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Monday 12am - 11:59pm Tuesday 12am - 11:59pm Wednesday 12am - 11:59pm Thursday 12am - 11:59pm Friday 12am - 11:59pm Saturday 12am - 11:59pm Sunday 12am - 11:59pm

Chicago Foodways Tours

Name: Chicago Foodways Tours
Address: Chicago, IL, 60640, US
Telephone: +13122034767
Price range: $$
Rating: 5

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Chicago Foodways Tours

Savor the City of Neighborhoods on a 3-hour walking, tasting and historical tour of Argyle and Andersonville, two of Chicago's greatest neighborhoods.
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Go beyond deep dish pizza, hot dogs and popcorn. Leave Navy Pier, the Bean, and the Magnificent Mile. Hang at the locals’ favorite bakery, that exotic little shop on the corner, and the Prohibition-era speakeasy turned neighborhood watering hole. Join Chicago Foodways Tours for a 3.5 hour trip across the globe, while never leaving the magical city three million people call home.

08/16/2024

Great food from a couple of trips to Café Alif, a Central Asian restaurant squeezed in among the mostly South Asian shops and restaurants along Devon Avenue in the West Ridge neighborhood.
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According to Block Club Chicago, the restaurant is owned by Kasimzhan Khamraev, a Uyghur chef who fled persecution by the government of China. After cooking for coal miners in Russia, he opened two successful restaurants in Kyrgyzstan before coming to Chicago fairly recently to reunite with family. Cafe Alif has been open for 2 years.
1️⃣ The full spread, featuring Plov with Beef, a staple Central Asian rice dish, related to pilaf. (Thanks to for the treat and great company).
2️⃣Manty with beef and onions--my favorite! You can try these dumplings on my Lincoln Square food tour.
3️⃣ Lagman, a dish that really pulls together the geography of Central Asia--hand pulled noodles with soy sauce, vegetables and spices.
4️⃣ Another favorite, Morkovcha, a spicy carrot salad and another taste from the Lincoln Square tour
5️⃣ Cool, unique decor featuring Doppas, beautifully embroidered skullcaps from various cultures in the region.

08/14/2024

💛 We start as strangers and leave as friends. This is my favorite part of leading food tours in Chicago.
1️⃣ Lincoln Square: West Meets East Food Tour
2️⃣ Global Street Foods of Uptown Tour
3️⃣ Saigon to Stockholm Food Tour

08/12/2024

🇹🇼 🍜 Finally got to check out the much anticipated Minyoli in Andersonville and to celebrate with my good friend during her birthday month. Minyoli has a small menu focused on handmade Taiwanese noodles.
🌽🍗 As good as the noodles are, my standout favorites were the Sweet Corn and Fried Chicken from the starters menu. Both dishes were coated in and sweet and tangy plum powder for the most incredible flavor. I love how the corn was cut and have never seen this presentation before. As if the chicken alone wasn't delicious already it was served with fried basil leaves.
📸 Remaining photos are the Sliced Beef Shank from the Luwei menu, Ganban Noodles with Sesame sauce and Beef Noodle Soup in Consomme.
🇹🇼 Altogether a great dining experience with friendly, knowledgeable staff in a bright, clean and unrushed setting. A great addition to an already great dining neighborhood.

07/27/2024

This is why you haven't heard from me in July! 💐💍🥰

But I'm back at it! Join me this weekend for the Lincoln Square West Meets East Food Tour on Saturday or the Saigon to Stockholm Food Tour on Sunday!

07/09/2024

IYKYK...We knew for a while that Uptown has the best hidden gems in Chicago, now Chicago Magazine has caught on! THREE restaurants on our Global Street Foods of Uptown Tour have made the 50 Best Restaurants list!
➡️ Birreria Zaragoza 🇲🇽
➡️ Demera Ethiopian Restaurant 🇪🇹
➡️ Immm Thai Street Food 🇹🇭
Congrats to all!
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Try these great spots along with El Rincon de Fabio, La Patisserie P and Hai Yen, while learning neighborhood history and taking in gorgeous architecture along the way. Check it out at our bio link.

06/28/2024

🇸🇪 I am LOVING the new "We are America" permanent exhibit at the Swedish American Museum. The exhibit illustrates Swedish immigration to the US, interspersed with the stories of other cultures as they moved to and through Chicago.
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How cute is this mid mod kitchen with touches from Mormor (Grandma)? I was thrilled with the food focus, especially the short film about Andersonville's beloved Swedish Bakery.
🇸🇪🎟️ You can check it out on the Saigon to Stockholm Food Tour or visit the museum in the ❤️ of Andersonville.

06/27/2024

🇮🇹🥖The Mr. G . The West Loop is not my usual stomping grounds so I'm glad I got to check them out. Super friendly staff and great service. I'll pick the old school family joint from a sea of trendy places any day!

