Abyssinian Guinea Pig brothers Noah and Mason are two-year-old sweet handleable boys looking for a loving guardian.

These boys lived with a family who felt they didn’t have time for them anymore so they relinquished them to Friends of Petraits Rescue.

These nice boys get along with each other nicely, and let me trim their nails. They make adorable whistles, squeals, chirps, squeaks and purring noises-especially when they hear their food coming.

Guinea pigs eat a diet of unlimited Timothy and Orchard hays, limited pellets, and fresh vegetables including romaine, red leaf and green leaf lettuces, cilantro, etc. Guinea pigs, like humans, can’t manufacture their own vitamin C, so they need to supplement with red pepper or other vitamin C rich foods.

Please read up on guinea pig care and diet before adopting by visiting this excellent web site http://www.guinealynx.info/.

They would love a home with people who will handle them daily, keep them well fed, and keep their habitat nice and clean.

If you’re interested in possibly adopting Noah and Mason, please contact [email protected] for an adoption application.

They are being fostered in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood.

Their adoption fee of $70 as a pair benefits the Friends of Petraits Rescue. For an additional $100, we’ll include absolutely everything you need to care for them including a huge cage, pellets, hay, litter, hidey huts and water bottles.

And, yes … Friends of Petraits is handling masked, minimum contact, socially distant adoptions during the pandemic.

Greg Hinz  at Crain’s reports:

When I was 17-years-old, we had a new “authentic” Mexican restaurant open its doors. It took my hometown by storm, quickly establishing itself as the third pitcher in my family’s after-church rotation (trailing Arby’s and Fazoli’s). I remember going there for the first time and seeing all of these new menu items. What’s this chimichanga thing? Flautas? Excuse me, waiter, I think this section’s written in Spanish?

I didn’t find out until a semester in New York City that Midwest Mexican food, even the authentic variety, usually meant Tex Mex. And with Tex Mex, the focus is on ground beef, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes. Served in either a hard shell or flour tortilla. Compare that to the tacos I tried at this taqueria in Manhattan, these were carnitas, carne asada, barbacoa. Corn tortillas. Onions and cilantro on top. I remember making faces like Phil Rosenthal on Somebody Feed Phil. “These are incredible!” The owner and her daughter smiled at me but also had that look of, “He’s gonna ask if we have some Old El Paso hard shells, isn’t he?”

When I came back to the Midwest, I became the worst kind of Mexican food evangelist. Just a tall white guy on a cilantro ego trip. I don’t know if there’s a snootier way to start a sentence than, “When I was at this taqueria in Manhattan.” Regardless, I was on a mission to find the good stuff right here in the Midwest. And Yelp made it possible. I found a great spot called Margarita’s in Holland, Michigan. Discovered Elvira’s Authentic Mexican Restaurant in Sanford, right by my hometown. Turns out authentic Mexican food was always close to home, you just had to know where to look.

But it wasn’t until I did this same Yelp search right here in Lakeview East when I discovered there’s a whole other level of authentic Mexican Food. This search took me a few blocks north on Broadway to a classy little hole in the wall called Chilam Balam.

Soraya Rendon: From Mexico City to Chicago 

When Soraya Rendon was 17-years-old living in Mexico City, she’d already developed a long-distance love for Chicago. She’d seen shows about Al Capone and pictures of the Sears Tower. She knew this was where she wanted to live.

So she packed her bags and – with a couple hundred dollars to her name – traveled 2,000 miles north to the Windy City. She came by herself and only spoke Spanish. She landed a few minimum-wage jobs first before landing a job working in the Sears Tower. It wasn’t the dream job in the sense of reaching her ultimate goal, but it was this moment of experiencing a taste of the American dream. She was working in the tallest building in Chicago, one that used to just be a photograph.

The song “Non-Stop” from Hamilton could’ve just as easily been written about Soraya. She kept grinding, always working. Always learning. About five years after arriving here, Soraya landed a job as an executive loan officer in the mortgage business.

But that wasn’t the ultimate dream either. She had her sites on 3023 North Broadway. A little garden-level restaurant space in Lakeview East.

