It sounds like a dish only a vegetarian could love, but even the staunchest of omnivores can fall under its spell. Atop a slice of James Beard Award winner Greg Wade’s multigrain bread is, yes, a salad’s worth of tousled greens, but there’s also a cavalcade of tempurafried tofu, slices of apple for a pop … Read more
More restaurants should have spinning rotisseries full of ducks in their kitchens. It’s Kevin Hickey’s calling card at his cozy, excess-relishing den. He roasts the breasts, then brines, air-dries, and slowroasts the rest of the bird, duck fat tumbling onto the bed of Yukon gold potatoes at the bottom of the oven, a glorious feast … Read more
You would think that a cheese-topped four-ounce beef patty, cooked until it’s a nebula of meat and cheddar, then stacked on a toasted bun, would be a total grease bomb. But Edzo’s owner Eddie Lakin has mastered the precarious engineering of a thin-patty burger: first, grinding his own beef daily for a precise meat-to-fat ratio, … Read more
Anna Posey (pictured) has the soul of an artist — she is responsible for, among other things, the illustrations on Elske’s bathroom wallpaper — and her desserts have the elegant bearing of museum pieces. This plate is a beam of sunshine even in the depths of winter, a study in a desert landscape’s yellows and … Read more
Not only is Fat Rice’s namesake (when translated) dish a dazzling introduction to the melting-pot appeal of Macau’s cuisine, it’s also a ridiculous feast. A massive pot overflows with char siu (barbecued Chinese pork), linguiça sausage, and other meats and shellfish, all of it atop a paella-like layer of sofrito-scented jasmine rice. And yet every … Read more
You’d better arrive early if you want to try some of owner Constance Simms-Kincaid’s weekends-only shrimp and grits at this de facto South Side community center. No dish flies out of the kitchen faster, and when it’s gone, it’s gone. Simms-Kincaid’s grits, never watery, are a hearty backdrop for well-seared shrimp with a dusting of … Read more
Quail can sometimes feel a bit spartan, but in chef Mark Steuer’s hands it goes from scrawny to brawny. A pair of juicy, golden-brown legs soak in a hearty corn soubise sparked with tart peach relish and tingly Fresno pepper, sending your taste buds sideways. The little bird’s skin is neither crispy or soft, but … Read more
If you have always found uni to be an acquired taste you haven’t quite acquired yet, Giant has the solution. The chefs here pulse the briny sea urchin innards into butter with gochujang and sweetened condensed milk before deep-frying it all, smearing it with pineapple jelly, and bedding it on lightly dressed cucumber shreds. The … Read more
This neighborhood anchor embraces a dual identity as both an old-school Chicago tavern slinging Malört shots and a restaurant dishing some of the most soul-satisfying vegetarian and vegan food in the city. It’s the kind of place that serves breakfast until 3 p.m., which also happens to be the cutoff point for ordering this giant, … Read more
Owner Robert Evans Sr. is one of the last barbecue elders who knows how to work the aquarium smoker, that glass-walled icon of the genre that’s only really used in our city, to its full potential. His rib tips — chewy, fatty, and more satisfying than bacon — have a craggy bark and toothsome bite, … Read more
