Last weekend, a horde of Tribune staffers descended on Taste of Chicago (which runs through Sunday in Grant Park), visiting each and every booth and scarfing up as much food as human endurance and fiscal responsibility would allow. Their words of praise, along with some (mostly figurative) bellyaching, follow.
AFRICAN
Vee-Vee’s African gets your goat, sautees it and serves it up in a rich meat sauce with pieces of fried plantain (6 tickets). If you’ve never had sauteed goat, or any other style of goat, here’s your chance.
Less-adventurous diners can settle for the chicken and vegetables over jollof rice (5). There’s also jerk chicken (7), served over red beans and rice; the chicken tastes underseasoned, but the red beans and rice are spicy enough for both of them.
– Phil Vettel
BURGERS, ETC.
Taste of Chicago is supposed to offer new eating experiences, and it can do that even if hamburgers are the only thing you ever eat.
Knicker’s buffalo burger (6 tickets) really is different: Leaner and stronger in flavor than a beef burger, it’s a treat for the jaded. East Side Cafe’s burger (7) is beef, and billed as Southern style. It’s covered with gooey American cheese and grilled onions, a very satisfying combination. The Billy Goat double cheeseburger suffers from being made in advance: It’s good, but not greasy enough.
West Egg Cafe’s Philadelphia cheesesteak (5) could use more mushrooms and peppers, but the Turano bread helps a lot.
Lawry’s prime rib sandwich (7) gives you a pretty small portion of meat on good French bread, but the meat is top of the line and worth the money.
For gyros lovers, there’s Yianni’s, which offers chicken gyros (7) as well as the traditional mystery meat (beef-lamb) variety (7). The chicken is good and will appeal to those who find the regular stuff too spicy. The pre-made servings can be under-sauced, so check before you leave the counter and and ask for more if it needs it.
– John Lux
BRATS, HOT DOGS, POLISH
What would Taste be without that trio? Boring, that’s what. But boring also describes some of the offerings in this category.
For starters, we sampled the polish (6 tickets) and brats (6) at Ye Olde Town Inn. Plain buns, sauerkraut that tasted like it had been drained of too much of its juice, and a polish that looked and tasted like it had never been anywhere near a good deli didn’t leave us clamoring for more.
At Cafe Suisse, we found a veal bratwurst (6) with an undistinguished taste, mushy texture, but wrapped in a decent roll.
Polka Sausage & Deli served up the winning combination, with tasty polish and brats (5 each) that nestled in a good roll and were covered with a nice sweet sauerkraut.
Gold Coast Dogs (4) offered a good hot dog with a casing that had just the right amount of tooth resistance, served up on a poppy seed bun. But the lack of sauerkraut made the polish (5) here unacceptable to the polish expert in our party.
And then there was Lindy’s Chili-Gertie’s Ice Cream, with the only chili dog (4) we tried. We liked it, but then we also like to pick up dogs, buns and a can of Hormel chili at the grocery. And that’s what this reminded us of.
– Phil Marty
CAJUN/CREOLE
It’s tough to go wrong with the Cajun/Creole offerings at Taste this year; most of it is pretty good.
Crescent City Steakhouse’s blackened prime rib po’boy (6 tickets) isn’t blackened, does not impress me as prime and is less of a po’boy than merely a roast beef sandwich with too much barbecue sauce. Crawfish etouffee (7) is much, much better, served in a cup (at Taste, one applauds user-friendly packaging). So is the jambalaya (5), with generous amounts of chicken and andouille sausage. Andouille sausage is also plentiful, and milder, in the Bourbon Street jambalaya (6) at The Net.
Maple Tree Inn offers a good, mildly spiced alligator sausage (6 tickets) that’s plenty plump; a tomatoey Creole sauce adds a little zing. Lake Pontchartrain stuffed crab (7) has a goofy name (man, there’s nothing like lake crab, eh?) but a good crabmeat mix stuffed in a crab shell and broiled. The boiled crawfish (7, for 7 crawfish) are good and spicy-and, hands down, the messiest dish at Taste this year (again); it’s a shame they don’t offer wetnaps.
– Phil Vettel
CHICKEN
In the not-so-hotly contested chicken vesuvio sandwich contest, Knickers’ juicy, mildly garlicky chicken (6 tickets) gets the nod over Ricobene’s greasy, heavily garlicky sandwich (7)-though grease-loving garlic fans (and you know who you are) may disagree.
Fitzee’s barbecued chicken (6) is worth a try-the sauce is especially good-but why only dark meat available? West Egg Cafe’s barbecued breast sandwich (7) is merely OK; ditto Maxine’s Diner’s curried chicken (5).
Best birds overall will be found at Como Inn, where they’re turning out a heavily charred, well-seasoned grilled breast sandwich (7); and at Great Godfrey Daniel’s, where the chicken teriyaki sandwich (7) is moist and tender with a sweet but not-cloying sauce.
