Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Judging from the name Slurping Turtle, you might expect Takashi Yagihashi’s new River North restaurant to be a noodle shop. Not so, says Mike Sula in his review—there are just a handful of dishes comparable to Japan’s regional ramen varieties, among them tan tan-men, a mildly spicy stew with ground pork and meatballs that he finds the most fulfilling bowl on the menu....

Alison Fisher, assistant curator at the Art Institute, is exploring the unconventional at: El Circo Cheapo Cabaret A friend recently introduced me to the amazing performances at El Circo Cheapo Cabaret, a kind of scripted open-mike night for professional and amateur aerialists and performers. The simple staging of the performance, which is held in a former warehouse, recalls the romance of 19th-century traveling carnivals, complete with an accordion player and juggler....

Amir ElSaffar didn’t want to leave Baghdad when the war started. The Oak Park native, a jazz trumpeter who was 25 in 2002, had been there studying the urban classical music maqam, but he was getting more than just a musical education. “When I got there, it was like, ‘This is home. This is where I want to be.’ When I think of those first couple of months it’s like when you first fall in love with somebody....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » As far back as the early 1900s, illegal drug markets developed around nightspots, pharmacies, and residences in the south-side Levee District, on North Clark Street, and in the skid row area on the Near West Side. Reformers pushed for a crackdown on users, but the police chief asked if they’d considered the repercussions, according to a paper by University of Florida historian Joseph Spillane....

Marriage is on the way out: according to a Bloomberg story last year, the percentage of Americans who are married has dropped in the last half century from 72 percent to about 50 percent. For comedians, professional marriage has become even more rare. Gone are the days of the great comedy duos: Abbott and Costello, Martin and Lewis, Burns and Allen, Olsen and Johnson, Clark and McCullough, Wheeler and Woolsey. A relic of vaudeville, the “double act” petered out in the “Me Decade” of the 1970s with teams like Cheech and Chong, Stiller and Meara, and Burns and Schreiber....

“I was afraid to even drink the stuff,” Eric Houser of Parson’s Chicken & Fish says of mustard oil, the ingredient with which Hanna Mutsch (Kuma’s Corner) challenged him to create a cocktail. “It’s real pungent. It’s in the horseradish/wasabi family, so it has that sinus spice to it, but also a chile spice. And you’re drinking oil, which is gross.” Houser rates the cocktail “between not terrible and pretty good,” which won’t earn it a place on the menu at Parson’s....

Copresented by British music magazine the Wire and the Empty Bottle (1035 N. Western), the Adventures in Modern Music festival begins Wednesday, September 9, and runs through Sunday, September 13. As in past years, festival artists are getting a lot of love from Reader writers: on the List you’ll find Critic’s Choices on Andy Moor & DJ/Rupture and Hanne Hukkelberg (Thursday), A Hawk and a Hacksaw (Friday), and Phantom Orchard, the Subarachnoid Space, and Woods (Sunday)....

The three most revolutionary filmmakers to emerge from Poland after World War II—Roman Polanski, Jerzy Skolimowski, and Andrzej Zulawski—might not have been so revolutionary had they not also been so Polish. All three are old enough to remember the end of the war, when the Nazi occupation gave way to the Soviet occupation without so much as a moment of self-rule between them. From the 1790s to the end of the Cold War, Poland was a sovereign nation for only 25 years....

What’s the best restaurant? Most aggravating question I’m ever asked. There is no best restaurant, and anyone who thinks they can name one doesn’t get out enough. But there are those that perform uniquely, excel in ways that others don’t, and remain on your mind long after you’ve digested. Last year, I had no choice but to choose Next. Considering the subsequent 12 months, I didn’t have much choice but to choose Phillip Foss’s El Ideas....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » All the info for the weekend you’ll need is up on Soundboard. After the jump are some words that our writers have on some especially notable shows. Says Miles Raymer about the groundbreaking Chicago electronic trio Phuture, who will be headlining a dance party at Metro tonight, “Sometime in 1985 three producers in the nascent Chicago house scene who collectively called themselves Phuture got their hands on a Roland TB-303 synthesizer....

