From the Pantry: Marconi Hot Giardiniera

Do you like the pickled pepper-and-veggie concoction called giardiniera on your Italian beef sandwich? If so, I've got something for you. I found Marconi brand ("the original Chicago style") hot giardiniera at World Harvest International and Gourmet Foods recently, and I was thrilled. Can't believe it took me so long to discover it. I've tried other brands of giardiniera, and this is my favorite by far.

The Marconi mix has hot peppers, carrots, tiny pieces of cauliflower, celery, and gherkins, along with spices, in an oil-and-vinegar dressing (unfortunately Marconi uses soybean oil rather than olive oil, but the mix is so tasty that I'm willing to overlook that). It's a heavenly topping for an Italian beef, and it's great on an antipasto plate as well.

You can pick up an 8-ounce jar for $3.29 at World Harvest (at the corner of University Ave. and Sixth St. in Champaign), in the section where they have all the other pickled vegetables.

If you'd like to try making your own mix sometime, here's a recipe.

Buy it or make it, but be sure to eat it. Buon appetito!

Cheese, Chocolates, Cured Meats Now Available at Old Farm Shops

I cannot tell a lie. I had chocolate for breakfast this morning. I couldn't resist, seeing as how local couple Mindy and Bart Basi (along with general manager Ty Southerd and the Basi's son, Bart) are carrying an endorphin-boosting selection in their new store Cheese and Crackers. Pictured above are said chocolates, along with the coppa, Spanish cured pork tenderloin, organic Marcona almonds, red Cerignola olives, and chive-and-shallot Tintern cheese I took home from the store yesterday.

Located in the Old Farm Shops, Cheese and Crackers is just two weeks old. But already you'll find 50 or so different kinds of cheese (everything from French and Spanish varieties to our own Prairie Fruits Farm goat cheese);

handmade chocolates from Patricia's Chocolate, Julie Hinton, and Neo Cocoa, plus fudge in flavors with whimsical names like Gilligan's Fave, Blame Canada, and Naked Hottie from Cocopatamus;

cured meats from Spain and Italy;

and a nice selection of olives (try the enormous red Cerignolas; they're pretty and delicious).

The store also carries fun, unusual items like flavored sugars (try the habanero; it's great!), tomato jam, and local honey (speaking of which, find out why it's very important right now to support local beekeepers-honey producers).

Oh, and if you're thirsty, you can pop in for a Starbucks fix

 or a Mexican Coke.

Keep in mind that the store's grand opening won't be until mid-April and that the owners are still in the process of building up their inventory of delicacies. They'll also do catering, and they'll offer sandwiches and possibly cooked items made in their own kitchen in the future.

Cheese and Crackers
1715 West Kirby Avenue (in the Old Farm Shops)
Champaign, IL
217-778-8475
Open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 12 noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, with cheese tastings on Saturdays

Food Poetry 11: The First Artichoke

A food poem for the season we've just entered. I know—we're not known for growing artichokes here in central Illinois, but in California, where I'm originally from, they're plentiful in spring, and Castroville, CA, is the artichoke capital of the United States. Plus, my mother, a Sicilian-American, loved the edible thistles and in fact used to prepare them as described in the poem. Thus, the poem struck a chord with me, and I hope you'll enjoy it even if artichokes were not a food you ate as a child.

Artichokes are, as noted in the poem, grown in other parts of the country, but it can be difficult. Did anyone see the rather sad little specimens that Jeff Meyer had at the Urbana farmers' market last year? He's valiantly trying; maybe this year his artichokes will take off.

Many thanks to Diane Lockward for granting me permission to reprint the poem. It comes from her book What Feeds Us. Poet Thomas Lux had this to say about the book: "What Feeds Us is sometimes humorous and sometimes heartbreaking. Diane Lockward's language is both plain-spoken and rich, lush. This is a wonderful book that might not nourish your body but certainly will nourish your heart."

Coincidentally, I reprinted another poem from that book, "Linguini," at about this same time last spring. For up-to-the-minute info about Diane, visit her on Facebook.

The First Artichoke

Though everyone said no one could grow
artichokes in New Jersey, my father
planted the seeds and grew one magnificent
artichoke, late-season, long after the squash,
tomatoes, and zucchini.

