(Chicago) – I can hardly wait for winter to be over! Although I don’t completely hate a really cold weather, Chicago winter just over extends and worse, arrives earlier than scheduled most of the time. I surely can maximize the use of my coat and knitted shirts but too much of freezing temperature becomes boring and almost annoying. The cold is just paralyzing; forcing most people, including me, to just hibernate at home and get fat with all the junk food while watching American Idol.
Chicago is masterfully designed for the outdoors; with the magnificent lake, the bike/running trail along Lake Shore, all the sprawling parks and the long shopping strips to name a few. But all of these seem useless if the city is blanketed with snow with a temp below zero.
One of the many joys of Chicago is the farmers’ markets that are scattered across the city and offering sustainable products that come straight from the grower’s farm. But sad to say, this is only available during summertime or late spring. For the rest of the year, your options would only be Jewel, Dominick’s or some Mexican produce markets. Not anymore! Just before Christmas last year, a year-round one-stop shop Chicago French Market opened up inside the West Loop’s Ogilvie station.
As soon as I heard about this French market, I quickly rushed there to check the place out. It hosts a variety of specialty food like artisan cheese, pastries, cupcakes, macaroons, fresh seafood, organics fruits, flowers and a lot more. There’s an array of food stalls as well like Frietkoten serving Belgian-style frites, Flip Crepes for some gab-and-go savory or sweet crepes and Saigon Sisters offering Vietnamese French bread sandwiches. There was a lot of free tasting in most stores on that day and the free bites had stuffed me even before I got my breakfast crepe.
Although a few stalls are still empty and some store personnel are still adjusting to their new location, the first few weeks of this market is pretty impressive with all the farmer’s market patrons, like me, enjoying the festive ambiance of this European style multi-vendor market. I hope next time I visit, though, I wouldn’t have to wait for 30 minutes to get a supposedly quick-grab crepe. Thanks to the fromager on the next stall who gave me a sample of her outstanding goat cheese that tempered my annoyance a little.
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