Guest Post: Triple X Drive-In

This guest post comes to us from the ETW family, who recently visits a burger landmark in Indiana.

Triple X Drive-In
2 N Salisbury St
West Lafayette, IN

We drove right past Triple X Drive-in on our way to a women’s lacrosse game – Illinois vs. Purdue. We immediately recognized the orange and black striped building, which is unlike pretty much any diner (or building, for that matter) you’ll ever see. After the game we all agreed we had to try this place. Needless to say, it was very easy to find.

On the inside, it looks like the typical university burger dive. The seating is a series of 4 u-shaped counters surrounding the grill area. After a brief wait our large group (20+) was seated at the counter in separate groups. Service was fast and friendly even though all of us were wearing some form of orange University of Illinois apparel. Naturally, we all opted for burgers, many of which are named after sports stars.

The “Bernie Flowers All Pro” is a 1/4 lb. burger with lettuce, tomato, onion and Miracle Whip on a sesame bun. A side of fries and a pickle were included.  The “Bert Burger” is the same with bacon. General consensus was the burgers were very good – juicy and a nice, fresh beef flavor. As an added touch, the meal did not arrive in the typical basket, but was served on a bright orange Triple X frisbee. The only negative to our meal was the french fries. Although they looked perfect – crispy, not too thick or thin – they were cold. Burgers are clearly the main draw here and worth a return trip for a good meal and little piece of the college experience.

Argentine Empanadas

An unlikely recipe from a blog called Tokyo Terrace – a recipe for Argentine empanadas. Expat foodie Racheal shares here experiences cooking in Tokyo on her blog and shares some pretty great recipes. We were definitely intrigued by this simple-sounding beef empanadas, alongside with Racheal’s great stories and photos.

Feliz Dia De Los Muertos

Sugar Skulls for Sale in San Francisco by Digiyesica

Feliz Dia De Los Muertos! Today is the 2nd day of the Day of the Dead celebrations, which gastronomically means a proliferation of pan de muerto and sugar skulls.

Szechuan: Lao Sze Chaun

Lao Sze Chaun
2172 S. Archer Ave
Chicago, IL

During a recent episode of “No Reservations” where Anthony Bourdain jetted off to Melbourne – he ate at a Szechuan restaurant and devoured a delicious looking dish that was basically a pan of red chilis studded with meat. M, ever the capsaicin lover, was practically salivating at the screen. So we figured the next time we were in Chinatown we should go someplace for Szechuan food, known for its particular heat. We did a bit of scouring to test the Szechuan options in Chicago, and Lao Sze Chuan came out on top. Lao Sze Chuan is located in the heart of Chinatown and earns rave reviews for its more innovative take on this Chinese regional cuisine.

The interior is your basic spartan eatery, but, as always, decor matters little to us and we dove right into the intimidatingly massive menu. We stuck to the page of ’specials’ since we were frankly overwhelmed by the massive amounts of choice. Though we didn’t venture too far afield, we especially enjoyed the demarcated section with “Very Chinese Specials” including Stir-Fried Pork Stomach with Dry Bean Curd ($7.95) and Pork Blood Cake with Chives ($8.95). It’s always a good reminder that we still have a ways to go to truly appreciate all of the world’s food – including offal.

M ordered Tony’s Three Chili Chicken ($9.95), a dish that constantly garners rave reviews when Lao Sze Chuan is mentioned. Despite the “3 Chili” label M found the dish not too spicy. In fact, it was not spicy at all. It was so unspicy in fact, that L even commented it was a bit bland. The only discernible spice was the few whole red chili peppers tossed into the dish. This was particularly perplexing – since we told the server to make the dish spicy, and to not tone it down. The chicken was mostly breading as well, which disappointed us a level further. As an accompaniment we ordered the garlic spinach ($7.95), perhaps in uninspired choice, but it arrived as advertised – garlicky and spinachy.