It was the derelict in my father's garden,
little Buddha of a vegetable, pinecone gone awry.
It was as strange as a bony-plated armadillo.

My mother prepared the artichoke as if preparing
a miracle. She snipped the bronzy winter-kissed tips
mashed breadcrumbs, oregano, parmesan, garlic,
and lemon, stuffed the mush between the leaves,
baked, then placed the artichoke on the table.
This, she said, was food we could eat with our fingers.

When I hesitated, my father spoke of beautiful Cynara,
who'd loved her mother more than she'd loved Zeus.
In anger, the god transformed her
into an artichoke. And in 1949 Marilyn Monroe
had been crowned California's first Artichoke Queen.

I peeled off a leaf like my father did,
dipped it in melted butter, and with my teeth
scraped and sucked the nut-flavored slimy stuff.
We piled up the inedible parts, skeletons
of leaves and purple prickles.

Piece by piece, the artichoke came apart,
the way we would in 1959, the year the flowerbuds
of the artichokes in my father's garden bloomed
without him, their blossoms seven inches wide
and violet-blue as bruises.

But first we had that miracle on our table.
We peeled and peeled, a vegetable striptease,
and worked our way deeper and deeper,
down to the small filet of delectable heart.

Quick Bite: Pad Thai at Thara Thai

With me under the weather and our one remaining kitty-cat ill, too, I can only manage another Quick Bite here. But it's a great one! Did you know that the sauce the owner-cooks use in the pad Thai at Thara takes two days to make? That they start with actual tamarinds and go from there to create their secret sauce? I didn't, either, until recently. No wonder this dish is so delicious; lotta love and care going into it.

This is the shrimp version, as you can see. Skinny rice sticks, eggs, bean sprouts, scallions, carrots, and peanuts are stir-fried with the special sauce and the shrimp to create this mouth-watering noodle extravaganza. Regarding the spiciness factor, you can choose "no spice," mild, medium, or hot. I go for mild, and that suits me just fine; it's a little spicy but not much, at least for my taste. If you find that you'd like more heat, you can always apply some of the fiery-hot Sriracha sauce you'll find on your table. I always ask for extra limes to squeeze over.

Other favorites at Thara include the pad see ew (wide rice noodles stir-fried with your choice of meats or tofu, broccoli, and a sweet soy sauce) and tom kha gai (chicken soup with coconut milk, veggies, and plenty of red pepper).

Thara Thai Pan-Asian Restaurant
912 West Bloomington Road
Champaign, IL
217-378-1986
Open Monday through Saturday 11:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Sunday noon to 9:00 p.m.
(Debit and credit cards accepted)

Novel Food, Spring 2010 Edition Coming Soon

To kick off the spring season: A brand-spanking new edition of Novel Food is in the works! As you may know, for the past few years fellow food blogger Simona and I have run this event. We think it's a fun way to combine two of our passions and share the experience with others.

Here are some of the books I've either recently finished, recently started, or have good intentions of starting in the near future. As you can see, they run the gamut from Gothic tale (A Reliable Wife) to dishy biography (Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen); from Western (Brimstone) to science fiction (Never Let Me Go), horror (Shutter Island) to historical fiction (The Lacuna). I'm thinking my submission to this spring edition of NF will have something to do with one of these books. I'm sort of leaning toward making cowboy food in honor of Brimstone, because the author, Robert Parker, died suddenly in January, so it could be a personal memorial for a writer whose books I've really enjoyed. Then again, A Reliable Wife had such a profound effect on me that I might have to focus my culinary energy on it. And Never Let Me Go has me in its clutches right at the moment. Well—that's the great thing about reading: you never know when the next wonderful book will find its way to you.

Have you been reading a book that might inspire you to cook?

If you're interested in taking part in this event, you have from now until April 17 to read a novel, cook something that's either mentioned in the book or that is inspired by it in some way, write up a post about book and food, and send us a link that we can publish when we do the roundups. Here are the official rules:

• Prepare a dish of your choosing that has a connection to a published literary work (novel, novella, short story, memoir, bio, poem).
• Publish a post about it on your blog by Saturday, April 17, 2010 (midnight, Pacific Time), referencing the Novel Food event. Include a link to this or to Simona's announcement. If you wish, you can use the Novel Food logo.
• Send an e-mail to me (champaigntaste AT gmail DOT com) or to Simona (simosite AT mac DOT com) and include your name, blog name and blog address, and a permanent link to your post. Please, include the words "Novel Food" in the e-mail subject, so we can more easily retrieve the message in our inboxes.
•  Non-English submissions are fine. If possible, include an introduction in English.

