Starving children at the Ethiopian restaurant

Addis Abeba
1322 Chicago Avenue, Evanston, IL 60201
(847) 328-5411
Entrees run $10-$15 per person; many vegetarian options

It pains me to make such an obvious and cheap joke, but it's true. We arrived at Addis Abeba after a busy three-hour beach clean-up and the boys were tired and hungry. While waiting for our food the boys were moaning loudly, "We're starving! When is the food coming?"


I'd say it was worth the wait.

We started off with a shorba, a satisfying cold soup made of yogurt, honey, cucumber, and mint. Given that the boys like all of the ingredients I was sure the soup would be a hit, but the "starving children" stopped after only a taste. Oh well, that meant more of the yummy soup for me and DH.

After soup, we moved on to the main meal. We selected the "combos" which allowed us to try small portions of several items. The meal is served on a single platter mesob (traditionally a hand-woven basket, but the large metal substitute is likely more sanitary) and accompanied by a basket of injera, large flat Ethiopian bread. To eat, one tears off a piece of the spongy bread and scoops up the food in small mounds. Once the novelty of eating with his hands wore off and he'd filled his rumbling tummy Smartypants decided he didn't like the food after all. The rest of us enjoyed the whole meal.

Our choices included:

Asa: fish cut into cubes and sauteed in Ethiopian herb butter seasoned with garlic and pepper. I found it a bit salty, but Splinter could not get enough of it.

Yebeg Alitcha: this lamb stew is always a hit.

Yeater Kik Wot: DH really liked this dish of yellow split peas cooked in spicy wot with garlic cloves and cinnamon.

By the end of our meal, the platter was wiped clean and we'd exchanged several gursha by rolling samples of the food in injera and feeding them to each other. According to the menu it's a traditional way of showing somebody that you care.

If you've got adventurous eaters definitely give Addis Abeba a try!

Eli's Cheesecake World: life is uncertain; eat dessert first

Eli's Cheesecake World
6701 W Forest Preserve Drive (Harlem and Montrose), Chicago
(just down the block from the pyramid-shaped building at Wright College)
Specialty sandwiches ($6) in cafe from 11:00 - 2:00

What can we say about this little slice of heaven on Chicago's northwest side? It's not only the world headquarters and bakery for Eli's Cheesecake, they've also got a cafe and store. The boys and I showed up wearing our proverbial critic hats but later traded them in for hairnets to go on the factory tour. We arrived too late for the made-to-order artisan sandwiches like chicken salad with grapes and pecans, but grabbed a decent ready-made Caesar salad to tide us over until dessert. Dessert. Dessert.

I mean, you could come here for a cup of coffee and free wi-fi or to grab a gourmet grilled cheese, but you'd have to be a fool, or possibly a diabetic, to show up at Eli's and not eat dessert. Their cases are overflowing with delicious-looking desserts- and not just cheesecake. They've got eclairs, tarts...I asked my boys to write down the names of one or two of the most delicious-looking items, but they told me that was impossible to choose.

Here's what the world's most ticklish restaurant critics and their friends had to say about Eli's Cheesecake World. (Please note that all exclamation points appear at the request of the boys.)

Eli's is fun! Their cafe is good. They have desserts, sandwiches, and salads. They sell cheesecakes, little cakes, lemon meringue tarts and everything looks yummy.

Six-year-old Splinter says: Out of three thumbs down, I give it seven forks! (I've previously mentioned that we don't yet have a uniform rating system. What he means is that Eli's is more than twice the opposite of bad... in other words- great!)

The tours are cool and fun! And everything smells delicious. Really delicious. A tour guide shows you almost the whole place, but only staying on the path. Sometimes you go into a big freezer (we did this on a previous tour, but not today). The freezer room is for freezing the cheesecakes before they decorate them. The decorating room is cold, but not as cold as the freezer.

