North America 2022 : Thursday September 1 Day 3 Foodie Time

Science Fiction conventions are mostly a blur when they are happening, even more so when you look back on them. Any attempt to describe what is going on at the time is bound to be a failure – so I won’t bother. I came to the Worldcon to meet people and to catch up with old friends, which I did. And that will suffice.

But travelling to a city such as Chicago is not just about attending the convention, there were other things I got up to.

Robyn and I have been going on food walks for a few years now, probably starting back in Hanoi in 2018, with others in Paris and Reykjavik, and others I’ve no doubt forgotten. So why Chicago? Surely they don’t have much of a food culture? You’d be surprised. I’m of the view that every major, and most minor cities, have a story to be told via their food, their stories and their traditions. Learning about them only helps to gain a better understanding of the city and its people. And that can only enhance the holiday experience.

Robyn picked this evening walking tour because of its timing and because of its high rating on TripAdvisor, which is generally a good indicator.

We met up at Gino’s East, a pizzeria just off Michigan Avenue about a kilometre away from our hotel. Here it was a slice of Chicago deep pan pizza. And what a strange thing that it. The closest equivalent I could think of was a quiche. It has a deep crumbly pastry crust that is basically filled with tomato sauce and anything else you want to add. Interesting but not my preferred pizza type.

And then the walking part of the tour began, with a long haul back up Michigan Avenue in the direction of our hotel, stopping off at the Chicago-Tribune building for a bit of background, then over the street and under the Wrigley Building, where we found an interesting sculpture. I always love finding these in out of the way places like this.

The group consisted of Americans from different parts of the country. Most of them seemed to be more interested in our Australian wildlife than anything else. And mostly interested in how dangerous it all was. I did my best not to dissuade them of this fact.

And the walking continued, over the river, to Billy Goat Tavern where we sampled the Chicago Hot Dog. It seems that the tradition here is not to put ketchup on it as that indicates you think the meat might not be fresh. Spicy sauces were used to hide the taste of off-meat in the past, and, while ketchup us available, it is frowned up here. I thought about it but decided it was probably better to just go with the flow and take in the mustard, onions and whatever else was in the mix. There is also a long story about how the owner of this tavern took his Billy Goat to the baseball in the 1930s, only to be thrown out when other patrons of the park complained about the goat’s smell. As he left he uttered a curse on the Chicago Cubs that wasn’t lifted until they won the World Series in the 2010s. Superstitious nonsense of course, but amusing nonetheless.

Then it was up into Millennium Park where we we shown the “bean” and given an explanation of the artist’s struggles to get it displayed the right way. It seems the original unveiling showed that the surface hadn’t been cut back and polished to the state it is in now. The welds and joins still showed and the artist demanded it be fixed before the public were allowed to see it. That caused a major delay and extra expense but I reckon the final outcome was worth it.

By about this time I was starting to wonder if we would ever get some connection to Chicago’s gangster past when we stopped off at the Exchequer for a Reuben sandwich. The restaurant has either previously been owned by Al Capone, or regularly frequented by him, and still retained the doorway he used to slip out of when the place got raided.

Final stop of the tour was for dessert, a very sweet, very rich chocolate brownie at the Palmer House. I could only stand a few nibbles as the sweetness was sickly – it actually took me a few days, a bite or so at a time, to finish this off.

Overall I thought the tour was a good introduction to parts of Chicago food history. Whether it was all authentic, or the best on offer is impossible to tell without trying out all the others. We enjoyed it, which is the main thing. The only criticism I’d make is that the first stop is too far away from all of the others. A minor quibble, though our feet told another story.

After the tour I dropped Robyn off back at the hotel and continued on to a late-night convention party which was celebrating 50 years of DUFF, the Down under Fan Fund, a fund that I had been lucky en0ugh to partake of back in 1996. A good night was had, where I met Lesleigh Luttrell, the first winner of the Fund back in 1972, and John Berry, an old friend from Seattle.