Iron Chef Meets Louisa Chu

Wednesday, July 30, 2008



I was watching some Iron Chef America a few days ago (maybe a week ago) and wanted to post on one of the judges Louisa Chu who also blogs down at Movable Feast.

Here's some info from an interview she did a couple of months ago:

What's your favorite hidden gem (in Chicago)?

Gourmet Food in Chinatown, hidden in plain sight and known to every Chinese person within a 50-mile radius. Gourmet Food serves huge rice boxes filled with home-style Chinese comfort food for somewhat suspiciously low prices. My base meal is the minced beef on rice with a fried egg, plus another order or two. Each box costs less than $5 or so, and easily feeds two or three people.

You've become sort of the local de facto absinthe expert. Does it really make you hallucinate? Does the stuff on the market even really resemble the composition of what was available hundreds of years ago, or is there some market gimmickry going on here?

I blame Bourdain for getting me hooked. I had my first taste from his glass when we shot the first episode of "No Reservations" in Paris. Absinthe doesn't make me hallucinate, but I can't speak for everyone else. I have a very good friend who's a no-BS, internationally respected journalist who swears that the night after she drank her first absinthe that she awoke hearing horrific screams.
Read the full interview here.