Danny's News and Tips

Chicago is the third largest city in the United States. In addition to being home to nearly three million people and the largest airport system in the world, Chicago is home to a community that can be described only as multi-cultural. There are several very well shaped international communities that are to be found across the different zip codes of Chicago at the present moment. The main among them include:

• Italian

• Jewish

• Polish

• Lithuanian

• Serbian

• Czech

Naturally, this contributes to Chicago being a very vibrant area. The landscape changes literally on every corner. If you are wondering what the most adequate way to get to know the many faces of Chicago is, well the answer is simple. It is through the food that is considered to be traditional for the different communities. Even if you feel doubts about the legitimacy of this approach, one thing you cannot argue – that it is definitely the tastiest and most pleasant way to get to know the city.

Chicago’s food – the basics

While many of the dishes that are to be found around in the restaurants in Chicago can be considered to be typical for the Midwest of the United States, there are arguably three dishes that are simply synonymous to the Windy City. Those are:

• The Chicago Styled Hot Dog. No matter whether the hot dog is steamed or boiled, what makes it Chicago style is the poppy-seed bun in which the all-beef wiener is placed. On top of it you will find mustard, chopped onions, a sliced tomato, neon-green sweet-pickle relish, sport peppers, a dill-pickle spear, and a sprinkling of celery salt. Just remember, when you are placing an order for a Chicago Styled Hot Dog is that you should never (and we mean ever) ask for ketchup. It is considered to be a form of sacrilege. Either way, most hot dog stands around the city do not offer ketchup, so even if you open your mouth you will not get it. On the other hand, you are likely to get a snort of derision due to being uncultured.

• The Chicago Styled Pizza is another local delicacy that you are going to fall in love with for sure. It is a deep-dish pizza with the other crust taller than the rest of the slice. It is characterized by the excessive amounts of cheese that are to be found on it. Another difference from the regular kind of pizza is the fact that the tomato sauce is to be found on top of the cheese, instead of top of it. Naturally, thin-crust pizza is also to be found in many places around Chicago. A version of the Chicago Styled pizza usually called stuffed pizza includes even more cheese than the regular king, with a thin crust on top – thus the stuffing. If you are looking for a real calorie-bomb, that is definitely the right answer for you.

• Now, as you can guess Italian food is pretty popular with people from around Chicago. After all, a considerable part of the immigrant community of the city comprises namely from Italians. So there is little wonder in the fact that one of the most famous and iconic pieces of food that Chicago is famous for is the Italian beef. Very thin slices of seasoned roast beef is placed in an Italian-style roll, with lots of dripping meat juices. The roll itself is often dipped in the juices in which the meat was cooked, and there is an option to make the sandwich an “Italian cheese” – by adding mozzarella or provolone.

Some other meals to die for

Even though the hot-dog, the pizza and the Italian sandwich are the definitive foods of Chicago, there are also many other meals that are considered to be traditional of the area and reflect on the multi-cultural background of the city:

• Chicken-Vesuvio is an example of the so called fusion-kitchen. There are Italian as well as traditional American elements in the recipe, which consists of chicken on the one along with wedged potatoes, celery, carrots and other vegetables.

• Maxwell Street Polish is a Polish beef and pork sausage grilled along with onions. Its name comes from the eponymous Maxwell Street where it was first prepared. Maxwell Street is the centre of one of the most prominent Polish communities in the city.

• The jibarito is representative of the prominent Puerto Rican community of the Chicago, which is especially well centered around the Humboldt Park neighborhood. The dish consists of chicken or other meat, along with condiments, placed between two pieces of fried and flattened plantain instead of bread.

• There is a very big community of Greeks living in and around Chicago too, and where Greeks go, there are gyros. Actually, a curious fact is that gyros were so popular in the city at a certain point that Chicago became the first city in the United States where there were to become mass-produced. That’s some accomplishment, isn’t it? Saganaki, a fried cheese appetizer, is another really popular item from the Greek cuisine that can be ordered in many restaurants and diners around Chicago.

• The hot dog bum is often filled, in addition to wieners, with tamale. In this variant the sandwich is called a mother-in-law.

Where to go to eat in Chicago

Many good restaurants can be found across the territory of Chicago. Where you go depends on what type of food you are in the mood for. Chinatown is on the South Side, Greektown on Halsted Street, and Little Italy on Taylor Street and the Heart of Italy. Indian and Pakistani restaurants are to be found along Devon Avenue, while there are several very good Vietnamese restaurants in the Argyle Street district in Uptown. Harold's Chicken Shack is Chicago’s in-house fried chicken chain. If you are in the city come July, drop by Grant Park in the downtown for the annual Taste of Chicago festival, where you could learn all about the cuisine of this great city of ours.