Post 95: Ontario Street Staples (Chicago: River North/Near North Side)

Just a few weeks ago I was in Chicago on business, so I thought I would head into the city to grab some Chi-town staples.  I only had two hours before my return flight back to LA, so I planned to hit as many places as I could in those two precious hours.  My strategy was simple... walk down Ontario Street.  From Al's #1 Italian Beef to Gino's East to the Rock n' Roll McDonald's to Portillo's... many of the well-known Chicago eateries are located down that path.  I could eat and walk... eat and walk... and make my way towards Michigan Avenue before heading to O'Hare.  I thought it was an ideal plan, but it was a plan that even my stomach couldn't handle.

During my first visit to the Windy City four years ago, many of the locals suggested that we try the Italian beef sandwich.  Well, we were too busy stuffing our faces with deep dish pizza that we never got around to trying the local favorite.  So this time I made sure to hit up Al's #1 Italian Beef first.

Knowing that I was about to embark on a marathon of eating, I originally planned to order just a small sandwich.  But go big or go home right? So when the lady at the counter asked me what size, I said LARGE... like a boss! The sandwich came wrapped in about half a dozen sheets of paper, and it was safe to say that each sheet of paper was thoroughly soaked with beef juice... delicious, delicious beef juice.  I took one bite, and I knew I was going to finish the whole thing.  It was juicy, oily, and beefy... all the things that I love.

What made the sandwich even more amazing-delicious was the addition of spicy peppers throughout the sandwich.  And I definitely appreciated the somewhat unexpected crunch from the celery slices in between layers of the beef's pillowy tenderness.  Oh, and the bread... the bread... all the nooks and crannies behind the crust had soaked up all the excess beef juice making it even softer.  Biting into the bread was like squeezing a sponge full of au jus into my mouth.  Gahhh... I may have moaned subconsciously when I took my second bite.  Either that or the way I was consuming that sandwich made the patrons at the nearby tables notice because they were definitely staring at me.  Eh, the sandwich had my full, undivided attention.  Hot damn, that Al's Italian beef sandwich was mind numbingly good.

So I wrapped up what I had just unwrapped, toss the remains in the trash, and headed back out into the chilly breeze.  Granted the temperate was probably warm by Chicago standards, but I'm a Southern California kid born and bred, so I was ready to hop back indoors from the 50 degree elements.  Good thing I was walking down Ontario Street because Portillo's was just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Al's.

I had been to Portillo's Hot Dogs on my first visit to Chicagoland, so I was ready to reunite with the beloved Chicago dog that I remembered.  With mustard, relish, onions, tomatoes, celery salt, spicy sport peppers, and a pickle spear, the Portillo's hot dog had burst of flavor with each bite.  It was just as I had remembered.  And although the dog was good by itself, beer made it even better... I was in heaven.

Now done with an Al's Italian beef sandwich and a Portillo's hot dog, I was ready to get up and order something from Barnelli's Pasta Bowl and then jump across the street for some deep dish from Gino's East, but as soon as I stood up, I felt everything that I had just eaten settle into the pits of my stomach.  Perhaps it was time for a digestive walk.  We'll save all that pasta for the next visit to Chi-town.

So I walked east toward Michigan Avenue.  I walked, and I walked... and it felt like I had not digested a lick of food.  I had come across Quartino, an Italian style tapas restaurant that I had dined at the night before.  I bet anyone that knows me could guess what I did next.  Yup, I plopped myself up at the bar, and before I knew it there was a platter of charcuterie and an ice cold glass of beer spread across the counter.

The post on Quartino is next.  Until then, let's get S.O.F.A.T.

ML - 20121019

Post 89: London Olympics Opening Ceremony Royal Potluck

To celebrate the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, I originally thought it would be fun to celebrate at a local pub and drink gallons of beer.  Somehow my thoughts of sitting on a bar stool and chasing Jameson with New Castle evolved into a British themed potluck with friends at my apartment.  This is the e-mail I sent out to my guests.  In case my poor attempt at Shakespearean English cannot be understood, colloquial English is provided in green.

HEAR YE, HEAR YE!  Listen up bitches.

From thine host to thee, the sirs and madams of Camelot, Arcadiashire and the Thames, might I trouble you to save the fifth day of thine work week for the royal potluck in celebration of the Queen's crowning athletes and the knights of the roundtable?  The awesome potluck to celebrate the Olympics will be on Friday.

Please grace us with your knighted presence and thine bountiful British booty at six hours past the time of the highest sun.  The jubilant stroll of our friends and foes begins at seven and two quarter hours past the time of the highest sun... sharp.  Please arrive around 6.  The Parade of Nations starts at 7:30 sharp.  Don't be late.

