Tasty Chicago

Damn, that Uncle Julio’s Hacienda on North and Clybourn is a chain. I guess it always felt like one a little, but I tried not to believe it. How could you tell?

I think it’s pretty decent Tex-Mex and it’s always packed with trendy Lincoln Park folks. I didn’t think those Lincoln Park people frequented chain-type places, except for the North Face store. Speaking of that, I was watching this show about Mount Everest the other night, and I had to do a double take; I had never seen so many North Face fleece jackets in one place outside of the Crate & Barrel store on North Avenue. Wow!

Yeah, Uncle Julio’s is a chain out of Texas. There are like 10 or 15 of them in Texas, Virginia, Maryland, Illinois, and Georgia. There’s actually another Chicagoland location in Lombard. I’m not an anti-chain snob or anything (just ask Chili’s). It’s just that this blog is specifically about food from Chicagoland (which includes McDonald’s and Portillo’s because those were born in our region).

Oh well, the Ceviche Royale was great. It consisted of shrimp, tilapia, scallops, cilantro, onions, tomato, and garlic lemon juice. As a nice kicker, they always bring some fresh flour tortillas. I took the cerviche and loaded it into a soft, warm flour tortilla and topped it with the frijoles a la charra that my brother-in-law got as a side. How about that for an improvised fish taco? Is that weird? How do you feel about inventing an entree from an appetizer and a side dish? Does that make me a creative genius or a kitchen usurper?

We here at Tasty Chicago always have a bias towards Chicago-based chains when venturing into the land of fast food. If I want a fast, hearty breakfast, nothing beats the sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich at Potbelly Sandwich Works. That’s right, many of the Potbelly restaurants have breaky (cool-speak for breakfast) and it’s a great thing. It’s also a huge thing. I would say about twice as big as the sausage and egg McMuffin from that other fine local chain, McDonalds.

Potbelly puts it through the same exacting process that all of their sandwiches go through. The egg, cheese, and sausage patties (2) go on and it makes the famous trip through the Potbelly oven. The bun is that wonderful combo of crispy and soft and it’s a joy to eat.

Ahh, I remember you Potbelly, my friend. You were just a little storefront on Lincoln (just south of Fullerton) when I moved here in 1989. You’ve come a long way baby and I feel like I grew up with you. You’re kind of like that good friend from third grade…that I used to hang out with until you got really popular and then made me wait in line just to say hi. Which is not necessarily a compliment, I might add. But I don’t hold it against you because you’re sandwiches are the unequivocal masters of the hot, gourmet sandwich world.

It’s gotta be tough to be a food snob. I could not imagine living with the idea that I’m too good for a fine dessert like the Cinnamon Melts at McD’s. For $1.59, I had to try them. Of course, it was in the comfortable atmosphere of the Oak Brook location near the World HQ of the beloved Golden Arches.

I got two words for you, “see you later Cinnabon.” We’ll, actually that’s four words, but I got carried away.

If you listen to AM 1000 you’ve probably heard the woman with the sexy voice talking about how this dessert combines “only the best parts of the cinnamon roll.” She is referring to something called the “gooey center” I think. She is not far off base. This is a bunch of randomly sized pastry chunks (?) rolled in some cinnamon sauce and covered in white frosting, then warmed up so it all melts together. It’s pretty good, and you can get it all day.

You may have heard me speak of the four food groups; bacon, coffee, burgers, and cinnamon rolls. Some day I’m going to McD’s and ordering up a bacon cheeseburger, some cinnamon melts, and a premium roast coffee just to say “I had all four in one sitting.” Wouldn’t that make momma proud?

I remember when my wife went through her “food enlightenment” about a decade ago. The first manifestation of her enlightenment was a desire to eat French food. That was kind of shocking to a burgers and pizza guy like myself. What the hell was French food anyhow? But what was I going to do? Disobey, complain? Nope, neither. I adapted…yes I did.

