Corned beef hash in the Chi?

Alright people not trying to stir up any controversy here but I woke up this morning with my head banging like a blood in Arkansas, and I had the urge for something I realized I don’t know where to find it and that’s some good homemade corned beef hash...who's got an answer for me?

Hi,

If you did a search on this site, you might just answer your question.

Regards,

and what exactly is "the Chi" ?

Try it at Gibson's, where it available during weekend brunch and lunch.

Homemade is always best, and damned easy.

Manny's.

And what the heck does "head banging like a blood in Arkansas" mean?

Um . . . beats me, too, but I think that I might have experienced it once or twice as an over-imbibing undergraduate visiting Nuevo Laredo.

Cheers,
Wade

and what exactly is "the Chi" ?

A kindly suggestion:

If you truly hope to fit in, belong, and achieve a sense of community, refer to places as the locals do. Natives never call San Antonio "San Antone," nor do natives refer to San Francisco as "Frisco." On the other hand, Los Angelenos often do resort to "L.A." Nothing marks a newbie/outsider more than transgressions such as these.

Also, resist the urge to use the bland, homogenous, meaningless, media-popular terms like "Chicagoland."

Over and out. I have a Maxwell Street Polish from Jim's Original that requires my attention.

Cheers,
Wade

waderoberts wrote:

and what exactly is "the Chi" ?

If you truly hope to fit in, belong, and achieve a sense of community, refer to places as the locals do. Natives never call San Antonio "San Antone," nor do natives refer to San Francisco as "Frisco." On the other hand, Los Angelenos often do resort to "L.A." Nothing marks a newbie/outsider more than transgressions such as these.

Huh? While locals may not call it "the Chi," I've certainly heard born-and-bred Chicagoans (myself included) use popular terms like "Chitown" and, to a lesser extent, "the Windy City."

Also, resist the urge to use the bland, homogenous, meaningless, media-popular terms like "Chicagoland."

What's wrong with "Chicagoland"? It's an extremely useful term used to describe Chicago and its suburbs. Would you prefer I use the wordier "Chicago metropolitan area"? "Chicagoland" is a popular, homegrown term, and, personally, I'm quite fond of it. It's most out-of-towners that think it's a silly term, not the natives. And, heck, look at the name of this forum.

Never say Chi Town, ever.

I was simply under the impression that the topic was a poorly formed sentence relating to the effect of corned beef hash on the chi balance in a room.

I'd never heard of feng shui taking spiced meat and potato products into account, but it's also not something I know much about.

But I guess this topic wasn't quite what I'd expected.

grant wrote:Never say Chi Town, ever.

I can take or leave "Chi Town," but I stand by the fact that locals will use the word, usually in a facetious context. But "Chicagoland" stays. Also, no ketchup on hot dogs, and none of this "I'm a Chicago fan" garbage when it comes to baseball teams. You gotta choose sides.

tough crowd.

I grew up in Chicago, and use "Chi" (SHy). Never heard anyone from out of town, including suburban folk, use it. Chi-town is different - that seems to be a common one from sportscasters to Europeans to Big 10 post-college types alike. Chicagoland?

Hilary's has an interesting corned beef hash: very soupy with big chunks of corned beef. The broth is good, but it takes away what many will say is an essential characteristic of the dish - a little crispyness on the edges. [HUE - Division and Greenview]

Cafe Penelope had a really good, classic version, but I think it might be seasonal [Penelope - Ashland and Jackson]

What about S&W's - do they have their famous Roast Beef Hash? I visited pretty often in NY but have never been here. I'm assuming they do. And it is excellent.

waderoberts wrote:
Also, resist the urge to use the bland, homogenous, meaningless, media-popular terms like "Chicagoland."

Guess the mods will have to rename this sub-forum to something other than "Eating Out in Chicagoland" to avoid appearing bland, homogenous, meaningless and/or media-popular. Or not.

Monday is Corned Beef Hash day at Manny's. A few of us are meeting there today at 1:00 to present Manny's GNR award. If it's corned beef hash you seek, meet us at Manny's today at 1:00 P.M.

I don't want to get involved in this completely absurd tangent more than to say this:

I'm 24, I was born and raised in Oak Park (yep, hate on me for it), although I live in Chicago. None of my friends, aged 20-30 or so, call it "Chi-town". I think if they did I would laugh at them. I've definitely never heard "the Chi".

I'm also very, very dubious that anyone in Detroit calls it "The D". A reliable source tells me: "maybe the '313', but never, ever the D".

That's all. I just wanted to defend the honor of some of my peers.

Anyway, the whole thing is silly. Who cares what he calls it?

gleam wrote:Anyway, the whole thing is silly. Who cares what he calls it?

Call it whatever you want, but I honestly wasn't sure if he was talking about Chicago, some particular neighborhood, or something else entirely. I really just wanted some clarification. I could have been clearer about that, I guess. In all of my Chicago-born-and-raised life, I've never heard that term before.

I must say that referring to Chicago as "chi-town" is considered provincial in some quarters. The same way referring to the city as "Chicagoland" when you really mean the burbs irks many urban dwellers. San Francisco, oddly enough, is also referred to as "the city" by locals and never, ever "Frisco" or, god forbid, "San Fran." What really gets me tho' isn't your coining(new to me anyway) the term, "The Chi," but the off-putting metaphor you deployed in your original corned beef hash query.