Details for the festive feasting will be distributed by the Royal Palace via electronic post by the hour of the Royal Prince's return from his laborious work in automotive data analysis with the peasants of Yorkorange County.  I will e-mail more details after I get home from work.

The invited guests have been knighted with the following names: Allison of San Diego Abbey, Catherine of Cerritobridge, Christina of Taipei Castle, Elizabeth of the Royal Family, Erin of the Southern Riverbend, Grace of Arcadiashire, Ken of the San Marino Cathedral, Ronbernie of the Land of Lettuce and Leprechauns, and Stephanie of the local district.  No peasants allowed.  These are the guests.  No assholes allowed.

The Royal Prince of Cambridge  Michael

And these are the dishes that the royal guests brought to the royal potluck.

Tea sandwiches by Erin of the Southern Riverbend,

a variety of finger foods (pinky up) with turkey and bacon, curry chicken, and sun-dried tomato... a dainty way to start off the night.

Sausage rolls by Catherine of Cerritobridge,

baked up plump American style as pigs in a blanket... maybe to show some national pride (USA! USA! USA!) before she weds Mr. Mulholland and becomes a Scottish man's woman?

Cottage pie by Christina of Taipei Castle,
a traditional British dish made of ground beef and minced onions topped with buttery, fluffy, mashed potato.  The lady of Taipei Castle used shallots as well as onions, grated carrots instead of chopped carrots, and zucchini to sub for peas (the lady of the castle hates peas).  And it was all simmered with a cup of Merlot.  'Twas bloody good comfort food.

Bangers and mash by yours truly, the Royal Prince of Cambridge,
using a fusion approach to the traditional English pub grub.  Rather than Cumberland sausage, I subbed in some spicy Italian sausage, and I simmered the onions using not only pinot noir and worcestershire but some soy sauce with a heavy dose of course ground black pepper as well.

English trifle by Allison of San Diego Abbey,
in individual cups with layers of pound cake, strawberries, bananas soaked in orange juice, and custard... homemade whipped cream and fresh blueberries adorned the top.  The clear cups made it easy to see all the colorful layers of trifle.  And it made it even easier to see all the ground beef and cottage pie stashed beneath the custard in my cup.  Christina of the Castle is quite the sneaky one...

Of course Ron of the Land of Lettuce and Leprechauns arrived with a little Olde English (well played, Sir), and Stephanie of the local district doused the potluck with a Jameson tea party.  The Newcastle and Guiness were good choices too.  Ah, and we closed the ceremony with some tea and cookies from Jessica of Arcadiashire.  We've eaten quite a bit of potatoes now, haven't we?

Although this is long overdue, we wish all of the olympic athletes well.  We will be cheering for the home team... USA! USA! USA! Until next time, let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

ML - 20120727

Post 43.2: San Tung (SF: Inner Sunset)

During my visit to San Francisco over the summer, a friend introduced me to Yummy Yummy, a Chinese style Vietnamese restaurant in the Sunset District.  Right next door to Yummy Yummy is San Tung Chinese Restaurant, a restaurant that is known for its dumplings, black bean sauce noodles, and fried chicken wings.  Some of the items such as the black bean sauce noodles are prepared in a Korean style, which makes me think that the owners are ethnically Chinese but born and raised in Korea.  But I never got a chance to ask.

Naturally, my style of culinary exploration required that I order all the well-known items on the menu.  And when I asked the server what else is good at the restaurant, he replied, "Nore more! You got 'em all."  

With the help of Pei, Joanna, Larry and Jon, we ordered just a few more dishes.  Just a few.

Complementary kimchi
San Tung's kimchi is drier in that it's not submerged in a bright red pool the way that authentic Korean kimchi is.  From my numerous visits to Korean style Chinese restaurants, I've noticed that the dryness is a characteristic of kimchi made by the ethnically Chinese from Korea.  However, dry doesn't necessarily mean bland.  The kimchi has tons of kick and spice, which helps break the monotony of flavor from the black bean sauce noodles.

Pork with green onions
It's a seemingly simple dish that is actually quite complex in flavors.  It's savory from the sliced pork, sweet from the garlic and soy combination, and salty from the onions (both green and white).  Like the kimchi the wok-fired white onions provide a bite that gets addicting.  I only wish I had a bowl of rice to go with this dish.  That the rice and pork would pair well is a complete understatement.

