Hash Brown Perfection (Long)

LTH,

I have a confession to make, I love crisp, especially crispy/starchy such as french fries, tater tots, fried polenta, risotto cakes, tostones and hasbrowns, maybe especially hash browns. My two favorite places for hash browns, at the moment, I can be fickle, being Edgebrook Diner and The Diner Grill. As I mentioned, I am fickle, my favorite is typically the one I had last, but the hash browns at Diner Grill earlier this week, as RST is wont to say, made me weep for joy at their sheer beauty.

It was noon, and I was feeling a bit peckish, so I went with ribeye steak, 3-eggs, and hash browns with onions, extra crisp if you will, and extra crisp they were. Colors ranging from radiant gold to dark brown with flecks of perfectly caramelized onion interspersed. Not a single layer, as is Edgebrook's style, but small craggy mountains of crisp potatoes, a veritable landscape of potato perfection.

The ribeye was very good, not Morton's quality, but on the high end of the scale for a 24-hour diner, and the eggs were over easy perfection. No one has a better hand with eggs than an experienced grill man at a busy diner. My suggestion is next time you are in the mood for potato perfection go to The Diner, extra crisp hash browns with onion. Hummm, no, maybe go to Edgebrook Diner for extra crisp hash browns with both onion and giardiniera.

Speaking of crisp potatoes, I would be remiss in the extreme if I didn't mention the Tater Men, as JSM refers to them, at Resi's. I stopped at Resi's last weekend with Peter Daane, after the Saint Andrew's BBQ, and, given JSM's strong recommendation, could not resist. John, you were right, oh so very right, the Tater Men (potato pancakes) at Resi's are fantastic. Crisp, though I would order them extra crisp next time, with a deep rich potato flavor accented by onion.

Tater men at Resi's


Add sour cream, applesauce, friendly atmosphere, great beer, pretty bartenderess, outdoor beer garden and, well hell, Resi's is just about the perfect place to have a beer.

I, since this is going long anyway, should mention the hash browns Ellen and I had at Morton's last evening, where we celebrated our wedding anniversary. Pure crisp potato perfection, really grand. Ellen originally suggested baked potato, where I suggested hash browns, we negotiated and ended up with hash browns with baked potato trimmings, i.e. sour cream, whipped butter and crisp bacon. I have to hand it to Ellen, this was a great idea, not all that heart healthy, but very delicious.


I will post about our dinner at Morton's, short version, original Mortons at 1050 N State, accept no substitutes.

Enjoy,
Gary

Diner Grill
1635 W Irving Park Rd
Chicago, IL 60613
773-248-2030
24/7

Edgebrook Coffee Shop and Diner
6322 N Central Ave
Chicago, IL 60646
773-792-1433
M-F 6:30am to 3pm
Saturday 6:30am to 2pm
Closed Sunday

Resi's Bierstube
2034 W. Irving Park
Chicago, IL
773-472-1749

Morton's
1050 N. State St
Chicago, IL 60610
312-266-4820

Happy Anniversary.

You don't have a photo of Edgebrook's hash browns somewhere in your files? I'm shocked.

As I've noted before, growing up in Wichita great hash browns, a cake of browny-crisp outside/soft inside potato sticklets, fried up fast at high heat and served crunchy, were simply taken for granted-- it wasn't until I moved up here that I discovered that 90% of the time, you order hash browns and you get those lower labor, lower flavor chunks which are like boiled potatoes with a slight browned exterior. Edgebrook Diner is rightly praised for the real deal; I am glad to know of at least one more who does it right.

Mike G wrote:You don't have a photo of Edgebrook's hash browns somewhere in your files? I'm shocked.

Mr. G,

Of course I do.


Though, surprisingly, I do not have one of Diner Grill's hash browns. Looks like I have to go to Diner Grill for hash browns.

Enjoy,
Gary

Gary

Nice spud shots.Especially those tater men (not a tot in the lot !).
After spending ten days on the Oregon coast and being forced to eat fresh seafood I find myself longing for some good fried spuds and beer.

I see an evening at Resi's in my near future!

John

Love the Irving Park Dinner Grill. Actually had my 55th birthday there. Great hashbrowns, eggs, ham which they slice off of a whole leg per order. I like the "Western" sandwiches( fried egg, ham, mayo) as well.
To top everything off I drizzle the syrup over the egges, bacon or ham, hashbrowns.

For my birthday we brought in liquor, beer, had the little jukeboxes playing and anyone could order anything off the menu they wanted.

This is also a great place to go to soak up the alcohol, after the wonderful beer, martini's and manhattan's at the long room across the street.

psychchef

psychchef wrote:Love the Irving Park Dinner Grill. Actually had my 55th birthday there. Great hashbrowns, eggs, ham which they slice off of a whole leg per order.

Psychchef,

What a wonderful place to have a B-day party, something I'll keep in mind, though I doubt I'll change from 15 years of celebrating mine at 'Little' Three Happiness. (209 W Cermak)

You must be overdue for a visit to Diner Grill though, it's been a year or two since they last sliced ham from bone-in ham sitting on the counter, ham is now presliced and in the cooler drawers. It's still good, I think they still use bone-in ham, and then slice it themselves, but it's just not the same.

Story goes, which has recently been repeated at many a place, including the hanging dried sausage at Joe the Sausage King on N Western, a city of Chicago inspector stops in, sticks an instant read thermometer into the meat in question, if it's anywhere between 40 and 140 degrees it gets tossed and big fines if repeated.

Enjoy,
Gary

Should an occasion present itself, try L&L Snack shop on Northwest Hwy west of Des Plaines.

If you enter L&L from the back parking lot, you are likely to bump past the utility guy boiling and peeling 40 qt pot fulls of the spuds which are destined to transubstantiate into hash browns.

Ask for them extra crispy. The husband/wife owner/operators do everything possible to please. And don't miss the ham from the bone. With those two items filling the plate, the eggs can become somewhat of an afterthought. Avoid the coffee and orange juice swill, however.

L & L Snack Shop
456 E Northwest Hwy, Des Plaines, IL 60016
(847) 803-6767

http://www.chowhound.com/midwest/boards ... 18528.html

Steve Drucker wrote:which are destined to transubstantiate into hash browns.

Steve,

Sounds right up my alley, but my doctor suggested I avoid transubstantiate fatty acids.

Enjoy,
Gary