To the meat of the matter:

The s/o's fond of hash and poached eggs. I can take or leave the hash part of the equation, although I ocassionally steal a bite off his plate. How about the dying art of the poached egg? Some places, The 3rd Coast, for one, have dropped it from their menu. I remember the New Jersey? brouhaha mentioned earlier in which bureaucracy attempted to trample the god-given right to eggs however you want 'em. I haven't encountered that level of idiocy here, but what's up with a fry cook nixing the method from their entire repetoire? I mean, don't they sell poaching molds if yr too lazy to master the technique freehand?

toptenmen wrote:As for your little comment about fitting in, which makes you seem more like a child than an old man, ill be just fine as long as the people with cinnamon sticks up their you know what stick to doing what the site was meant for, talking food in the Chi... you lost this one buddy, now take it like a man and change your perspective on this, its not 1955 anymore.

Okay, let's simmer down, all of us. This is getting entirely unproductive.

Hammond

HI,

Some years ago, my friend's Wisconsin boyfriend advised, "You people from Illinois call those from Wisconsin 'Cheeseheads.'" "We do? I never heard the term 'Cheesehead' until just now."

Whenever I hear Chi-town it is usually a non-Chicagoan or someone on a CB radio, which I haven't used in years.

Regards,

toptenmen wrote:Dont argue because your wrong. Just because your little group doenst refer to it as the Chi does not mean that locals dont. Go pick up an album from Kanye West, Twista, muddy waters or listen to someone like Dwayne Wade or Jim Belushi speak on their city...

Okay, let this go, please. We are not going to come to a definitive decision about this issue and, ultimately, as we've all agree, it is of little importance.

Hammond

edit: Bleh. Consider it dropped from my point of view.

gleam wrote:Kanye and Twista. Best sources ever.

I can't believe I'm getting involved with this...but why are these two not good sources? They are both, after all, native Chicagoans.

Just interested. I have no passionate opinions about this matter, I should note...

Christopher Gordon wrote:I must say that referring to Chicago as "chi-town" is considered provincial in some quarters. The same way referring to the city as "Chicagoland" when you really mean the burbs irks many urban dwellers.

The reason I like the term "Chicagoland" is because it encompasses the city and the burbs. It's just a convenient shorthand to refer to the entire area. Because when I want to know where the best so-and-so is, I'm willing to explore the suburbs as well as Chicago. And the most convenient way to phrase this question is to use the term "Chicagoland," because "Chicago" refers simply to the city, sans suburbs, and the suburbs are just that.

Anyhow, back to food...

blarg

Binko wrote:Anyhow, back to food...

YES!

waderoberts wrote:Also, resist the urge to use the bland, homogenous, meaningless, media-popular terms like "Chicagoland."

Binko wrote:What's wrong with "Chicagoland"? It's an extremely useful term used to describe Chicago and its suburbs. Would you prefer I use the wordier "Chicago metropolitan area"? "Chicagoland" is a popular, homegrown term, and, personally, I'm quite fond of it. It's most out-of-towners that think it's a silly term, not the natives.

"Chicagoland" reportedly was coined by the Tribune, which automatically causes some to disdain it. This designation for the nine-county area goes back to the early 1900s, so in my opinion it's certainly a valid local usage.

However, it means "Chicago and suburbs." A pet peeve of mine is people who use it to mean only the suburbs, or worse, who use it in gratingly redundant phrases like "greater Chicagoland metropolitan area."

A Google search for "Chicagoland" generated more than 2.7 million hits. I only looked at the first few pages, but the links were all to pages from solid local institutions. "Chitown" finds 132,000 and "Chi-Town" 634,000, many from nonlocals, although it seems to have some popularity among rappers.

regarding corned beef hash...

I had the version at Cafe Selmarie in Lincoln Square a couple of years ago. They had chunky strips of corned beef, diced onions, chunks of potato, and bell pepper (not sure about the pepper). It was good. But I think I prefer my hash to be chopped up a little finer. That way it becomes more homogenous and you get the combo of all ingredients in each bite.

But in general, I can't say that I've ever had a really bad corned beef hash.

I remember having decent non-canned freshly made hash at Cold Comfort years ago when I lived a few doors from there. I can't even verify if the place is still open, but you might want to give it a try, or at least a call.

Cold Comfort Cafe and Deli
2211 W. North Ave
773/772-4552

The search function would have worked wonders and prevented this topic from ever being formed. (And you could have simply added your comments on whatever place you tried to the existing thread, thus leaving your mark on the shared knowledgebase.)

My usual spot for corned beef hash would have shown up in this thread.

For a hangover, not much beats Twisted Spoke's 'hash served with two poached eggs by a well-inked and surly waitress, accompanied by a couple of their bloody marys.

The Corned Beef Hash at Kuma's Corner, as documented by JiminLoganSquare here looks pretty good, but when I went there last weekend, it was not on the menu. Don't know if it was a special or what...

I had a fantastic corned beef hash in a lovely little town in Wisconsin a few weekends ago. Sadly, the name of it has totally escaped me for the time being (both the diner and the town). Plus, I think that safely falls into the "Beyond Chicagoland" category.