Pork dumplings
These little fists are filled with ground pork and shredded Napa cabbage, and once dipped into some soy sauce, vinegar, and chili oil, they pack a powerful punch of savory bliss.  I like that the skin is not too thick and not too thin.  I felt like I was eating a meatball wrapped with dumpling skin rather than just simply eating dumplings.  The shrimp and leek dumplings are popular here too.

Black bean sauce noodles
I noticed that there were two black bean sauce noodles on the menu... one was listed as dry and the other was supposedly... wet? I asked the server what the difference was between the two, and he responded, "one dollar."  Okay... funny guy.  So after clarifying that monetary value was not the answer I was looking for, the server let us know that both noodles include shrimp and calamari, but the dry noodles contain scallops, and the supposed wet noodles are made with beef and a creamier sauce.  If there's an Asian version of an alfredo sauce, this is it.  Black, Asian, alfredo.  Oxymoronic? Perhaps... but it tastes good.

The group voted 4-1 in favor of the dry noodles over the wet noodles.  But I think that the beef infuses more flavor into the wet noodles, and the creamier sauce just can't be beat.  Tip from the server: mix, mix, mix until the noodles are all black... no, not yet... keep mixing!

Spinach with garlic

The simply sauteed spinach with surprisingly lengthy stems helped diversify the color of the dishes on the table... and of course it provided a healthy dose of fiber for the digestive system as well.  The larger bits of garlic dotted throughout the forest of spinach was a pleasant reminder that the garlic was most likely diced by a chef wielding a large Chinese butcher knife and not spooned in from a jar of machine-minced garlic.  No shortcuts here.  The taste makes that evident.

Dried sauteed string beans

Is this the place to get the best string beans? Eh, maybe not.  But it is a decent place to get some crunchy greens.  The flavor is a bit shallow... on the surface level.  But either a hefty helping of salt and pepper or adding ground pork to the stir-fry just might amp the flavor up just a tad.  But otherwise, you can't go wrong with a side of these veggies.

Original dry fried chicken wings
Salty, sweet, spicy, sticky, crispy, crunchy, burning hot, heartburn-inducing... ahhh... all the components of a delicious chicken wing.  From what I remember, Yummy Yummy next door has a version of the fried chicken wing as well, but the wings here seem a bit more established... less saucy, more sticky.  The ratio of chili pepper seeds to dripping honey seems to have been perfected.  These wings indicate that they have been the veteran on the block for years.  Now if only my hot tea were a Tsingtao and if the restaurant chair were a backyard hammock... oh, how happy I'd be.  I'd lap up plate after plate of chicken wings, toss the bones to the grass below, get lost in the clouds and wonder how the hell the honey gets cleaned off the plates.  Shrug... smile.

So after all these dry, not dry, and wet descriptions in the names of the dishes at San Tung, I think I've finally figured it out what they all mean.  Dry doesn't mean dry... the dish still has a decent amount of sauce.  However, dry means that it's dry compared to the wet version of the dish, which apparently indicates a substantial amount of sauce. 

Still confused? No worries, just eat.  Perhaps that's the same ideology that so many locals have adopted because many make return visits on a consistent basis.  The locals know where the good, authentic Chinese food is, and I'll give you a hint... it's not in Chinatown.

Next post: Superb Burmese

ML - 20101229/20101212

Post 42.2: Thanksgiving Leftovers - Turkey Curry in a Hurry

Families try to get creative with their turkeys every year... some switch it up with tofurkey, and others may feast over a deep fried turkey at the dinner table.  But the leftovers seem to always be the same.  We can get creative with not just Thanksgiving dinner but with our Thanksgiving leftovers too, right?

With the exception of the one or two years we had hot pot for Thanksgiving, we've had many years of Taiwanese-influenced turkey rice porridge for breakfast, mile-high turkey sandwiches and shredded turkey salads for lunch, and turkey noodle soup at dinner.  Last year my dad thought it would be a great idea to toss the leftover shreds of turkey into Japanese style curry sauce and serve it over rice.  Here's how we get rid of our turkey even before Christmas rolls around.

The products:

The process:

Brown the onions with vegetable oil.  Sprinkle in salt, black and white pepper.
Toss in corn from a can.  Mix together.

Dice potatoes in bite-sized cubes and toss in.  Sizzle with butter and curry powder.

After a good sizzle, add enough water to cover the top of the potatoes.
Blend cubes of curry and stir until fully dissolved.  Simmer.

Shred leftover turkey with a fork.  Incorporate into the curry sauce.
Adding the turkey to the sauce early on dries out the turkey... and nobody likes dry turkey.