Note that if you don't have a blog, you can still join in! Simply send us an e-mail telling us about the recipe, the book or story that inspired it, and, if you have it, a picture of what you cooked: we will add it to the roundup as well.

We're looking forward to hearing about the books you've been reading and the dishes you made in their honor. Look for our roundups featuring all submissions soon after April 17. Bon appétit, and happy reading!

Quick Bite: Chimichanga Dinner at Dos Reales

Someone from around C-U commented, on my lard post, about the refried beans at Dos Reales, wondering if there was lard in them and if that's what makes them so good. That got me thinking about Dos, and then I got a craving, as I occasionally do, for their version of that deep-fried expression of the Tex-Mex imagination: chimichangas.

I prefer chicken chimis at DR; you can get any filling you like, but here's the key thing: You must get get them topped with salsa verde (green sauce) instead of the cheese sauce mentioned on the menu. The green sauce makes all the difference.

Though I enjoyed them, I was a bit disappointed. Two chimichangas came with the dinner; it used to be that you got three chimis, and each one was smaller. Somehow the different ratio of filling to tortilla in the two larger chimis wasn't as good as when there were three small ones. What always set Dos's chimis apart, for me, and made them something I actually wanted to eat, was that they were smaller and that you didn't have to contend with big, thick flour tortilla ends. If anyone from Dos Reales is reading this, please go back to the old way of making chimichangas!

On this visit I was astonished by how quickly the chimichanga dinner came to the table. It was really SO quick that I wondered how the cook had even had time to fry the chimis. They were nice and hot (temperature hot), but the beans and rice, although sitting on the heated plate, unfortunately were barely warm. That was too bad. Overall, though, I enjoyed the food, the friendliness of the staff, the decor, and the Tejano music playing at what was, for me, just the right volume in the background.

Remember when Dos first opened and it was maybe one-third the size of restaurant that it is now? The people of C-U love this restaurant, which has thrived for lo, these many years (and for some years now there have been two locations; the original one on North Prospect and another on University Ave.).

Dos Reales Mexican Restaurant
1407 North Prospect Ave.
Champaign, IL
217-351-6879
Hours: Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11a.m. to 10:00 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Katsinas' Spinach Pesto

Do you remember Katsinas restaurant in Champaign? If you do, you're betraying your age! The restaurant sat on the north-east corner of Neil and Green streets (where Hollywood Video is now), and it was a landmark in Champaign for—well, many years is an understatement. Katsinas opened in 1929 and was in operation until 1995. How I wish that little white building banded with narrow stripes of softly glowing neon were still around.

Anyway: I've been getting lots of fresh spinach from Jon and the crew at Blue Moon Farm recently and pondering ways to use it. I remembered the spinach pesto they used to serve at Katsinas and wondered—how did they make that? Suddenly I realized that if I could get the recipe it would be a boon not only for me but for others who frequented the restaurant; a culinary memento of a popular C-U dining establishment. I contacted John Katsinas, a co-owner of the former restaurant, and asked if he would share the recipe. John graciously agreed, so I'm going to pass it along to you now.

At Katsinas they used to serve this pesto with pizza, mixed into fettucine, and stirred into ranch dressing. We had it with spaghetti and also on the side of the Pekara herb-and-tomato focaccia I mentioned the other day. What a delicious way to eat your spinach.

Katsinas Restaurant Spinach Pesto
Courtesy of John Katsinas

30 ounces fresh spinach (3 10-ounce bags, or slightly less than 2 pounds), washed and dried
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (or to taste)
1/2 cup pine nuts
3 tablespoons fresh garlic, peeled and chopped (or to taste)
1/2 cup best-quality olive oil, or to taste—enough to smooth out the pesto

Place all ingredients in a food processor and process until the pesto is the consistency you like. Mix with hot cooked pasta, spread on pizza, use as a base for appetizers or a dip for vegetables—whatever makes you happy!

