El Sazon Restaurant

-Eating like a Mayan King in the Windy City

This past week I decided to post a poll to my twitter followers about which food spot I should investigate next. You see I have this list in my iPhone notes of about 30+ restaurants that I plan on checking out at some point or another. So when I posted the poll I picked four of them and after 24 hours the results were in. The winner turned out to be closed that next day so I made my way over to Pilsen to check out the runner up of the poll. El Sazon specializes in Antojitos Mexicanos.

 Newly Opened on Cermak in Pilsen 

In the windows of El Sazon are signs announcing what they will serve you. Aside from the mention of handmade tortillas as well as other fresh masa menu items they also enticed me with burgers and Cemita sandwiches. The menu has quite a few things I enjoy checking out at the mom and pop Mexican spots. For starters a tamale dorado was as pretty as any $1.50 tamale I've tried but a little dry from the frying. Dorado meaning golden which is what they call fried items in Mexican cuisine.

 Tamale Dorado at El Sazon 

Another menu item that will always catch my are tacos dorados. Only thing is you have to be careful and make sure to clarify that they're tacos dorados and not flautas which some places serve as tacos dorados. These were indeed flautas but the owner sold me on the fact they're made to order with the aforementioned housemade corn tortillas. Not only that but the chicken tinga filling was really smokey and abundant inside these crispy tubes of deliciousness. Really good. I will be back for more.

Flautas at El Sazon 

Then there's the Cemita sandwiches. These are not common at all though most everyone who loves food in Chicago knows of Cemitas Puebla and their awesome regional Mexican sandwiches. The region they hail from is the city of Puebla outside of Mexico City. Some of the ingredients that make a Cemita what it is are the bread the sandwich is named after. It should be sturdy with sesame seeds lacing the top. Also of note is the stringy white cheese which is always piled high. This sandwich was good but not what I wanted due to the bread being way too soft. Don't get me wrong I scarfed the whole thing down. But it could've been an amazing sandwich had the bread not been so soft. Still this place is a great little spot and I plan to go back for those flautas and maybe a burger or huarache too.

Cemita Sandwich (Chicken Milanese) at El Sazon Antojitos Mexicanos

El Sazon Restaurant
2128 W Cermak Rd
Chicago, IL 60608
(312) 838-9545

Joy Korea

-Grubbing in Chicago(land)

Food Court Food in da burbs

Remember Food Courts? Before they became food halls they were the spot to indulge in pizza, pretzels, and bourbon chicken. Admit it you enjoyed one of those things mentioned in a mall at some point in time. They were a part of the shopping experience. Well the shopping experience has moved online and the food court has transformed into the hall but a few of the old school ones still hang. Today we visit the food court inside Golf Mills Mall in Niles. Doing so is a step back into the 90's.

 

Food Court Stall Favorite at Golf Mills Mall

The Food Court at Golf Mills Mall is host to a "Japanese" Teriyaki Chicken spot, a "Cajun" Bourbon Chicken spot, and also a Korean BBQ place. Notice how I didn't put Korean in quotation marks. Joy Korea is a legit little spot for lunch should you be in the area. It's an independent spot run by a husband and wife team and they're cooking Korean classics with an emphasis on BBQ. But it's the Donkatsu that people rave about so I had to try it out. While it might not be anything worth leaving the city for I found it to be an excellent mall style lunch and so much better than the sweet shit the other spots push. It's a fried to order breaded pork loin that's chopped into strips when finished and served with a trio of dipping sauces including traditional tonkatsu sauce. It's easily two meals which is pretty much how I remember all meals served at the malls of Yester-year. Make America Fat Again.

Donkatsu at Joy Korea

Joy Korea
239 Golf mill Center #322
Niles, IL 60714
(224) 938-9691

Rice Bowl

-Grubbing in Chicago

Latin Rice Bowls on Western

I'm glad I finally put my foot down and headed over to today's stop for lunch recently. I was curious about the Rice Bowl since before they opened and probably passed it 10+ times after they opened. No reason why other than being indecisive much of the time. My list of places to try keeps growing at a much faster rate than the number of spots I'm able to try. Rice Bowl is a locally owned place where they put the popular Chipotle Menu model to use. You know the drill, choose your meat, sides etc.