On last year’s Disturbing the Air (Drag City), Azita Youssefi completed her transformation from top-shelf noise rocker to poetic singer-songwriter—though she continues to insist that the songs she cowrote with her cacophonous mid-90s band the Scissor Girls are catchy too. What’s undeniably different is the craftsmanship: she’s focusing on the songs themselves, having abandoned her penchant for bizarre costumes and her eccentric and aggressive stage presence. By and large she limits herself to voice and piano, attempting to strip away any sort of signifiers additional instruments might provide....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » At the main event there were about a dozen tents and four chefs’ tables offering food, mostly small tastes of one dish. A few offered more than one thing, like the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago and Fox & Obel (although I couldn’t figure out a good way to try Fox & Obel’s olive oil and vinegar with bread, since there were no plates on hand, just napkins)....

Constance Mensh Chris Forsyth & the Solar Motel Band When Philadelphia guitarist Chris Forsyth rolled through town back in February Bill Meyer previewed the show and pinpointed some of the key six-string masters that have been deeply integrated into the musician’s playing: Jimmy Page, Neil Young, Keith Richards, and the sharp improvisational interplay at work in bands like Grateful Dead, Dream Syndicate, and Television. At the time Forsyth was touring in support of last year’s terrific Solar Motel (Paradise of Bachelors)—a studio effort where he handled most of the playing himself, although he was joined by the great jazz drummer Mike Pride—but since its release he’s put together a working combo to play the music....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Our guide to the Pitchfork Music Festival gives you the skinny on what to check out today. If it’s your first day at the festival, check Miles Raymer’s introduction for general info. We have reviews of all of Saturday’s acts, but the itineraries from staff and other contributors may be more helpful for planning your day. For today, we’ve got music editor Philip Montoro (“I’m not sure I should bother with Liturgy minus drummer Greg Fox, but I’m perversely curious to see how ‘transcendental black metal’ works with a laptop for a rhythm section”), staff writer Kevin Warwick (“Maybe tweet some shit or something”); Britt Julious, Best of Chicago winner and senior editor of This Recording (“Grimes is my new favorite Galactic Fairy Princess”); WBEZ Weekender host Alison Cuddy (“What outfit can handle the heat, goes well with neon, and isn’t prone to porta-potty fail?...

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Last week FN made a gesture toward acknowledging the size of this country’s Latino community by announcing it was signing Ingrid Hoffman to a “multi-year deal to star in her own daytime series set to premiere in 2007,” a move that had been hinted at earlier this year. Hoffman made her first appearance as a “Food Network talent” in her hometown of Miami at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival this past weekend....

QMy fiance and I have been together for six years. We’re both 27. About a year ago he admitted to me that he is bi—which I was surprised about. I told him that I was bicurious. We’ve had talks about meeting with other couples, but I’m very insecure. I’ve been with very few men and no women (beyond kissing). Today my fiance told me that a few weeks ago he signed us up on a personals website, where he posted a picture of me naked from the waist down....

If you can tolerate groupthink, you might enjoy this musical for over-50 gals, which has a few good numbers, notably the patter song “I Don’t Want” and the poignant “Just Like Me” and “Invisible.” But you have to overlook a lot. Like racist stereotypes: only the Latina and African-American characters are still “spicy.” (At least they flaunt their sexuality instead of whining about losing it.) Then there’s the sexism: women are depicted as devoted shoppers and slavish wives who branch out by learning golf so they can spend more time with hubby....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Chef Daniel Tucker leads a hands-on class on how to grill the perfect steak Thursday at 6 PM on the patio at Room 21; besides the actual grilling he’ll cover marinades, salts, and crusts. Participants can choose filet mignon, rib eye, or strip steak and seasonings and sauces like herb garlic, horseradish and Dijon, blue cheese, and béarnaise sauce....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » “Journalism is going to survive,” he said. “It’s a strong thing. It’s like a river. It may change directions, it may get dirty, but water gets to wherever it needs to go.” But the more elegant the metaphor, the more skeptical we need to be of it. Robaugh’s words turned in my head until finally I decided they were not only more poetic than true but perhaps even dangerous....

The latest from veteran Chicago blues journeyman Johnny Drummer, Rockin’ in the Juke Joint (Earwig), is his most satisfying album yet. He throws his hat into the contemporary soul-blues ring on funk-driven numbers like “Too Much Information,” but when he picks up his harmonica things get down-home in a hurry. On “Working With Your Mojo,” “Stress Reliever,” and “I Had a Dream,” Drummer squalls, swoops, and caterwauls like a demented rooster....