Cooking With Tobacco

(chicagoist) Back in the spring, our own Kevin Robinson started a tobacco-growing project (parts 1, 2, 3, and 4). In his first post on the project, Kevin said that tobacco was "a fun and easy plant to grow, if cared for properly." Which I assume is why he and his wife gifted me with four planters of White Orinoco tobacco after an evening of tiki cocktails at Won Kow in Chinatown in late May. I found it to be a sincere gesture on Kevin's part, but ultimately a tits on a bull move: I'm a non smoker. 'Course, as soon as I returned to my apartment I was online furiously searching for historical examples of possible culinary uses for tobacco. Continued