Best Kept Secret of Chicago 1

So periodically, I'll post what I consider as some of the best-kept secret of Chicago that most visitors do not know of, but the locals certainly do. As the risk of changing these things as no longer being secrets by revealing them here, I still think that if I were to put myself in the shoes of these visitors to our great city, I would want to know such a thing.

This series will start with, what else, but food! If you are in downtown Chicago, there are a gazillion places to eat, with as many variety. So I will choose just one particular, narrow niche - food court. It is convenient, there's a huge variety (so that various people in your party can get whatever they like), it is quick, and more importantly, it is CHEAP! But since this is me, no run-off-the-mill mall food court will do. No sireee! There has to be something unique and a wide range of selection to be a food court that I would recommend.

One of the most overlooked food court for many visitors (because it isn't obvious since it is at on the top floor), is the food court at the North Bridge shopping mall. This is the mall inside a building just south of the Chicago river on Michigan Ave, and connected to a Nordstrom. There are many eating establishment in the mall, but the food court itself is on the top level, Level 4. So many visitors to the city probably would not venture into it, much less, go all the way to the top level, but many locals certainly do.

You will not find the regular food court chain here. Many of the vendors at the food court I've never seen elsewhere. The available food choices range from typical burgers, to roast turkey dinner (with the actual whole roasted turkey being carved in front of you), to standard chinese, to japanese noodle dishes and freshly made sushi, etc... etc. In other words, if you are tired of the typical mall food court meals, you'll be pleasantly surprised by the selection (and quality) that you'll find here.

I often go there for a quick lunch, especially when I'm out shopping or just walking along Michigan Avenue. People that I've brought to there have always been surprised that there's a food court up there, and the range of selection that they can get. So if you're in the city next time and want something convenient and fast, check out the food court at North Bridge. And no, I don't work for the mall or any of the businesses there.

Zz.

Best Pizza In America

If you want to start a fight, just trying bringing up the question of the best pizza anywhere. You'd have a major fist fight just asking that question in New York City alone.

Still, Alan Richmond (didn't he used to be on the Food Network when it first started and had a show with another woman titled "TV Diners?") of GQ Magazine had the balls to rate the best pizza in the US. And to my surprise, he rated a place here in my own lovely city of Chicago as having the best pizza. And I've never heard of the place!

1. Great Lake
Mortadella pie

I phoned at 6:15 p.m., ordered a cheese pie, asked when I could pick it up. The reply: 8 p.m. When I arrived a few minutes early, two of the fourteen people seated in the tiny storefront shop were eating. The rest looked exasperated. Nick Lessins, the Polish-Czech co-owner and pizzamaker, seemed happily oblivious. I stood inside, watching for twenty-five minutes as he fashioned three pies, mine among them. No man is slower. He makes each as though it is his first, manipulating the dough until it appears flawless, putting on toppings one small bit after another. In the time he takes to create a pie, civilizations could rise and fall, not just crusts. His cheese pie, prepared with fresh mozzarella made in-house, grated Wisconsin sheep’s-and-cow’s-milk cheese, and aromatic fresh marjoram instead of basil, was slightly shy of unbelievable. The next day I returned to try the same pie topped with fresh garlic and mortadella, the dirigible-sized Italian sausage that looks like bologna, tastes like salami, and is usually cut into chunks. He sliced the meat very thin and laid slices of it over the pie the moment it came out of the oven. The mortadella, with its combination of burliness and creaminess, was a meaty addition to the earthy, bready crust. This pie—creative, original, and somewhat local—represents everything irresistible about the new American style of pizza-making.

Well, if it took him that long to get a pizza before, it will be utterly impossible to get a pizza from there now after this publicity.

Still, I'm rather curious to see how the pizza really tastes like. So maybe I'll venture out and get some sampling.

Zz.

The Earliest Porn?

So what if you don't have the internet, you don't have DVDs, you don't have movies, you don't have magazines? What do you do for porn?

Why, you CARVE and make pornographic sculpture!

It appears that that's what our ancestors were doing way back then! Archaeologists digging in Germany have uncovered statues that may be pornographic in nature dated back at least 35,000 years ago, which makes it one of the oldest sculpture ever found.

The tiny statuette--just under 6 centimeters tall and 3.4 centimeters wide--was carved out of a single piece of mammoth ivory. It has dramatically exaggerated breasts and a detailed, enlarged vulva. The headless figurine is topped with a knob that Conard suggests might have been used to attach it to a thong or cord for use as a necklace or personal ornament.
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There's no way to know what the statuette was used for or what meaning it carried, although scientists theorize that it might have been used in shamanistic rites or was simply pornography. Anthropologist Paul Mellars of Stony Brook University in New York state says the focus on exaggerated sexual features fits with other artifacts found from the period, including phalluses carved out of bison horn and vulva inscribed on rocks. "It's sexually exaggerated to the point of being pornographic," Mellars says. "There's all this sexual symbolism bubbling up in that period. They were sex-mad."

You go, Mr. Primate!

Zz.

Irish Student Hoaxes World's Media with Fake Quote

Here's another reason why you should read and "believe" Wikipedia at your own risk. And considering that even the "established" media fell into this, one might want to consider even reading such sources with full caution.

When Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald posted a poetic but phony quote on Wikipedia, he was testing how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news.

His report card: Wikipedia passed. Journalism flunked.

The sociology major's obituary-friendly quote -- which he added to the Wikipedia page of Maurice Jarre hours after the French composer's death March 28 -- flew straight on to dozens of U.S. blogs and newspaper Web sites in Britain, Australia and India. They used the fabricated material, Fitzgerald said, even though administrators at the free online encyclopedia twice caught the quote's lack of attribution and removed it.

A full month went by and nobody noticed the editorial fraud. So Fitzgerald told several media outlets they'd swallowed his baloney whole.

The sad thing here is that there are so many people who read Wikipedia and somehow accept what they read wholesale! There doesn't seem to be any more interest in the quality of one's sources of information anymore nowadays. It's all "convenience" at the expense of accuracy.

Zz.

Joan Rivers and Gay Marriage

The funniest quote I've heard in a couple of weeks! It came from Joan Rivers as she was interviewed on Larry King Live after Donald Trump picked her to win the latest Celebrity Apprentice.

Gay marriage, I am so against it because all my gay friends are out. And if they get married, it will cost me a fortune in gifts.

:)

Zz.

Shadow Chair Defies The Law of Physics?

Mind-boggling, isn't it? But it isn't as mysterious as it appears. The "shadow" is actually the base of the chair!

More info on the design of it can be found here. What is gravity-defying is its price : $1057. OUCH! Now I wish that could be an illusion!

Zz.