Now: 30 ounces of spinach is a lot. I basically halved the recipe, using 1 pound (16 ounces) of spinach, and even that made a ton of pesto. If you want to use only, say, a half-pound of spinach, just cut everything else down accordingly. When I made the half-recipe, I used more than a half-cup of Parmesan, about 2 tablespoons of garlic, and I'm not sure how much olive oil but probably more than 1/4 cup. Oh, and I also added some kosher salt to the mixture. John told me that the pesto freezes well; put some olive oil on top before freezing.

If this pesto sounds good to you, note that you can get fresh spinach from Blue Moon Farm this Saturday, March 20, inside Lincoln Square in Urbana. See the Blue Moon Web site for details; you need to order in advance (they'll be bringing other produce as well).

I remember one of the last times I ate at Katsinas restaurant; it was in the 1990s. I took my mom there, as she had recently moved to C-U from California and I knew she would love the place. She did, and we had a nice time in the elegant dining room. On other occasions friends and I enjoyed lunches in the "garden room," sitting in the wicker chairs, eating pizza and Greek salads and steak bites. Many thanks to John and family for sharing a treasured recipe from Katsinas restaurant with all of us. Those who were patrons will have fond memories each time we make it.

How to Render Your Own Lard

I see you shrinking back in horror. Lard?! Gross! I feel my arteries clogging up just reading the word! How disgusting! Why would you do a post about this, you lard brain! Yuck!

Do you have it all out of your system now? I know—during the last half of the last century, in this country, because of the connection between animal fat and heart disease, lard became a dirty word. But I'm here to tell you, if you haven't already heard, that you need to update your thinking. Turns out that lard is good for you. It actually contains a healthy percentage of monounsaturated fat and has less saturated fat in it than butter. Thus, the switch from lard to other kinds of fat—hydrogenated oils such as Crisco shortening and margarine, for instance—was not a good move on our part. Knowing, as we do now, that hydrogenation of oil produces the so-called trans fat that is really, really bad for the arteries (well, as of this writing, anyway). Ironic, isn't it? We were all told to eat margarine instead of butter or lard because it was so much healthier, and now we find out . . . and so health information goes.

OK. Now that you know lard is not going to kill you, aren't you curious about what you've been missing in the flavor and texture of, say, fried chicken, refried beans, pie crusts, and so on? I was, so I started nosing around to see how I could get my hands on some pig fat. But, I hear you protesting, they sell lard in the grocery store, Lisa; you can just go buy some. Sadly, the problem with that is that mass-produced lard is hydrogenated to make it more shelf stable. And the hydrogenation makes this naturally good fat into a bad one. So I had to make my own.

I'm ashamed to admit that my first foray into lard making was a failure. I got 10 pounds of back fat—which is, as the name suggests, fat from the back of a pig—from Stan of Triple S Farm in the winter of 2008, and I was so overwhelmed by it that I ended up throwing it out. What a dork.

But I kept thinking about lard, and recently, a coworker friend I'd mentioned my quest to offered to get me some more back fat, from another local farmer's pig. I received my two neatly wrapped, 5-pound packages of fat, and this time, having read everything I could find on the subject, the prospect of rendering the fat into lard didn't seem quite so daunting. All you are doing is melting fat until it becomes liquid. What's so scary about that?

The first thing you do, as the Homesick Texan advises in her great how-to post, is open a window (there is a porky smell associated with rendering lard; it wasn't horrible, but it was definitely a presence). Luckily, I have a window right next to the stove. Then, after you thaw the fat (if it's been frozen), you cut it into small pieces. Gotta tell you, that's the biggest hassle about the whole operation. And it's not that bad, just kind of a pain to get all that fat cut up. Obviously, if you do only, say, a pound of fat at at time, this won't be as much of an issue. But I had to go, you know, whole hog and do 5 pounds (I rendered the fat in two batches of 2.5 pounds each.)

Once you have small pieces (1-inch cubes), you throw them into a big, heavy pot (I used my largest Le Creuset French oven), add a bit of water to keep the fat from burning before it melts (I used a cup for 2.5 pounds of fat), and turn the heat under the pot to medium-low.