– Phil Vettel
CHICKEN WINGS
Our favorite chicken wings were at Jimmie G’s (6 tickets), where you get four big wings, very tasty and not too greasy, with hot sauce on the side. Harold’s Chicken (6 for four wings) came in second; the wings weren’t quite as big as Jimmie G’s, but big enough, and there’s barbecue and hot sauce on the side. Excalibur gives you 8 winglets (6) already covered with sauce. The wings at Great Godfrey Daniel’s (6 for four wings) also come with sauce already on. The wings at T.G.I.Friday’s (6 for five winglets) were too greasy. All the chicken wings were served hot, with plenty of napkins.
Cynthia Davis
CHINESE
The popularity of Taste’s Chinese food could rank among the mysteries of the Orient.
Guey Lon’s shrimp and vegetable tempura (6 tickets), a mass of batter-fried peppers, carrots, onions and eight small popcorn-style shrimp, is little more than fried air.
An out-of-town expert sampled three egg rolls and pronounced them mediocre. The concoctions from King Wah, China Garden and Guey Lon (all 3 tickets) are virtually interchangeable-cabbage, carrots and a rumor of diced pork and shrimp.
I counted eight nuts in China Garden’s cashew chicken (7, with fried rice), a generous if bland portion, including carrot cubes that could have been left over from someone’s stew. Hi Howe’s spicy sesame chicken (6) was plentiful and utterly lacking in spice. But at least there were no carrots.
– Jim Cheng
CORN
The best bargain at Taste again this year is the sweet roasted corn being served at three locations. For three tickets, you receive a juicy ear of sweet corn on the cob at Kitty O’Shea’s, Reilly’s Daughter and Sharko’s. These ears of corn are cooked to perfection, dripping with butter and simply delicious. Unbuttered corn is available at all three booths, as is salt and pepper.
– Itasca Wiggins
DESSERT
In the battle of the fried dough vendors, Harry Caray (4 tickets) is the winner over Greco’s. The secret? The dough is cooked with cinammon and positively slathered in powdered sugar. It’s a ticket more than Greco’s (3), but bigger too. In the equally fierce cheesecake wars, Eli’s Tira-Mi-Su cheesecake proves equal to the challenge of Cheesecakes by JR’s pecan caramel (both 5 tickets). Both are cold, creamy and fresh. Eli’s is fun and innovative; JR’s is wallowing in thick, caramel topping. The sweet potato pie (4) at East Side Cafe is an exotic, balanced blend. The line at Ann Sather’s hints at one of the Taste’s best bargains: for 3 tickets you get a cinnamon roll the size of your fist that positively oozes cinnamon; icing from a separate canister is a high-calorie (but complimentary) option.
– Amanda Vogt
Zephyr’s ice cream sundae (4 tickets) was the richest ice cream I’ve ever eaten, topped with tart pineapple sauce. Breyer’s chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream served in a waffle cone (4) was loaded with delicious goodies, as was Dannon’s frozen cookies and cream yogurt (2).
Mama Tish’s Italian lemon ice (3) was a sweet, tart light treat. Franco’s offers a blackberry frozen ice (4) that’s creamy but lacks flavor. The Original Rainbow Cone (4) is generous and a treat for kids.
Lindy’s Chili-Gertie’s Ice Cream’s frozen banana (3 tickets) was stingy with the chocolate coating.
– Shirley Henderson
ITALIAN
Sung to the tune of “That’s Amore”:
For the best in Italian at Taste of Chicago: rotolo/Suparossa takes spinach and lots of ricotta and pasta/then they roll it and top it with sauce of tomatoes-bellissima!/Just one serving is plenty for four so you’ll have room for artichokes.
(Refrain:) Pasta Vino takes stuffing enough for a turkey and puts it on/giant artichokes cooked to perfection just like a fine restaurant/Save some room for focaccia from the folks at Turano it’s warm and sweet/just a little more cheese and tomato and you’d be in love. . . .
(Stop singing now.) Tuscany’s Italian beef is adequate; fried ravioli is good but an arterial nightmare. Ditto the fat content of Como Inn’s panzarotti, and be very afraid of Ricobene’s “Italian steak” sandwich- breaded and fried paper-thin mystery meat.
– Kathy O’Malley
MEXICAN
You don’t need a fistful of tickets to sample the Mexican fare. But apportion them wisely. Fernando’s is at the top of the must-do list with its flavorful chicken fajita (4 tickets). Its stuffed jalapenos (4) melted in the mouth. Don Pancho’s tamale in corn husk with chorizo (5) was a little steep but it packed a wallop. Skip Don’s elf-portioned and bland skirt steak taco (4) that no salsa could save. Hat Dance’s spice-free chicken fajita (5) is a dud, but chance the yummy chocolate chimichangas (3). Los Dos Laredos was a two-time loser with dry and days-old tamales (3) and quesadillas (3). What’s funny is that its condiments were outta sight: Salsa that sang and a pickled jalapeno salsa that stung delightfully.
