Tribune's Suggestions for the Real Chicago-- Part 2

Continued

3. CHICAGO DOG-- You've just got to have one of these. A real good one can be had at Hot Doug's at 3324 N. California Avenue. While there, you can bone up on the City Council's 2005 ban on foie gras (liver of force-fed ducks). Before the repeal of it in 2008, owner Doug (Get it, Hot Doug's) Sohn was fined $250 for serving a fois gras-garnished sausage named for the alderman who sponsored the ban. (Ah, civil disobedience in Chi-Town.)

4. PUTT-PUTT AT THE MORTUARY-- Palatine's (northwest suburban Chicagoland) Ahlgrim Family Funeral Home at 201 N. Northwest Highway (US-14) has a miniature golf course in the basement. Forty years ago, owner Roger Ahlgrim decided to put the f-u-n in funeral, and had a gold course constructed downstairs with various spooky obstacles like a coffin, graveyard, crypt, and red-eyed skull. However, no games can be played when there is a funeral service upstairs. I've attended many funerals here, including most recently, that of my mother-in-law and two high school classmates.

There is also a 3/4 scale windmill in a small park by the parking lot.

5. LANGUAGE THING-- Stand at the corner of Lawrence and Kedzie avenues in the Albany Park neighborhood and hear Urdu, Polish, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Hindi, Romanian, Cambodian and even more obscure languages being spoke. Then look at the store signs in Spanish, Arabic, Korean, Japanese, Chinese and more.

Sounds like a more real Chicago than the sanitized one the mayor gave.

Compiled by Monica Eng, Alan Artner and Patrick T. Reardon

Well, Ive Done #1 and #4. --RoadDog