 Newly Opened in Ukrainian Village 

But don't let the Chipotle model scare you away. That's where the comparisons end. Rice Bowl is home cooked Caribbean food like that which you'd find on islands like Puerto Rico, DR, Cuba. Choices of meats for your bowl include Bistec Encebollado, Pollo Guisado, and Lechon. After you choose your protein you pick your rice which can be Arroz con Habichuelas, Congri Rice, Arroz con Gandules. Then you get to pick your sides which are a variety of popular sides in Latin-Caribbean cooking - tostones, maduros, yuca etc. As you can see below my bowl with the lechon, arroz con habichuelas, tostones, and avocado was a thing of beauty. I scarfed it down real quick. Loved the lechon which was obviously fresh and loaded with pickled (Mojo?) onions. Also of note was the side of garlic sauce for the tostones. It was tongue tingling delicious. I'll be back for a sandwich soon.

Rice Bowl at the Rice Bowl

Rice Bowl
1021 N Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60622
(773) 235-3354
Website

Fat Johnnie's

-In Chicago: Every Dog Has it's Day

Terrible news this morning in the food world. One of the most respected folks we know when it comes to food has passed away. RIP Anthony Bourdain. Just last week I was explaining to an associate what a Mother-In-Law sandwich is here in Chicago. I went to google and searched for my article on Fat Johnnie's which is the place credited with creating them. I couldn't find a post of mine so instead I showed him the video of when Anthony Bourdain came to Chicago and tried one for his TV show.

Locals Favorite in Marquette Park 

Fat Johnnie's is a Chicago treasure. It looks more like a business in a small Mississippi town than it does one in Chicago but it's location way South on Western is a perfect one. It sits all alone in one of the more dilapidated buildings you'll ever come across. It's here where my friend Peter Engler once took Anthony Bourdain for a taste of hidden Chicago. Peter is probably the city's leading culinary historian and I credit both him and Bourdain with peaking my interest in food through exploration. They went to Fat Johnnie's to indulge in a Mother-In-Law which is a Chicago style tamale in a bun. They're a love-hate thing but I do enjoy one every couple of years or so. Not much left to say on both Fat Johnnie's and Bourdain as both have both had their stories told by people way more capable of doing so than me. So I just want to thank Tony for showing a part of Chicago that many hadn't seen until they watched that episode. I should remind everyone that Fat Johnnie's wont be around forever.

Mother-In-Law Sandwich at Fat Johnnie's 

Fat Johnnie's
7242 S Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60636
(773) 633-8196

Mr. Submarine

-The Sammy's of Chi

How about a little bit of Chicago nostalgia this week? A few months ago I was thinking about the city's hyper local fast food establishments. You know the type of spots that almost every city still has. They were once all over but nowadays there's only so many left. I thought of three spots in Chicago that would qualify. I thought about doing a little special round-up but I've already covered two of them. You can read up on Brown's Chicken HERE and on Pepe's HERE. The third was Mr. Submarine which we will visit today. I think I was maybe 20 years old the last time I was here.

Locals Favorite in Chicagoland 

Mr. Submarine got it's start in 1975. Today they have 25 locations scattered about Chicagoland. One of them is in Lincoln Park on Fullerton not to far from where I grew up. But we never ate there. I remember going to Mr. Sub a few times on the Southside when hanging out with my cousins in Beverly. My recent visit to the one on Ogden in Berwyn transformed me back to my childhood as soon I stepped inside. The distinct menu was still the same generic looking pictures. I love it! Mr. Submarine is known for their cheap sandwiches including the original Mr. Sub. It's made up of mystery meats and onions that taste like they came straight from the bag but for alot of folks there's nostalgia involved in eating one. Their other signature sandwich would have to be the gyros sub. It's a Chicago classic in that the gyro cones the meat comes from are a Chicago thing through and through. Gyro meat is sliced onto their sesame seed bread with Tzatziki and onions. Label me guilty.

