Been meaning to mention this for a few days, but another story today reminded me that Mr. Veal Cheeks himself, GAF, has been in the news quite a lot these days, e.g.:

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-d ... -debunked/

So I try not to be *too* much of a toot-my-own-horn guy, but a couple people at the holiday party tonight mentioned that maybe I should let you guys know about this--Helen Rosner picked a club sandwich article I did on my website back in August as one of her 21 Best Longform Food Stories of 2015. Mine is the 4th one down, "An Edible History of the Club Sandwich."

JimTheBeerGuy wrote:So I try not to be *too* much of a toot-my-own-horn guy, but a couple people at the holiday party tonight mentioned that maybe I should let you guys know about this--Helen Rosner picked a club sandwich article I did on my website back in August as one of her 21 Best Longform Food Stories of 2015. Mine is the 4th one down, "An Edible History of the Club Sandwich."

Congratulations. Always exciting to have one's work recognized. I look forward to reading your work.

Cynthia wrote:

JimTheBeerGuy wrote:So I try not to be *too* much of a toot-my-own-horn guy, but a couple people at the holiday party tonight mentioned that maybe I should let you guys know about this--Helen Rosner picked a club sandwich article I did on my website back in August as one of her 21 Best Longform Food Stories of 2015. Mine is the 4th one down, "An Edible History of the Club Sandwich."

Congratulations. Always exciting to have one's work recognized. I look forward to reading your work.

I couldn't agree more. Very, very cool. Congrats!

=R=

JimTheBeerGuy wrote:So I try not to be *too* much of a toot-my-own-horn guy, but a couple people at the holiday party tonight mentioned that maybe I should let you guys know about this--Helen Rosner picked a club sandwich article I did on my website back in August as one of her 21 Best Longform Food Stories of 2015. Mine is the 4th one down, "An Edible History of the Club Sandwich."

There's so much I like about this article: the scholarship, the mixed media, the links, the assertion that bread should be toasted and that one should dress with mayo the contents of the sandwich (throughout) and not the bread (a conclusion I also came to last summer with tomato sandwiches: http://www.oakpark.com/Dining/Blogs/9-28-2015/Perfecting-the-Tomato-Sandwich/)

The only point I'm slightly averse to agreeing with is the conclusion that the middle slice of bread is not a defining characteristic of the club, and although there seems a historic basis for that conclusion, I think that middle slice gives the sandwich a distinctive look (and also, alas, a lot more carb breadiness that is usually required or appreciated). That middle slice will also clearly separate the sandwich from a turkey BLT: it's a strong signifier of clubiness.

Anyway, what a wonderful effort, Jim!

Ditto!

Stuff like this *deserves* a horn self-toot, Beer Guy Jim! Nicely done! Food writing is damn important, and *good* food writing is even more so.

Geo

JimTheBeerGuy wrote:21 Best Longform Food Stories of 2015. Mine is the 4th one down, "An Edible History of the Club Sandwich."

Most excellent, most excellent indeed, both in achievement and read.

While I tend to agree with Mr. Hammond three slices of toast are a defining characteristic of the club sandwich I did find the simplicity of the "Union Club" sandwich appealing, even if not traditional.

My ditto above was meant to ditto the Cynthia congrats, but ditto on the Jim congrats, too!

Happy to relate that Chicago Book Review just named my book, Midwest Maize, one of the 9 best nonfiction books of 2015. News like that is, as the French say, "un bon bout d'an" -- a good end to the year.

Chicago Review of Books - Best of 2015
https://chicagoreviewofbooks.wordpress. ... s-of-2015/

Hearty Congratulations, Cynthia! What a great review, right on the money. Very well done.!

(Your link is broken, you might want to edit it to this one, which is more direct:

https://chicagoreviewofbooks.wordpress. ... y-of-corn/

Gep

Geo wrote:Hearty Congratulations, Cynthia! What a great review, right on the money. Very well done.!

(Your link is broken, you might want to edit it to this one, which is more direct:

https://chicagoreviewofbooks.wordpress. ... y-of-corn/

Gep

Thanks, Geo. I redid the link twice, using the "link" feature, and both times, it still went to server not found. So I just did a plain URL, and that seems to work. I have no idea why using "link" didn't work.

Hi Cynthia,

"Link" puts inj some extra code that you have to remove unless you copy the original URL in the way that "Link" wants you to. It took me a bit to understand how to deal with it. "URL" isn't as pretty, but it works much more easily!!

Geo

Hi,

Last evening, I spent some time chatting with Dave Hoekstra's Nocturnal Journal at WGN-AM about LTHforum, Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance, eating on the road and pretty much my favorite topics of food and culture.

You can find a podcast here.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

Last evening, I spent some time chatting with Dave Hoekstra's Nocturnal Journal at WGN-AM about LTHforum, Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance, eating on the road and pretty much my favorite topics of food and culture.

You can find a podcast here.

Regards,

Great interview, Catherine. Hope it helps promote GMFA.

“Chicago has the best, healthiest Internet food scene in the entire country,” he said, “LTH (the Chicago-based food forum) is amazing. The attention paid to the meals of marginal cultures. I wish we had something like that here in LA.”

