Annual Black Friday Food Crawl - 2016 Edition

Well, it's that time of year again . . .

This year we made 7 stops, drove 61.9 miles and took a little over 7.5 hours from start to finish.


Rub's Backcountry Smokehouse - 6954 N Western Ave, Chicago (I forgot to snap a pic of the exterior, so this one is borrowed from one of their posts here)


St. Louis Ribs
These ribs had a just-about-perfect level of tug, a really nice smoke on them and a rub that I really liked. We also had some brisket and some sausage, both of which were very good, too. Really nice stuff.



Cafe Tola - 3612 N Southport Ave, Chicago
Well, not exactly Southport's Most Wanted, though he is snarfing an empanada on the sly


Ropa Vieja Empanada
We ordered a gaggle of empanadas but really wanted to try the Ropa Vieja, which was excellent. I also thought the Pinto Bean, Spinach & Ricotta and Spicy Pork were terrific.



Snaggletooth - 2819 N Southport Ave, Chicago


Complete Tasting +
We added the Tuna Confit and the Trout Salad, neither of which were included in the Complete Tasting. I'm glad we did because those were 2 of my favorite items. After reading so much positive buzz about this place, I really wanted to love it but I thought it was just ok. I've been curing and smoking my own fish for over a decade, so I guess I'm just overly particular in my taste for this type of food.



El Cubanito - 2555 N Pulaski Rd, Chicago
They're no longer in the little building but in the larger one to the north.


Cubano
This is very near my apartment, so I've been there a number of times in the past few months and I usually enjoy it. Unfortunately, they were not near their best on this day. You can see that this sandwich was supremely dry and not even cooked to the point where the cheese was fully melted. Bummer.



Hong Huah - 5924 W Fullerton Ave, Chicago
First time I've ever been there when it was still light out.


Shrimp Toast
A couple of LTH friends turned me on to this place and they serve a couple of stand-out items. Now that Fabulous Noodles is off the radar, the Shrimp Toast here are pretty much the best in town -- and the best item they serve. Their Hot & Sour Soup is also great and if you can talk them into making the Lamb Mu-Shu, that's also a winner. I did find the food to be much saltier in the daylight hours.



Gene's & Jude's - 2720 River Rd, River Grove
Greatness in the gloaming . . .


Double Dog & Fries
One thing about taking your kid around to a bunch of places when they're young is that they don't always remember all the places they've been. Case in point: Gene's & Jude's. My son had been here several times when he was little but didn't remember it. After a couple of snappy dogs and some piping hot fries this time around, I think he'll remember it from now on. I think he'll also remember to smuggle in a couple of ketchup packets for his french fries on future visits!



Pro Samgyubsal - 3420 Milwaukee Ave, Northbrook
Loose translation: Pro Pork Belly. I'm not sure if that signifies their stand on pork belly or if it's a self-assessment on their abilities to serve it. But after our visit, I'd say it doesn't really matter.


Sliced Pork Belly Natural with Skin On
My favorite of the 3 cuts we ordered. We also had the Special Cut (honeycombed for quicker cooking) and the Jowl. This is served with a few panchan, the typical set of accoutrements for making lettuce wraps, and a really tasty rendition of Bean Paste Soup, as well. Considering we'd eaten 6 lunches before this final stop, I think it says a lot about how excellent this was that we were gobbling it up like we hadn't eaten all day. We'd read Sula's review of this place and were really glad we stopped in. I can't wait to go there again when I'm actually hungry!

So, all in all, another great post-Thanksgiving food crawl. There's nothing quite like loading up the car, cranking up the Christmas music and spending the day together, touring a tiny cross-section of our local eateries - both old faves and places never-before-tried. I think we've all come to look forward to this day more than Thanksgiving itself. When my son comes up from college for the break, he doesn't ask any questions about Thanksgiving itself but he asks me about the crawl before he even gets home.

=R=

Rub's Backcountry Smokehouse
6954 N Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60645
(773) 675-1410

Cafe Tola
3612 N Southport Ave
Chicago, IL 60613
(773) 687-8428

Snaggletooth
2819 N Southport Ave
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 899-4711

El Cubanito
2555 N Pulaski Rd
Chicago, IL 60639
(773) 235-2555

Hong Huah
5924 W Fullerton Ave
Chicago, IL 60639
(773) 889-4800

Gene's & Jude's
2720 River Rd
River Grove, IL 60171
(708) 452-7634

Pro Samgyubsal
3420 Milwaukee Ave
Northbrook, IL 60062
(847) 715-9073

So, all in all, another great post-Thanksgiving food crawl.

I would leave at "all in all, another great post".

I look forward to this every year. The best to you and your family!

Sweetbread wrote:

So, all in all, another great post-Thanksgiving food crawl.

I would leave at "all in all, another great post".

I look forward to this every year. The best to you and your family!

⬆️+1. I love this post!

Ronnie very time I see one of these posts I turn just a little inside with envy

does the "pro" in pro ssamgapsyul really mean "pro", or is it a korean word that we don't bother to translate because pro works?

Thanks, everyone, for the kind comments. It was a very fun day.

As for the term "pro," I don't really know. Google translate does not recognize it in Korean, so I think the name of the place is just a fun mash-up.

=R=

Ronnie, thanks for putting Hong Huah on my radar - definitely a new favorite for Chinese in the area. They don't deliver to me, so I'm sure Luo's will continue to get plenty of my business, but HH will be on my mind whenever I need to make a run to Lowe's. The shrimp toast and hot and sour were as promised. The ma po tofu was unlike any I've had before - rather than the angry red oil ma la bomb you might expect, it's a subtle, carefully spiced suspension of silken tofu in a kind of Chinese gravy with lots of scallions. Barely the same dish, but good. Orange chicken and Mongolian beef were high-quality versions. All this, and they threw in a spiffy Hong Huah calendar to boot - count me a fan!

ronnie_suburban wrote:Pro Samgyubsal - 3420 Milwaukee Ave, Northbrook
Loose translation: Pro Pork Belly. I'm not sure if that signifies their stand on pork belly or if it's a self-assessment on their abilities to serve it. But after our visit, I'd say it doesn't really matter.

dudefella wrote:does the "pro" in pro ssamgapsyul really mean "pro", or is it a korean word that we don't bother to translate because pro works?

ronnie_suburban wrote:As for the term "pro," I don't really know. Google translate does not recognize it in Korean, so I think the name of the place is just a fun mash-up.

I loved the name "Pro Pork Belly" from the first time I heard it and had wondered myself about the translation, whether Pro really means professional or if it's an untranslated Korean word. The alternative, that it might mean in favor of, never occurred to me.

I was curious if it would be easy for someone with absolutely no knowledge of Korean (like me) to figure this out. I fed a photo of the restaurant's sign into an online Korean OCR translator to get the restaurant's name in Hangul: 프로 삼겹살. If Google Translate isn't letting us down, 프로 (peulo) is professional and 삼겹살 (samgyeobsal) is pork belly (literally, three layer meat). So, yes, Pro really does mean professional. I think it goes without saying that everyone associated with the restaurant is in favor of pork belly.