Building a Michelin Bib Gourmand Restaurant from Scratch

Soraya faced adversity right away opening Chilam Balam at the same time as the 2008 recession. To make it work, she kept working her day job as a loan officer (which also took a hit during this time) to pay the bills.

Soraya has continued to work both jobs and I think she might be the only restaurant owner in Chicago who has one 5-star review that reads like this:

“It is always a great pleasure to work with Ms. Soraya Rendon. I have known Ms. Rendon for over a decade and we have done business together since the start of her mortgage career. Besides being a joy to work with, the efficiency and reliability Soraya provides is always beyond my expectations.”

And this:

“Wow! This has hands down been the best meal I’ve eaten in Chicago! I love tapas restaurants to begin with and this place has some of the best. I went with a friend and we shared 5 tapas- some staple items and some seasonal (which change monthly). We tried the ceviche, memelas, duck carnitas tamal, chicken flautas, and the pork ribs. Everything was truly excellent and so flavorful. My favorite dishes were the memelas (regular menu item) and the duck tamal (seasonal). They were both on another level from a flavor perspective! Absolutely delicious! We also shared the chocolate mousse and the pecan coconut pie for dessert, both of which were also fantastic… We left totally full and extremely satisfied! Think I’ve found my new fave place!”

The food and dining experience has earned Chilam Balam a coveted Michelin Bib Gourmand rating. This coveted award is given to restaurants that serve high-quality food at a reasonable price. Chilam Balam is one of only 54 places in Chicago to receive this honor in 2020.

A Chef from the Midwest

Helping to create the food is Chef Natalie Oswald. Natalie started out baking as a child with her mother and grandmother. Growing up in Toledo, Ohio she decorated cakes at local bakeries and her mother’s kitchen. Friends and neighbors would always stop by to try her food or just watch her create. Already a knowledgeable baker, Oswald decided to pursue a culinary degree at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. She was first introduced to Chicago during her externship at Frontera Grill and Topolobampo. It was here that Natalie really grasped the concepts of traditional Mexican cuisine and the use of local ingredients. When she was young, her mom taught her the basics of gardening but until Frontera, she never really understood the impact of natural organic farming.

Upon graduation from culinary school, Natalie started a pastry chef position in the west loop at Otom restaurant. Here she refined her skills and worked her way up in the Chicago restaurant culture. Three years later, she was asked to help with the pastries at the newly opening Chilam Balam. Given her background in Mexican cuisine, the job soon escalated to a full-time Sous Chef and then Executive Chef position. It is very important to Natalie that her menu continues to showcase local, seasonal ingredients, and ideas.

Natalie and Soraya change up the menu 3x a week so no two trips to Chilam Balam are ever the same.

“Chilam Balam is authentic Mexican food,” Soraya said, describing her restaurant. “Not Tex Mex. This is what you’d have at a nice dinner in Mexico.”

Having what it takes to run a restaurant right now

For anyone interested in opening a restaurant, Soraya’s advice is simple and it’s truer now than ever.

“You have to be ready to work, it’s non-stop.”

Soraya’s brother moved up here as well and helps out as the manager. Her mom has been able to visit around five times since Soraya’s been up here and Soraya goes back to Mexico City every now and then to be with family and find new inspiration for the menu.

For any restaurant that went through the 2008 recession, the owners are all in agreement that the 2020 pandemic has posed a much larger threat to keeping the doors open. For Soraya, she had to layoff her staff, everyone except herself, her brother, and Natalie. The three of them aren’t taking a salary right now. The money that comes in pays for food and bills. Soraya relies on her second job as a loan officer to keep things going.

In so many ways, the transition hasn’t been easy. Just the process of switching to delivery wasn’t an easy one to make for a traditional dine-in restaurant.

“Our food doesn’t really work well as takeout, but we adjusted,” Soraya said. “We made delivery work.”

Chilam Balam has also been participating in the Lakeview East “Dine out on Broadway” series, part of the bigger “Make Way for Dining” initiative launched by Mayor Lightfoot. On these select weekends, Broadway is closed off from Belmont to Surf, and the restaurants like Black & Caspian, Stella’s Diner, and Chilam Balam set up tables on the street. The next time to experience this will be August 7-9 and September 11-13.

