Sparky will be right over.

Chocolate cream pie from Hoosiermamapieco. OMG. Delicious. Hungry Hound was there when we were. Unknown to me was that they do savory pies. Next time! Three two tops, coffee, scones and one smokin' hot piemaker.(in a piemakin' way)

salt & pepper shrimp and scallion smoked pork pancake from Ed's Potsticker House. my first visit to Ed's but it sure won't be my last.

Great versions of 2 of my very favorites at Khan BBQ, this past Friday evening . . .


Chicken Boti - 4/17/09



Broast Chicken - 4/17/09

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Khan BBQ
2401 W Devon Ave
Chicago, IL 60659
(773) 274-8600

Mac and cheese at Kuma's Korner.
The burger we ordered was actually overcooked, but the mac and cheese was brilliant and stole the show for me!

On an elite level, it would have to be the king crab by Curtis Duffy at Avenues with cucumber and a sugar 'glass'.
he has a video of it on his blog.

Chef Foss:

We literally spent the bulk of Saturday evening at the bar at Kuma's, and also had superlative mac&chs (we have it as an appetizer - talk about overkill!). Our mix-ins were sweet corn and caramelized onion. Delicious! We had the great good fortune to have our burgers (Keijo for me, Slayer for my Customary Dining Companion) done exactly to the medium we ordered. Hog heaven. We took home almost the whole side of the house potato chips, at least half of CDC's Slayer, and about a third of the mac. God's Leftovers.

But....to be honest, the best meal of the weekend (and of recent memory) was our bigbigBIG breakfast on Sunday. CDC made a big pan of scrambled eggs with Cheddar, with rashers of Nueske bacon AND Nueske's tremendous ham&bacon sausage on the side, followed by my banana bread pudding with a whiskey and salted caramel sauce baked underneath. I baked the bread with some chopped bittersweet chocolate, and the combo of the chocolate, banana, and sauce was...well, money. I got the idea and basis for the texture from the banana bread pudding we had on Thursday at Lunchrolls - I just tarted it up a little bit with the dark chocolate and whiskey. Good eats!

ronnie_suburban wrote:Great versions of 2 of my very favorites at Khan BBQ, this past Friday evening . . .


Chicken Boti - 4/17/09



Broast Chicken - 4/17/09

=R=

Khan BBQ
2401 W Devon Ave
Chicago, IL 60659
(773) 274-8600

Nice, I am back in town just in time to be reminded..

If I am headed over that way tonight, is this the place to go.. Anyone have any other suggestions for me to try..

I would say the baseline order at Khan is:

1) Chicken boti
2) Broasted chicken
3) Frontier chicken with rice
4) Any goat dish they have, the grilled chaap is best, but a curry isn't bad
5) Vegetable(s) of your choice-- dal (lentils), aloo gobi (spinach), bhindi (okra) etc.
6) A naan and a paratha, or more depending on the numbers. Garlic or onion or plain as you prefer.

This will feed 6 LTHers or 15 normal people.

Mike G wrote:I would say the baseline order at Khan is:

1) Chicken boti
2) Broasted chicken
3) Frontier chicken with rice
4) Any goat dish they have, the grilled chaap is best, but a curry isn't bad
5) Vegetable(s) of your choice-- dal (lentils), aloo gobi (spinach), bhindi (okra) etc.
6) A naan and a paratha, or more depending on the numbers. Garlic or onion or plain as you prefer.

This will feed 6 LTHers or 15 normal people.

Also add plenty of plain rice or biryani. Aloo gobi is cauliflower (not spinach) with potatoes, and their best vegetable, in my opinion.

Mike I'll agree with you but specify that the daal palak (lentils and spinach) is my vegetable of choice, spicy and fatty and wonderful scooped up in some naan or with the chicken boti or even just by itself on a fork. Also I'd offer their biryani as a potential sub for the frontier chicken with rice. Otherwise I think you've pretty much hit it.

Oop. So what's spinach?

Mike G wrote:Oop. So what's spinach?

Saag or palak.

Mike G wrote:Oop. So what's spinach?

The spinach dish at Khan is Daal Palak.

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Mike G wrote: This will feed 6 LTHers or 15 normal people.

No kidding! I was amazed at the amount of food that was - and the ease with which it disappeared.

I like the rich spinach as a foil for all the hot-spicy dishes (I like the aloo gobi, but doesn't serve that function.)

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:

Mike G wrote:Oop. So what's spinach?

Saag or palak.

Pretty much, yeah. Id say "Palak" is more the name for spinach, while "saag" is more the name for a sort of curry-style dish (ie wet/gravy dish), which is almost always spinach based (but can on some occasions be mustard-based IIRC).

Basically, aloo = potatoes; daal=lentils; bhindi=okra; gobi=cauliflower.
And spinach=palak, IMHO spinachcurry=saag (though the last 2 are sometimes interchangable on menus).

Thus aloo-gobi=potato+cauliflower; daal-palak=lentil+spinach etc. Paneer is Indian-cheese... thus palak-paneer=cheese-in-spinach.

Meat (usually goat to me, sometimes lamb, on occasion beef too I suppose, but almost never chicken) is gosh (or ghost)... thus meat cooked in spinach is usually palak-gosh (or sometimes saag-gosh on menus, to me since it is usually in "gravy" form). And so on.

