Good Bites

Did you know that just half a mile away from the bustling Magnificent Mile you can step back in time to an age of double-decker, decadent diners? That's where you'll spend a pleasurable afternoon. But before you do, you'll begin your outing with top-notch coffee and walk through a serene European-feeling garden.

This guide is part of our Good Bites series, and we're venturing out to pick up fresh ingredients to make a classic BLT -- our summer sandwich of choice. While you can head to Mariano's to get ingredients for a decent BLT, we're looking for greatness, and greatness starts with a quality tomato and fresh bread. We're headed to Logan Square on our quest for these items. We begin with a trip to a French cafe to grab bread and to have a morning coffee on the cafe's tree-shaded, side yard patio. Afterwards, we make our way down the block to a Sunday farmers market to get the rest of our BLT provisions.  Here are the details.

When the cold weather strikes, this guide has you cooking up some eats to keep warm -- or should I say hot -- hot pot that is. To get started, you'll head to a mega-sized Chinese grocer in Pilsen to pick up essential hot pot ingredients like fish tofu, lobster balls, udon noodles, sesame paste, and fried chili oil. We've included step-by-step instructions for a successful hot pot party. While there, you'll check out some of the other developments going on inside.

We're taking the Red Line to go on a food expedition that starts in Chinatown and ends on the far North side in Little Saigon. We'll make a few stops along the way for some small and not-so-small eats. This is an especially good guide to follow with out-of-town friends/family to see and get a taste of Chicago's different neighborhoods in one go. We'll be munching on soup dumplings, donuts, chicken wings, and Vietnamese crepes on this culinary tour along the Red Line. Here are the details.

There are no shortage of outdoor markets when summer rolls around, and for today's guide we'll be visiting two staples on the the South Side. You'll first head to a summer farmer's market in Woodlawn, just south of the University of Chicago campus, where we'll pick up fresh produce, pies, and a smorgasbord of items from a local French chef. Afterwards, we continue our quest for good food at a mini outdoor market constructed from repurposed shipping containers. Here are the details.

When most folks think of Japanese cuisine, they think of either sushi or hibachi. This guide features neither. Instead, we start this guide with Osakan street food and a rich bowl of tori paitan ramen. From there, you'll take a quick walk around the block for an order Kakigōri, a Japanese shaved iced, for dessert. We finish the night up with drinks at an underground saké bar. Here are the details.

This guide requires you to start with an empty stomach, because you'll be merrily strolling through South Loop and the Near South Side, eating and drinking more than you ever need. It starts at a classic Chicago diner serving deep-dish pizzas, Italian lemonade, and a famous breaded steak sandwich. You'll then make your way to a local brewery for a chocolate cake and beer pairing to finish things off.

This guide is part of our Good Eats series where we find food spots around the city that we think are worthy of going out of your way to visit. We have two places in store for this guide. The first is on the Southside in Bronzeville where you can have a traditional Louisiana-style seafood boil and the second is a massive Filipino grocery store (Seafood City Market) on the Northwest side in Albany Park. Here are the highlights.

This guide targets a very specific demographic of people who love Japanese food and culture and are willing to travel to the Northwest Chicago suburbs. We're here to visit the largest Japanese market in the Midwest.  Here are the highlights.