Our two table-mates had some formidable looking smoothies, which they reported that they quite enjoyed. We looked a bit longingly at the overflowing pastel fruit drinks as we picked through our bland chicken. Lao Sze Chaun left us scratching our head a little – everyone raves about its authenticity and flair, but we got neither. There was nary a hint of spice on even the dishes marked a spice-denoting ‘pepper’ in the menu and a dish named the “3 Pepper Chicken” didn’t even make us reach for a glass of water….

Picturing Spices

A beautiful post on the Flickr Blog has an assortment of pictures of spices from around the world. It’s worth a view. I am particularly impressed by these spice displays – they look too perfect to be real.

More to Mongolian Food

When I think of Mongolian food, I immediately tink “BBQ” probably because that is how it is branded in the US. However, Mongolians have a rich food culture that is surprisingly (to me, at least) dairy-centric. An interesting piece in the Atlantic describes Mongolian staples like fermented mare’s milk, airag. M would be right at home there.

An American (Cheese) in Paris

It’s funny to imagine that a Wisconsin cheddar is a pricy luxury import abroad. But, according to the Wall Street Journal, this is increasingly the case, as American artisanal cheeses are making their way to Europe. This is a trend I approve of – hopefully it will change some attitudes that American Cheese = Velveeta.

Guatemala: Guatelinda Bakery

Guatelinda Bakery
3025 W Diversey Ave
Chicago, IL

We were in the Logan Square neighborhood for a concert, and we felt like picking up a sweet treat for later, despite the fact that we already had a pound of carnitas (more on that later). We had heard good things about the Guatelinda Bakery, so we decided to give it a try. Guatelinda Bakery is a corner store in the truest sense of the word, situated directly on the corner, and containing both a baked goods counter and staples like milk and eggs. Along one wall there was a cooler of said staples as well as a well-chosen selection of Guatemalan canned goods and sodas. There is a chalkboard advertising the daily specials, including things like cornbread and fresh chile rellenos ($3). In the bakery case, as well as along the back wall, are an assortment of about a dozen kinds of pastries, scones, pan dulce, and cookies. We ordered a mini pound cake ($1.50) and a Carthucha ($1.50), a cream-filled fried pastry. The pound cake was buttery and delicious, with a hint of lemon. The cartucha was kind of like an eclair on steroids, but a bit flakier than you might expect, and M the whipped cream-lover was a fan. As we paid the nice lady manning the counter asked us if we lived nearby, if we did we should come back sometime to try the specials. Too bad we don’t!

A New Place for: Indonesian Food

Angin Mamiri
2739 W Touhy Ave
Chicago, IL

Indonesia is absolutely a huge country – so it’s a wonder that it’s taken Chicago so long to get its very own Indonesian restaurant, the family-run Angin Mamiri. Reviews on Yelp are mixed, but we’re still hoping to try it for ourselves. Both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Magazine have ventured there. The Trib Review was positive, lauding the food as light and fresh, with some interesting choices like the dessert palu butung ($3.50), “a sweet soup of plantain chunks topped by crushed ice drizzled with pink-rose syrup.” The folks at Chicago Mag had less luck with appetizers, but enjoyed the sate ayam ($8.25) “savory skewers of grilled chicken topped with peanut sauce and paired with dense chunks of compressed rice called lontong.” While we have actually sampled Indonesian cuisine a few times in a Madison, we are glad to see some in Chicago!

Food as Flags

[Via Vidafine] I was intrigued by this interesting marketing for the Sydney International Food Festival, where food representative of a country’s cuisine was arranged like the flag of the country itself. Check out the Vietnamese flag done in starfuit and lychees, and the French flag made out of cheeses and grapes. How clever. You can find flags from Greece, India, and more, here at PSFK.

Happy Diwali!

