A Cook's Guide to Chicago

I have been exploring ethnic grocery stores and neighborhoods in Chicago all my life and I have been doing so for more than 50 years. I though I knew all of the interesting, obscure, fascinating, outrageous, exotic, comforting, appetizing places in town. I was wrong! It is simply amazing how much new information this book put in front of me. I can't wait to resume my explorations. Even though it as last updated 10 years ago, it is still mostly current. A phone call to a listing will easily confirm if they are still in business or not. I recommend that you clear out your refrigerator and shelves to make room for new arrivals, make sure you have enough staples around to cook up a storm, and then hit the street in search of the glorious bounty we are blessed with here in the Windy City.

If you love exploring the neighborhoods of Chicago & trying new dishes, this book will tell you where to go to find that special ingredient. It is a treasure trove of info & will make you want to spend time exploring this magnificent city and then try to recreate your meals & snacks when you get back home.

Reviewed by Kornelia Longoria for Reader Views (9/06) Chicago is very well known for being a home of many great restaurants and delicious cuisine. Marylin Poncius, who grew up on the Southwest Side, was introduced to all types of ethnic food in her earliest years and grew up expanding her taste buds with a wonderful variety of tastes. In her book "A Cook's Guide to Chicago", she put collected what's best in the city and its surrounding areas and put it all together into a great source of information for both tourists as well as Chicagoans. It's a book for everyone for anyone who enjoys cooking and fine foods. The book is organized into themed chapters, where each type of food has its own chapter. Reading the guide the reader has a chance to travel through many different types of cuisine, such as Italian, Easter European, German, Middle Eastern, Japanese and many more and learn about the main characteristics and specific ingredients for each of them. Each chapter starts with a little introduction followed by the addresses of carefully chosen restaurants, grocery stores or other unique places revolving around food. Furthermore, each chapter has a delicious recipe as well as a grocery list, so we can experience tastes we have never experienced before. Being an import from Poland myself, I really enjoyed the Easter European part, where I could find an array of Polish stores and restaurants. This is a great help, especially when you just move to Chicago from across the ocean and become homesick. The recipe for home made kolackys will instantly pick you up. To sum it all up, A Cook's Guide to Chicago is an unique reference book which is very enjoyable to read and even more enjoyable to use in practice to discover the parts of Chicago one had no idea about.

As a frequent visitor to Chicago, I love to take advantage of a big city's resources. I found "A Cook's Guide to Chicago" to be an invaluable culinary guidebook. Written in a humorous and easy to read style, the book demystifies those strange foods I can't identify, and lists stores that carry the exotic foods I love but can't find in my own neighborhood. Better yet, the author offers tips and recipes that feature them. With this book, I'm armed with a resource that enables me to search out foods I didn't even know existed!Each chapter is filled with interesting facts that make identifying and locating groceries and cooking utensils fun.(The description of South Water Market made me want to shop there just to see the area.) The book's layout makes it simple to use, and it is thoroughly indexed. The graphic design is a visual treat. But the best part about this book, for me, is not the facts, but the feeling it gave me while reading it. I fell in love with food and spices and cooking all over again. Suddenly, just going down the same aisle at my usual supermaket to make the same predictable meal just didn't cut it. With these newly defined foods and locations of ethnic grocery stores, I was ready for a culinary adventure. The author's skill in writing, her sense of humor and love of food all combine to portray cooking as a sensual and exotic world. "The Cook's Guide" is the perfect companion to explore that world - I highly recommend it.

I was delighted to have come across this book. While I'm not much of a cook, I like to think that I could be. This book makes it sound easy and, more importantly, FUN. I recommend it to anyone interested in eating, shopping, or cooking or for an "off the beaten track" cultural/culinary tour of our great city of Chicago. Hats off to the author; she probably weighs a ton by now but it must have been an interesting journey. (Great cover, too!)

As a resident of Chicago, I am grateful to the author for writing this book. Now, I know where to have my knives sharpened, buy fresh ginger, and find the best teas.