So says Jonathan Gold in Trib article by Louisa Chu: http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/ct ... story.html

Thanks for posting David. A really nice thing to read from one of my favorite food writers ever . . . love Jonathan Gold and can't wait to watch City of Gold.

BR wrote:Thanks for posting David. A really nice thing to read from one of my favorite food writers ever . . . love Jonathan Gold and can't wait to watch City of Gold.

Friday and Saturday, he's going to be at the screenings at some place in Chicago. Louisa moderating on one of those days.

David Hammond wrote:

BR wrote:Thanks for posting David. A really nice thing to read from one of my favorite food writers ever . . . love Jonathan Gold and can't wait to watch City of Gold.

Friday and Saturday, he's going to be at the screenings at some place in Chicago. Louisa moderating on one of those days.

Yes, thank you for posting David! And yes, I will be moderating the Saturday 7:15PM post screening Q&A.

Congrats to our own Jefe, Eric May, on his article, "Mexico of the North", published in the May edition of Bon Appetit. Well done!!

cool

Congrats, Eric. Very nicely done!

=R=

Aw shucks, thanks you guys! I can proudly say that I cut my food-writing teeth right here on LTHForum!

I feel very excited to rep these mom-and-pop restaurants that have inspired me over the years–Birrieria Zaragoza, Veneno de Nayarit, & La Cocina de Maria. There will be a longer format piece on the BA website, shortly, that also features Birrieria de la Torre (not featured in print). A huge thanks to these four restaurants for welcoming me into their kitchens and working with me. Each recipe is adapted for the home cook and come pretty close to what you'll eat at their respective joints (minus a heavily guarded secret ingredient or two). And if anyone is ever out in West Chicago, hit me up and we can have lunch La Cocina de Maria, this place is truly a gem!

Jefe wrote:Aw shucks, thanks you guys!

Very cool Mr. May, very cool indeed. Congratulations!

Laikom's Montrose Beach potluck bbqs get their recognition in Spoonful Magazine. A reporter joined us at the Tex-Mex one last summer.

The first picture includes the back of my head, a slice of my younger son and, in the foreground, my daughter-in-law (as of last week).

Lucky Peach Magazine's latest issue credits LTH Forum and early LTH stalwart Erik M in putting Jitlada Thai on the LA and national map due to Erik's translations of the Thai-only menu.

http://luckypeach.com/jitlada-thai-los-angeles/

It's a good read... I need to eat there, but I'd settle for getting into the city more often for Aroy, Rainbow, ATK....
(Why can't the burbs get a decent Thai joint that can serve something other than gloppy pad thai and panang curry?)

JoelF wrote:Lucky Peach Magazine's latest issue credits LTH Forum and early LTH stalwart Erik M in putting Jitlada Thai on the LA and national map due to Erik's translations of the Thai-only menu.

http://luckypeach.com/jitlada-thai-los-angeles/

It's a good read... I need to eat there, but I'd settle for getting into the city more often for Aroy, Rainbow, ATK....
(Why can't the burbs get a decent Thai joint that can serve something other than gloppy pad thai and panang curry?)

My favorite part of this article and Erik to his essence:

...
One day in early 2007, a visitor from Chicago happened to pick up Jitlada’s take-out menu at his hotel. He didn’t speak Thai, but he had been to southern Thailand, so his interest in the restaurant was piqued by the promise printed on the menu (“The very best Southern Thai food from Jitlada”). He came in and, over the course of his three-day visit, tried as much as he could. With Tui’s help, he worked out English translations for the dishes.

Three months later, Tui says, the visitor called to say he had “put the menu on the computer.”

Erik M., the online handle of the Chicago visitor, had posted a translated menu of Tui’s dishes on a Chicago food-focused site called LTH Forum. At the time Erik called Tui, the post had already been viewed one thousand times. Within days, it made its way over to the Los Angeles section of Chowhound. The active users of Chowhound trekked over to Jitlada, and soon Jazz was fielding orders from customers ordering directly off of Erik M.’s post, which they had printed out and brought with them to the restaurant. Chowhounders posted their own reports back on the site, and the Internet feedback loop kicked into high gear: a June 2007 post about Jitlada ignited a thread 112 replies deep.
...

We miss Erik, and hope he's happy, healthy, and doing well! A loss to our community...

Geo

Following in the footsteps of at least two other Northwest Side confectioneries, Delightful Pastries is using sugary sweets to support Chicago Police officers and their families.

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2017012 ... foundation

My book, Midwest Maize: How Corn Shaped the U.S. Heartland, got a very nice review in the Winter 2017 edition of the journal of the Agricultural History Society. Written by someone from "back East," the only thing that baffled the reviewer was that "Clampitt seems to praise the Midwest." Made me chuckle. But despite my bias toward the Heartland, the reviewer thought the book was great.

The book also connected me with Eater, and I've been an advisor for a few videos in the last year -- this one is on the connection between corn and the vampire legends.
https://youtu.be/0clTdX_JSy0

One of the things that has really surprised me is the enthusiasm of distillers. I've been contacted by a couple of distillers in Missouri who are growing heirloom grains, in order to produce whiskey that tastes like it did in the 1800s (and I'll be visiting one of them in March, to give a presentation at their library--and sample the whiskey). But even the head of the American Distillers Institute in Los Angeles is now a fan. I would not have guessed that whiskey makers would turn out to be a big part of my fan base.