Gyros Sub at Mr. Submarine 

Mr. Submarine
Locations across Chicagoland

S.K.Y

-Grubbing in Chicago

New to the 'Scene'

Unfortunately for the folks at S.K.Y they were in the news before they even had a chance to open. The restaurant is part of the ongoing transformation of Pilsen's 18th street. So some people from California took exception to what they called gentrification. Without getting too caught up into the debate of gentrification let me just say that 1.) It's very real. and 2.) But the agitators from California are wrong. Sorry but you dont even live in the neighborhood which has hosted a ton of different immigrant communities over the years. The opening of a restaurant in a formerly unused building shouldn't be cause for uproar. Though let me say the displacement of people probably should. But I'm here for the food which has gotten glowing reviews from the likes of Chicago's food media. Shall we?

Newly Opened in Pilsen 

S.K.Y is run by Chef Chef Stephen Gillanders formerly of Intro. The food can be described as Pan-Asian though you'll find plenty of other flavors in the dishes too. The space itself is large and dimly lit though luckily for me it's not so dark that the pictures come out like crap. After all just looking at them will give you a much better idea of the food than my words will. We started with a wonderful amuse bouche and moved right on to the lobster dumplings, what?! Two of my favorite things come together for a pretty memorable dish. I will say that pork works best as a filling in dumplings as sometimes seafood doesn't have the softest texture though this dish was sensationally rich. I'd heard they tested some 30+ dumpling wrappers before finding the right ones to hold lobster meat inside. The yellow sauce the dumplings are floating in is fueled by tons of butter. I knew I'd be liking this.

Lobster Dumplings at S.K.Y

Moving on to the next dish we were sold on the Roasted Pork Belly which we were told comes crispy on the outside and juicy inside. Just how we like it. Paired with red chile vinegar, cabbage, and coriander this was a perfectly cooked plate of food. Lots of pork belly is featured on menus these days but only a select few do really good things with it and S.K.Y is right up there with the best. 

Pork Belly - red chili vinegar |cabbage |  coriander

Last but not least is a dish that will most certainly be making it into my final post of the year aka the best stuff I ate in 2018. The reason this place shot way up on my radar was this dish. The foie gras bibimbop pairs two things I adore in the food world and it works so well you have to wonder why it's only happening now. You get a nicely seared piece of goose liver atop a bowl of dolsat bibimbop. Dolsat referring to the Korean stone bowl that's always served piping hot which makes for crispy rice at the bottom. It's a real treat and the reason why you should always pay the upgrade for the dolsat bibimbop when given the option. At S.K.Y it's standard and atop the rice and below the foie gras are a handful of sauteed vegetables including mushrooms, green onions, and more. It was decadent. With all of this we enjoyed a really nice white from Baja California and had some excellent service from a guy who grew up and still lives in the neighborhood. S.K.Y is one of 2018's best new restaurants. 

Foie Gras Bibimbap at S.K.Y

S.K.Y
1239 W 18th St
Chicago, IL 60608                                  
(312) 846-1077
Website

Lao BBQ in Wisconsin

- Chowing on Wisconsin

Last summer I had the opportunity to attend a real deal Laotian Barbecue up in the Lake Geneva Wisconsin area. It was hosted by the folks at Hometown Sausage Kitchen which is located in East Troy about 20 minutes north of Lake Geneva and about 45 minutes west of Racine. Hometown doubles as a retail and commercial butcher. They teamed up with Sap Sap Sausage which is a commercially sold Lao sausage company owned by a Laotian refugee turned American businessman named Alex Hanesakda. While I just read the 2018 BBQ sold out super quick they may add another.

