Farm to Plate - Dec. 29th & 30th

This week's trip to Green City Market had us visiting Nichol's, Growing Power, Iron Creek and Genesis farms for fresh, local produce. As usual, they delivered some beautiful produce including some crisp escarole, golden beets, and tasty watercress.

Coming in to help the farm fresh produce this week, the cafe is taking on monkfish. This salt water fish can grow up to 5 feet in length and weigh over 100 pounds(the largest recorded was 219 lbs!!). While that is one big fish to catch, the real treat is cooking the monkfish. It has often been compared to lobster for the dense, sweet flavor of the tail meat. Not unlike lobster, monkfish can be a tricky fish to cook. If you don't give it enough moisture, it comes out tough and while it is delicious when served mostly plain with butter, some clever seasoning can bring out the best in this white fish. So we'll be pan roasting it to seal in the moisture then serving it up with some chickpeas, escarole, and calabrian chili vinaigrette to add just a little heat in this cold weather.

Monkfish image from wikimedia commons

The Menu.....

1st course
Shaved Winter Vegetable Salad
w/ golden beets, carrot, fennel, parsnip, radish, watercress, red wine vinaigrette

pairing: 2009 Pinot Noir, Mudhouse, Central Otogo, New Zealand

2nd course
Pan Roasted Monkfish
w/chickpeas, escarole, calabrian chili vinaigrette

pairing: 2006 Merlot, Hyatt, Washington State

3rd course
Persimmon and fig crostata
w/ mascarpone chantilly

pairing: 2007 Late Harvest Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc, Chateau Cousteau, Cadillac, France

Meatless Monday at bin wine cafe - Dec. 27th

Another Meatless Monday has arrived and after all the holidays and big family meals, we thought we would take a look at the environmental benefits of a vegetarian diet. Livestock takes quite a bit more to raise for food than grain or wheat. Different sources say it takes anywhere from 7 to 20 pounds of grain to feed every 1 pound of beef!! Not to mention the some 400 gallons of water it takes to raise that 1 pound of beef vs. the 14 gallons it takes to grow a pound of wheat. Ed Ayres of the World Watch Institute said, "pass up one hamburger, and you'll save as much water as you save by taking 40 showers with a low flow nozzle." Livestock is also a large contributor to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. A 2006 study from the University of Chicago found that most Americans can reduce more greenhouse gas emissions by switching to a vegan diet than by switching to a hybrid electric car!

So while we might not be ready to take the full Vegan plunge, it sure does feel good to commit one day a week to the health of both our bodies and the planet!

image from BBC Planet Earth

This week baby bin brings you...

heirloom apple and fennel salad
w/ pumpkin seeds, evalon goat cheese & champagne vinaigrette

tempura green beans
w/ crispy shallots & citrus aoli

farro & beet salad
w/ swiss chard, toasted hazelnuts, housemade ricotta

baked polenta
w/ wilted spinach, caramelized onions, mushrooms, garlic cream

watercress and persimmon salad
w/ sherry vinaigrette, frisee, goat cheese, crispy shallots

roasted trumpet mushrooms
w/ arugala & basil pesto

butternut squash soup
w/ toasted garlic, brown butter, crispy sage

Chef Caputo's Feast of the Seven Fishes

We cornered Executive Chef John Caputo today while he was preparing for the Feast of the Seven Fishes. This Italian American Tradition has been in his family for generations. It is held in honor of La Vigilia, the Vigil, to await the birth of the baby Jesus. Chef Caputo reminisced about the Feast with his family growing up. The men would be responsible for shucking the oysters and clams. His mother and grandmother would be in the kitchen whipping up the rest of the meal. Some 30 family members would gather to Feast. Then it was off to midnight mass and opening presents afterward. He said that the presents were their reward for behaving throughout dinner and mass!!

While Chef Caputo may stray from the traditional meal made by his mother and grandmother every year, he has brought the tradition to BIN 36 for eight years in a row. We took a peek at what he was prepping today and it is truly going to be a Feast at BIN 36 on Christmas Eve!

This tasty morsel will be in the Grilled Octopus Salad

The Hiramasu, Conger Eel, and Sea Scallops

This is our 2010 menu:

1st course

Beausoliel Oyster, Prosecco-tangerine Gelee

Hiramasu Crudo, Bottarga, Preserved Lemon

Grilled Octopus Salad, Mint & Chillies

2nd course

Chestnut Pasta, Salt Cod Dumplings, Braised Celery, Parmesan Brodo

3rd course

Traditional "Venetian-Style" Scallops with Blood Orange, Garlic, & Parsley

4th course

Sauteed Conger Eel, Tuscan Lentils, Roast Lobster, Truffled Mashed Potatoes

Dessert

Chocolate Panettone Budino, Manjari Chocolate Anglaise, & Cranberry Granita

Farm to Plate Dec. 22nd & 23rd

Every week, the chefs take a trip to Green City Market. There we find local, sustainable farmers displaying beautiful produce even in the middle of winter. This week, we visited with Genesis Farms, Nichol's Farm, Iron Creek, and Growing Power to gather our supplies for the farm to plate pre-fixe at baby bin.

