Everyone seems to be craving Middle Eastern food this week!

• Albany Park's Al-Khayameih not only serves some of the best Lebanese food in the city, they do it with flair [Chicagoist]

• A new chef and a revamping of the menu at Ben Pao doesn't take away from the fact that the BBQ pork is fabulous, and relatively authentic to boot [Chicagoist]

• While not breaking new culinary ground, Bluebird does a good job with small plates, has a wide selection of beverages and attentive service [Gastronomic Bypass]

• Very new Albany Parker Dawali Mediterranean Kitchen is still finding its desert legs, but the schwarma's pretty decent [Food Chain]

• Much-hyped Epic Burger in the South Loop has fancy ingredients, but the burger has trouble living up. Decent value, though [Food Chain]

• At the soft opening of Melman spawns' Hub 51, exactly the type of industrial hip sophisticated comfort food you'd expect. But good! [The Stew]

• Everyone loves the moles at Mixteco Grill, including Bridget & Tammy. Dessert's also recommned, and it's BYO (17/20) [Chicago Bites]

• Persian stalwart Noon O Kabab gets very high marks from Bridget & Tammy for their kabobs and other delicacies (18/20) [Chicago Bites]

[Photo: the Chicago River's very own alligator, via Sun-Times. You can eat them, you know!]

The latest salvo in the on-going saga of what might be called "menu littering" in the vestibules of private residences was impotently sent to us this past Friday by a slightly confused MenuPages user:

To: MenuPages Feedback
Subject: LEAVING YOUR MENUS ON THE FLOOR AT 600 S. DEARBORN IS A VIOLATION

LAST NIGHT YOUR DELIVERY PERSON LEFT MENUS ON THE VARIOUS FLOORS OF THE TRANSPORTATION BUILDING AT 600 SOUTH DEARBORN. THAT IS A DIRECT VIOLATION OF THE RULES!! THIS IS YOUR ONE AND ONLY WARNING ABOUT DOING SUCH A TRASHY THING! IF IT HAPPENS AGAIN, YOU WILL BE BANNED FROM DELIVERING TO 600 SOUTH DEARBORN. LEAVING MENUS ON THE FLOOR IS DANGEROUS! WE HAVE TWO SLIGHT INJURIES FROM PEOPLE THAT STEPPED OUT THEIR DOOR AND SLIPPED ON YOUR MENUS!

600 S Dearborn is the old (1911) Transportation Building on Printer's Row, since converted to condos. But anyway, the Municipal Code of Chicago was recently amended to criminalize the leaving of menus in and around residential premises to the tune of $200-$1000 per episode (see pp. 35-36). So we advise the complainer - and anyone else who feels inundated - to direct his or her grievances to the city. Since the offender's name is on the materials (i.e., the name of the restaurant), something might actually be accomplished.

Just some friendly advice from your favorite electronic menu purveyor!

Ask Chicagoist: Takeout Menu Ban? [Chicagoist]
Reports Of Committees [City Clerk of Chicago]
Transportation Building [Dreamtown]

Short answer: you can't!

Reader Joyce wrote in, wondering where she might find Da Bing - sesame bread with green onions - in the area. Joyce had done a lot of research and only found it to be available in California, and wondered if we had any insight.

Well, it's basically a cousin of the scallion pancake, but unlike that universal dish, it's seemingly only served in Hui restaurants. The Hui are ethnic Chinese Muslims who live all over the country. Well, not our country; in fact, they seem to be concentrated in California (is there anything that state doesn't have?) The many blogs and message boards that reference Da Bing all do so with respect to Islamic Chinese restaurants in LA and the Bay Area, and there simply aren't any Islamic Chinese restaurants in Chicagoland.

