Smile Politely. Speak Directly. A Champaign-Urbana Culture Blog

There's barbecue and then there's Jackson's "pit" barbecue.

Located on First Street, across from the police station, this windowless storefront hides one of the best barbecue joints in town. Inside, the decor is sparse and clean, just your basic unfussy dining room with a full-service bar area (open only during the evening). The soda fountain is self-serve and so is the beer cooler. You order at the counter and pay first, but this is definitely not fast food. If you're in a hurry, go to Li'l Porgy's. But if you want authentic down home cooking, then stick around. The food will come eventually.

If you're in the mood for Mexican food, there are numerous choices around town. But do you ever wonder why the customers at these restaurants are all American and the only Mexicans you see are the ones serving you? So where do Mexicans like to eat when they go out? Apparently they like to gather at at El Charro, a little taco joint and grocery store on Green Street that makes no attempt to cater to American tastes.

On a recent trip to Boston, I made the mistake of trying the clam chowder at a so-called "seafood" restaurant. The flavor was bland and the consistency milky. Maybe that's what they like, but I prefer my chowder hearty. So upon my return, I decided to do my own version.

Traditional chowder recipes call for roux, the French version of a thickener made with butter and flour. I prefer to let the potatoes do the thickening for me. By cooking some of the potatoes a little longer than others, they begin to melt and act as the thickener.

Sure, I could use fresh clams, but why?

After tasting all the wonderful flavors of Indonesian food, we couldn't possibly leave Bali without taking a cooking class. Several restaurants in Bali offer cooking classes, but we didn't want to learn about Indonesian cuisine from a German or Aussie chef, so we chose Warung Enak ("delicious restaurant") whose kitchen was run by Chef Rai Adnyani.

Warung Enak also had a great logo and a fun web site, so we thought that they would be a class act — and we were right. As it turned out, Chef Rai was not only Indonesian, she was an amazingly creative chef — and her sparkling stainless steel kitchen was an all-woman operation.

We decided to stay in Ubud for a while since the eating was good and cheap. But as we looked around the dining rooms of Monkey Forest Road restaurants, we noticed that there were no Indonesians eating with us (just a lot of happy Europeans, Japanese and even a few Aussies). So we wondered, where do Indonesians go when they're hungry?

Our home away from home in Jimbaran is the Villa Balquisse, a boutique hotel near the beach.

The pictures on the Internet didn't do justice to this hotel. From the curtains to the furniture, the attention to detail was astounding. Everything was perfect including the food and the service provided by the staff. Most hotels in Bali provide a free breakfast for guests and Villa Balquisse is no exception.

We're in Jimbaran, a seafood town. So we have no choice but to eat seafood.

The Jimbaran beach is lined with probably 50 or more seafood warungs (the local name for a small family-owned outdoor restaurant). Divided into three sections, each part of the beach has a row of warungs that serves pretty much exactly the same thing, freshly caught fish from the local fish market, lobsters, prawns and squid. Even the preparation is exactly the same: the seafood is grilled over dried coconut shells instead of charcoal and then served as is or sauced to your liking. The prices are listed as "per 100 grams" and you even get to pick your own fish right out of the ice bins.

So how does one choose which restaurant to try?

Yesterday, we arrived in Denpasar (Bali's major city) just after lunch. Our hotel picked us up at the airport and within half an hour, we were checked in and in the pool. We chose to stay in Jimbaran because it was close to the beach. Although Jimbaran was once a small fishing village, today it is a beach resort town with grand hotels and boutique villas.

Surprisingly, some of that old fishing village charm still exists.

Editor's Note: Our roving food writer, Paul Young, reports from his spring break excursion to Bali. Watch for a new column every day this week.

After a fairly uneventful 13-hour flight, we landed in Taipei for a two-hour layover.

As soon as we got off the plane, we headed directly to the airport's food court to see what we could scrounge up. The first food stall we came to looked promising, so we dove right in. This being an airport food court, they had planned for language barriers – so the food was on display. All we had to do was point and say "one" (with one finger pointing up, course).

Editor's Note: Our roving food writer, Paul Young, reports from his spring break excursion to Bali. Watch for a new column every morning this week.

One of the privileges of teaching is being able to take off during spring break.

This year, we decided to go to Bali for some fun and good eats. Since Bali is halfway around the world (literally), we decided to break up the trip with a stopover in San Francisco. Armed with a rental car and the Bay Area Guardian's Best of Guide, we zeroed in on a little neighborhood Japanese joint near the renowned Castro district called Eiji (317 Sanchez, San Francisco). We chose Eiji because we've never had oboro (handmade tofu) before.