When dine-in is available, Soraya stresses the importance of guests keeping their reservations since she can’t seat a full capacity.

“Be patient with us and stick to your reservations,” Soraya said. “If you can’t make it, please cancel ahead of time.”

And despite not taking a salary right now, not being able to fill the restaurant, and not knowing when all of this will end, Soraya keeps grinding.

“We didn’t make the rules, but we’re running by them,” Soraya said.

The road to keeping a restaurant open right now is extremely challenging, but something tells me the person who left Mexico City at 17/18-years-old with a couple hundred dollars to her name and a few pictures of Chicago in her mind is the exact person that has what it takes right now. She’ll keep working and her restaurant will keep serving the Lakeview East neighborhood.

Non-stop.

You can support Chilam Balam by making a dine-in reservation, ordering delivery/takeout, or reaching out via email to setup a giftcard. 

Over the last several months, I’ve been using the Medium Rare blog with a different format, featuring local restaurants around Chicago and the Chicagoland area. These also, from time to time, drift into a little bit of philosophy and stories from my own life. To catch up on some of the posts and read about other great local spots, here they are below:

The Local Baker: Douglas Callegario’s Nourish Foods

Taste of New York Bagels & Deli

• The Wonder of Saying Yes and Letting Go (Part 1)
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4

Tango Sur

• Chicago, Argentina (Part 1)
• Chicago, Argentina (Kierkegaard intermission)
• Chicago, Argentina (Part 2: The Family Behind Tango Sur)
• Chicago, Argentina (Kierkegaard Finale)

Black & Caspian

• Black & Caspian – Part 1
• Black & Caspian – Part 2

To subscribe to Medium Rare via email, just enter your email address in the box below. See you next week!

One of my favorite entries in William Safire’s Sustaining Book, “On Language,”  is the entry about pet peeves. He presents a list of readers’ least favorite words and follows with his own surprising one. Here are my favorite parts:

— “The pet peeve of Helen Landrim of Whiting, N.J., is the disappearing ‘ing’ sound. ‘Whatever has happened to “ing,” as in “going” or “wanting”?’ she asks ‘These words have been almost invariably “gonna” and “wanna.” She’s right” (Safire continues), “and if were gonna make a big deal out of the vanishing ‘g,’ I wanna put in my objection to the ominous ‘Ommina’ (for ‘I’m going to’) and its New York variant “Ongana.”  (The book is 40 years old, and I think the vanishin’ is almost finished.)

— “The Unicorn Hunters, a group of linguists at Lake Superior State College in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., are reported to take umbrage (good word, umbrage — from ‘shady’) at the term ‘self-addressed’ — ‘We banned “self-addressed” some time ago, asserts Professor W.T. Rabe, ‘because that implies that the envelope wrote an address on itself.'”

Safire ends the list this way:

— “My own pet peeve is the phrase ‘pet peeve.’ Doesn’t anybody have any other kind of peeve? Alliteration is dandy — as the perpetrator of ‘nattering nabobs of negativism,’ I cannot denigrate alliterators — but can’t we try ‘favorite fury’ or ‘preferred provocation’?

“One of these days, ongana get a dog and name him ‘Peeve,’ so I can introduce him to friends in the ecstasy of exasperation with ‘This is my pet, Peeve.” (There’s no word on whether Safire followed through on this idea.)

I’m going to alternate favorite fury and ecstasy of exasperation for a while and see which feels better.

Margaret Serious has a page on Facebook.

Save me from an ecstasy of exasperation — subscribe today! Type your e-mail address in the box and click the “create subscription” button. My list is completely spam-free, and you can opt out at any time.

When I got an email from SiriusXM saying there was a new Beastie Boys station coming, I was not expecting it to be this life-changing. But, I feel like I’m missing valuable information, every time I’m not in the car or on the app.

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For instance, I can’t change the station in the car, it’s that good. There are interviews, remixes, and live cuts that you don’t want to miss. Then, when exiting the car, and heading into the house, I have to continue my listening experience on the app. It’s like the Howard Stern show, you don’t want to miss anything.