Along with other tasty dishes, baby bin is bringing you roasted baby octopus for the pre-fixe. Octopus is used in many cuisines, from Japanese and Hawaiian to Mediterranean and Portugese. These little babies are loaded with Omega 3 fatty acids, vitamins B3 & B12, and potassium. Not to mention, they are just down right delicious. This week we will be roasting them up on some watercress and radish with an anchovy vinaigrette to top it all off.

We hope you are enjoying the Holidays as much we are down here at the cafe. Loooking forward to seeing you for the pre-fixe this week!

Spanish octopus pots are called nasas, and are similar to lobster
pots you'll find in New England, via catrien's photostream

The Menu:

1st Course

Fire Roasted Baby Octopus

with fingerling potatoes, watercress, radish, anchovy vinaigrette

pairing: 2008 Gewurztraminer, Brandborg, Umpqua Valley, Oregon

2nd Course

Handcut Whole Wheat Pappardelle

with P.E.I. mussels, butter braised leeks, oven roasted tomatoes, white wine cream

pairing: 2008 Chardonnay, Mackenzie Estate, Simons Valley, California

3rd Course

Roasted Heirloom Apple

with caramel, calavados and vanilla cream, puff pastry

pairing: 2007 Late Harvest Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc, Chateau Cousteau, Cadillac, France

Happy Holidays from BIN 36!

As we come to the end of the holiday season, it's a little bittersweet at BIN 36. The Bitter - the parties and exciting flow of guests will slow to a trickle in the coming days. The Sweet - 2 of our favorite events of the year occur in the last week: The Feast of the Seven Fishes and New Year's Eve (Check out BIN36.com for the menus and details) And, we're happy to admit that it is a chance to polish up the restaurant, take care of a little needed maintenance and catch our collective breath as well.



All that said, there are still a few days left to take care of last minute/end of the year gifts. And, BIN 36 Gift Certificates make the perfect gift - for classes, retail purchases, and restaurant dining. There are endless options. As a special gift to you, if you buy a gift certificate between Monday, December 20th and Friday, December 24th, we'll GIVE you another certificate for half the value as a big THANK YOU!! To be fair, the Bonus Certificate must be used by March 31st, 2011 - but think of all the wine you could buy and enjoy for years to come!

Stop by if you have some time over the next couple of weeks (we're even open Christmas Day!). Enjoy a glass of wine, get a gift or gift certificate and say hello to your favorite bartender or server. We'll be waiting for you!!

Happy Holidays from the BIN 36 Family.

Farm to Plate Dec. 15th & 16th

It is time for Farm to Plate prix-fixe at baby bin! Featured farms this week are Gunthrop Farms, Growing Power, Nichols Farms, and Iron Creek Farm who have provided the great meat and produce for this week's menu. All of these farms are local and either family farms or co-ops. This return to local farms has been a growing trend in the restaurant industry and with the home consumer. Not only is the food fresher and the animals are treated more humanly but buying local means cutting down on transportation and our overall carbon footprint.

This week we are serving up some great treats including a foie gras torchon. No dish for the amatuer cook, this baby takes a couple days to make right. Torchon, meaning "towel" in French, comes from the practice of using dishtowels to wrap the foie gras. We, however, will be using cheesecloth, wrapped around the foie gras in a log, seasoned, poached and left to hang overnight in the fridge. What do you get for all this work? A melt-in-your-mouth, spread-on-anything treat we know you will enjoy.

We are still having a blast over here at bin wine cafe. Every week is something new and challenging for the kitchen but we wouldn't have it any other way!

The menu....

1st Course

Foie Gras Torchon
reisling poached pears and baby arugala

pairing: 2008 Gewurztraminer, Brandborg, Umpqua Valley, Oregon

2nd Course

Crispy Pork Belly
whole leaf winter spinach, pickled butternut squash, roasted garlic and mushroom broth

pairing: 2005 Dolcetto, Palmina, Santa Barbara County, California

3rd Course

Roasted Heirloom Apple
caramel, calvados and vanilla cream, puff pastry

pairing: 2007 Late Harvest Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc, Chateau Cousteau, Cadillac, Bordeaux, France

The Feast of the Seven Fishes

Some people really celebrate the fishes
via Feast of the Seven Fishes' photostream.

