Chicken Vesuvio was my Grandfather’s favorite dish, I never knew it was only a Chicago thing until I was an adult! He used to get it at a restaurant in Old Town, I wish I could remember the name.
IMO top 100 lists are always more interesting in the bottom 50 because the top 50 and especially the top 10 end up just being the books that the most people surveyed have heard of.
It's been so many years since I lived in Chicago, but I never tire of reading about its food, and its obsessions with its food. For all that NYC never stops talking about its restaurants, it's nothing, I think, like the visceral preoccupation with food that pervades Chicago.
In any event, thank you for yet another great, fun, viscerally appealing essay, Jason.
P.S. I became enchanted with deep dish pizza when I lived there, and I still daydream about it.
I try not to engage with people when they want to talk where food is "better" since I think it's all subjective, but on multiple occasions I've been in the state of Texas and told people I preferred Mexican food in Chicago and the only I find that it's better is in L.A. I probably almost ended up getting killed since Texans are a lot like Chicagoans and take their food very seriously, but people in those conversations have come back to me and told me they visited or moved to Chicago from Texas and I was right about he Mexican food. I tell people about the BBQ, the fried chicken, the Polish food, the Italian food, etc. and people don't believe me until they experience it. And as for the deep dish, I always say that on a late-January day when your feet might be a little damp and the real feel is ten below zero, a deep dish pizza can save your life.
Chicken Vesuvio was my Grandfather’s favorite dish, I never knew it was only a Chicago thing until I was an adult! He used to get it at a restaurant in Old Town, I wish I could remember the name.
If you remember let me know
I'll be in Chicago in August, I will drive by it (because I can picture it in my head) and let you know!
Thanks!
IMO top 100 lists are always more interesting in the bottom 50 because the top 50 and especially the top 10 end up just being the books that the most people surveyed have heard of.
Agree on Chee!
It's been so many years since I lived in Chicago, but I never tire of reading about its food, and its obsessions with its food. For all that NYC never stops talking about its restaurants, it's nothing, I think, like the visceral preoccupation with food that pervades Chicago.
In any event, thank you for yet another great, fun, viscerally appealing essay, Jason.
P.S. I became enchanted with deep dish pizza when I lived there, and I still daydream about it.
I try not to engage with people when they want to talk where food is "better" since I think it's all subjective, but on multiple occasions I've been in the state of Texas and told people I preferred Mexican food in Chicago and the only I find that it's better is in L.A. I probably almost ended up getting killed since Texans are a lot like Chicagoans and take their food very seriously, but people in those conversations have come back to me and told me they visited or moved to Chicago from Texas and I was right about he Mexican food. I tell people about the BBQ, the fried chicken, the Polish food, the Italian food, etc. and people don't believe me until they experience it. And as for the deep dish, I always say that on a late-January day when your feet might be a little damp and the real feel is ten below zero, a deep dish pizza can save your life.