– Eugenia C. Daniels
PIZZA
The budget buy is Lou Malnati’s deep-dish sausage, a four-ticket slice blanketed by a chunky tomato sauce and heaps of meat.
Billed as heart healthy, Bacino’s stuffed spinach is a fresh, crispy-crust wedge teeming with the green: Five tickets.
Gino’s East (5) contributes a satisfying deep-dish sausage that sandwiches cheese between a cornmeal-infused crust and a ground-sausage topping.
The high-end choice is Suparossa’s stuffed spinach/ricotta. Six tickets yields a monster wedge with smoothly intermingled complements of spinach, sweet tomato sauce and tangy cheese.
Carmen’s sausage pan (5) suffers from a soggy crust. Its stuffed sausage (5) fares better with the addition of more tomato.
– Leigh Behrens
Thin-crust pizza fans will find only two choices at Taste-both good. Home Run Inn made the score with its personal thin sausauge pizza (6 tickets). Bacino’s pizza (4) was hot and flavorful.
– Shirley Henderson
RIBS
Let me begin by saying that all ribs are not alike and just a sample of the ribs being served at the four booths at Taste this year is a testimony to that.
The meaty ribs being served at Fitzee’s (a first-time Taste server), Fireplace Inn and Robinson’s (all seven tickets) were tasty, but they didn’t pull away from the bone with ease. The portions at each location were either four or five bones. The sauce-which varied from zesty to mild-was the only other thing that distinguished one rib joint from another. Fitzee’s had the spiciest (but not hot) sauce, Robinson’s was somewhat milder, and Fireplace Inn offers a basic, very mild barbecue sauce that’s safest for kids.
The rib tips being offered at Jimmie G’s (7) were chewy with a very plain sauce.
– Itasca O. Wiggins
SEAFOOD
“Hardly enough tail there to wag,” I chortled while tearing off seven tickets for a 4 1/2-inch piece of grilled lobster, one onion ring and 10 fries in an acrylic tray.
“I picked you a big one,” quipped the waitress at the Shipwreck Kelly’s booth. The tail was buttery, tender and tasty-both bites-but the fries were too greasy to eat.
At Dock’s the shrimp on a stick-three heavily breaded, average tasting, french fried prawns impaled on a skewer-came with just a square of waxed paper that soon turned translucent in the drippings. Somehow I expected more for eight tickets, the most expensive item at the Taste.
Binyon’s creamy and comforting turtle soup, as always, was worth three tickets, especially with a couple dashes of sherry. The six tickets for seven catfish nuggets also was a decent deal: Both the breading and the fish were very flavorful.
“There’s tartar sauce, but you won’t need it,” said the woman at Sharko’s, handing over a large slab of blackened mako shark on a sourdough bun for seven tickets. “It’s really good.” She was right. The secret I could see was not only a nice piece of fish but the beer-drinking grillman’s generous use of Paul Prudhomme’s Cajun seasoning mix.
– Steven Pratt
SOUTHEAST ASIAN
If you’re in the mood for something more adventurous than barbecued turkey legs, then take a tour of Southeast Asian cuisines. My favorites-and easy to eat on the prowl-were Thai Room II’s satay (seven tickets), sliced broiled chicken breast with creamy peanut sauce, and their savory pad thai (6). You can add all the red pepper sauce you’re up to.
Little Quiapo’s lumpia (3) is a crisp egg roll that’s filled generously. Pasteur’s egg roll (3) comes in second, and its noodle dish (5) paled by comparison. Tasty and substantial is Little Quiapo’s pansit bijon (6), a hot chicken and vegetable noodle dish. It’s flavorful, not fiery. Bando’s sunjuk (7)-beef, peppers, carrots grilled on a skewer-is tender, delicious and easy to eat. Kalbee (7), a grilled thin slice of marinated beef rib, is tasty but awkward to eat. The crisp deep-fried veggies served on the side are terrific.
– Marjorie David
VEGETARIAN
If Steve Martin, Kim Basinger or Dustin Hoffman-all vegetarian celebrities-visited the Taste this year, they certainly would not go hungry, although they might have to search to find tasty cuisine.
A Natural Harvest, the only booth serving exclusively vegetarian entrees, is disappointing. The cornmeal tamales (two for 4 tickets) have an appealing curried flavor, but everything else is dry and tasteless. Harold’s Chicken, which offers fried okra (4), has the same problem.
A hungry vegetarian might also try ethnic meatless selections. Bando serves vegetable tempura (6) that can be described as high-class french fries-a splattering of batter-dipped, deep-fried green peppers and sweet potatoes.
Although palatable, Bando’s tempura is easily outdone by Pasteur’s version (6), with its large chunks of colorful savory vegetables. However, Pasteur’s tempura includes shrimp. An excellent alternative is Pasteur’s vegetarian stir fried noodles (5).
For the really adventurous, Vee-Vee African serves an egusi soup (5) with fufu-a cornmeal dough ball the size of one’s fist combined with an exotically spiced melon-seed stew. One spoonful might be the limit for most.
– Trisha Gura
