Chicago Ethnic Grocery Tours Part I

If you live in the Chicago area or are planning a visit from anywhere in the world, you should call or e-mail Evelyn to book an unique and exciting tour. As you stroll down the isle of any store, Evelyn will answer all of your questions about all of the exotic ingredients. Not only will she tell you how it is prepared but also it's discovery, cultural history and any unique properties. Be sure to bring an appetite, along w some extra change, because you will be sampling and tasting lots of things. Many people stock up on ethnic grocery supplies and/or plan to do some of their holiday gift shopping on the tour. It's sometimes hard to keep this page up to date about Evelyn. In addition to helping run her husband's computer consulting business, she now also teaches a course entitled "Food and Culture" at the University of Illinois (Chicago)in the Department of Human Nutrition.

From http://www.ethnic-grocery-tours.com/

The tour started with a bang; a heavy thunderstorm unusual for the month of August in Chicago. I was used to hot and humid, but sunny. We met Evelyn Thompson, a vibrant and knowledgeable young lady who teaches an ethnic food class at UIC so that future health care professionals and dieticians can be sympathetic to other cultures needs when planning food plans. We decided to stay in the Rogers Park area, but she said that she would do South side tours or Polish and Chinese grocery stores depending on what people were interested in.

Cactus Pears

Supermercado Chapala was the second stop of the tour. This Mexican grocery store sells fresh produce, memorable guacamole and specialty items such as Mexican sour cream. There is an eating area with about 10 little booths where you can eat some the best carnitas around and roast chicken. They also have a selection of tacos like cabeza tacos. The store was packed when we went in on a Monday morning, it might have been due to the heavy thunderstorm, but people looked pretty happy to be there.

to be continued...