Chow Down Chicago: Good Eats from the Windy City

  There are few Polish baked goods as coveted as the mighty poppyseed roll, or makowiec (pronounced mack-ov-yetz ). Poppyseed rolls are good on holidays or really anytime. Poppyseed rolls can be found in Polish bakeries and grocery stores across the Chicago area, but it’s also nice to be able to make them at home. I’ve found that homemade makowiec are more moist and soft than store bought, making it worth the time and effort. But for those looking for a less labor-intensive recipe, I’ve also included a short-cut version of mini-poppyseed rolls below. Chicago welcomed tens of thousands of Polish immigrants in the 19 th century. Poles saw Chicago as a land of opportunity, with its stockyards, tanneries, and steel mills. More Poles displaced by World War II settled in Chicago in the 1950s, as did Polish political refugees during the Solidarity period in the 1980s. The stretch of Division Street between Ashland and Damen was once nicknamed “Polish Broadway.” Today, 20% of Chicagoans...

The Chicago area is located on the ancestral lands of indigenous tribes such as the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac, Fox, Kickapoo, and Illinois Nations. The name Chicago comes from shikaakwa, a word for “wild onion” used by the Miami and Illinois peoples. Indigenous people in the Chicago region faced many hardships after Europeans arrived in the area. By the early 1800s, the number of Native Americans in the region was severely diminished due to disease and warfare brought by the Europeans. A series of treaties forced the tribes to cede their land to the American government. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 proposed the relocation of indigenous tribes west of the Mississippi River, and several more relocation efforts would happen in the following years. Through the late 1800s to the early 1900s, Indian children were taken from their homes and sent to boarding schools with the mission to assimilate them into white society. In 1910, the population of Native Ame...

  The Chicago-style hot dog consists of an all-beef wiener on a steamed poppy-seed bun topped with what is known as the “Magnificent Seven”: mustard, relish, chopped onions, two tomato wedges, a pickle spear, two sport peppers, and a sprinkling of celery salt. The frankfurter aficionados behind the  Hot Dog Chicago Style  website ( www.hotdogchicagostyle.com ) state that adding these toppings in the order listed here is crucial to ensuring that you can taste all the ingredients in every bite. The Chicago-style hot dog evolved during the 1920s through the 1950s, according to Bruce Kraig, author of  Hot Dog: A Global History  (as told to WBEZ in 2017). According to  Hot Dog Chicago Style , an early forerunner of the Chicago-style hot dog was the affordable “Depression Dog” sold by Chicago street vendors during the Great Depression of the 1930s: an all-beef frank topped with mustard, onions, sport peppers, and maybe relish served on a plain bun or wrapped in...