reggio's @ o'hare

chicago, il

website

i'm a huge fan of chicago style pizza. my co-workers and i went to pizza due after a work event, but only because it was close to our hotel and open late. nowhere near as good as giordano's. so i was still craving a true chicago-style pizza at the airport, on my way back to SFO. reggio's was a little stand in the middle of the united terminal advertising a "butter crust." how could i say no to that? it didn't seem to really be chicago-style pizza. the crust was good, but not great. sauce was a little bland. but the cheese was good and it was sufficiently filling to sustain me through my five hour flight.

the publican

chicago, il

website

chicago has amazing food, but it's not easy to figure out which places are going to be good. thankfully i have christine and val to show me around whenever i'm in town. we headed to chicago's version of the meatpacking district for a meat-centric meal at the publican. the restaurant is clearly one of the farm-to-table types and it appears to have brought the tables and pigpens from the farm as well. christine, val, and i were seated at a booth located in one of these pigpens, which was fun.

there's vegetables and starches available on the menu, but we focused on the good stuff - a full order of the mussels served with crusty french bread to dip in the broth (i'm glad we ignored the waiter who suggested that a half order would be sufficient), a plate of pork belly served over lentils (if i remember correctly), and my favorite - the blood sausage served with kimchee and apples. this was my first time trying blood sausage (but i've seen anthony bourdain rave about it on tv). it was fantastic - the richness of the sausage was perfectly balanced by the spicy acidic kimchee.

xoco

chicago, il

website

christine and val, fellow foodies, suggested xoco for dinner. i was very excited because i've wanted to try a rick bayless restaurant ever since he won top chef: masters. xoco is a casual restaurant located next to bayless's more formal restaurants. it's an interesting set-up, like a high end fast food joint. there's a large blackboard with the menu listed in chalk. you order and pay at the register, they give you a number, and then you sit down at your table and wait for a server to bring you your food.

at 7:30 pm on a friday night, the place was packed. they wouldn't let us order until there was room in the dining room for 3 people. after about a half hour, we were finally allowed to order. not one to pass up homemade chorizo, i chose the choriqueso torta with homemade chorizo sausage, roasted poblano, artisan jack cheese, and tomatillo salsa - delicious. the blackboard also explained that xoco grounds its own chocolate in-house, so i ordered a chocolate cafe con leche - which was a bit bitter, but rich and chocolatey. val and christine ordered fresh churros for the table - unbelievable - the churros were perfectly crispy on the outside, steamy and chewy on the inside, and covered with sugar and cocoa bits. an amazing meal with excellent company, unique and delicious food, and even a celebrity sighting ("hey, that's rick bayless walking into the kitchen!").

giordano's

chicago, il

website

chicago, it turns out, is a food city. i wish i had more time to explore the culinary landscape, but i only had two free evenings. the first evening, i told kasi that i was craving chicago-style pizza. the hometown girl takes me to the famous giordano's on rush street for their famous deep dish pizza pie. we order the special, of course - sausage, mushrooms, green peppers, and onions. the pizza takes about 45 minutes to bake, which is just enough time for kasi and myself to update eachother on: our lives, the lives of our mutual friends, and the latest episode of american idol.

the pie finally arrives and it is MASSIVE. we ordered the smallest size available. it's supposed to serve 1-2 people, but the pizza must have weighed at least ten pounds. i'm telling you - there is no way that 1 person can eat the entire pizza. i would be shocked to see 2 people finish it. there's a thick crunchy buttery crust, topped with gooey chewy cheese an inch deep, and another half-inch or so of sausage, veggies and red sauce. delicious. i can understand how someone might want to eat the whole pizza, but i only managed to get through 1/3. kasi succeeded in finishing another 1/3. we had to roll ourselves out of the restaurant, but it was worth every bite.