My current favorite local bar is actually a dive bar (my favorite kind!). It's called The Tempest, and it is in SOMA. They have a good affordable beer list (according to my avid beer drinking friends. I'm a cheap beer gal myself:) a very chill atmosphere, and best of all, their kitchen (which can only be accessed from the window outside of the bar), called Box Kitchen, serves these little gourmet gems, like stuffed baked potato skins with pork belly and quail eggs, a chicken and waffle sandwich and a seriously delicious burger. I'm a fan, and I always hit it up when I want to go out.

I've been to the Westmont Katy's and the Naperville one. The dumplings at the Westmont location are to die for, especially the pot stickers. They are the closest thing I can find around Chicago to the dumplings I used to eat in Chinatowns all over Australia! Plus, when you walk in and see the soy sauce, black vinegar, and pot of chili oil on the table, you know your meal is going to be good.

The Naperville location is huge, but I found the food to taste just a bit different, and not in a good way. The handmade noodles, another great dish at the Westmont location, were about half as thick at the Naperville location, which was really unexpected. The dumplings were still delicious, but instead of the soy sauce-black vinegar-chili oil combo on the table, there was soy sauce and a sweet and sour type sauce. I asked for some black vinegar and chili oil from the kitchen, which they provided, but it just didn't taste the same.

I think there is just something about eating in the tiny, cramped Westmont location that feels more authentic. Maybe it makes the food taste better, or maybe I am just crazy. But I will be patronizing the Westmont location from now on. Just thinking about their pan fried pork dumplings makes me hungry!

I went to Farmerie 58 for dinner on the first Friday of restaurant week. I must admit, I was surprised to read on this board that Restaurant Week has been a success for the most part, because I tend to be skeptical of getting good service with a prix fix deal based on past experience. But after reading several great threads about the restaurant and restaurant week, I decided to give it a try.

As nsxtasy pointed out, not all of the restaurants menus represent "a great deal", and indeed, Farmerie 58's RW menu was priced pretty much on par with their regular menu. My bad for not researching the menu prior to making the reservation.

Even though our reservation was quite early, 7:15 I think, we hardly ever got to see our waitress. But it was RW, so to an extent, that was to be expected. The food took forever to arrive and was just alright. Nothing was so delicious that we felt we had to come back and eat it again.

The waitress actually sneered at our wine choice, so when I asked her to suggest another wine within our price range, she asked what we liked, and then suggested three wines. None of the wines had characteristics that we liked, but she ensured us that they would go perfect with our meals (which were all different--between four of us, we ordered the entire RW menu). We picked one and were really disappointed with it. We didn't find out until after we got the bill that she went WELL over our price range in choosing a wine. I understand that alcohol is probably one of the ways restaurants make good money off of RW, but I found this to be unprofessional.

All in all, RW was a big disappointment for me. I hope others had better luck than me!

I ate there last night, actually, and was very underwhelmed. The foie parfait with rice krispie treat was not good at all, and didn't taste like foie. The buffalo chicken had a unique beer foam, but you could hardly taste it, and the chicken itself tasted no different from what you can get at any wing place. The waitress encouraged use to get small plates and share, but these plates were not really enough for more than one person to try.

The steak was good, but I wouldn't call it memorable, and again, small portion size. The pork belly was great, and the root beer bbq sauce was surprisingly not super sweet but more like black licorice, which was interesting. The scallops on the their were delicious, but setting them on top of sweetened oatmeal (which I eat every day for breakfast) sort of ruined it for me.

Desserts were a little better, and I liked the pumpkin brulee best. The cream cheese filling in the molten carrot cake was great, but the cake itself didn't really taste like a carrot cake. The reconstructed Snickers bar was really rich and heavy on the chocolate, which overwhelmed the other flavors for me. The apple fritters were good, but again, nothing special.

I was really confused, because the website for the restaurant describes it as "bistronomic", making fine cuisine accessible in a comfortable atmosphere. The food was overpriced for the taste and portion size, and the atmosphere felt like your typical, trendy new restaurant, not a place I would feel comfortable in. It really looked like they decorated the place with Ikea stuff.

I was sad, because I really wanted to like this place and ended up leaving a bit hungry and confused.

I just signed up with Harvest Moon Organics (they were one of the few with spaces left for the summer). It is one of the more expensive ones ($695 for the full share), and I am splitting a full share with my husband and my brother (so roughly $10 per person per week).

Thus far, I have been happy and yet disappointed with my order. My disappointment was actually in the fact that my last two weeks had quite small orders. I understand this is a risk you take with CSAs, and I know that southern Wisconsin (where the farm is located) was affected by the floods, so while I am upset with the size, I can't really hold it against the farm. I can just hope it gets better as the season goes on.

I was pleasantly surprised the last two weeks with the variety of produce, however. Originally, I wanted to go with another CSA that gives a large range of fruit along with veggies, and also has a cheese share. Obviously, that one filled up, but Harvest Moon has included at least one locally made cheese each week, a baked good made using the produce, and some fruit. Not too bad for only expecting some asparagus and spinach. I live in North Center and the pick up is at Southport and Grace, which isn't too far from me. This is definitely a company worth checking out. http://www.harvestmoon-farms.com/

I'm not sure where you are based out of, but there are several universities now offering bachelor and masters degrees in food writing and gastronomy (study of food and culture). I know NYU has a food studies program, and I want to say there is another program in Italy.

I am finishing up my Masters in Gastronomy at Uni Adelaide in South Australia, but they also offer the program online, and you do not need a bachelor's degree to enroll. It is a great program covering the history of food writing, all genres of food writing, and past and present issues with food and culture, including GM foods, organic, obesity in children, etc. Just run a Google search of Masters in Gastronomy and that should give you a few options.

Thanks everyone. I suspect it may be my steel too...I really don't know the differences between all of them, I have a pretty basic circular one (yup, thats about as technical as I can get with that one!), but even the chefs at my culinary school told me to use the steel before and after cutting...is this wrong? What is the best sort of steel to maintain a 10 inch chef's knife for home use? I only use it for home use, which is at least once a day, so no heavy duty work, but I do cook from scratch nearly every day, so I'd like it to be sharp. I also suspect I need to spend a little time finding a professional sharpener around here, because the knives we use at work hardly ever get sharpened(but when they do, its heavy duty) and have never seen a steel, and they can slice through anything just fine.