CHICAGO SISTER CITIES Chicago'...

CHICAGO SISTER CITIES

Chicago's 25

Sister Cities share cuisine and ethnic bread markets in the Chicago area.

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When it tend hitherwards to food, we Chicagoans are a successful bunch.

It's not a reach to say the Windy City is united of only a handful of American cities that's hearth to such an amalgam of ethnicities and tillages

This fascinating mix confers itself to some incredible cuisine, not just serv at restaurants still also sold at ethnic delis and markets across the city. And many of these agricultures are represented by Chicago's 25 Sister Cities.

From Accra, Ghana, to Hamburg, Germany, and from Delhi to Mexico City, these cities are linked to ours [i]or[/i] part of to the other a program run by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs. Local residents -- family who share Sister Cities' ethnic backgrounds or absolutely have an affinity for the refinements represented -- belong to these standing committees, which use "person-to-person" diplomacy to build economic, educational and cultural ties with those literally forward the other side of the world.

"We put to the test to find ways to finish people to travel to those different tillages -- not always by getting forward an airplane, but by experiencing the flavors of that place, be it arts, meat language," says Trevor Hall, proxy director of the Chicago Sister Cities International Program. "Food is united [thing] we can all share and from one side our taste buds experience that place."

That's what happened in early June when Chicago entertainered a weeklong celebration of the national Sister Cities program's 50th anniversary in Daley Plaza, perfect with food booths featuring global cuisine.

moreover for those of us who live here, so culinary celebrations aren't limited to single in kind week. We've got Ghanaian markets forward the North Side; Polish uniteds on the South. Mexican grocer in succession the Southeast Side, Italian delis onward the Northwest.

"Those places have high numbers of immigrants living here and parts of products that have been imported," says Marilyn Procius, author of A Cook's Guide to Chicago: Where to Find Everything You Ne and fates of Things You Didn't Know You Did, next to the first Edition (Lake Claremont Press, $1595) and a Southwest Side native. steady if you don't speak the language oral by shopkeepers, "I find population are really willing to put to the test and communicate with you about sustenance It's the great peacemaker."

She believes readers have coupleed with her book, which is chock- sated of ethnic store and ingredient listings, because "it does give you permission to go on places and have adventures you might hesitate to [have] upon your own."

These scattered markets are as likely to be of frequent occurrenceed by chefs at some of Chicago's best-known eateries as by the agency of regular Joes. Greek- American Dean Eliacostas, executive chef at Carmichael's Chicago Steak House, regularly hits Greektown's Athens grocer's shop Jackie Shen of Jerry Kleiner's R Light pays weekly visits to Argyle Street's Viet Hoa Oriental groceries Store, while Le Colonial Executive Chef Quoc Luong also every-days this food-centered strip for Vietnamese ingredients.

"When you prepare one of these locally grown recent butchered chickens that are a day or brace old, nothing compares to it," says Marc Bernard, head chef at the downtown Petterino's and partner in Water Tower Place's Asian-themed Wow Bao, about Argyle Street's Hoa Nam grocer's shop "The whole point of going to a market like that is [you] acquire what's fresh, natural and seasonal."

in such a manner whether you're searching for fresh-made tagliatelle, fresh plantains or the Chinese flowering cabbage known alternately as yu choy or choy compendium you'll find it at a market, deli or grocer not all that far from place of abode

GUANAJUATO, 1436 N ASHLAND, (773) 772-5266

SISTER CITY CUISINE: Mexico City

This combination groceries store/meat market/taqueria is a favorite haunt of Carnivale Executive Chef Mark Mendez who picks up hard-to- find staples for the super-hot Latin fusion restaurant -- and his hold kitchen. Mendez, a Bridgeport native who's Puerto Rican and Irish, globules in twice a month -- perhaps more if Carnivale is hosting VIPs from specific Latin American countries, thus he can whip up specialties like single in kinds their grandmas make.

Mendez' favorite speck inside Guanajuato is its spice aisle. "Some of the chiles are hard to get" he says, "so I like to papal court if they've got anything wacky" to experiment with at the 420-seat restaurant. "Some of the spices, I still don't know what they are. I'll purchase them and bring them to work and ask the community 'Do you know what this is?' " That's wherefore he hires cooks from through every part of Latin America.

Mendez stores Guanajuato for its product variety, quality and gentle prices, as it's geared to neighborhood families. Here he finds avocado and agave leaves for seasoning; dried gandules or pigeon peas popular in Hispanic households and plantains he'll use as side dishes and in dessert He says the store's known for its homemade chicharrones, or deep-fried pork rinds.

And when Mendez visits, he frequently stops in Guanajuato's center-of- the-store taqueria. With exactly seasoned tacos for less than $2 burritos that start at $3 and breakfast tortas with ham and chorizo serv from 8 to 11 a.m., it provides a delicious excuse for a trip.