Oh, and while I havent made it to Khan's as much as Id like recently... they almost never used to have a biryani (except on the rare weekend day); it never used to be there when I asked, and I was finally told on a few occasions that they basically didnt make it, or sometimes made it on weekends. (On Fridays, I believe, they make a "pulao" rather than a biryani). Thus I was almost always stuck with frontier-chicken-rice (which is a good version, but never up to a great goat-biryani). Has this changed recently? Are they now regularly serving goat-biryani on weekdays too?

c8w

pea sformato w/poached egg, pea shoots, parmesan (and a few other things I can't recall).

The Publican has been trying out sformatos since its inception--I had a squash variation in the fall, a stinging nettles late in the winter--but this one really and finally nailed the conceit: a custard-y texture, enhanced by the spilling yolk, brimming forth with the essence of the vegetable, then sharpened by the salty cheese.

It tasted of pure spring.

I also had the pleasure of the pea sformato. Perfectly done with the caveat that the egg needed something (though if you managed to get a bite with the parmesan, it lacked nothing at all). Never would have worked without perfect spring peas. Given it's reputation, impressive of the Publican to shine so in a veggie dish, which provided a nearly ethereal complement to their (naturally) heavy entrees.

I stopped at What's Cooking? Restaurant in the Lincoln Village Shopping Center yesterday and had a Reuben Sandwich, one of the best renditions I've had the pleasure to eat in a very long time. Lean corned beef, fresh dark rye bread, perfectly melted cheese on top . . . and, by my choice, no 100 Island Dressing on top.



What's Cooking? Restaurant
6181 N. Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL

Waffles at home. I was jonesing for them so I pulled out the bowls and the iron. I still had some Red Band Flour and it was in good shape, don't ask what the "best if used by date" was on the flour.




Now if I can make like Maureen Evans and post the recipe in some sort of twitter haiku. Check out Twitter.com/cookbook

potato gnocchi crab, leeks, beet greens, oregon truffles

As an app at Sola we had the gnocchi. They were fantastic pillowy texture with a slight toothsome aspect where they were browned while cooking. Obviously any dish with Crab and Truffels is going to be good but this was more than just another excuse for decadence.

I had the best steak taco of my life at Las Asadas tacos in Des Plaines on Saturday. I couldn't believe my mouth. I"d been there once before and knew it was great, but this was right off the grill, perfectly seasoned and eaisly had more taste than just about any steak I've ever eaten in my life. . . including high end steak joints. The taco was so juicy and tasty i didn't even add any green sauce. . . would you put sunglasses on the Mona Lisa? Nay. You wouldn't.

I'm almost afraid to go back in case this was a one-time alignment of the planets type of meal, but i'm sure i'll return tonight.


Las Asadas Restaurant
356 Lee St, Des Plaines -
(847) 298-3393

years ago i had the world's best chicken burrito at las asadas in des plaines. i was sorry the drive was too long from chicago to make it a regular stop. a few months later las asadas opened a second location a few blocks from me on western, just south of armitage. alas, the chicken burrito didnt taste nearly as good as the one from DP. ghazi, you might want to check out the steak tacos in chicago, if you live here. maybe you'll get luckier than i did. justjoan

pan fried noodle, extra crispy at LTH. very good. next time i will do the crisp chicken and salt and pepper pork chop as well.

Capping off a great weekend of eating out (more on this later); brunch today at Mado . . .


Pan-fried Blood Pudding with Toasted Corn Bread and Sunny Side Up Duck Eggs

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Home made burger made from ground round (90% lean), fried on a pan at really high heat, kinda thin. Served on a toasted challah roll with sauteed onions and jalapenos, smoked mozzarella (which I also fried in the pan), a slice or two of tomato, and a heaping spoonful of spicy German mustard. I also made some badass badass double fried french fries that (according to my girlfriend) surpassed the frites at much lauded Le Severo in Paris (where we ate at a few weeks ago and enjoyed one of the best steak frites ever).

It's all about the smoked cheese and grilled onions and jalapenos. You could put that stuff on a tire and it would taste good.

The soft shell crabs with red curry at Spoon Thai. The curry has a wonderful flavor, with underlying hints of spice and coconut and somehow they manage to keep the crabs crispy despite the sauce. The best soft shells I've had in years. The chinese broccoli with crispy pork was pretty wonderful also.

Maribeth

mbh wrote:The soft shell crabs with red curry at Spoon Thai. The curry has a wonderful flavor, with underlying hints of spice and coconut and somehow they manage to keep the crabs crispy despite the sauce. The best soft shells I've had in years.

That's a special, not a regular menu item, right? I had that the first and last time I went to Spoon - it was amazing, a dish I still think about. Odd that I've never gone back there, considering the first impression it made.

That's a special, not a regular menu item, right? I had that the first and last time I went to Spoon - it was amazing, a dish I still think about. Odd that I've never gone back there, considering the first impression it made.

Yes, it's a seasonal item. It was not on the menu, but on a table card listing specials. Get them while you can!

mbh wrote:

That's a special, not a regular menu item, right? I had that the first and last time I went to Spoon - it was amazing, a dish I still think about. Odd that I've never gone back there, considering the first impression it made.

Yes, it's a seasonal item. It was not on the menu, but on a table card listing specials. Get them while you can!

Good news is that during soft shell crab season, they're on the menu all the time. I love them too.