Pour curry sauce over the top of steamed rice, preferably short grain Japanese rice.

Some variations that I've found to be just as good:

1.  Garnish with thinly sliced almonds for crunch.
2.   Use carrots and celery instead of corn.
3.  Pour curry sauce over instant ramen noodles.
4.  Top the curry off with a poached egg for breakfast or brunch.
5.  Substitute turkey and curry for ham and Hollandaise in your brunch benedict.

What does your family do with the leftover Thanksgiving turkey?

ML - 20101220/20101219

Post 29: Yummy Yummy Is Yummy Yummy (SF: Inner Sunset)

When I told Janet about my plans to visit the Bay Area, she wanted to take me to her favorite Vietnamese restaurant in town.  Scratch that.  She wanted to take me to her favorite restaurant in town.  It just happens to be Vietnamese.  She messaged me and said that I HAD TO try it.  And yes, it was in ALL CAPS.

So as the last meal before I left (my heart in) San Francisco, we stopped by Yummy Yummy in the Sunset District, where the Asian food is still authentic and hasn't yet been toursited out like it has been in other parts of town (namely, Chinatown).



Janet took charge of the menu and showed us some of her favorites:


Raw beef salad.  The paper-thin slices of beef (from which part I have no idea) looked just a bit like hot pot beef from the yellow styrofoam tray at 99 Ranch.  But the basil, onions (both fried and raw), and peanuts helped disguise it. 

Rare steak? Not a problem.  Raw beef? Eeek.  I squeezed a good amount of lemon on the beef hoping that the acid would cook the beef fast enough so it didn't look so red.  But as the second hand on my watch ticked away and as Janet, Grace and Alex ate away, I decided to suck it up and just inhale it.  Look, I'm still here.  Blogging, no less.  Ergo, the raw beef salad is safe.  Oh, and I forgot to mention... it was bomb diggity delicious.  A punch from the peanuts, a bite frm the basil, and a kick from the onions made the raw beef salad somethin' spectacular.  I was ready for another roll of beef.


Fish sauce marinated butter fried chicken wings.  Like whoa.  These little deep-fried wings and drumettes come out with fish sauce, strands of raw onions and carrots, and pieces of raw garlic poured over the top.  This item is not on the menu (just yet) and was suggested (more like pushed) to us by the boss.  (Janet, Grace and others on Yelp think that it's Yummy Yummy's counter to the amazing-delicious chicken wings from San Tung next door.)

The sauce over the top makes for the kind of crispy batter that begins to soften as time goes on, so eating quickly is a necessity.  The only problem is that the chicken wings are fried to a point so hot that my fingers felt a bit smoldered just from the steaming heat.  Damn.  Catch 22.  It's like trying to eat the most delicious ice cream cone outdoors in the hot summer heat.  It's panic trying to get through the entire cone before it melts, but it's pleasure with every successful bite.


Crab with spicy onion seasoning.  What it really should be called is crab with spicy onion, garlic, pepper, green onion, ginger, everything seasoning.  That's what it is, and that's what it tastes like.  It's a fresh whole crab in all its glory.  Although I'm a little sad that this crab had to die for this meal, I'm glad knowing that the crab died to make four hungry people happy. 

Everyone gets their own shell cracking tool, which is great because otherwise, we'd never be able to get inside to experience the pillow-soft sinews of the martyred crustacean.  And I'm not joking about the crab meat being pillow-soft.  If seafood stink and sanitation weren't such major factors, I'd take the sinews of the crab and stuff me a pillow! What a wonderful night's sleep I'd get... but seafood stink and sanitation are major factors, so... crab pillow I shall not make.


Spicy beef pho.  This pho wasn't your typical pho from ordinary Vietnamese restaurants.  The beef was sliced thicker... the soup had a spicy kick... and if you couldn't tell already, the color was a boiling red.  Oooh.  But the additions were the same as any: bean sprouts, basil leaves, citrus squeeze (lemon instead of lime here), and green chili peppers.

We ordered the pho with thicker, white flour noodles as opposed to the traditional thinner, clear rice noodles.  They were just as springy and elastic as expected from the typical pho noodle.  The best part? The soup, of course.  I didn't feel like I was slurping up an MSG-infested, sinkwater-colored bowl of denatured enzymatic proteins.  This... was just simply Vietnamese beef noodle soup.  I like.



Hear that Janet? I like.  Thanks, Janetabulous for introducing me to this Yummy Yummy-ness.  Next door to San Tung next time?

Until then, let's get S.O.F.A.T.

ML - 20100817/20100725