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• Want to see more chocolate than you’ll ever see in any one place short of the Wonka factory? The Chicago Fine Chocolate & Dessert Show is the consumer part of a national dessert trade show taking place at Navy Pier this weekend; your $25 admission lets you see dozens of exhibitors (some of whom will offer samples), demos from the French Pastry School and various TV dessert shows, and a 1,000-pound chocolate sculpture of a blues musician by the irrepressible record setter chef Alain Roby of All Chocolate Kitchen in Geneva. Incidentally, a week from Thursday will officially be Chef Alain Roby Day in Chicago, by mayoral decree.
• I was just reading a Facebook post about how offal dishes aren’t as popular here as in other gastronomic destinations when Table, Donkey & Stick sent out an announcement about its offal-based Halloween dinner. It’s a six-course menu including a first course of fish heads, Pierre Koffmann’s pied de cochon aux morilles, blood pudding and dark chocolate tart, and a treat of caramel corn chicharrones—in a bag, of course. It’s $60 per person; call 773-486-8525.
• Rob Gardner of the Local Beet is trying to follow Breathless Mark Bittman’s new diet/health book VB6, the core idea of which is being vegan until dinnertime each day, but he’s also arguing with some of the things Bittman glosses over, like the definition of “junk food” and the low-carb diet he espouses.
