Food – Julianne Glatz

It’s a little gem of a museum, one worth visiting even if it weren’t just a short drive away. And it’s currently featuring an exhibit that explores the evolution of foods, cooking methods, and eating habits in central Illinois over a period of 180 years. “Come and Get It! The Way We Ate 1830–2008” will […]

Northerners have eaten it for years, too. But American Southerners eat more, and, moreover, celebrate and claim it as their own. It’s one of the iconic foods that defines the region, right up there with fried chicken, biscuits, grits, collard greens and red-eye gravy. Pimento cheese. Originating down South sometime in the early 1900s, it’s […]

Q. It seems like you always say to not use super-sweet onions in your recipes. Do you just not like them, or is there another reason? -Joyce C. Actually, I like super-sweet onions such as Vidalias, Mauis, or Walla Wallas a lot. They’re perfect for salads, sliced or chopped for sandwiches – in any preparation […]

It’s an all-out war. A fierce, raging battle. On one side are those who are working to modify American eating habits to become healthier and more sensible in order to combat what have become epidemic levels of obesity and other dietary-related illnesses. On the other side are prepared food industries equally determined to increase their […]

Rhubarb: it’s a leafy vegetable that makes such delicious pie that early Americans called it “the pie plant.” It’s a beautiful perennial in the garden: forming a four- or five-foot mound of ruffled leaves with glimpses of ruby red stalks underneath. In spring, huge stalks of flowers shoot forth; both in bud and flower, they […]

I’ve eaten them in Chicago. I’ve eaten them in New York and Boston and St. Louis. I’ve eaten them made with white truffle oil, smoked chilies, avocado, bacon and horseradish, tuna, and black olive tapenade, to name just a few variations. Deviled eggs – or stuffed eggs, if you’d prefer – used to be primarily […]

Is drinking soda a sin? More to the point: Is soda a sin in the same league as tobacco and alcohol, two things that are highly taxed specifically because they’re deemed sinful? In light of current health statistics, many public health experts are saying that soda should indeed be considered a sin. Excessive consumption of […]

“I know you’re not an elitist,” my husband, Peter, said to me. “But do you ever worry that you come across that way to readers?” Peter’s question arose from a conversation he’d had with one of his dental patients. This working mother of young children said she read my columns every week and really enjoyed […]

When you think of Austria, what comes to mind? Beautiful mountains and picturesque valleys? Strauss waltzes? Wienerschnitzel? Mozart? Pastries? (what we call “Danish” are known in Denmark as weinerbrød – “Vienna bread”) Maria and the Von Trapp kids singing “Do-Re-Mi”? The pristine white stallions of Vienna’s Spanish Riding School performing their “airs above the ground” […]

Back in the 70s and 80s it was quiche. Then in the 90s, it was latte. These days good ol’ boy/girl bubba/bubbette politicians seem intent on labeling those who consume arugula as effete, lah-dee-dah elitists. Excuse me — arugula? I’ll admit there’s a certain twisted logic about quiche. It’s French. Yes, it’s true that if […]

Untitled Document You know the drill. The menus of central Illinois’ Mexican restaurants are pretty similar: guacamole, nachos, burritos, chimichangas, quesadillas, tacos, enchiladas, rice and beans, various entrées, a host of combination plates, and, inevitably, fajitas. Everything’s usually tasty, but there’s not much variation. At the Maya Buffet, those Mexican-American and Mexican standards are on […]

Untitled Document From the outside, St. Anthony’s looks like hundreds of other small churches built in the 1950s and ’60s: simple design, blond brick, window-sized panes of stained glass in primary colors. It could be a cousin of my childhood Methodist church. Only after you’ve seen the sanctuary and met some of the folks who […]