There are all of these songs that you’ve forgotten about, and songs that you haven’t heard. It’s addicting, and the tidbits in between will have you coming back.

Here’s another example, I completely forgot this song “Alive” existed until I heard it on the station. I had to Shazam the track to see what record it was on. In turn, this helps Spotify sharpen my algorithms and playlists when I find and like the song, which is another great benefit of this amazing station.

“Get hip, get hip. Don’t slip you knuckleheads.”

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Here’s the lead paragraph of a story in the Los Angeles Times:

PORTLAND, Ore. — The nightly standoffs in downtown Portland between protesters and federal agents continued early Sunday, with several dozen agents in camouflage deploying tear gas and other munitions as they waded into the streets beyond the federal courthouse to push back demonstrators who authorities said had breached a fence. [Emphasis added.]

Do these stormers look like protestors? Are they standing innocently, or attacking?

The Los Angeles Times isn’t alone in this propaganda-qua-reporting. It’s showing up all the time. But the media aren’t willing to recognize that even the rioters themselves have eschewed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s strategy of non-violent protest. They say non-violence is ineffective–another glaring sign that they don’t know history. The non-violent civil rights movement accomplished one of the nation’s greatest reforms and cultural change.

What will the rioters’ violence achieve? The re-election of Donald Trump.

Clearly, our kids are hurting during this pandemic. One of the most poignant reminders of the pain experienced by students locked out of their normal lives is a three-minute film, Numb – a short film, created by Liv McNeil. McNeil admits that, “I for sure haven’t been enjoying quarantine, but some have it worse. We have all been going through stuff right now, especially with Black Lives Matter, my struggles are in no way comparable to some things people are going though right now. This is my own experience, some are a whole lot worse than mine. I’m just showing what I know.”

This film, with music by the band M83, My Tears are Becoming a Sea, was a school project that expresses what McNeil’s experiences and feels.

With many schools starting the year with remote learning due to the pandemic, parents worry about the impact of screens, isolation, and virtual learning on the mental health of their children. My daughter, Alissa Levy Chung, a clinical and developmental psychologist who teaches at Northwestern University, shared some of her thoughts in response to McNeil’s film. She stresses the importance of balancing different risks. “Just keeping teens home all the time for a year is not going to work. They get depressed, anxious, act out and do unsafe things, or some combination of those.” In the absence of regular school, she suggests using empty school and community buildings and outdoor spaces to have small, in person activities and clubs that kids love.

Among her ideas:

• The sports seasons could be rearranged to do the ones that are safer now and move the others to the spring.
• Small musical ensembles and theatre and dance groups could perform outdoors.
• Older students could work in small groups with peers to do their academics (no tutors needed for most).
• Students who do need to be in school to learn or to be safe should be. Unemployed recent college grads could be trained remotely by teachers to implement the curriculum.

“It won’t be risk free, but left to their own devices, students will do riskier things.” We must get creative. We can’t just wait this out.

Two examples of creative programming that involve my local grandchildren are Dance Center Evanston (DCE) and The Cove School. Granted, both are private institutions and have more latitude than our public schools, but their creative approaches could be replicated elsewhere.

Recently, DCE has started holding outdoor classes for small groups of dancers. The beach ballet class pictured below enabled masked and socially distanced students to practice with their peers in a safe setting.

These teens had been practicing the best they could, following zoom lessons alone at home. What a difference being outside with peers made for their happiness and mental health. DCE has also run backyard classes for children ages 8-11, and has made improvements to their dance studio. They upgraded their HVAC to reduce the presence of viruses, bacteria, and allergens. Waiting spaces, dressing rooms, and water fountains have been closed. Face masks are required everywhere, including in classes. Studio rooms will be cleaned and sanitized between classes. Class sizes will be reduced to maintain social distancing (minimum of six feet apart). All students and staff will have their temperature checked upon entering, with hand sanitizer available at the entrance and in each studio.

In another example of creativity, when the spring high school musical, Shrek, was cancelled because The Cove School closed its doors in March, students in the production filmed their parts at home. Through the magic of technology, these individual performances were combined to create a movie version of the musical. Take my word for it – it was amazing. To make it even more fun for the students, Cove showed the production in drive-in movie form in their parking lot as well as live streamed via Zoom.