06/26/2024

Family fun in Andersonville. Thanks, Carolyn and crew for touring and tasting with me!

06/15/2024

A good photo spot is worth a thousand likes. Am I right?

The Uptown Color Wheel by local artist has become an Uptown icon in the five short years since it's installion. The art celebrates the diversity of Uptown in the colors while signifying the unity of the neighborhood with the circle.

I love how it frames the Riviera Theatre marquee and makes a great stopping point to take in the incredible architecture and history of Uptown Square.

Like the color wheel, my Global Street Foods of Uptown tour also celebrates the diverse restaurants of Uptown while unifying the experience around stories of the neighborhood's rich immigration history.

06/13/2024

🇸🇻🌽Pupusas have arrived on Clark Street! I was thrilled to see Salvadoran restaurant, Las Delicias, open a location in Rogers Park. Of the several we tried, my favorite was the revuelta, filled with a satisfying combination of pork and cheese.
🇸🇻🇬🇹🇲🇽 The generously sized menu contains specialties from El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico, and they make a good chili relleño too!
🌽🌽🌽 They are located right across the street from our go-to Tamales lo Mejor de Guerrero in the former Sabor Poblano spot (RIP 😢) making this some kind of delicious corn nexus.

06/12/2024

How cute are these two? Thanks Kevin and Courtney from the Nashville area for sharing a perfectly summery Midsommarfest tour with me.
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The Saigon to Stockholm Food Tour can easily be made meatless while still blowing your mind with flavor. The marinated tofu (Bi Chay) banh mi did just that! 🥖🥖🥖

06/10/2024

I don't do pizza/hot dog tours of Chicago. Nothing against these foods if that's your thing, but Chicago's food scene is SO diverse, I will not be complicit in reducing this great big delicious city into a short bucket list for tourists.
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So...these are not Chicago hot dogs but a tastebud tickling, mind bending play on one. Meet the Chi-Vap, a Serbian take on the Chicago dog from 016 Restaurant & Sandwich Shop. A beef chevapi sausage is filled with gooey mozzarella, wrapped in house-smoked bacon and rested in a toasty lobster roll bun with all the things--onions, relish, sport peppers, mustard (no ketchup, natch).
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You can try it on our new Lincoln Square: West Meets East food tour, departing every Saturday @11:30. Learn a side of the neighborhood you never knew, and find some of Chicago's best restaurant gems hiding in plain sight.
🎟️ Reservations required. Tix at the bio link. Gift cards are available for Father's Day and will make you the favorite child. 😊

05/04/2024

🇻🇪🌽🍌The Venezuelan Taste at our partner restaurant El Rincon de Fabio: Beef and cheese filled arepita, cheese empanada and patacón topped with shredded pork. Most of the menu is corn or plantain based, making it a great spot if you are eating gluten-free, and if you are into delicious food!

The arepitas were a hit with the student group we hosted on tour yesterday! It was so great to show them around!

04/27/2024

🌞🌷🪻Warm spring days are here! It's a perfect time to check out a new corner of Chicago. I recently hosted these lovely folks from Wicker Park, Logan Square and Milwaukee and was thrilled to be joined by my cousin visiting from the Philadelphia area.

🏮🍜🇸🇪🧆🏳️‍🌈🥧Join us on our flagship Saigon to Stockholm Food Tour. We literally eat our way from the Southeast Asian enclave of Argyle Street to Andersonville, a Swedish enclave turned cosmopolitan, LGBTQ+ mecca of Chicago. (And speaking of mecca, we stop at an excellent Middle Eastern market on the way).

The Saigon to Stockholm Food Tour runs every Sunday from 11:30-2:30.
🎟️Visit chicagofoodways. com for tix.

04/26/2024

🍯🐝Have you tried HONEY CAKE? This amazingly tasty dessert is thought to trace back to the chefs of 19th century Russian czars.

After the Bolshevik revolution, the preparation of honey cake, or medovik, fell to grandmothers in the Soviet Union, and the treat became a special home-baked dessert.

Honey cake is gaining popularity in the US as more post-Soviet immigrants are opening restaurants and bakeries. The best I've tried is at Sweet Moon Bakery in Ravenswood. This oh-so-cute, bright, clean cafe was opened by a husband and wife duo from Krgyzstan. 🇰🇬

I really buried the lede here though because the headline is YOU MUST GO TO SWEET MOON. I met up with friends here and we tried about a dozen different items. Everything was top-notch here and they have a Basque cheesecake that is to die for (and I never use that expression!)

They offer some great savory pastries like tomato-basil Danish and I was delighted to find oreshki, or Soviet walnut cookies at the counter as well.

04/20/2024

FOOD TOURS ARE BACK!!! What a treat to kick off the 2024 season with a favorite returning guest, Nuree. Even more fun this time around because I got to meet and hang out with his wife, Kat, too!

