Candy Capital

Halloween = candy = Chicago. That's right: Chicago is the nation's Candy Capital, home to factories making treats such as Snickers, Lemonheads and Tootsie Rolls.

The sweetness started in the early 1900s, thanks to the city's large immigrant population (bringing their confection recipes from the Old World) and crossroads location (rail and waterway hub to ship the goods). At one time, Brach's chocolates, Peerless peppermints, Fannie May Frango Mints, M&M Mars candy bars, and Wrigley chewing gum perfumed the air. Many have now fizzled or moved production to cheaper locations.

Still, Chicago retains some fine tooth-rotting opportunities:

1. Blommer Chocolate Factory - It wafts the shoot-your-own-mother-in-the-kneecaps-to-get-to-it aroma that permeates the Loop. The company mostly processes chocolate for mega-companies like Nabisco, but there's an outlet store that sells chocolate-covered pretzels, chocolate-covered nuts, chocolate drops, and chocolate everything else for cheap.

2. Ferrara Pan Factory - The folks who make Lemonheads, Red Hots, Boston Baked Beans, Orangeheads, Grapeheads and Jawbusters also have a wee outlet store that sells the goods in bulk for a ridiculous $1.50 per pound.

Chicago Cheap Eats: New App

Hungry? Broke? The new app, Chicago Cheap Eats, can fix the problem. It'll point you to the city's best donuts, haute dogs, tortas, masala dosas, deep-dish pizzas and much more to stuff your face, typically for under $10.

Yours truly wrote the app. It's available for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Click here to go to the iTunes store, where 99 cents gets you 70+ restaurants of bargain-priced foodie goodness.

The company - Sutro Media - offers other swell travel apps, too, including the low-down on Boston (by Kim Grant) and Las Vegas (by Sara Benson).

Don Pedro: Cheap Eat of the Day

When you see the neon pink pigs in the window, you've found Don Pedro Carnitas. A machete-wielding gentleman greets you at the front counter, ready to hack off your pork pieces. He wraps the thick chunks with onion and cilantro into a fresh tortilla (the Del Ray factory is a few doors down the road), and you take the taco to the no-frills tables in back and squeeze on lime juice and tomatillo salsa. Delicioso! The restaurant also serves birria (spicy goat stew), brain tacos and chicharrones (seasoned, deep fried pork skin) among its meaty arsenal.

Don Pedro's juicy mecca is at 1113 W. 18th St. in Pilsen. Open 6am-6pm Mon-Fri, 5am-5pm Sat, 5am-3pm Sun. Tacos $1.50, cash only. Weekends are packed.