Pretty much every ramen shop that opens in Chicago features the decidedly murky, creamy-white, tongue-coating broth known as tonkotsu, made from boiling pork bones for hours. But Ramen Takeya – from the same family who owns Wasabi in Logan Square – is going with a more unique, slightly lighter version, called paiten, which features chicken.
A lot of gyros joints in Chicago claim they make everything from scratch. That’s doubtful, since most just by a frozen cone from Grecian Delight or Kronos, thaw it, and plop it on the vertical spit. If you want a place making everything – and by that I mean the fries and the tzatziki and … Continued
What started out as a school project at the University of Chicago, led to a food truck, making some of the best egg sandwiches anywhere in Chicago. Now that food truck has expanded somewhat, to a small restaurant across the street from the Civic Opera House on Wacker Dr., where you can grab a delicious, … Continued
Chicago was the third city Tom Sietsema tackled in his Washington Post series on America’s great food cities this year. Not only did he completely capture the zeitgeist of what’s going on right now, he also had one of the Post’s videographers shoot and edit this great video (of which I’m honored to be a … Continued
There’s nothing quite like enjoying seafood on the coast, plucked straight from the water and eaten with your bare hands. Chicago may be in the middle of the country, but you can now get your hands dirty – deliciously – in a new seafood shack on the Northwest Side of the city.
In a tiny Chinatown storefront, the outside doesn’t look like much, but inside, a family-run restaurant features the nuanced dishes from Xi’an. The two stars: handmade noodles – made in two distinctive ways – plus a homemade bun stuffed with ground lamb and cumin that is completely unique to Chicago.
There are so many cookie cutter beef temples in River North, but Boeufhaus, in Humboldt Park, takes a completely different approach to sourcing, cooking and serving its beef.
I spent the better part of a week driving from New Brunswick, Canada, down to Portland, Maine, going in search of the best lobster rolls. Tough work, I know. My story appeared in The Chicago Tribune’s Sunday Travel section. Click here to read it.
The Fire’s Lovel Palmer happens to miss the food from his native Jamaica so much, he showed me one of his favorite dishes from the island. Here’s a clue: it’s not jerk chicken.
Click on the article below to read my review of the very first Virgin Hotel (in Chicago) for The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper.
“Cookie Love” was a labor of love for the owner of Mindy’s Hot Chocolate in Chicago; she showed me how one of her “mistakes” turned out to be a fantastic discovery.