 You give the fat a stir every 10 minutes or so, and it starts to melt.

You'll hear the fat sizzling quietly as it melts. After about 30 minutes, much of it is melted. You keep stirring it gently, being careful to protect yourself from popping fat, and then the sizzling sounds turn into low rumbles, which may seem a bit ominous but not to worry, this is normal.

After 45 minutes to an hour, my pork fat was pretty much all melted. There will be pieces of what are called cracklings floating on the top—these are the bits of meat that was clinging to the fat. They won't melt; they become the crispy things that we know as pork rinds. I'd heard much, on other food blogs and Web sites, about how delicious these cracklings are, but I tasted some and couldn't quite see the attraction. I used a large skimmer tool to remove the cracklings from the pot.

Once the fat is all melted and you've removed the cracklings, you take the pot off the heat and let the liquid lard cool down. When it's cool enough that you aren't afraid of burning yourself, you pour it through a cheesecloth-lined strainer into the containers of your choice (I used wide-mouth Mason jars, and my yield was one quart plus one pint from the 5 pounds of fat).

Then you put the jars into the fridge. Some time later, you open the fridge and gaze proudly upon your now solidified, freshly rendered lard.

Then you clean up the grease you spilled all over the place (never said I was neat, and I must use a smaller strainer next time—one that's not many times larger than the mouth of the jars I'm pouring the lard into).

The only thing I've cooked with my lard so far is an omelet, and it was, as noted on Chez Pim, super fluffy and crisp (Pim says that lard is her fat of choice for omelets, stir-fries, and deep-fried foods). I think the next thing I'll make with it will be refried beans, using the Homesick Texan's recipe. After that, it's going to be fried chicken (again from the Homesick Texan, because that just looks like the best fried chicken ever). I don't often make pies (OK, like never), but I might have to now; I've read that 50 percent lard and 50 percent butter produces the best pie crust you've ever tasted. Stan of Triple S told me that "once you make pie crust with lard, you'll never go back." And I hear that using lard in the masa when making tamales is a must.

Hoppin' John Soup

Here's a soup recipe from a recent issue of that fabulous food magazine Saveur. It's chock full of collard greens, carrots, blackeyed peas, and ham. I used an incredibly meaty ham hock from Triple S Farm; if you do nothing else before you die, be sure to stop by the Triple S stand when the Urbana farmers' market starts up again in May. Stan's ham hocks bear no resemblance to the store-bought kind; not only is there a ton of meat on the very large shank, but it's succulent, and the flavor is amazing.

I cooked the ham hock with the peas, then cut the meat off the bone, added it to the soup, and threw the ham bone back into the soup as well. I got much more off the hock than the half-cup of chopped ham called for in the recipe, but I didn't hear any complaints about there being too much ham in the soup!

I also put a couple glugs of Worcestershire sauce in, because I'm like that. The jalapeño and the chili flakes made the soup not really spicy, per se, but gave it a wonderful warmth and verve. Highly recommended; this soup will make you feel happy all over.

Hoppin' John Soup
From Saveur magazine, issue #125

1 pound dried black-eyed peas
1 smoked ham bone or two hocks
1⁄4 cup canola oil
1⁄2 cup finely chopped cooked ham
1⁄4 tsp. red chile flakes
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 jalapeño, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped
1 large carrot, finely chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 rib celery, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
1 pound collard greens, ribs removed, leaves roughly chopped
2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
5 cups cooked long-grain white rice
Chopped tomatoes and scallions, for garnish

Bring peas, ham bone, and 8 cups water to a boil in a 6-quart Dutch oven. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, skimming foam occasionally, until peas are tender, about 45 minutes. Drain peas, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid along with ham bone; set aside.

Heat oil in a 12-quart pot over medium-high heat. Add chopped ham, chiles, garlic, jalapeños, carrot, onion, celery, and bay leaf and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 8 minutes. Add reserved black-eyed peas, ham bone, and reserved cooking liquid, along with collards and 12 cups water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until collards are tender, about 1 hour. Stir in vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Spoon rice into bowls and ladle soup over rice and add garnishes.

Serves 8 to 10.