Diwali Sweets for sale in Toronto by Xanada

Today marks the start of Diwali, the Indian festival of lights. And like any good festival – it brings with it lots of delicious FOOD! Diwali in particular is marked by elaborate feasts, so large quantities of food, in particular sweets and snacks are called for (Chow has a recipe for the sweet sesame snack, Til Ladoo). The BBC has a list of dishes typically served, though of course feasts will vary widely according to region. So just make something tasty! The food blog Aayi’s recipes has some excellent ideas.

Eating North Africa: Makroud

Today someone at work returned from northern France with a treat from North Africa, Makroud/Makrout. Makrouds are sweet date pastries, made with semolina flour and dipped in honey, that (perhaps surprisingly) are not overly sweet. There are several varieties of Makroud across regions, including the makroud blanc (without a filling), and makrouds filled with almonds instead of dates. Naturally, due to immigration patterns, this delicious pastry has gotten a foothold in France. Apparently the French are a fan of not-sickly-sweet pastries, so the makroud fits the bill perfectly.

UK: Fave International Food

Chicken Tikka Masala is often called “England’s Natonal Dish” and England is known for its excellent variety of Indian food due to a large Britsh Indian population. So I was quite surprised to hear that Chinese food is now tops in the UK.

Costa Rica: Cafe Costa Rica

Cafe Costa Rica
141 South Butler Street
Madison, WI 53704

Specifically Costa Rican restaurants are tough to come by, so loyal readers are probably wondering why it took us so long to meander over to the one in our own backyard. The short answer is a bit of indecision: country-specific it may be, but we were concerned with Costa Rica Cafe’s reviews. We hard it all: potentially spotty food, horrendously slow service, and very overpriced. But finally we made it to see for ourselves – and every complaint we heard turned out to be wrong.CCR inhabits a former house in downtown Madison, decked out in party chairs and fake plastic palm trees outside that must make for a kitschy but amusing summer evening, yet were no good on this chilly and rainy night. We were concerned when we walked into the seating area downstairs, mostly because CCR turned out to be one of the tiniest restaurant’s we’ve been in (about the same size as Bien Trucha) and all the seats were taken. Luckily a nice couple, who were just paying their bill, got up and gave us their seats, so we nestled ourselves into a cozy corner and began to scope the place out. Check out the view from our table – yes this is the entire place!

First good sign: they grow their own habaneros. In little plants right on the main counter. People familiar with M’s culinary escapades can imagine how excited he was at this. Second good sign: The table has two bottles of salsa, but homemade, one based on said habaneros (“Mango Man Sauce”) – meaning the peppers are not for decor, they actually use them in cooking. As such, the menu piqued our interest. We decided to mix it up as much as we could given our budget. For appetizers, a plate of fried plantains (an ETW favorite) with the aforementioned habanero sauce ($5.95) and a cheese empanada ($3.95). Main course: we split an order of pork tacos (under the assumption that one order ($11.95) would be enough for both of us.

The plantains were soft, sweet, and delightful, and the habanero sauce added a good flavorful kick. M could have eaten three plates of them and called it dinner. L was enamored with the empanada, soft and cheesy and flaky, doing good on her cheese/carbs combo love. But it was really those tacos that blew us away: piled high with shredded pork marinated in the habanero sauce, garnished with generous helpings of cilantro (another ETW fav we can never get enough of), lettuce, tomatoes, and more habanero sauce in a corn tortilla. The marinade absolutely made the meal, and we were really happy to see someone making tacos in corn tortillas that really broke out of the ubiquitous Mexican mold into other regions, and to do it so well.

The meal ended with us having spent $20 on what we thought was really well-price food given the amount we got, in addition to really friendly, unpretentious service. We really have to ask the naysayers about this place: what on earth were you all complaining about? We’ll go back if you don’t want to. We can’t help but take CCR and Bien Trucha together to think that a small seating area and simple, unpretentious service and decor make for a great restaurant. The smaller it is, the better we like it!

3rd Best Ethnic food?