The Feast of the Seven Fishes (festa dei sette pesci), celebrated on Christmas Eve, also known as The Vigil (La Vigilia), is believed to have originated in Southern Italy and is not a known tradition in many parts of Italy. Today, it is a completely Italian-American feast that typically consists of seven different seafood dishes. Some Italian American families have been known to celebrate with 9, 11 or 13 different seafood dishes. This celebration is a commemoration of the wait, Vigilia di Natale, for the midnight birth of the baby Jesus.

The Caputo family practiced this tradition all throughout my childhood and to this day my mother still cooks the same meal every Christmas Eve. All her children and grandkids still flock to her house for this dinner, and of course in anticipation of opening the Christmas gifts afterwards. So each year at BIN, I honor my mother by serving my interpretation of this great feast—and because I can’t fly home to eat at her house. Cooking it for you, I'm vicariously at home with my family.

This is our 8th year of celebrating “the feast” at BIN 36, what to me is the grandest meal of the year. I begin to think about the menu starting in September, discussing with my sous chefs which ingredients should make the menu. I work with my seafood suppliers trying to bring in different ingredients from the year before and looking to create a completely different experience. But most important to this menu is to keep it simple so that the delicate flavors of the individual seafood are able to show themselves off.

Mediterranean Conger Eel, one of the seven fishes
via ondaeoliana's photostream.

Please join us and help bring in Christmas together in an Italian-American tradtion.

This is our 2010 menu:

1st course

Beausoliel Oyster, Prosecco-tangerine Gelee

Hiramasu Crudo, Bottarga, Preserved Lemon

Grilled Octopus Salad, Mint & Chillies

2nd course

Chestnut Pasta, Salt Cod Dumplings, Braised Celery, Parmesan Brodo

3rd course

Traditional "Venetian-Style" Scallops with Blood Orange, Garlic, & Parsley

4th course

Sauteed Conger Eel, Tuscan Lentils, Roast Lobster, Truffled Mashed Potatoes

Dessert

Chocolate Panettone Budino, Manjari Chocolate Anglaise, & Cranberry Granita

We Have a Bubble Bath Winner

Stunning, the zoo's new Nature Boardwalk
via The New No. 2's photostream.

Five you really made this thing interesting. While nobody had a perfect score, the five we posted all can make an argument to be deserving of something close to a perfect score—in some cases all that was missing from a correct answer was the vintages on the Editor's Choice wines or the name of the creamery from which the smokey blue cheese comes from. One of you even posted half an hour after your original posting with a correction to your answers, which happened to be the only question you'd gotten wrong... and the correction would've given you a perfect score! We warned you it'd be tricky!!!

Nevertheless, we hope you guys had as much fun filling it out as we did putting it together. And for us, it was great to be exposed a bit more to facts about the zoo, as I hope those coming to us from the zoo had fun learning a bit more about us.

Oh yeah. The winner. Well... with a near perfect score of 15 out of 16 questions correct, and our first submission received, it's Kimberly Spaeti. Kim only missed the Phil Rubino question when she correctly gave us one of his previous kitchens, but incorrectly gave us a kitchen that didn't receive a Michelin star. And Faye, who also had 15 correct, you missed out only because Kim submitted first.

But as much fun it was to put this together, it's definitely no fun to break the bad news to the rest of you guys... here's hoping you'll still be getting your tickets so we can raise a glass together tonight! As of this moment, we still have tickets to buy here.

And here are the answers, as a perfect score would have reflected, down the the last detail.

Dexter Steer at Farm-in-the-Zoo via greggers2007's photostream.

• When was Lincoln Park Zoo founded? 1868

• Wine Enthusiast recently named two BIN wines Editor's Choice, each with scores over 90 points. What are they? '07 California Cabernet Sauvignon and '09 Dry Creek Valley Sauvignon Blanc

• On what day of the year is Lincoln Park Zoo closed? None, the zoo is open and FREE 365 days a year

• What do the D and S stand for in the BIN 36 D&S Proprietary Blend wines? Brian Duncan and Dan Sachs

• What new exhibit did Lincoln Park Zoo unveil in the spring of 2010? Nature Boardwalk

• Earlier this year Phil Rubino was named Chef de Cuisine at bin wine cafe. What Michelin starred restaurant did he work at before manning the kitchen at baby bin? L2O, recipient of 3 Michelin stars

• In what year was the Auxiliary Board of Lincoln Park Zoo established? 1985, making it one of the first young professionals' boards in Chicago

• BIN 36 will be hosting its 8th annual Christmas Eve Feast this year. What is it called? Feast of the Seven Fishes

• What “glowing,” wintery event at the zoo is especially bright in the night? ZooLights

• For what California winery did John Caputo serve as Executive Chef before coming to BIN? Jordan Vineyard and Winery, in the Alexander Valley just north of Healdsburg

