A true 'staycation': Local culinary tour lets you travel the world

June 27, 11:35 AMChicago Dining ExaminerEmily Szopa

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  Nine Dragon Wall in Chinatown / photo by Greg Dunham (via Flickr)

One of the great things about living in a big city is the way it’s broken down into smaller, more navigable neighborhoods. When someone tells you they live in Bucktown or Ravenswood, you have an immediate frame of reference. In the same way, if your friend tells you about a great place to get Vietnamese iced coffee, there’s a pretty good chance it’s on Argyle Street, a community unto itself.

We love our individual ‘hoods, but sometimes the comfort level we achieve by knowing our area inside and out creates a mental block towards other areas. I can’t count the number of times I’ve invited certain friends to check out a new restaurant or band, only to hear, “Oh, that’s too far north,” or, “I hate Lincoln Park,” etc., etc. And so, for many of us, there are areas of our city that go undiscovered, or, at the very least, underexamined.

(To "discover" some of Chicago's ethnic neighborhoods, check out the slideshow at the bottom of this post)

Explore your city

Maybe you’ve made the trip to Chinatown for hot pot or dim sum, but do you have any idea where to get the best Peking duck, or where to find the best beef tendon soup? It’s easy to declare the one place you’ve checked out as “the best,” but how do you know unless you’ve taken the time to really get to know the neighborhood?

Local cooking instructor Rebecca Wheeler helps Chicagoans familiarize themselves with culinary hotspots such as Chinatown, Argyle Street and Devon Ave. She conducts weekly tours that promise a literal taste of Chicago’s best ethnic cooking, with expert insight gained from years of traveling the globe and cooking with master chefs.

Experience is everything

Wheeler has been teaching cooking classes for nine years, with a professional background that includes pastry training at Le Cordon Bleu Paris, cooking classes in Thailand, volunteer work at an organic farm in Umbria, working with the pastry team at Trotter's To Go and completing an externship under James Beard Award-winning chef Grant Achatz, at Trio. Her subsequent experience as a personal chef helped her develop the classes she teaches today at The Wooden Spoon, as well as the tours she has carefully crafted to help introduce Chicagoans to their neighboring 'hoods.

Wheeler's tours aren't just about the food, either: From historical information to architectural tidbits and ethnic customs, she immerses her tour groups in the culture of the areas they visit. Her Chinatown tour, new this year, takes travelers from Hong Kong to Szechwan, stopping at tea shops, wok shops and local markets along the way. The Devon Ave. tour includes a lesson on not just cooking with Indian spices, but also how to shop for and store them. Regardless of which tour you choose, you'll leave with both a belly full of good food and a head full of knowledge gained along the way.

Details, details, details

Tours take between 3-1/2 to 4 hours and involve a bit of walking*, so bring good shoes, extra cash for any additional purchases you may want to make at the various markets along the way, and, most importantly, an open mind. The cost per person is $85, and tours require a minimum of 4 attendees and a maximum of 12.

*note: Andersonville tour is a driving tour and therefore accommodates only small groups, up to four people. If you're interested, contact Rebecca for more information.

This summer's tour schedule is as follows:

• Chinatown Tours:
  -Saturday, July 25th 10am-2pm
  -Saturday, August 15th 10am-2pm
  -Saturday, Sept. 12th 10am-2pm
  -Saturday, October 3rd 10am-2pm
   
• Argyle Tours:
  -Sunday, July 26th 10am-2pm
  -Saturday, August 22nd 10am-2pm
  -Saturday, Sept. 19th 10am-2pm
  -Saturday. October 17th 10am-2pm
   
• Devon Tours:
  -Saturday, August 1st 10am-2pm
  -Saturday, August 29th 10am-2pm
  -Saturday, October 10th 10am-2pm
   
• Andersonville Tour:
  -Saturday, Sept. 26th 10am-2pm

Wheeler also offers personalized cooking classes, ranging from ethnic/regional cooking to basic techniques to workshops. Contact Rebecca for more information by clicking here.

You can learn more about all of the tours by visiting Rebecca's website at www.rebeccawheeler.com