnolia Cafe in Uptown, and boy, was it ever tasty. As a vegetarian, the pickings were pretty slim, but the options I did find were darn good. I started off with yummy little thyme and goat cheese potato cakes that were totally worth burning the crap out of my tongue for, followed by, quite possibly, the best mixed green and bleu cheese salad I’ve ever eaten. (I didn’t realize how into the greens I was until my dad, after watching me greedily chase around the last dried cranberry on my plate for twenty seconds asked, “Good salad?”)

Dinner was a wild mushroom and herbed ricotta pizza, and although the crust was fantastic and the other toppings were delicious, the overly chewy mushrooms made this my least favorite point in the meal, but that was soon forgotten when the gooey chocolate bread pudding arrived accompanied by a perfectly shaped scoop of vanilla ice cream. I feel bad that my dad is cutting back on his sugar intake right now, but man, did I not want to share that dessert, so it worked out well for both of us.

I had Korean BBQ for the first time last week at San Soo Gap San (5247 N Western) and I’m an instant convert. When you order any of the main meat dishes, a glowing brazier of real charcoal coals in placed in the middle of your table and your meat comes delightfully marinated, but raw. So you grill the meat yourself, which means that the entire meal is accompanied by the sounds and smells of grilling meat. It also, of neccessity, spaces out the meat through the meal, giving you plenty of time to enjoy the copious banchan — the cornucopia of small dishes that accompany the meal. There were, seriously, 15 or so small dishes. We had very little idea what anything was, but that was half the fun. It all makes for a very social meal I’d recommend for 3 to 6.

Mike Ditka has his own set of wines. One is even named “kick ass red wine”. The rest must be less capable in hand to hand combat since they just have regular wine names.  Had these wines been around earlier it might have completely changed the entire diet of Bill Swerski and the super fans.  Ditka’s wines are probably old news, but it still makes my brain do the super bowl shuffle trying to correlate Iron Mike with a bottle of chardonnay:

It was another good night on Top Chef Chicago. Unfortunately, the Chicago “celebrity” was “famed Chicago film critic” (what??) Richard Roeper. Man, that just made me sad… but moving on to the show. The movie theme was pretty cool, and I think the judges got it right…

(more…)

I can’t tell you how happy I was to see Erik leave… Considering Frontera and Topolobampo are two of my favorite restaurants in Chicago and that I love Rick Bayless, Erik’s attitude had me hating him from the top of the show. Good editing, Bravo.

Mexican can’t be fine dining? B.S. Topolobampo is a perfect example of how Mexican can be new, exciting, fine dining, all while retaining a sense of tradition and without pretense. Erik just showed no class and I was glad to see him go.

Besides, if you cook corndogs in your restaurant all the time, then you should have known they wouldn’t have traveled well–loser.