Chicago Italian Beef & Hot Dog Experience

Ok, so when I went to Chicago last year, I made my friends take me to get deep dish pizza. That's all I knew about what was special in Chicago cuisine. How wrong I was! So since he'd had a year to get used to things, my friend Chris treated me to the Chicago Italian Beef & Hot Dog experience... MMM! Picture the beginnings of a Philly cheese steak... the shaved marinated beef on a long roll... except instead of adding the cheese, add 'jardiniere'. Jardiniere is this oh so wonderful tasting vegetable relish made from carrots, celery, and I'm not really sure what else is there, but with the beef it tastes great. Alright, so after you add the jardiniere you take the whole sandwich and dip it in this spicy, greasy, I don't really know how to describe it, "sauce." (Well, the dipping is optional, Chris got mine for me on the side.) Here's a picture:

Ok, I'll come clean, this wasn't actually my sandwich, I was too hungry to remember to take a picture of the darn thing before I dove in. Anyhow, I wasn't really crazy over the dip, but the sandwich in and of itself was really good.

Chris had wanted to take me to Al's, that's the big-name place in Chicago to get the Italian beef. It would have meant kind of a convoluted drive, though, so he took me to Torre's in his neighborhood. It was a neat looking place, sort of old fashioned, but very clean!

Since we were both really hungry, we also got a Chicago dog. I must say it was the best tasting hot dog I've ever had. However, it was a bit overloaded for my tastes. The traditional Chicago dog has mustard, relish, onions, tomatoes, and a dill pickle spear. Frankly, I would have been happy with just the mustard, relish, and onions, and that's how I got the rest of my hot dogs over the next few days. (Like I said, the dog itself just tasted so good, once I had tried one... I had to try more!) Here's a picture... again, not of my own hot dog... I was hungry, what do you want?!

The next few years are going to be interesting... I think I'll have Chris set up a tour of the Vienna Beef factory. Actually, on second thought, I think I'll take Bismark's advice and just go to the factory's lunch counter and forego the "How Hot Dogs Are Made" tour. Yeah...

Until next time!

God Bless,

~J

Mundelein Visit

Well, for those of you who might not get out to see Mundelein for a while, or maybe even ever... here is a link to a virtual tour of the campus:
http://www.seminary.kjgallery.com/
And to get a sense of just how gigantic the campus is, check out the satellite picture on Google Maps:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=1000+E.+Maple+Ave.,+Mundelein,+IL&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=35.357014,81.738281&ie=UTF8&ll=42.281024,-87.997527&spn=0.008065,0.019956&t=k&z=16&iwloc=addr&om=1
If the link doesn't take you directly to the shot of the campus, try inputting the address into the search window. The address of the seminary is 1000 E. Maple Ave., Mundelein, IL. Scroll the map to the northwest following University Dr. to the heart of the campus.

I had a good visit to Mundelein. My boards went well, at least I think they did; they consisted of three half-hour meetings with Administrators, Formation Faculty, and Academic Faculty. (At Mundelein, they have separated the responsibilities of spiritual direction, planning formation seminars, etc., and teaching unlike most seminaries where there is one faculty that takes on both types of responsibilities.) I will say this about my impressions from the interviews: I think it's going to be a tough four years there... and that gives me a sense of peace. It came across loud and clear that the education and formation offered at Mundelein Seminary will search out all of the areas where I need to grow and will provide me with the tools and support to work on whatever I need to work on. There is no contentment with the status quo. I like that.

Among the more interesting aspects of my visit was the fact that I met and conversed with more Africans in my 24 hours there than I had in my whole life up to that point. I met several Kenyans and Tanzanians; some were students at the seminary, some were visitors who had come to attend the ordination of some of the students from their countries. Very friendly people, all of them, I must say. I look forward to the chance to get to know them all more.

I also took some videos of the campus, and if I can figure out how to post them, I will, but let's just say I still have a lot to learn about that whole process from filming, to editing, to saving in some kind of format that people can actually access! In other words, don't hold your breath on this one!

That's it for now. I'll post some entries on the rest of my trip to the greater Chicago metropolitan area soon.

God Bless,
~J