Category: Chicago!

Chicago: four moods and Chinese food

July 5, 2014 • 4:15 am

Here are four photos of downtown Chicago I’ve taken from my crib over the last two weeks. The weather has been variable, and I’ve taken them in storm, sun, sunrise, and sunset.

Storm coming:

Chicago 1

After-storm fog; Lake Michigan is still cold from winter, causing fog when the air is warm.

Chicago 2

Sunrise yesterday:

Chicago 3

Sunrise this morning:

Chicago 4

And, at the end, there’s lagniappe: a bowl of mapo dofu (“Pock-marked Ma’s Bean Curd”) from the Lao Sze Chuan restaurant, one of my favorites in Chicago. This was only one dish in a meal with friends, but I was so famished that I forgot to photograph the other plates before nomming. I asked for ground pork to be added, as is traditional in Chengdu, Szechuan, where I had this dish at the very restaurant where it was invented.

This is a classic Szechuan dish, very hot with peppers, but is best served only slightly warm in temperature, just a tad above ambient (I like the leftovers). It’s made with tofu, scallions, a variety of spices, red chiles, and, most important, the fragrant Szechuan peppercorns, hua jiao. Somehow the ones the restaurant gets are better than the ones I can buy at the Chinese grocery.

mapo dofu

Chicago: panorama and baseball

June 30, 2014 • 4:37 am

This panorama of Chicago (above us only sky) was taken with my iPhone, as I didn’t have my camera. I had no idea it could take fisheye-lens-like pictures. This was taken from Promontory Point, a bit of land that sticks out into the lake near my place, and it affords a great view of the city (lower left):

Chicago clouds

This photo, also shot with my iPhone (I much prefer my point-and-shoot Panasonic Lumix!) was taken at the Cubs/Nationals game on Saturday.(I had to adjust the exposure in iPhoto). Wrigley Field is a classic ballpark, and you can see its friendly confines. I was with my old friend Sarah, who was in town for a wedding. The photo is significant because the last time Sarah and I went to a ballgame together was a Yankees/Red Sox game in Fenway Park in 1973. And it was at that game when the botfly in my head (acquired in Costa Rica) began emerging from my skull. Sarah was there to see it pop out of my head later that evening.

You can hear the whole botfly tale, if you haven’t already, on Robert Krulwich’s NPR show RadioLab (link here, story starts at  44:05). Krulwich interviews me but, unbenownst to me, also talked to Sarah. You can hear us both.

She is a diehard Oakland A’s fan and is wearing their team hat:

Sarah and JC

 

Chicago pix

June 5, 2014 • 4:02 am

Every year, at least one brood of mallards hatches in the pond outside my building. And nearly every year, the ducklings disappear by slow attrition: male mallards kill them, feral cats nom them, and Ceiling Cat knows what else happens to them. Here’s the mom and her latest brood, photographed by Giselle Garcia. I’m told that several ducklings have already disappeared.

It breaks my heart, even though it’s nature, but about two years ago they all fledged. I’m hoping at least a few will survive this year. Make way for ducklings!

Ducks!

And a photo of the city last evening, with the clouds and rain closing in:

Chicago