What’s New

Tuna is thick and dense, and it holds its shape while you take the time to sear it golden brown.

There is more to tuna than the mayo-based sandwich filler. In fact, if there is one fish that can handle a robust marinade and the fire of the grill, it would be tuna. Tuna is thick and dense, and it holds its shape while you take the time to sear it golden brown. The key is choosing which kind of tuna is best to use.

There are a number of types of tuna available, from albacore and skipjack (which are popular candidates for canning) to meatier bluefin tuna and ahi (also known as yellowfin), which are excellent fish choices for grilling. Bluefin, with its dark, meaty color and flavor, is the king of tuna — and the priciest. Ahi is the next best option and my favorite. It’s slightly less expensive, milder in flavor and paler in color than bluefin, with a deep rose hue that browns with cooking. This is the tuna you will find served raw and cut into small cubes in the Hawaiian poke bowls. Ahi is also delicious when seared and grilled.

Now, when talking about big fish, it’s important to talk about health. With many big fish at the top of the food chain, such as tuna and swordfish, there will be increased amounts of mercury in the flesh. Ahi has a lower amount of mercury than bluefin. It’s labeled a “good choice” to eat one serving a week by the FDA, and a “good alternative” by The Monterey Seafood Watch.

Here is my go-to recipe for searing and grilling ahi tuna. It’s inspired by an Epicurious recipe I found years ago, and since then I’ve modified it slightly to my taste. I like to use a flat, not ridged, griddle when grilling the skewers, which provides more surface area to sear the fish. Alternatively, you can sear the skewers in a large cast iron pan over medium-high heat on the stove.

Grilled Ahi Tuna Skewers

Yield: Serves 4 to 6

INGREDIENTS:

For the marinade:

• 3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar or honey
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon finely grated peeled fresh ginger
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 teaspoons Sriracha

For the tuna:

• 2 pounds ahi tuna, cut into 1- to 1 1/4-inch chunks
• 1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 large yellow onion, cut into 1-inch chunks
• Vegetable oil
• Fresh cilantro for garnish

DIRECTIONS:

1. Whisk the marinade ingredients in a bowl to blend and to dissolve the sugar. Set aside 1/4 cup for brushing.

2. Place the tuna chunks in a large bowl. Pour in the marinade and stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

3. Thread the tuna on pre-soaked bamboo skewers, alternating with pepper and onion pieces. Lightly brush the vegetables with some of the reserved marinade. Let the skewers stand at room temperature while you prepare the grill.

4. Prepare the grill for direct cooking over medium heat and preheat a griddle for 10 minutes. Lightly oil the griddle. Arrange the skewers on the griddle, in batches as necessary, and cook to your desired doneness, turning to evenly color, 5 to 6 minutes for medium-rare. Transfer to a plate and brush with some of the reserved sauce. Garnish with cilantro and serve with the remaining sauce for drizzling.

For more information about fish nutrition and safety visit www.fda.gov/media/102331/download and seafoodwatch.org.

Lynda Balslev is an award-winning food and wine writer, cookbook author and recipe developer. She also authors the blog TasteFood, a compilation of more than 600 original recipes, photos and stories.

Read More

This past season, we saw plenty of big stories come from the 2018 NBA Draft class. Even the Chicago Bulls got in on the headlines. Back in that draft, the Bulls selected Duke big man Wendell Carter Jr. at pick no. 7 only to trade him away this year in a deal that saw Chicago […]

Chicago Bulls land Luka Doncic in these 3 trade packages – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & More

Read More

Read More

Read More

The shooting happened around 5:40 a.m. Tuesday in the 6200 block of South Morgan Street, Chicago police said.

Multiple people were shot Tuesday morning in Englewood on the South Side, according to preliminary information from Chicago police.

About 5:40 a.m., there was an argument at a gathering inside a home in the 6200 block of South Morgan Street and shots were fired, police said.

This is a developing story, check back for details.

Read More

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” gives new insight and context to Bourdain’s death by following the arc of his life — or, more specially, his second life. After years of working as a chef in New York, Bourdain’s book “Kitchen Confidential” catapulted him to fame in middle age.

NEW YORK — When the filmmaker Morgan Neville began making a documentary on Anthony Bourdain, the late chef and globe-trotting television host, one of the first things he did was comb through every song Bourdain had ever referenced. He came up with a playlist 18½ hours long and called it “Tony.”

Neville, the director of the Fred Rogers portrait “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and the Oscar-winning “20 Feet From Stardom,” was determined to approach Bourdain through a prism other than his death. Music was only a small part of it. But it was a start in making “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” a celebration of Bourdain’s life. Not a forensic inquiry. Not a eulogy.

This was the fall of 2019, when Neville began. Bourdain’s death, in June 2018 by suicide, was still fresh. For many, it still is. “Roadrunner” premiered over the weekend at the Tribeca Festival, (the film will be released theatrically on July 16) days after the three-year anniversary of Bourdain’s death. Just the debut of the film’s trailer prompted an outpouring of emotion — and millions of views within days, a rarity for a documentary — showing how many are still grieving Bourdain’s loss.

“I’ve come to think of the film as an act of therapy for the public,” Neville said in an interview. “I think for people who only know Tony as someone they were a fan of, like me, there was just this giant question mark hanging over his life because of his death. How the (expletive) could Tony Bourdain kill himself? That is still something people are grappling with.”