As a small, private school for students with significant learning disabilities, Cove understood the importance of in-person school for its population, and made many changes to accommodate those who wanted to attend school. In addition to the usual face masks, hand washing, hand sanitizing, social distancing, and wellness screenings/temperature checks, Cove implemented the following:

• Staggered arrivals and dismissals
• Using their outdoor space as much as possible
• Placing students in small pods for learning rather than changing rooms for different subjects
• Focusing on students’ social-emotional issues
• Eliminating after school activities for now
• Having lunch in the classroom with social distancing
• Purchasing new desks, at which students can sit or stand, which can be safely spaced in a classroom
• Upgrading bathrooms to touch-less systems
• Using plexiglass where appropriate
• Adding an air ionization system

A few days ago, I drove by the Evanston Rose Garden where I saw a small group of socially distanced and masked string players with a sign, “Enjoy our music from a safe distance.” The students looked so happy to be creating music together. People who happened to walk by were treated to something beautiful. Perhaps music teachers, either from public schools or private instructors, could help their students organize mini-ensembles.

When it gets too cold to be outside in our area, we will have to find ways to open doors and create opportunities for students wearing masks, in small groups, in decently large rooms with ventilation to have some in-person experiences. If we are still not using our school buildings and community centers, let’s at least open up some of the larger spaces for student activities.

Liv McNeil mentions a COVID-19 youth mental health resource hub for teens in Ontario, Canada who have been affected by isolation (https://jack.org/covid). If you know of similar local resources, please share them.

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I’ve been mulling over reasons why I had never heard the amazing jam session that is Alivemutherforya? I feel like I’ve seen the cover on several occasions, throughout my life, but not heard what’s hiding within the grooves of the record.

So how did I come to hear this masterpiece of jazz transfusion? My friend James, of course, a prolific record collector, music fan, and musician, who gave me a copy, though, never mentioning the genius of it. We trade records and CDs. He had given me a generous stack of vinyl, including Black Sabbath, Chick Correa, Guadalcanal Diary, Metal Church, and Miles Davis, amongst a bunch of rarities. Alivemutherforya was just another record mixed up in the stack of interesting presents he gave me. Months on, each one keeps giving back.

So, I threw it on one night, while drinking a barrel-aged porter, from Begyle Brewing, and was blown away. I went and grabbed the record cover, and it had a great write-up on the back. It’s really informative if you have time to read the liner notes.

Muther’s Little Helpers were Drummer Billy Cobham, guitarist Steve Khan, electric bassist Alphonso Johnson, keyboardist Mark Soskin, and reedman Tom Scott, on tenor, soprano & lyricon. FUN FACT #1: Tom Scott played on The Grateful Dead’s “Estimated Prophet.”

The five-piece was assembled after the success of a similar band, albeit a much bigger group of all-star musicians, took the stage at the 1977 Montreux Jazz Festival, playing a number called “Montreux Summit,” that would close out the night. This amazing jam session, released by Columbia and aptly named Montreux Summit I and II, was the aspiration for putting together a much smaller band of gypsies, if you will, to tour behind Columbia Record’s Vol. 1 of that legendary set.

The tour didn’t make it very long before the plug was pulled. The band was to perform one last show, which would be recorded at Columbia’s 30th Street Studios, in New York City. But, to the band’s dismay, it would be in front of an ‘invited audience,’ or rather, a group handpicked listeners.

There is nothing worse than performing, let alone recording, in front of a room barely full of record executives. What is the sound of one hand clapping? -Steve Khan

FUN FACT #2: Steve Kahn’s Ovation guitar was just returned that night after being repaired and he had a hard time staying in tune, especially on Tom Scott’s, “Shadows.” They tried some tricks, like chorusing the guitar, to make it work in the mix, but to no avail. So, it was left off the album.

FUN FACT #3: The crowd applause was so low from all those one-handed record execs that, during mixing sessions for the album, they had to use crowd noise from Laura Nyro and Chicago, both Columbia artists. Too funny!

Thankfully, the performances captured on Alivemutherforya were from some of the best shows played along the way.

Enjoy!

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