Some may remember the days when Am-Ko was the only Asian grocery store in town. Today, one can choose from perhaps more than half-a-dozen Asian grocers, all of them locally-owned and run as family businesses. Each grocery store has an ethnic focus – Chang's is Chinese, Lee's is Korean, Annapoorna is Indian, Am-Ko is Korean and Japanese, and so on. Of these choices, my favorite place to shop is Far East, hidden on Fifth Street just south of University Avenue. Until recently, you probably wouldn't notice it was there because the only identifying mark was a few hand-painted words on their building. The colorful new sign that just went up may make the shop slightly easier to find.

About every month or so, the Red Herring restaurant transforms itself into a very special Indian restaurant. Simply called "Sambar," Indian people of all ages – students, professors, families, children – gather in the basement of the Channing-Murray foundation to enjoy some of the best homemade south Indian food available in the area. Sure, there's always a few in-the-know Western diners at Sambar, but personally, I think Indian food tastes better if enjoyed in the company of Indians.

There was a time when sushi was perceived as exotic and foreign. Raw fish? Isn't that down-right un-American? Today, sushi is available everywhere in Champaign-Urbana – even at your local grocery store (i.e. Schnucks and County Market). So who serves up the best sushi in town? The answer, according to our niece Allison and her best friend Anna, is Yellowfin.

The foodie world is divided between sushi virgins and sushi connoisseurs (with very few people in between). In the quest to convert more people to sushi lovers, we decided to start early with our niece Allison. When she was 8 years old, we started taking her out to eat at sushi restaurants. Over the years, she has tried sushi at just about every restaurant in town. So when a new restaurant named Yellowfin opened a few months ago, she insisted that we go there as well.

A perk of teaching at Parkland College is the privilege of participating in international exchange programs. Recently we met Danny and Leni, two Indonesian exchange students who are here as part of a U.S. state department-sponsored program. Danny and Leni told us that they missed their favorite foods from home, so we invited them over one evening so that they could teach us how to make a few authentic Indonesian dishes. Danny suggested three courses – a traditional Indonesian soup, followed by a popular fried rice dish and then finishing off our meal with a dessert soup.

With all the hullabaloo about Carmon's in downtown Champaign reopening as a crêperie, we thought it would be a good time to revisit Champaign's first crêperie in to compare. Originally called Tout Sweet, the brightly lit little café is hidden inside the College Corner Mall on the corner of Fourth and Green Streets. About a year ago, Tout Sweet was transformed into The Crêpe Café with a new owner and an expanded menu. They weren't kidding when they said "expanded." As soon as our party of three sat down, we were immediately overwhelmed by a menu listing 12 savory crêpe selections plus twelve more dessert options. Then, there were omelettes, salads and an invitation to create our own masterpiece from a list of ingredients which included many vegetarian options. Then our waiter pointed to the specials of the day which included seven more choices including a smoked salmon, brie and spinach combination as well as an eggs Benedict option - that's eggs Benedict inside a crêpe.

Whenever my wife Bonnie and I take an excursion to big cities such as Chicago or St. Louis, we look for dining opportunities not available in our little towns. Since there are no Ethiopian restaurants in Champaign-Urbana, we try to find an excuse to stop at Ethiopian Diamond in Chicago or Meskerem in St. Louis to satisfy our taste buds for Northern African flavors. Ethiopian cuisine has heady, intense flavors and unusual spice combinations. The sloppy portions are usually served on a spongy bread called injera. Traditionally, the food is shared by everyone at the table and eaten the way food was meant to be eaten — without utensils. The tactile sensation of feeling the texture and temperature of what you are about to put in your mouth is like foreplay. Everything just seems to tastes better.

With Strawberry Fields remodeling their cafe, despairing foodies have one less quality place to lunch. Fortunately, Sunsinger Wine Bar Cafe is doing quite well, and they are welcoming those in need of exceptional sandwiches, soups, salads, snacks and desserts. Lunch in a wine store? Why not? There's something snobby and decadent about being surrounded by racks and racks of expensive wines while sampling a duck liver pate or a jerk chicken wrap.

Dim sum is Chinese-style tapas, small plates of appetizers usually served with tea for breakfast. In the United States, dim sum (loosely translated as "a touch of the heart") is more often served as weekend brunch at bustling Chinatown palaces where hundreds of varieties may be available on given day. Traditionally served on rolling steam table carts pushed by female servers who often don't speak any English, one only needs to point to an item to have it instantly appear on your table, ready to gobble up.

Recently, I sat down with myself to talk about what it means to be a foodie. It was right after indulging in a homemade lamb pilaf, and the mood was relaxed. So I began with the most obvious question.