New Taste sensations
Whether your thing is worm composting or classic cartoons, you'll find it at this year's food fest
Really, the food should be enough. But the 3.5 million visitors to Taste of Chicago this year will need something to do between grazing rounds.
What Mayor Daley calls the "premier summertime event" is about more than sauteed goat, beer-battered artichoke hearts and Rainbow cones.
(Scott Stewart/Sun-Times)
(Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)
(Sun-Times file)
• Grant Park
• Admission is free; food/beverage tickets sold in $7 strips (11 tickets)
• (312) 744-3315; www.tasteofchicago.us
This year, the Taste is also about Nadia Comaneci, international shopping and Looney Tunes.
This year, the Taste is about worm composting.
The festival is expanding its appeal with new areas dedicated to the environment, an international market and more. Yes, the Taste will probably expand your waistline, too -- but a stop by Taste Sports! could minimize the damage.
So grab that pickle on a stick, and don't miss these five hot spots:
Taste emphasizes the exotic with its new International Pavilion, which will boast food, arts, activities and shopping -- think Epcot Center's World Showcase, but much smaller (and without the lagoon laser show).
Another day, another country. Here's where you might find African dance performances (Muntu Dance Theater, today), Japanese hip-hop (Yumekobo, Thursday) or Channel 11's Grannies on Safari (July 7-8). Each day at 12:30 p.m., the Shaolin Kung Fu Performers from Henan Province, China, put the "art" in martial arts.
The music often encompasses many cultures. Saskia Laroo, a Dutch jazz trumpeter also known as "Lady Miles of Europe," blends hip-hop, jazz, salsa, funk and reggae (6 p.m. Saturday). The HiJazz group combines Arabic, Brazilian and Indian music (4:30 and 6 p.m. Wednesday).
If you like to be a bit more hands-on in your explorations, daily activities include Italian mask making (Sunday), rug art (Thursday) and Japanese calligraphy (July 8).
Souvenirs of your international excursions are available at the Market Place. The Hyde Park shop What the Traveler Saw (1452 E. 53rd St.) offers arts, crafts and gifts. The Akbik Gallery (2434 N. Harlem) brings the Middle East to the Midwest with handwoven rugs and ethnic jewelry.
And the Spice House (with four locations in the Chicago area, and another planned in Geneva) will be selling seasonings tied to Chicago's Sister Cities -- there are a whopping 27 of them. "I think we're able to cover about 20 of them," says co-owner Patricia Ed. They'll also have their popular line of spices inspired by Chicago's ethnic neighborhoods, in conveniently small tubes and bottles. "Our best-selling is our Back of the Yards Garlic Pepper Butchers Rub. Because the No. 1 question I get asked is, 'What do you have that's good on a steak?'" This is Chicago, after all.
And the food? You can keep your strength up for the round-the-world tour with the fare from these featured restaurants:
Today and Saturday: Jin Ju, 5203 N. Clark (Korean food)
Sunday-Monday: Le Lan, 749 N. Clark (French Vietnamese) July 5-6: Tizi Melloul, 531 N. Wells (Moroccan) July 7-8: Rumba, 351 W. Hubbard (South American)You might want to stick to the bite-size portions at the Taste before stopping by this athletic area, which has attractions for both players and fans. This is the place to meet speed skaters Bonnie Blair and David Cruikshank (1 p.m. Saturday), and gymnasts Bart Connor and Nadia Comaneci (noon July 5).
Olympic legends Connor and Comaneci, married 10 years, are supporting Chicago's bid to host the Olympics in 2016. Connor, who grew up in Morton Grove, says, "Chicago is a sports town, there's no question about it." They will be presenting a team from Chicago's Skyline Gymnastics, and then signing autographs.
Comaneci, who feels at home with Chicago's large Romanian population, says that most of her fans want to talk about one thing. "It's all related to that '10,' she says. "They want to tell me exactly where they were when they watched it."
Afterward, of course, Connor and Comaneci will stay for a bite to eat. "You can't hardly beat a good bratwurst," says Connor.
In addition, Chicago's sports teams will be well represented, as well as the Mayor's Fitness Council. At 3 p.m. Saturday, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta will bring his Fit Nation Tour to the Taste. Comedy Sportz, an improv group that sweats more than most, will perform two half-hour shows each day between 1 and 3 p.m., Monday through Thursday. Trainers will get you moving with pilates, cardio kickboxing, stretching, children's yoga, Bally's hip-hop classes and more.
Exhausted yet? Give your body a break and exercise your mind at the chess tournament on July 8.
The Taste goes beyond recycling this year, with a spot devoted to lowering our "carbon footprints" with environmental baby steps. Here's where you'll learn to plant a rain garden, switch to energy-efficient lightbulbs, naturally control garden pests, harness solar energy, and split a car with your neighbors through the I-Go Car Sharing program.
Greenmaker Home Supply, a new company that just expanded to Chicago, will hold classes on how to "go green" in the kitchen, the bath, plumbing, flooring, and so on. Using sustainable materials can translate into another kind of "green," too; you'll lower carbon levels and save money.
"I think people really appreciate getting some real, down-to-earth ideas about how they can make a difference," says Lyrica Hamman of Greenmaker. One simple-to-install, cost-competitive idea: instead of using fiberglass, try cotton insulation made of recycled denim. "We really make green easy," says Hamman.
Don't miss sessions on bamboo flooring (noon, Saturday), worm composting (1 p.m. Sunday), making organic pet food (3 and 5 p.m., Tuesday) and bike-powered battery chargers (3 and 5 p.m.).
Be a charter member of the breakfast club by getting up early for the first Toons at Taste! The three-hour block of silliness features the Looney Tunes' finest -- including the 1953 masterpiece "Duck Amuck," which was voted No. 2 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of All Time by animators. In it, Daffy Duck is toyed with by an invisible artist, who keeps erasing and re-drawing Daffy's clothes, environment, shape and more. Much sputtering ensues.
Also on the state-of-the-art, 12--by-15-foot screen: "The Scarlet Pumpernickel," "Yankee Doodle Daffy," "Porky Chops," "Duck Dodgers in the 24th Century" and more.
And on the menu? A free continental breakfast. There will be samples of Oberweis milk, McDonald's cookies, Bays English Muffins, Eli's Pastries, fruit from Dominick's ... and Cap'n Crunch. Tropical Fusion will have fruit smoothies for sale.
There will also be free face painting, a stilt walker and a balloon artist -- all before the Taste officially opens at 11 a.m.
Trying to top the already over-the-top annual July 3 fireworks show would be difficult (and probably dangerous). Instead, in keeping with the Taste of Chicago gorge-yourself theme, they bring you more.
This year, two shows have been added on July 4 and 5. Warm up each night with the water and music display at Buckingham Fountain at 8:50 p.m., and then watch the patriotic pyrotechnics launch from Monroe Harbor. "Who doesn't enjoy more fireworks?" reasons Cindy Gatziolis, spokeswoman for the Mayor's Office of Special Events.
The July 3rd extravaganza is still a must marvel, though. It's preceded by an 8 p.m. concert at the Petrillo Music Shell, with Christopher Bell leading the Grant Park Orchestra in 15 American anthems, from "The Star-Spangled Banner" to "The 1812 Overture."
For a complete Taste of Chicago schedule and list of vendors, visit www.tasteofchicago.us.