Please, correct us if we're wrong; the closest thing we were able to find was an out-of-business Halal Chinese restaurant on Devon, but their menu didn't have anything close to Da Bing. We're thinking the only person who can fix this is Tony Hu of Lao Beijing/Lao Shanghai/Lao Sze Chuan fame; he seems dedicated to bringing the myriad cuisines of China to Chicago, so maybe he can be pestered to put Da Bing on one of his menus. Speaking of which, are there any Uyghur restaurants in Chicagoland? The Uyghurs are Turkic Muslims native to China's northwestern territory of Xinjiang, and they do a mean thrown noodle and thousand year old egg. Lots of goat, too.

Lao Beijing [MenuPages]
Lao Shanghai [MenuPages]
Lao Sze Chuan [MenuPages]
Lao Sze Chuan [Official Site]

[Photo: Da Bing, Orange County Register]

...after inviting a friend to a dinner for that evening, before it's okay to ask someone else?

We were vexed by this very question this very afternoon! So we asked our brother and sister blogs what they thought. MP:Boston said two hours, while MP:South Florida thought three hours was fair. These round numbers are all well and good, and in fact, were the types of answers we expected and desired.

MP:San Francisco, however, refused to think inside the clock. In voluble paragraphs, he advised the following (not knowing we were planning on blogging it):

I think Miss Manners would say that your first mistake was asking a friend that same evening, but she's an old biddy. I'd say maybe a couple hours? [Us: How many?] Well, i think it depends on the friend, and the friendship [and he goes on to discuss how he would give certain friends more or less berth, depending on the formality of their relationship. Continuing:] If I was faced with the dilemma and had asked friend B without hearing one way or the other from friend A, I'd just plan on going with friend B, and then if Friend A came around and said, "hey is that invitation still open," I'd say, "You know, I actually went ahead and invited Joe, but why don't the three of us go," or something.

Wow, that's thoughtful and balanced! Our plan was just to lie if it came to it, since we don't have much patience for niceties. But this is much better advice.

After reading our round-up of Mexican restaurant reviews from last week where we unilaterally negated a reviewer's assertion that El Tapatio is "the best Mexican food on the Northside," reader b*schus wrote in to ask what, then, is the best Mexican food on the North Side?

This is a perfectly natural question, if one that's rather impossible to answer. Aside from everyone having different tastes and metrics about what constitutes the "best" in a restaurant, any claim of this restaurant or that being the "best" suffers from the claimant's certain lack of universal experience (and usually gravitas) to make such a statement. That said, it is possible to cobble together from across the internet a general consensus of what's good, and to that end, we've compiled a list of five North Side Mexican restaurant that are worthy of your attention. Of course, most of the best Mexican food in Chicago is on the Northwest and Southwest sides, but that's outside the scope of this post.

So in alphabetical order to keep things straight, our picks, with an accompanying MenuPages review:

• El Famous Burrito: No one said it had to be authentic or luxurious to be good!

I have had many burritos in my time, and the gold standatd still remains this great local chain, El Famous Burrito. They are huge and meaty. My preference is a steak and pork combination with sour cream and and onions. If your're eating in, all orders come with tasty chips and salsa. This is one of the best values in Mexican food in Chicago

• Los Nopales: Seems like this spot is really a cut above.

Forget your local taqueria slinging up greasy burritos, tacos, and nacho dinners. Los Nopales goes above and beyond what you normally find on every other corner of Chicago. They're cuisine is fresh, delicious, and a fantastic value. Sure, you can get burritos and tacos...but they are prepared beautifuly, often coming with several colorful sauces, whipped up in the kitchen that day. Otherwise, try some of the traditional dishes like the Skirt Steak special, pork tamales, or Pan fried tilapia in Garlic sauce. The staff is outlandishly friendly and genuine and the restaurant is charming and clean. A total gem.

• Mayan Palace: Although this place gets high marks, it may simply be another El Tapatio-like margarita joint...