Dine Out Around C-U on March 9 to Help Local Charities

[UPDATE 4/7/10: I just found out that the Share a Meal event in Champaign-Urbana last month raised $4,101.95 for local charities. Thanks to everyone for going out and supporting it! ~Lisa]

Mark your calendar now! On Tuesday, March 9, you can donate money to organizations that help people (and animals, in the case of the Champaign County Humane Society) in need. And you won't feel a thing. That's because four restaurants in Champaign-Urbana have generously agreed to donate between 20 and 50 percent of their profits on that day to charitable organizations. All you have to do is go out to eat—it's that simple.

Here are the participating restaurants:

The Black Dog Smoke and Ale House
The best place for barbecue in C-U is donating a percentage of its profits at both lunch and dinner time. So go in for lunchtime tacos or one of their fabulous sandwiches, or go for dinner and enjoy ribs, chicken, pulled pork, or brisket. I highly recommend the smoked chicken wings with homemade smoked blue-cheese dip as an appetizer.

201 North Broadway Avenue
Urbana, IL
217-344-9334
Serving lunch and dinner from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The Great Impasta
This great Italian restaurant, long a landmark in downtown Champaign and now ensconced on the east side of Lincoln Square in Urbana, is also donating a percentage of its take during both the lunch and dinner hours. Grab a cup of soup and a sandwich at lunch or a plate of pasta or chicken Parmigiano for dinner, and you'll automatically be giving a significant donation to the charity of your choice.

Lincoln Square Village (entrance is on the north-east side)
Urbana, IL
Serving lunch and dinner from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Luna
Luna, that beautiful bistro located in the old train station near downtown Champaign, is donating a percentage of its profits at lunchtime. Coconut shrimp with curry aioli, anyone? How about the quiche of the day with a salad of mixed greens? The Luna cheese burger? Those are just a few of the many delicious dishes to choose from; check out the entire lunch menu and decide now what you're having.

116 North Chestnut St. (in the old train station)
Champaign, IL
217-356-5862
Serving lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Siam Terrace
The place for Thai food, and now SUSHI, in downtown Urbana, will donate their percentage during dinner hours (you may remember that I had a fun sushi experience there on New Year's Day). So go and enjoy a boatload of sushi and sashimi, or pad Thai, or a delicious stir-fry on Tuesday evening. You can peruse Siam's menu on the Web site. Be sure to also get the crab Rangoon appetizer; they do the best crab Rangoon in town.

212 W. Main Street
Urbana, IL
217-367-THAI
Serving dinner from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

There will be a couple of volunteers from Community Shares at each of the restaurants on March 9 at the appointed times, which makes things very easy. All you have to do is tell them, on your way out, which organization(s) you'd like your donation to go to (or you can leave it up to Community Shares), and that's that! You've simply enjoyed a nice meal, and at the same time, you've given much-needed money to those in need.

These are just a few of the organizations you can support by eating out on March 9:

• Champaign County Humane Society
• PACE Center for Independent Living
• Champaign County Health Care Consumers
• Voices for Illinois Children
• Habitat for Humanity of IL
• Wesley Church Evening Food Pantry

I want to personally extend a giant THANK YOU to these four C-U dining establishments for their generosity. The percentage of profits they're sharing on March 9 to help support our community is really staggering, and they should be well praised for it. Let's all show the owners and their staffs how much we appreciate their giving spirit by packing their restaurants at lunch and dinner time that day.

Pekara Breads Now Available at World Harvest

A quick post to let you know that super-fresh, tomato-, herb-, and cheese-topped, delicious-looking focaccia, made from scratch at Pekara Bakery, is now available at World Harvest on Saturdays and Sundays. I was in there earlier, and as soon as I spied the focaccia I knew it was a great day. You'll also find Pekara's baguettes and sourdough bread at WH.

Not saying you'll run over there right away . . . but maybe you should run over there right away.

