On a windy day, the aroma can seep through your car window starting around 111th Street: a unique blend of truck exhaust and barbecue. I-57 Rib House in the far south neighborhood of Morgan Park is part of a chain of rib joints that mostly follow the path of Interstate I-57 as it runs through Chicago and south into the suburbs. Read the rest of this entry »

What if you liked hash browns? What if you really liked hash browns? What if you liked hash browns so much that the paltry tater tot excuses for them at the grocery store just didn’t cut it? What if you spent days and nights encamped by your window-side, perhaps weeping, wondering when the delicious potato-y goodness of your dreams would at last triumphantly appear on the culinary horizon?

You cried out, friends, and Hashbrowns answered. The imaginatively named brunch joint delivers exactly what it promises. Read the rest of this entry »

Entering Sweet Station, Chinatown Square’s newest Hong Kong café-chic restaurant, is like walking into a sleek, glossy 3-D rendering at a design contest. Complete with private flat-screen TVs beside most booths, custom design elements, and a stylish, young pan-Asian crowd, Sweet Station is the type of place one imagines Quentin Tarantino might have drawn inspiration from when designing Kill Bill’s Asian-candy-wrapper aesthetic set. Read the rest of this entry »

Inspired by a recent article in Dining Chicago on the city’s lesser-known signature sandwiches, I set out last week to find and consume three that are native to the South Side: the big baby, the Freddy and the mother-in-law. My expedition very quickly deteriorated into a desperate search, however. I met with caged, closed storefronts, wrong turns, and bad directions. I drove past blocks of boarded buildings, torn signs, and trash, then unexpectedly emerged into neat rows of houses, time-warped out of the ’70s. My physical journey through the South Side landscape to discover the sandwiches illuminated a historic movement of people, cultures, and tastes. Read the rest of this entry »

As a recent Michael Pollanite convert from vegetarianism, I have found myself surprisingly apathetic towards many kinds of meat. But I am drawn to goat. It has a uniquely intense, gamey flavor that makes the meat-eating seem worth it. It is also, conveniently, one of the only meat animals that is never factory raised, since goats are very efficient foragers, and demand in the U.S. is not high enough to warrant a factory farm’s efficiency of scale.

This led me to take an interest in birria, a Mexican goat stew, when I was in Jalisco not long ago. The dish deserves the title of the state’s best culinary export, but is sadly overshadowed by a certain spirit produced near the town of Tequila. It is a slow-cooked broth of smoked chilis, and usually features goat. Read the rest of this entry »

The pawpaw grew in George Washington’s and Thomas Jefferson’s gardens. This pear-shaped fruit, something between a banana and a melon in taste, was among the former’s favorite desserts and was popular among the 16,000 apple varieties grown in American orchards at the turn of the century. But today, the pawpaw is on Restoring America’s Fruit Traditions’ (RAFT) list of endangered fruits.

The pawpaw is also one of a dozen varieties of endangered fruit trees that Chicago Rarities Orchard Project (CROP) founder Dave Snyder has grafted and hopes to root in an orchard. Read the rest of this entry »

In its combination of Mexican family recipes and a focus on freshness and new styles, DeColores Galeria y Sabores marries the two sides of Pilsen. The restaurant occupies two stories with complementing characters: a brightly lit, livelier first floor and a quieter second floor with softer lighting. Since DeColores doubles as a gallery, it is no surprise that the whole interior is very tastefully decorated. Earth-colored walls, modestly elegant furniture, and some fine details like the woodwork along the stairway all add to the comfortable, yet classy atmosphere. Talented local artists, of whom there are many, provide the artwork for DeColores’s gallery endeavor. If any should catch your eye, they’re all available for sale. Also for sale are posters of a Mexican take on Rosie the Riveter that are displayed on both floors; a woman in a white blouse declaring, “¡Sí se puede!” Read the rest of this entry »

The Hyde Park restaurant formerly known as Orly’s opened its doors again a week ago, renamed the Big Easy. Despite a series of unsuccessful reinventions since its debut in 1981, owner David Shopiro feels confident that the Big Easy will be a crowd pleaser. He looks forward to Hyde Park residents gathering over Cajun/Creole flavors and microbrews. Shopiro’s decision to make his new restaurant evocative of New Orleans flavor and culture was inspired by the late, local favorite Dixie Kitchen & Bait Shop, a former staple of the Hyde Park restaurant scene that closed last year. Borrowing from Dixie Kitchen’s offerings in classic Cajun/Creole and Southern dishes, he decided that his new menu would aim to “elevate the food to a higher level.” Read the rest of this entry »