So I order steak frites the first time we go Franco, and I was hooked. It’s just a fair-to-middlin’ hunk of beef, usually with a butter and wine sauce concoction, and a few handfuls of fries tossed on top. You call that gourmet, Pierre? I call that meat and potatoes baby, and it rocks. It didn’t take me long to develop a keen appreciation for steak frites, onion tartes, and Audrey Tautou.

That brings us to the fine Lettuce Entertain You restaurant Mon Ami Gabi, at 2300 North Lincoln Park West. I like it a lot and the Steak Bearnaise (pictured, $19.95) is my usual. Yes, paying just south of $20 for an okay piece of meat with potatoes may not seem to jive with the intent of Tasty Chicago, especially when you can get about 3 times that much beef at Tango Sur for about the same price. But it’s the sauce in combination with the fries that makes it worth the money. Actually, it’s a tarragon shallot butter sauce you see on top of that steak. The sauce has a lot of flavor and the wide fry really does a fine job of collecting it all. It’s tough to beat a few fries saturated with tarragon shallot butter on the same forkful as a piece of beef. My love for burgers and pizza has taught me the import of having a protein and a starch in the same bite, and steak frites fits that bill perfectly.

Yes, there’s probably better French in town, but my taste buds can’t really differentiate. The steak frites here are great, the coffee damn good, and they probably have the number one dessert in the history of confections, the Banana Foster Crepe. That dessert is a whole separate post, I don’t want to get into it now.

One of my favorite McDonald’s is in Oak Brook, right across from the world headquarters and within spittin’ distance of Hamburger University. It has everything; outdoor dining in the summer, free wifi, a coffee shop (McCafe), flat screens, a mezzanine, and tons of McD’s execs cutting deals and networking. It happens to be near one of my clients so I patronize it somewhat frequently. After all, McDonald’s is a Chicago restaurant and I’m all about “eating local.”

I call this the fast and friendly breakfast. It consists of an Egg McMuffin, some Premium Roast coffee, the Chicago Sun Times, and free wifi ($4.14). What else do you need? Let me answer that - NOTHING! Actually, something sweet would help, like a cinnamon role or apple dippers with caramel sauce…nah, don’t do it John…resist the urge.

I’m a firm believer that McD’s can be part of a healthy diet. Think about it please - the 400 calories I consumed between the Egg McMuffin and coffee with two creams and two sugars is a helluva lot better than the venti no foam caramel mocha latte with whip and an extra shot of peppermint flavor that many people have in the morning. By comparison, my fast and friendly breakfast has less calories, less sugar, probably comparable nutrition, a newspaper, and free wifi. Don’t know about you, but that spells SMART SHOPPER to me.

C’mon, let’s take this thing national baby! Are you with me? The whole country should have the benefit of a Pockets Pocket. You have to be a little more than discouraged that we let Potbelly Sandwich Works get out of town without us. So let’s not let this one pass us by. There are like ten of them in town so we aren’t going to be able to keep it a secret forever.

Pictured above is the Tuna Pocket ($6.99). Let’s talk about this stroke of food-prep genius. It all starts with a square, mini-loaf of bread. They have the loaves sitting around in an “almost ready” state and when you place your order, they pop it in the oven for like five minutes just to finish it off. It comes out hot, they toss it on a plate or in one of those styrofoam trays, they slice it almost all the way through, then stuff it with tons of good stuff. This one has tuna, lettuce, tomato, carrots, mushrooms, green peppers, and mozzarella. It’s basically health food too because they don’t put any mayo or dressing on, you just get that on the side (I always get lowfat Ranch).

Much like a burrito, you don’t want to see me eat one, so I always get it take-out to spare you the agony. What I do is cut it diagonally so that you have two triangular halves. I pick up one half with my left and grab a fork in the right hand. In one fluid movement, I dip the fork in the creamy dressing, scoop up a little more of the filling with the fork, spread that forkful on the bite-target on the Pocket in my left hand (a point about one inch square where I intend to take my next bite), then hurriedly launch my jaws at the bite-target as I pull the fork away. Trust me, it ain’t pretty. But it’s really good. Plus, there are whole-grains in that bread. Certainly it’s not 100% whole wheat, but I dare you to find a fast-food that is this fresh and wholesome. If so, tell me about it.