The Chicago Reader has a fantastic little ongoing series called Key Ingredient featuring chefs from around the city challenging each other to cook with unusual ingredients. After completing the challenge, the reigning chef gets to select the next ingredient as the baton is passed. The chefs have created a highly entertaining, somewhat hilarious, and occasionally gross lineage. Pork cheek gives way to silver needle tea and a little later millet (so far, so good), but before long we get a strange series of Malört, blood and ostrich egg! Oh my, oh my. 

Blood grits with duck egg. Yum?

These chefs are very creative, coming up with recipes that all end up palatable and sometimes even tasty, even if no one’s dying to add these items to their menu. The articles are fun and informative, too, since they follow the chefs’ thought process and give glimpses of the action behind the scenes.

The best part? Each article includes the recipe for the dish… sometimes quite tongue in cheek since in a few cases no one would ever make this stuff. Michael Carlson of Schwa, for example, ends the Malört article by saying, “If anyone really wants to make this anywhere, I’ll personally come to your house to make it instead. Because you don’t want it.”