Txa Txa Summer Supper Club
18 Coffees Community Partnership got its start through friendsgivings, potlucks, and meaningful gatherings centered around food. This July, 18 Coffees collaborated with food pop-up Txa Txa Club in Chicago neighborhood Logan Square to bring Community Partners together through cuisine and culture.
Take a look at the delicious menu and kind words Txa Txa Club shared in their August 2022 newsletter below:
Menu
Appetizers
Latke: ajvar, feta, olives
Inspired by Josh Dennison and Lauren Long
Summer Dumplings: sweet pea, asparagus, cabbage consommé, nasturtium, chicharrones
Inspired by Robin Chung and Kimberley Wasney
Empanada: sweet potato, golden raisin, ras el hangout, black bean, plum
Inspired by Jessica Ivetich
Main Course
Fried Whole Catfish: chow chow, makrut leaf, bird’s eye hot sauce
Inspired by Caleb Gardner
Dessert
Gibanica Ice Cream: smoky strawberry shrub, chrusciki cookie, swiss chard agrodolce
Inspired by Kelly Wrather, Robert Snyder, and Jessica Ivetich
A Note from Txa Txa Club
Earlier this month we had the honor of cooking for a group of community members of the organization 18 Coffees. Community members shared with us some incredible stories of their culinary and cultural heritage, and we, TXA TXA CLUB, had the opportunity to reinterpret these foods and dishes to celebrate the community they’ve built together. We received stories of one family’s three generations of women gathering together to make steamed dumplings; a background with a Serbian father and a Mexican mother, where spreads of sarma and kajmak, tamales and empanadas were equally paramount in cultural development; or memories of baking mandelbrot and rugelach with a grandmother for Jewish holiday gatherings. These stories were as much inspiring as elucidating in considering the extent to which the role food plays in our cultural histories and identities.
We took these stories and folded in our own to create a menu for the occasion, coming up with dishes like summer dumplings—homemade cappelletti filled with spring pea and asparagus—with a cabbage consommé, chicharonnes, and garden nasturtium; empanadas with ras el hanout-spiced sweet potato and golden raisin, black beans and plums; gibanica ice cream with a smoky strawberry shrub, chrusciki cookie, and a swiss chard stem agrodolce.
The night was spectacular and intimate, and we’re so grateful to have been included in the experience. 18 Coffees, we thank you.
Many, many thanks to the Community Partners who shared their stories with us and to Txa Txa Club for their creativity and comforting welcome. It was a night (and meal) we won’t soon forget!
