Just like your favorite rock band faked you out with that last retirement, I’m back! Life is just too delicious! I actually did a top 10 last year over on Instagram and had originally intended to post this over there, but for a whole host of reasons, I’m burning out on that app. Also, I just paid the $200 renewal fee on this domain name, so let’s blog, baby!
Hermosa
Ethan Lim’s Hermosa is so damn tasty that it was on my list last year too. I was blessed to enjoy a prix fixe tasting lunch there with the always delightful Sher family. Ethan shares the bright flavors of his family’s homeland, Cambodia, reimagined with fine dining flourishes, while rooted in the vernaculars of home cooking and his humble hotdog stand origins. As fantastic as his food is, Ethan’s sense of hospitality is remarkable – he welcomes diners with warmth, intimacy, and care.
I was heartbroken to hear of the loss of Ethan’s mother later in the year, how truly grateful I am that we were able to taste her homemade sausage. I highly recommend watching “Cambodian Futures”, an award winning documentary about Ethan’s journey, which centers his relationship with Momma Lim and their family’s story of resettling in the US. When Kissinger died, I reflected on the grim atrocities enabled by American imperialism in Cambodia. We don’t deserve the Lims, who have so generously shared their culture, perseverance, and utmost hospitality.
A2B Indian Veg Restaurant
In a former chain margarita-and-chips joint off our highway exit, I noticed a new sign with the vaguest name ever, A2B. I Googled – turns out it’s a new outpost of a popular vegetarian restaurant from Chennai, India. With their sprawling menu, this place has treated me to a for real education in Southern Indian cuisine. The first dish I tried there (which is actually Sri Lankan, a cuisine you don’t find often around here) was love at first bite: parotta kurma. These rolled, laminated flatbreads shatter like the best croissant. And that kurma curry – so rich with coconut and deeply spiced.
Phở Stuff
Big year for phở and phở flavored things! At the tip top spot is the Viet dip at Wicker Park’s Phodega, the most successful reinvention of the Italian beef I’ve ever had.
The Viet dip + the short rib phở at Pholicious, out here in da burbs, inspired me to make phở-spiced, braised short ribs with fresh “hot mix” giardiniera, on a menu that my client Dirk claimed might have been my best.
Gorditas Liselena
My homies at Birria Loca, here in Winfield, hipped me onto a new-ish Norteño gordita spot, Gorditas Liselena, a stones throw away in West Chicago. While the gorditas are great, the skinny burritos rolled in homemade tortillas are my biggest crush… until they teamed up with Birria Loca, dropping a birria-stuffed quesagordita collab.
Little Palestine
The people of Palestine have weighed heavy on my heart for the past 83 days. I feel helpless in the face of such catastrophe. As I do, I connect with people through food and I felt compelled one morning to head down to where I’m from in the southwest suburbs, home to Little Palestine, an enclave anchored around Harlem Avenue. Fully aware that I had the luxury of eating the food of a people without access to nary a scrap of bread, I appreciated each bite of taboon, mutabal, and kofta with intention and gratitude. Most importantly, I was able to make eye contact and polite conversation with Palestinian people and find a flicker of human-to-human empathy in a menacing world.
I’m Back – Food 2023!
Just like your favorite rock band faked you out with that last retirement, I’m back! Life is just too delicious! I actually did a top 10 last year over on Instagram and had originally intended to post this over there, but for a whole host of reasons, I’m burning out on that app. Also, I just paid the $200 renewal fee on this domain name, so let’s blog, baby!
Hermosa
Ethan Lim’s Hermosa is so damn tasty that it was on my list last year too. I was blessed to enjoy a prix fixe tasting lunch there with the always delightful Sher family. Ethan shares the bright flavors of his family’s homeland, Cambodia, reimagined with fine dining flourishes, while rooted in the vernaculars of home cooking and his humble hotdog stand origins. As fantastic as his food is, Ethan’s sense of hospitality is remarkable – he welcomes diners with warmth, intimacy, and care.
I was heartbroken to hear of the loss of Ethan’s mother later in the year, how truly grateful I am that we were able to taste her homemade sausage. I highly recommend watching “Cambodian Futures”, an award winning documentary about Ethan’s journey, which centers his relationship with Momma Lim and their family’s story of resettling in the US. When Kissinger died, I reflected on the grim atrocities enabled by American imperialism in Cambodia. We don’t deserve the Lims, who have so generously shared their culture, perseverance, and utmost hospitality.
A2B Indian Veg Restaurant
In a former chain margarita-and-chips joint off our highway exit, I noticed a new sign with the vaguest name ever, A2B. I Googled – turns out it’s a new outpost of a popular vegetarian restaurant from Chennai, India. With their sprawling menu, this place has treated me to a for real education in Southern Indian cuisine. The first dish I tried there (which is actually Sri Lankan, a cuisine you don’t find often around here) was love at first bite: parotta kurma. These rolled, laminated flatbreads shatter like the best croissant. And that kurma curry – so rich with coconut and deeply spiced.
Phở Stuff
Big year for phở and phở flavored things! At the tip top spot is the Viet dip at Wicker Park’s Phodega, the most successful reinvention of the Italian beef I’ve ever had.
The Viet dip + the short rib phở at Pholicious, out here in da burbs, inspired me to make phở-spiced, braised short ribs with fresh “hot mix” giardiniera, on a menu that my client Dirk claimed might have been my best.
Gorditas Liselena
My homies at Birria Loca, here in Winfield, hipped me onto a new-ish Norteño gordita spot, Gorditas Liselena, a stones throw away in West Chicago. While the gorditas are great, the skinny burritos rolled in homemade tortillas are my biggest crush… until they teamed up with Birria Loca, dropping a birria-stuffed quesagordita collab.
Little Palestine
The people of Palestine have weighed heavy on my heart for the past 83 days. I feel helpless in the face of such catastrophe. As I do, I connect with people through food and I felt compelled one morning to head down to where I’m from in the southwest suburbs, home to Little Palestine, an enclave anchored around Harlem Avenue. Fully aware that I had the luxury of eating the food of a people without access to nary a scrap of bread, I appreciated each bite of taboon, mutabal, and kofta with intention and gratitude. Most importantly, I was able to make eye contact and polite conversation with Palestinian people and find a flicker of human-to-human empathy in a menacing world.