Aimee Levitt
The Takeout
Chicago, IL, United States
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Past articles by Aimee:
So do you order takeout or not?
This week has brought back two of my most enduring memories of 9/11 and the immediate aftermath. → Read More
Wisconsin dairy farmers strike back at Joaquin Phoenix after Oscar speech
There was a time when people who won Academy Awards would get up, say something like, “I’d like to thank the Academy and my 9,000 closest colleagues and friends, who I will now proceed to name one by one until the orchestra starts playing music to make me leave the stage.” But I guess that got boring, even for the people delivering those speeches, so they began talking, sometimes incoherently,… → Read More
East coasters discover square-cut pizza, attempt to mock things they don’t understand
A very Midwest-specific tweet began making the rounds over the weekend, a twist on a very NYC-specific tweet about the best seat on the subway. It was, naturally, about pizza. → Read More
Point/counterpoint: What’s the best shape of fried pickles?
There was a time when fried pickles may have been considered controversial in some parts of the country, but now that it’s been suggested that you should put a pickle slice on your Oreo, that argument seems hopelessly passé. Now the question is, since we agree fried pickles are delicious, what’s the best way to eat them? → Read More
Do cucumbers actually reduce eye puffiness?
As long as humans have been concocting beauty treatments, they have been trying to fight eye puffiness. Egyptian kohl was said to serve as eye protection just as much as decoration. Back in the 12th century, Pope John XXI, when he was still just Peter of Spain, wrote a full treatise on treatments for various eye problems and suggested that for a swollen eye, “chamomile placed over the eye has… → Read More
Nestle has a new plant-based burger, and it is Awesome
In the beginning, there was the veggie burger. And it was... not so good. Then came Beyond Meat. And it was better. And then came Impossible Foods, followed by the Impossible Whopper. And Big Food saw that all this was generating lots of buzz and said, “Lo, we should get in on that.” So earlier this month, Kellogg announced its own fake meat, which it improbably decided to call Incogmeato. And… → Read More
How do you make something as great as apple pie even greater?
Fall has become the season for pumpkin spice everything, but for me, the true taste of fall will always be apple pie. Okay, I’m lying, I’ll eat apple pie all year round. But this the time of the year when all the different apple varieties are piled high in the markets—both the farmer’s markets and the regular supermarkets—and there’s only so many you can eat out of hand, so what else are you… → Read More
Pizza Hut’s Stuffed Cheez-It Pizza tests the limits of snack food fusion
There was great curiosity in Takeout land when we learned that Pizza Hut was planning to release a Stuffed Cheez-It pizza. Would the Cheez-Its be scattered across the top, like Doritos on a Quad Cities pizza? Or would they be pulverized and pressed together to form the base, like a graham cracker pie crust? → Read More
Detroit’s Coney Island hot dogs are family business
The United States of Hot Dogs is a recurring feature exploring the historic origins and modern appeal of America’s regional hot dogs. → Read More
Kouign amann was my home baking Shangri-La
The first season I watched of The Great British Baking Show was Season 5, the one with Nancy and Chetna and Bingate, and my love was cemented during Week 7 when the contestants had to make kouign amann during the technical challenge. This is because kouign amann is the most enchanting pastry ever invented. It combines the crispy pastry layers of a croissant, but prior to baking, it’s covered in… → Read More
Remembering Andrea Gronvall
Farewell to a Reader contributor and much-valued colleague → Read More
Man opens can of baked beans, finds just a single bean
An Englishman opened a can of Heinz baked beans for his supper Tuesday evening presumably hoping to enjoy, you know, beans. What he got instead was a single bean floating in a bowlful of bean juice. Because this is the 21st century, he took a video of the sad spectacle and shared it with his 189 Twitter followers and tagged Heinz. → Read More
Starbucks vs. Dunkin: Pumpkin Spice Latte edition
As you’ve surely heard by now, it’s Pumpkin Spice Latte season, motherfuckers. It gets earlier and earlier every year. This year Dunkin’ Donuts went so far as to introduce its collection pumpkin coffee drinks on August 21, a full six days ahead of Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte. Actual pumpkins aren’t even ready for harvest yet. But what do gourds have to do with coffee anyway? Now that it’s… → Read More
The Twitter rabbi
“This, too, is Torah,” says Danya Ruttenberg. → Read More
The tragic romance of Abby and Bear
They were two Lab mixes from opposite sides of the fence. → Read More
#MeToo comes to the food-and-drink biz
The Restaurant Culture Association seeks to help the notoriously loose hospitality industry combat sexual harassment proactively. → Read More
A visit to the Sweets and Snacks Expo
Two intrepid reporters try to avoid drowning in a sea of salt and sugar. → Read More
Armed with family recipes, Masa Madre takes on Passover
The Pilsen bakery blends traditional Jewish and Mexican flavors—this time without flour. → Read More
"Purchased Lives" at the Illinois Holocaust Museum connects the slave trade to the reality of the present
"People think slavery is a southern story. It’s not a southern story. It’s an American story." → Read More
Lit recs for the reader in search of adventure
The current book obsessions of Northwestern prof Bill Savage and Reader culture editor Aimee Levitt → Read More