Today’s the first day of the Green City Market’s Localvore Challenge (spelling theirs), a two-week thrown gauntlet for eating only food that’s come from Illinois and its border states (with an exception made for Michigan). Exceptions for common products like salt, pepper, flour, and sugar are allowed (though Rob Gardner’s wife has impressive above-and-beyond ambitions).
To ease you through moments of “Dear god if I have to slice another late-season tomato I will PUNCH THE WALL” frustration, River North restaurant mk is offering what they’re calling the “Localvore Degustation Menu”:
Prosciutto: sliced la quercia prosciutto, melon and cucumbers, wild watercress and red hen ciabatta
Walleye: pan-roasted lake erie walleye, heirloom tomatoes, and nichols farm potatoes and leeks
Eden Farms Pork: roasted tenderloin and braised belly, shell beans, roasted apples, cipollini onions and frisée
Piper’s Pyramid: capriole farms fiery red goat’s milk cheese (a nod to the loire valley’s valencay), shredded beets, chives, apricots and virgin olive oil
The First Apples: nichols farm apple galette, crème fraÓche sorbet and black pepper-caramel sauce
The menu launches with dinner tonight, and is running for the duration of the challenge, until September 24. We are fairly sure you are allowed to eat it even if you’re not participating in the Localvore Challenge.
Localvore Challenge [Green City Market]
mk [MenuPages]
mk [Official Site]
[Photo: leeks and radishes at the Green City Market, via k.m.hahn’s Flickr]