East Troy, WI

Sap Sap does pop-up dinners throughout the summer and they can range from something grand like that which I attended to a low key pho cookout on the farm. Alex was the main host of this dinner as well as all of the other ones they've done. He came to the States from Laos at a young age when his family was sponsored by a Milwaukee family. They later moved to Burlington (WI) to be closer to other family members. It was in his mothers Burlington kitchen that Alex learned to love his heritage and particularly it's food. So one day he decided to put on these pop-ups promoting the cuisine of his home country. He's not the only one as I recently learned in a cool story from the Dallas Observer.

a peek inside

I found out of the barbecue through the promotion of it on Facebook. The fact Alex was able to get acclaimed Lao Chef Phet Schwader of NYC's Khe-Yo to co-host was a good reason to go. That and the fact it was a perfect Saturday as far as weather and the farm it's on was beautiful. It would've been a great day without the food and with the food it turned into a memorable one. Well worth the $60 pricetag with the BYOB option and all. Chef Phet did it up family style and bc of that I really felt like this was close as I'll get to a Lao feast here in the States. Everything was really great. They even had music and dancers which is typical entertainment at Lao bbq's. Here's what we ate pic'd below.

Food Spread (1/2)

- Khao-Neow / Sticky Rice Jaews / Sauce: Jaew-Sohm / Thai Chili Jaew-Mak-Len / Charred Tomato Jaew-Bong / Smoked Chili

- Sien-Savan / Heavenly Beef Jerky Thum-Mak-Hoong / Smashed Papaya Salad Thum-Mak-Thang / Smashed Cucumber Salad

- Ping-Gai / Yuppie Hill Grilled Laos-Style Chicken

Food Spread (2/2)

- Laap-Gai / Chicken Salad Gaeng-Sohm / Hot & Sour Soup

- Ping-Moo / Charcoal Grilled Lemongrass Baby Back Ribs

- Pouhn-Pa / Poached Local Pike, Charred Apple Eggplant, Chilies & Garlic Steamed Broccoli

- Puhn-Pa / Charcoal Grilled Local Fish Fresh Herbs & Lettuce, Shaved Lemongrass, & Sliced Cucumbers Rice Vermicelli Noodles & Sweet Carrot Peanut Sauce

Food Spread (dessert)

Considering how little presence Lao restaurants have in Chicago I thought this was well worth the drive which isn't all that far anyway. It ended up being a great day not just for food, weather, and surroundings but also in terms of meeting some really nice people including our hosts. I had the pleasure of sitting at the same table as Alex's family and it was an absolute honor. Of course I asked them where to get the best Lao food in Wisconsin and of course they told me I was eating it as we were speaking. No dispute from me on that. Like the Sap-Sap page on Facebook to get more info on the pop-ups's as they're announced. I plan on going back for more. Hope to see some of y'all there.

Alex (L) Chef Phet (R)

Hometown Sausage Kitchen
W1184 Co Rd L
East Troy, WI 53120
(262) 642-3264

Polish Food Trailer

-Grubbing in Chicago 
Polish Food and Tools

Usually a trip to the Home Depot's or Menards means a Chicago dog. Albeit a boring skinless wiener. But about four months ago I noticed a Polish food trailer permanently parked in the lot of Menard's on Clybourn. My first thought was it was a pretty awesome idea. After two visits he seems to be getting a steady crowd so how cool would it be if this became a thing? I guess it makes to much sense.

Polish Food Trailer parked in Menards at 2601 N. Clybourn 

I dont know much about the people behind the trailer but they do seem to be Polish if not Eastern European. The menu had quite a few options both Polish and also American. The latter of which are things like burgers, corn on the cob, and fair style fried potato sticks. As far as the Polish food goes it's pretty traditional as far as the classics go. You know stuff like potato pancakes, Polish sausage, stuffed cabbage, and of course pierogi. My first trip there I got some potato pancakes. I love them but I didn't love these. Had I known that they would comes with sour cream, bbq sauce, and some sort of orange colored concoction I would have said put it all on the side. But aside from that the pancakes came out so quick who knows how long they'd been sitting in there. They didn't seem so fresh.

Potato Pancakes

I still gave them a second chance and damn-it it didn't go much better. I tried the pierogi and forgot to mention that of there was sauce not to put any on them. Reason being is they have pictures of all the food and they aren't sauced in the pic nor do they mention it in the description. On top of all that they said it was a mix of meat. potato, and cheese but all they gave me was the meat. To one dimensional and I'm not a fan of bbq sauce on my Polish dumplings. I'm thinking the sausage is the way to go.