• Name two animals, besides an African lion, that can be found in the Kovler Lion House. Pallas’ Cat, Serval, Puma, Amur leopard, Afghan leopard, Amur tiger, Snow leopard, Red Panda, Jaguar

• From what market do chefs John Caputo and Phil Rubino source ingredients for their weekly changing Farm to Plate prix-fixe? The zoo's neighbor, Green City Market

• In what zoo exhibit can you find cows, chickens, goats and ponies?  Farm-in-the-Zoo Presented by John Deere

• BIN 36 turned some heads this year with a new souffle. What award winning cheese was used for it? Rogue Creamery's Smokey Blue, which Chef wrote about here

• Fill in the Blank: Lincoln Park zoo is home to the largest collection of lowland ___________ in the country, and one of the most successful captive-breeding programs in the world. Gorillas, with 48 gorillas births since 1970!

• What trademark building shoots to the sky from the upper-right corner of the current BIN 36 Facebook profile picture? Marina City

Bubble Bath: A Contest!

Meerkats at the Zoo via Rana Pipien's photostream.

We gave the heads up yesterday that two tickets would be given away to Bubble Bath... and that happens now!

And getting the tickets will be simple. It's a quiz. Easy as that.

Half of the questions are from the Lincoln Park Zoo, half from the BIN family. Submit your answers in the comment section of this blog post by 9 AM tomorrow morning to qualify—and we'll publish all comments, plus the answer key, soon after. Whomever submits the first perfect score—and only your first submission counts, so please be sure your answers are correct when submitting—will get the tickets! If there's no perfect score, we'll take whomever submitted the highest score first as the winner. And that's it. So easy!

When submitting answers, please include your name, email address, and twitter name, if you have one. And again, we'll only accept your first submission. Read the questions carefully (some might be tricks!) and answer them thoughtfully! We'll be tracking the contest's movement on twitter via the hashtag #bubblebath.

One of our favorites at the Zoo.

1. When was Lincoln Park Zoo founded?
2. Wine Enthusiast recently named two BIN wines Editor's Choice, each with scores over 90 points. What are they?
3. On what day of the year is Lincoln Park Zoo closed?
4. What do the D and S stand for in the BIN 36 D&S Proprietary Blend wines?
5. What new exhibit did Lincoln Park Zoo unveil in the spring of 2010?
6. Earlier this year Phil Rubino was named Chef de Cuisine at bin wine cafe. What Michelin starred restaurant did he work at before manning the kitchen at baby bin?
7. In what year was the Auxiliary Board of Lincoln Park Zoo established?
8. BIN 36 will be hosting its 8th annual Christmas Eve Feast this year. What is it called?
9. What “glowing,” wintery event at the zoo is especially bright in the night?
10. For what California winery did John Caputo serve as Executive Chef before coming to BIN?
11. Name two animals, besides an African lion, that can be found in the Kovler Lion House.
12. From what market do chefs John Caputo and Phil Rubino source ingredients for their weekly changing Farm to Plate prix-fixe?
13. In what zoo exhibit can you find cows, chickens, goats and ponies?
14. BIN 36 turned some heads this year with a new souffle. What award winning cheese was used for it?
15. Fill in the Blank: Lincoln Park zoo is home to the largest collection of lowland ___________ in the country, and one of the most successful captive-breeding programs in the world.
16. What trademark building shoots to the sky from the upper-right corner of the current BIN 36 Facebook profile picture?

Bubble Bath is tomorrow night at BIN 36 from 6-10pm. Proceeds go to the Lincoln Park Zoo, as well as money raised from the silent auction featuring a 6-course chef's tasting menu from BOKA, a spa package to the Peninsula, jewelry from Erin Gordon and Erin Gallagher, plus packages from us here at BIN and the Zoo, too.

And if you're worried about Bubble Bath selling out—and we expect it to by tomorrow if not today—then get your tickets now!! If you win the contest, you can always sell them to a friend or split the cost together! Buy tickets here.

Good luck everyone!!!

Meatless Mondays: 12/6 menu

Underside of cauliflower from magda.indigo's photostream.

Staying the course, tonight's Meatless Monday menu:

savory bread pudding 

pretzel bread, roasted garlic, mushrooms, watercress, mustard vinaigrette

cauliflower steak
black olives and rosemary

organic mixed greens
pumpkin seeds, evalon goat cheese, champagne vinaigrette

heirloom apple and fennel salad 
anjou pears, hook's blue cheese, sherry vinaigrette

poached egg
crispy potato, frissee, pickled shallots, black pepper vinaigrette

arugula salad
persimmons, goat cheese, almonds

farro and beet salad
growing power farms swiss chard, toasted hazelnuts, housemade ricotta