Travel + Leisure magazine came with a ranking of the 30 largest cities in America on a number of parameters – one particularly salient for us – Ethnic food - for which Chicago ranks 3rd. Too high? Too low? We’re inclinded to think that’s about right.

Ecuador: Le Peña

La Peña
4212 N Milwaukee Ave # 14
Chicago, IL 60641-1640

Our journey to La Peña in Albany Park was uncharacteristically epic. What ought to have been a short 20 minute trip took almost an hour and a half due to forces (in addition to rush hour traffic) that we could not quite pin down. In any case, we arrived abysmally late to dine with my cousins, who were meeting us there. Fortunately,  while waiting they were offered a bowl of plantain chips with two kinds of salsa.

Upon arrival, we were impressed by the cute, polished wood interior and the vast potato-laden menu (the eaters love carbs). For appetizers we ordered a Humita ($2.95), an tamale-like creation, and Patacones, fried plantains ($2.95). Plantains are one of our favorite things about Caribbean and Latin American cuisines, and we wished the plantain chip/fry would find a renaissance, much as the sweet potato fry has. We rounded out our appetizer order with the Tortilla de Papa ($ 2.95) a potato pancake stuffed with cheese, and topped with peanut sauce. By this point we could tell that Ecuadorians did indeed love their carbs.

For mains, L ordered the Vegetarian Llapingacho ($12.95) which was a potato pancake topped with peanut sauce and a fried egg. Alongside the pancake came a veritable garden of avocado, a green salad, plantains and rice. Even tucked into the side of the plate was a humita. Holy portions! The Llapingacho seemed like a bigger version of the Tortilla de Papa, with the same cheese filling and peanut sauce, which was a little disappointing, but all of the elements on the plate came together to enhance the pancake, even the slightly runny egg, which I am not usually a fan of. For his main course, M ordered the Fritanga ($13.95), a dish of pan-fried pork with sweet plantains, white hominy and corn. The pork was bit fatty for his taste, but still had great flavor. He was especially excited by the appearance of ‘big corn’ or choclo kernels mixed in with the hominy on the plate – a staple of Peruvian food. The portions at La Peña are outrageous, and totally gut busting, so I would definitely say you get what you pay for.

Right in the back of the restaurant was a small stage, which was being fitted with amps and microphones as we ate. At around 7 the live music started, and a live a band played Salsa Romantica hits from the likes Eddie Santiago. They were actually pretty good, the only problem was that the music was a bit loud, but we knew that coming in, so no big surprise.  Our first foray into Ecuadorian food was deemed a success. It’s kind of the heartier sister of the more cosmopolitan Peruvian food, and if you are feeling the need to Carbo-load, you know you’ve found the right place.

Pollan’s Food Rules

The New York Times has a clever slideshow from influential food intellectual Michael Pollan. Pollan has compiled a set of food rules culled from thousands of submissions sent from readers around the world.

Cheese Map of the UK and Ireland

Did you ever wonder EXACTLY where you British cheese come from? OK, so maybe I’m the only one – but I guess I must not be since there is apparently a World Cheese Book chockablock with cheese maps. Here’s Ireland from the World Cheese Book, You can find the UK Map at the BBC, where it was chosen as Mark Easton’s Map of the week in honor of the just-ended British Cheese Week.

Goodbye Gourmet

The blogosphere is buzzing today because one of the stalwarts of the food publishing business, Gourmet is being closed by Conde Nast. Gourmet was started in 1940 and over the years came to be regarded as one of the preeminent sources of food writing. Rumor has it that publisher Conde Nast was going to shutter either Bon Appetit or Gourmet, thanks to McKinsey’s advice, looks like Gourmet was the one to go.

Twittering Chefs

The Chicago Sun Times has an interesting piece about chefs who Twitter, blog, and otherwise make themselves available online. I for one think this trend is very interesting and welcome, making chefs seem more accessible, and giving tons of insider info to interested followers like myself.