Pierogi at the Polish Food Trailer

The Polish Food Trailer
Parked in the lot at Menards
2601 N Clybourn Ave
Chicago, IL 60614

Bunny Chow

-Grubbing in Chicago 
Regional South African up north

I'm noticing a small trend happening in Chicago restaurant openings right now. Places cooking the food of different African countries are slowly popping up. Chicago and Uptown in particular have always had a steady presence of African food but there are new places popping up in areas other than there. Today's stop is the first South African restaurant within city limits not including Nando's.

Newly Opened in Rogers Park

Bunny Chow is named after the dish it specializes in. That dish is the signature snack of Durban which is the country's second largest city in terms of population. It's also the home to more Indian people then any other city outside of India. Bunny Chow is thus a hybrid of both Indian and African. It's essentially at heart a curry dish by which the curry can vary. It can be anything from Cape Malay Beef Curry to a classic Butter Chicken. It's unique in that it's served different in that it comes served in a hollowed out halved loaf of bread. You use the hollowed out portion of the bread to pick at the curry never needing the use of utensils. I got try a few different options when in Cape Town a couple of years ago but I've never seen the dish over here in the States. Bunny Chow served a pretty mild blend of beef curry that definitely had that home cooked taste. In case you were wondering the only other South African restaurant in the state is in Aurora where a Durban family is making meat pies.

Bunny Chow at Bunny Chow

Bunny Chow
6979 N Sheridan Rd
Chicago, IL 60626
(872) 208-6004 

Ca Phe Da

-Grubbing in Chicago

New to the 'Scene'

Shortly after returning from a few weeks in SE Asia this past winter we wanted more as far as the food. So we hopped in the car and headed over to Pilsen where the folks behind HaiSous (write up HERE) opened a casual Vietnamese coffee shop. The hip coffee shop type cafe is big in Vietnam's larger cities and I remember commenting that this could easily be a spot like those in Hanoi.

New locals favorite in Pilsen

It's a bright and airy space with a really nice selection of both drinks and snacks. As far as the drinks go they have all the specialty Vietnamese style coffee drinks as well as cocktails. It's nice for those in the neighborhood to have a place you can get a good drink at before 5p. Then if want you can get some really good elevated bar food too. The menu is pretty simple with a handful of options and some really good ones at that. A mandatory starter for anyone drinking a brew are the crisped up chicken skins. I know the term chicken crack is heavily used for other dishes but this is just as dangerous.

Fried Chicken Skins at Ca Phe Da

One of the more popular items next door at HaiSous are the chicken wings. They seemed to have brought those over here and why not as wings make for a great drinking snack. For those of us that like the flavors of fish sauce these wings are hard to beat when it comes to the non-buffalo variety.

Fried Chicken Wings at Ca Phe Da

While I loved the little Bahn Mi stand they have behind the counter it did not produce the tastes I was hoping they could replicate. Though in fairness I dont think anywhere outside of Vietnam can after trying the best of the best. The biggest problem with this sandwich was the bread itself. It was as soft as the rolls at Jimmy John's thus it just didn't taste right. While I also wasn't fond of the meat itself I think that was more of a personal preference as I like pork a little less fatty than what they had.

Banh Mi at Ca Phe Da

My favorite thing on the menu is the dish that tasted most like our trip. That was the Goi Ga which is a traditional Vietnamese chicken salad. Folks in SE Asia eat chicken a bit differently in that it can almost come across as raw but it's not it's just really fresh. I love the combination of flavors in this dish that also features roasted nuts, lots of herbs and sticky rice, fish sauce and the likes. I'd eat this salad for lunch pretty regularly if I had easy access to it. Pilsen is changing. Spots like this are part of the reason but change doesn't have to be bad and a place like Ca Phe Da is a good ex. of why.

Vietnamese Chicken Salad at Ca Phe Da

Ca Phe Da
1/2, 1800 S Carpenter St
Chicago, IL 60608
(773) 999-1800
Website