World Harvest International and Gourmet Foods
519 East University Ave. (University & Sixth St.)
Champaign, IL
217-356-4444
Open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Kaiyo Japanese Restaurant

Food—Sushi, shellfish, teriyaki, tempura
Drink—Only soft drinks, tea, coffee until they get a liquor license
Location—North Prospect, near Meijer
Prices—Buffet: $10.95 lunch, $17.95 dinner (dinner price in effect all day on weekends)
Atmosphere—Sleek and modern; casually elegant
Service—Attentive
Patio seating—Yes, in season
Vegetarian friendly—No
Child friendly—Yes, and the buffet is half-price for small children

There's a new restaurant on the block. The block where the Meijer store is on North Prospect, that is (in the building that used to house the now-gone and not-missed Boston's Pizza). It's called Kaiyó, and the big attraction here is the buffet.

I'll tell you up front that the buffet is basically ALL sushi (mainly rolls, but also some nigiri and sashimi) and shellfish such as crab legs, shrimp, and oysters. Don't expect to find cooked Japanese foods like tempura or tonkatsu on the buffet; you gotta like sushi if you go for buffet dining here.

There is a good-sized menu, separate from the buffet, from which you can order appetizers like tempura and beef skewers and entrees ranging from stir-fried udon noodles and chicken teriyaki to New York steak and beef short ribs.

I've tried some menu items in addition to the buffet. The beef skewers ($5.95) were tasty and the meat was very tender.

The gyoza ($4.95) were completely different on my second visit than on my first; I didn't taste them on that second visit, but they looked pretty greasy. This is a shot of the version I got on that first visit; I liked the dumplings, and the dipping sauce was very nice.

Keith, not a sushi aficionado, tried the teriyaki salmon ($10.95) when we went for dinner, and he pronounced it delicious. It was accompanied by steamed veggies and fried rice.

As I said, the main attraction here is the buffet. I've visited the restaurant a number of times since it opened about a month ago, and I've ordered the buffet each time.

At lunchtime Monday through Friday the price is currently $10.95; at dinnertime and all day Saturday and Sunday, it'll set you back $17.95. I've been trying to determine the differences in buffet offerings that justify the higher price, and what I've come up with is that when said higher price is in effect, you'll find sashimi and nigiri sushi on the buffet, as well as lightly cooked cocktail shrimp and raw oysters. Don't expect to see those items at lunchtime during the week.

The first time I visited, there were labels on the glass above the trays of rolls indicating what each type was. After that first visit, though, the labels disappeared. Some rolls, like the California and the "Philly" types with cream cheese in them, are easy to recognize, but others are not.

You can certainly ask one of the several sushi chefs behind the buffet what is what, but, as there is a big variety, it's rather daunting to keep asking, "what's in this roll?" Thus, if, say, you're pregnant and are avoiding raw fish on that account, this buffet may not be the best option for you.

Also on the buffet are some vegetables (crisp-tender asparagus with a light sesame-oil dressing, mushrooms, pickled daikon, edamame, seaweed salad) and lots of fresh fruit (pineapple, melon, grapes).

And if you like miso soup after your sushi meal, as I do, it's included in the buffet price, but you have to ask your waitperson for it. They won't automatically bring it to you since not everyone knows what it is or likes it.

They'll need to work on the upkeep of the restaurant, at least in the dining area where the buffet is; on my last visit I noticed paint chipping off the wall next to and behind our table as well as splatters, probably due to flying bits of crab and crab juice, that hadn't been wiped off. In addition, the paper overlaying the cloth on our table had not been changed, even though the table was set (our server did give us a fresh sheet of paper when we asked). This is a shot of the main dining area, which, as you can see, is nicely appointed.

The wait staff has generally been excellent. I've had waiters tear the paper off of my chopsticks and offer them to me and also take off the hard-to-remove plastic wrapper from the "wet nap" (so essential when one is eating with the fingers, and especially when eating crab legs) for me. Spent dishes are whisked away quickly, crab crackers are brought, drinks are refilled, and so on.

Would you rather eat sushi at Kaiyó than at one of the many other restaurants in town that offer Japanese food? I'd say it depends. If you like buffet dining, and you want to eat a lot for a pretty low price, then you'll probably love the place. Even at the higher price, for around $20 you can certainly fill up on a wide variety of sushi, shrimp and crab, veggies and fruits. I leave it to you to decide.

Kaiyó Japanese Restaurant
2501 North Prospect Avenue
Champaign, IL
217-398-3888
Open at 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, and noon to 9 p.m. on Sunday