“Roadrunner,” which Focus Features will release in theaters July 16, goes about answering that question by filling in a fuller portrait of Bourdain. It gives new insight and context to Bourdain’s end by following the arc of his life — or, more specially, his second life. After years of working as a chef in New York, Bourdain’s book “Kitchen Confidential” catapulted him to fame in middle age. In “Parts Unknown” and other far-flung travel shows that feasted on not just indigenous foods but a wide spectrum of culture, history and shared passions, Bourdain became an unlikely, and unusually authentic, television icon.

When Bourdain was found dead at 61 in his hotel room in Strasbourg, France, it was shocking because few seemed so full of hunger for life, or a greater appreciator of all that’s worth savoring. Neville spent the first months on the film not even dealing with Bourdain’s final chapter. When he did finally turn to it, he found no easy answers.

“The way I came to think of it is: Tony was an ultimate searcher and a seeker,” says Neville. “But if you are really always seeking and always curious, then you can get lost. He had this tattoo that he got late in life that said in Greek ‘I am certain of nothing.’ That sounds very Zen, but it’s also a little sad. If you’re truly certain of nothing and always looking for something, it means you’re leaving everything behind at every moment. I think for Tony, that rootless ultimately disconnected him from the things he should be certain about, like the love of people around him.”

The interviews for the film Neville considers the most difficult he’s ever done. Many of those close to Bourdain were talking about his death for the first time.

“There was just this sense of group trauma that people are still dealing with,” said Neville. “I don’t think anyone was looking forward to talking to me, frankly. It’s not like: ‘Oh, great!’ They knew it was going to be hard. Several people said it would be the last time they talk about it. I think there was this sense of: Let me say it once, for the record.”

That includes interviews with Bourdain’s ex-wife, Ottavia Busia, chef friends Éric Ripert and David Chang, TV producers Lydia Tenaglia and Christopher Collins, and musicians John Lurie and Josh Homme. Homme, of Queens of the Stone Age, recorded a song for the film. There’s footage pulled from “Parts Unknown,” revealing outtakes and Bourdain’s own Instagram stories, which gave a small window into his turbulent final year. Neville didn’t speak with a few key figures from that time, including longtime cinematographer Zach Zamboni, whom Bourdain fired in that dark period, and the Italian filmmaker Asia Argento, whose tumultuous two-year relationship with Bourdain has for many loomed over his death.

Neville was more intent on focusing on the choices that Bourdain, himself, made, and the journey that led to his tragic end. To him, a full understanding can only be elusive. But he suspects Bourdain felt increasingly rootless after his split from Busia, that when any semblance of domestic life receded he grew increasingly disconnected from who he was, and what he meant to people — including his daughter. That he was maybe too long on the road.

“When I first sat down with the people close to him — his manager and his production partners — I kind of went on my rant about why he was someone who was a champion for culture and what connects us,” the director says. “And they said, ‘Yeah, that’s true. But he was also an immature 15-year-old boy.’ I thought, OK, that’s interesting. That became the kind of crux of the making of the film — reconciling someone who was both so insightful, but also so blind to some things.”

Read More

The Eve, Trina Verzuz matchup is the first-ever battle between women rappers.

Rappers Eve and Trina are slated for the next Verzuz battle at 7 p.m. Wednesday via Instagram, the Triller app and the Fite TV app.

The battle, which is the first matchup between two women rappers, is in partnership with “Friday Night Vibes,” a new TBS weekly movie showcase hosted by actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish.

Eve, then a Philadelphia-based MC, burst onto the scene in 1999 as the “Pitbull in a skirt,” on Ruff Ryders’ Ryde or Die Vol. 1 album with the tracks, “Ryde or Die” and “What Ya Want.” Later that year, she dropped her debut, the RIAA-certified double platinum album, “Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady,” featuring hit singles “Gotta Man,” and “Love is Blind,” a song discussing domestic violence.

She followed up her debut with “Scorpion,” the platinum-certified RIAA album featuring stand-out tracks “Who’s That Girl?,” “Gangsta B- – – – – s,” featuring Chicago native Da Brat and fellow Verzuz battle contestant Trina, and “Let Me Blow Ya Mind,” with No Doubt lead singer Gwen Stefani.

Miami-based rapper Trina debuted on the hit Trick Daddy single, “Nann.” In 2000, she released “Da Baddest B—,” a RIAA-certified gold album that stayed on the Billboard 200 chart for 29 weeks. She followed up her first album with a string of albums including “Glamorest Life,” which includes “Here We Go,” a gold single with Kelly Rowland.

Getty Images

Krista Hayes, executive producer and on-air talent with “The Ed Lover Morning Show “on WBMX (104.3-FM), says having Eve and Trina at the center of the next Verzuz battle is a win for the culture.

“Finally! Two women rappers who moved the culture in their own respective lanes,” said Hayes. “Two different sounds. Two different successes, but one thing they have in common: both women have bars.”

Upcoming Verzuz battles include a June 26 edition with Bow Wow and Soulja Boy, and a yet-to-be-announced July 1 battle sponsored by Essence, the African American women lifestyle magazine.

Read More

Read More

Read More

Producer SqueakPivot has long been a crucial member of the Chicago hip-hop collective he’s incorporated into his stage name, applying his talents largely to mixes and DJ sets—I’m hard-pressed to think of a Pivot Gang show I’ve seen where Squeak wasn’t behind the turntables. He’s infrequently released his own music, though that began to shift when Pivot dropped the playful 2019 group album You Can’t Sit With Us.…Read More