They are serious foodies so I admit I was a little nervous when I first got the request to take them on a private tour. Nuree grew up on the Northside and I was afraid he would already know all the places I had to show them. No worries---now we're two tours in and their range of go-to places has expanded!

I know my best chance of running into them will be at . I love watching my guests' reactions to the food they're trying and the quesabirria tacos never disappoint.

See the bio link for a full schedule of public food tours -- Saigon to Stockholm, Global Street Foods of Uptown, and coming soon, Lincoln Square: West Meets East. Hope to see you!

02/18/2024

I came across the cutest little dragon I ever saw on my way to the Argyle Lunar New Year parade in Uptown today. Her name is Elsie, and she knew exactly how to strike a pose when the cameras came out!
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It was a cold day but the sunshine and blue skies made a perfect backdrop. I always love the community coming together for the parade. Happy New Year!

02/11/2024

Wishing you power in the Year of the Dragon. 🐲✊

02/09/2024

It's and I'm recommending a yummy pie from a place with an international menu. Behold the Grandma Pizza from in West Ridge
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The pizza features one of the best sauces I have tasted and it seems to exude garlic fro the delicious blend of Romano and mozzarella cheeses.
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Contrary to the Chicago method of cutting a round, thin crust pizza into squares, here's a square thin crust pizza. Do you cut it into rounds?
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In addition to about 20 different kinds of pizza on the menu, Zimi's offers an menu of Balkan dishes such as pleskavica (hamburgers), kebabs and more!

12/30/2023

🇪🇹🍯 A beaker of Tej, Ethiopian honey wine at the beautiful, newly relocated Tesfa Ethiopian Restaurant in Edgewater.
🤔 I wondered whether I should order it alongside my shared dinner platter or save it to try after the meal. I ordered alongside dinner with no regrets-- while there certainly is a sweet note when first tasting the wine, there is a pleasant astringency that played nicely off the heavily spiced dishes like key wat (beef stew), doro tibs (stir-fried chicken) and satisfying curries of beets, cabbage, and lentils.
🙏🥂🎂 A big thank you to my friend and one of my preferred dining companions for the birthday dinner! (A few days delayed because I'm a 🎄👶)

12/15/2023

One of the last food tours of the season on a crisp November Sunday. It was a lovely day spent with a mother and two daughters visiting from Germany and two brothers from the east coast checking out Chicago for the first time. ☀️🧣🍂🍁
Weekly public neighborhood food and culture walking tours will resume in April 2024. Next year's schedule is available for booking at chicagofoodways.com, including our newest tour of Lincoln Square.
🎫 Food tours make great gifts--with no shipping fees! Send an electronic gift card good for any public tour. 🎁

12/10/2023

🇲🇽🤎 This is the 4th year of The Great Chicago Cookie Box and for four years we have been searching panaderias for Mexican cookies to include in the box. There are a lot of panaderias in Chicago! Bread is the specialty of these bakeries and the cookies are pretty standard - giant M&M cookies that seem to be as American as anything.
Then I read about Hojarascas at El Nopal in the Historic Bakeries of Chicago book by . Mission accomplished.

In the US we think of Mexican Wedding Cakes which are delicious, but surprisingly not a standard offering at panaderias. Any type of polvoròn, or shortbread cookies can be considrred a wedding cake, but it's the ground pecan ones that are conjured by the name. El Nopal made those for us too!

🍪🎁 Check out the box at the bio link. 📚 You can also pick up your own copy of Historic Chicago Bakeries there. It make a great gift!

12/08/2023

Do you know about the Lunchroom Butter Cookie? These were sold in Chicago's public school cafeterias for 5 cents each. If you were lucky enough to have an early lunch, you could usually get a cookie. If you had a late lunch...😐.

They always bear the 3 finger lunchlady handprint and they are perfect in their simplicity.

Lady Di's Bakery built a business on making Lunchroom Butter Cookies with REAL BUTTER (not everyone does). It's a difference you can taste. I'm happy to offer Diane's delicious treats every year in The Great Chicago Cookie Box !

12/07/2023

I was sad to read about the closing of Vesecky's Bakery in yesterday's Chicago Tribune. When I first learned there was a family-owned Czechoslovakian bakery in nearby Berwyn, I knew this was right up my alley!