The room where they bake the cheesecakes is really hot--over 100 degrees F in the summer. The cheesecakes go on a cool conveyor belt. It is so cool to see them pour the batter and watch the cheesecakes go on the belt. It takes the cheesecake through the 70-foot-long tunnel oven and then up a big corkscrew cooling tower with about 19 curves. Then people take them off pans and put them on racks. Then they go to the freezer room and then the decorating room.

In the decorating room, we saw them making Chocolate-Covered Lava Cake for Wal Mart.

This is a cool tour! But if your brothers or sisters are under five years old, they have to stay home with a sitter.

They make over 100 kinds of cheesecake if you can believe it!

This tour is definitely recommended for kids!

Read Up and Dine Out: The Magic Pan (crepes)

Many moons ago one of my boys picked up a book titled Crepes by Suzette. This fun, colorful book is full of mixed media collages based on photos that author Monica Wellington took on her trips to Paris. Readers follow Suzette as she takes her crepe cart around the city. In addition to a crepe recipe that has become a favorite of my boys, the book has a glossary of French words as well as descriptions of the famous artwork that Wellington alludes to in her collages.

But perhaps you're not up for making crepes. Then by all means, run, don't walk, to The Magic Pan. Remember The Magic Pan from your youth in Chicago? I only recalled the name of this revived Lettuce Entertain You joint. I must not have eaten their food as a child, because their chocolate crepes are unforgettable. Yum! If you are on Weight Watchers you may consider skipping a day or two worth of meals to save your points for one of these. They also offer savory crepes including a pizza crepe that the boys still talk about, but didn't seem to enjoy so much when eating it. The savory crepes seemed very rich; I recommend saving all those calories for dessert.

Since our visit to Magic Pan crepes have become a morning staple in our house. They're a good substitute for pancakes. I even find them easier, less messy, and more versatile than pancakes as you can pair them with a variety of fillings.

For a good dessert crepe, take a single-size Dove Bar ice cream treat (bonbons? I can't think of their name and they are long since devoured) and let it melt in a hot, fresh crepe. Not quite the *magic* of The Magic Pan's chocolate crepes, but a close second.

Indian Garden

Indian Garden
2548 W. Devon Ave., Chicago
Tel: (773) 338-2929 2548

Summary: We recommend the lunch buffet. Full of vegetarian and meat options, it's an ideal way to introduce children to northern Indian cuisine. Plus, kids eat free; You don't have to spend an extra $10 or so just to learn your kids don't like it.

Rambling version: On the children's CD NO put out by They Might Be Giants there's a song about John Lee, super taster, a real-life superhero. A man who can't drink coffee or beer for their bitter tastes, but loves sweet treats like ice cream and pie. "John Lee, supertaster, tastes more than you do. Everything has a flavor, some flavors are too much." I instantly recognized myself in the song. I am a supertaster. As such, I'm very sensitive to strong, bitter tastes and even the slightest hit of hot spices can set me off.

Granted, I come from a home in which the most exotic spice to grace our food was sea salt. When I was in college and overheard someone in the dorm cafe ask for pepper I was stunned. I always thought pepper was on the table just to keep salt company. In my 18 years, I'd never actually seen anyone use it. So ultimately, my sensitivity to spices is an unfortunate combination of nature and nurture. Unfortunate because DH loves spicy food. On our second date, he took me for some exotic, cuisine. It was hot and spicy and I couldn't handle it after about two bites. DH was incredibly disappointed in my lack of fortitude; I didn't sleep with him that night either. Frankly, I'm not sure why he even asked me out again.

The other day our family had a lovely trip to Devon Avenue and stopped to eat at Indian Garden. The lunch buffet was about $9 per adult and kids ate free-what a deal! And while the smells were enticing and the food was tasty, I just couldn't hack it. I mostly stuck with the nan (bread) and water.

"Are you okay?" My friend asked midway through the meal, "Your face is all red."

"You should feel her nose. It gets really cold when she eats spicy food," volunteered DH as he closed in to touch it. "And when our mom eats spicy food her nose sweats," the boys giddily announced to the entire restaurant.

No one said being a superhero was easy.