Food Tasting and Cultural Walking Tour Chicago

In mid August I was in Chicago for a biz trip. I added an extra day and took the Chicago Food Planet Food Tour. Loved it. It wasn't a huge group, most were friendly (or not) and it was a pleasant way to explore Bucktown/Wicker Park.

It was my first walking tour - and it was accentuated with little food bites included a thin crusted pizza and a mini house brewed beer from www.piecechicago.com, a vegetarian snack from www.chicagofalalel.com - fresh and fabulous; a smoking ice-cream from www.icreamcafe.com; a delicious salad from Goddess & Grocer; the pictured house-made marshmallow and an iced chocolate drink (notice the lovely tush in the painting on Hot Chocolate's wall - makes me want to work out more).

The only thing I took one bite of was George's Hot Dogs (yuck - I don't eat hot dogs period but thought I should open my eyes - and then they mention how many hot dogs their supplier - in Chicago, more than 80% of the 1,800 plus hot dog vendors feature Vienna Beef products - all I could think about was the factory farm... well I won't go on - enough said). In all fairness there was a vegetarian option if I would have raised my hand at the beginning of the tour.

An almost hot breeze was with us for the several hours that we explored food spots and neighbourhoods. Kent was a very personable tour guide with Polish roots.