We checked out Vesecky's last year while selecting cookies for The Great Chicago Cookie Box. They had 3 different styles of Kolacky and each style was available with at least half a dozen different types of fruit and sweet cheese fillings. Alas, the treats were so loaded with fillings they were too gooey and needed to be consumed too quickly (easy task) that they were not ideal for the box. But...they were delicious! 😋

I'm glad the Vesecky's are able to retire and enjoy some time to themselves. That should be the ultimate goal of a family business. But it marks a loss to the community, and every year there seems to be another big loss. This is why we offer The Great Chicago Cookie Box. We want to celebrate these institutions while they are still here and do our small part to help others become institutions. Themis project has also helped us connect so much more with the people and traditions around us that we would have never known. As you are moving around Chicago or your own town this holiday season, stop at that bakery that you always drive past and take a part in tradition.🤎🍞🥖🍩🍪🍰🧁🥧

12/06/2023

🇬🇷🎄🍪 When I start thinking about cookie boxes again in the fall, the first cookies I think about are Melamakarona. This is Greece's Christmas cookie, made with semolina, olive oil, honey, orange juice, cinnamon and walnuts. They are SO good and there is nothing else like them.
🇬🇷🎄🍪 Kourebiedes are the best known Greek celebration cookie and found in abundance at Christmas and every other special event throughout the year.
🇬🇷 Stop by Hellas Pastry on Lawrence Avenue to find these delightful cookies and other goodies like baklava and spanakopita at any time during the year. Support our small mom and pop businesses at every time of the year!
🍪🎁 Send The Great Chicago Cookie Box on December 12 or December 19 by clicking on our bio link.

12/05/2023

A perennial favorite in The Great Chicago Cookie Box, Lucila's Alfajores feature a dollop of luscious housemade dulce de leche sandwiched between two delicate cookies.
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We offer two varieties in the box, traditional Argentine style dipped in coconut, and decadent chocolate with a hint of orange, dipped in dark Belgian chocolate.
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Check out the bio link for these and 14 other varieties of cookies from Chicago area bakeries or order Lucila's Alfajores online at lucilasalfajores.com.

12/04/2023

What day is it??? National Cookie Day! Here's a look at the the 2022 Great Chicago Cookie Box. Cookies for the 2023 box start baking this week!
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To send during Hanukkah or early for Christmas, there is a batch shipping out on December 12th. Only a few more days to order if you want to ship early.
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Not in a hurry? Get your orders in by Thursday, December 14th for our final shipping run on December 19th. Express shipping ensures your package arrives a couple days before 🎅 this guy does!

12/03/2023

Chicago! I heard you loud and clear: Weber's Bakery is one of your absolute favorites! I wanted The Great Chicago Cookie Box to represent all corners on Chicago, so we headed to the Southwest side for the yummy taste of scratch made cookies, cakes and pastries. 🍪🍰🍩🥧
🇩🇪🎄 So many Christmas traditions come from Germany and I wanted to incorporate some in this year's offering. Pfeffernüsse, the zippy iced and sugared spice cookie is once again part of the lineup. When Dinkel's Bakery was still running, we featured their pfeffernüsse in a previous edition. Weber's decadent Almond Florentines will also be included this year. I'm excited for you to try them!
🍪🍰🍩🥧 Weber's Bakery has been serving the Southwest side for over 90 years with the quality and friendliness you expect from a family business.
🍪🎁 There is still time to order The Great Chicago Cookie Box at the bio link. If you want to send out early gifts, order this week!

Address

Chicago, IL
60640

Opening Hours

Monday	12am - 11:59pm
Tuesday	12am - 11:59pm
Wednesday	12am - 11:59pm
Thursday	12am - 11:59pm
Friday	12am - 11:59pm
Saturday	12am - 11:59pm
Sunday	12am - 11:59pm

Telephone

+13122034767

Website

http://chicagofoodways.com/

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Videos

So many smiling faces. So many delicious memories. THANK YOU to all of my guests and restaurant partners for a great 2023! Our calendar is ready for 2024!

Wishing everyone warm, safe and happy holidays! Whether you took a tour, ordered a cookie box, liked a post or just thought happy thoughts, I appreciate your support in 2023 and look forward to new faces, old friends and new adventures in 2024.

Sopa Azteca, chicken tortilla soup, is the perfect dish for this bout of chilly weather. They bave a terrific version at Taqueria San Juanito in Albany Park! 🇲🇽🥣

The Global Street Foods of Uptown will show you why Uptown is a "food hall without walls." You'll find all the variety of the trendy downtown food halls, in a setting that's keeping it real.

Rip those buns! Bao with Spicy Korean BBQ Pork on the Global Street Foods of Uptown Tour. You gotta tear into one of these!

Still feeling good vibes from the custom food tour with Disney+ UK to promote Season 2 of The Bear!. It's so easy to show off Chicago!

LAUNCHING THIS WEEK! Join us on a tasty excursion through Uptown with street foods from @birrieriazaragoza , @elrincondefabiollc , @immmchicago and more! In between bites we explore the immigrant stories and prohibition era haunts of the neighborhood. 🌽🥖🍖🌶🥭 TAKE 10% OFF JULY DATES. Use code: GLOBAL10.