Catholic Tastes, [July 18 from 6 - 10 PM]

I have discovered that the Catholic Church in my neighborhood -- Our Lady of Lourdes in Ravenswood -- draws on its very ethnically diverse congregation to provide fantastic home-cooked dishes for its parish fundraisers. Its annual Taste of Lourdes event is on Saturday, July 18 from 6 to 10 p.m. in the parking lot across the street from the church at 4640 N. Ashland. The event raises money to restore the beautiful old domed church. Non-parishioners are welcome. I have eaten the best tamales of my life at past fundraisers and now have friends placing orders with me. Parishioners from Guatemala, El Salvador, the Philippines, Nigeria and Ireland also provide wonderful, authentic food from their native lands for this and other church events. In addition to tasting great, the food is ridiculously inexpensive so you can easily afford to be adventurous -- encouraged by the ladies of the parish who will urge you to try their specialty. This United Nations of Kitchens is well worth a visit.

I don't think I'll be able to attend, as delightful as it sounds -- but I did want to note that I appreciated the play on words with "catholic tastes." Very clever.

Thank you for posting this. I plan to go!