My friend brought me to this restaurant and I quickly fell in love with it. The food is great, well prepared, and quickly served. What I love the most however, are the margaritas. I highly recommend the jamaican flower margarita and if you go on Tuesday or Thursday you can get their house margaritas for half price! The service is excellent. The servers pretty much recognize my friend and I when we go and always make an effort to talk to us and make sure we are getting good service. The only downfall is when the patio isn't open; the space can be cramped, but after a few margaritas it doesn't really matter

• Riques Regional Mexican Food: "Regional" means that some thought has been put into the cuisine - at least it's from a place

place to go for authentic, inexpensive Mexican food! Our favorite time to go is on Saturday nights, when they serve a four course meal (from a different state of Mexico each week) for only $20! Make sure to make a reservation, as it's usually packed!

• Tepatulco: a Geno Bahena production that gets mixed reviews (and in our case, no reviews), but is still worthy of inclusion. Here's a recent review from Yelp:

Although the decor would be best suited in a 3 star restaraunt. Tepatulco's food belongs in a five star. We started off with the quac, although it was not my favorite it was damn good and a nice start to a meal that I can still taste (over a month later). For my entree I ordered the Carne Asada. This was the winner of the evening. It was absolutely phenomenal. Tender beef served with homemade tortillas, plantanes, rice and yummy beans. The boy ordered the grilled Salmon in green mole which was out of this world. He doesn't even like Salmon and ate every bit including the leftovers on my plate.
For desert we were talked into the chocolate lava cake, and like every chocolate lava cake this one was better then the last. yummy dark chocolate with gooeyness inside...yummm!
Oh and that Margarita was soooo good!

Of course, your mileage may vary.

[Photo: an interior shot of Riques by Nghiêm/flickr]

Okay, truth: it's really only the hottest menus of December. But it's probably representative! (And it's the closest we're going to get.)

The list, which is after the jump for your comfort and safety, contains the 100 restaurants with the most clicks per day on MenuPages Chicago. It's worth noting that the first 73 on the list get between 20 and 30 clicks a day; we've taken things out to the nearest tenth, and even when we should have declared statistical ties, we didn't. Ha!

Next to each restaurant's name is the aforementioned average number of clicks per day, followed by that restaurant's most recent review, with occasionally hilarious results. A few places (especially near the molten core) don't have reviews yet - please feel free to leave some! You may be surprised by the top 10, or maybe not. If you keep in mind that people use MenuPages half the time to order delivery and half the time to look at high-end restaurants, it makes a little more sense. And finally, what up Hyde Park for having two in the top fifteen! College kids: you are the world of tomorrow.

Now let's get to it!

Continue reading "Top 100 Hottest Menus Of 2007!!!" »

A friend of ours asked us a simple enough question: is it legal for restaurants to serve breast milk? No, we don't mean, "is it legal for women to breastfeed in restaurants," because it is. Adults certainly can consume breast milk safely, and occasionally do. Also, it's legal to buy it, albeit with a prescription. Surely a restaurant could get around that issue by contracting a lactating friend or relative of the restaurateur (or a post-partum restaurateur herself!) to supply the fluid, much like certain chefs have rooftop gardens whence they pick fresh herbs for dinner. Beyond the contention that any excess breast milk ought to be donated to a milk bank for needy new mothers, if properly labeled on the menu, we don't see any ethical problem with this hypothetical practice. Whether anyone would actually order it or not is beyond the scope of this inquiry. (apparently, back in 2003, a breast milk-centric restaurant opened in China to much criticism and ambiguity of the law. It's unclear what's happened since.)

So what might make this illegal? Selling body fluids is generally countermanded (we exclusively donate blood and organs, for example), but selling breast milk for adult consumption is underlegislated, as far as we can tell. Maybe the FDA would demand that it be pasteurized? Nah, raw milk is a huge craze these days, and while difficult to obtain, is not outright illegal. We don't think this would be covered by any cannibalism laws, do you?

Failing pre-existing restrictions, the city of Chicago could pass a human milk ban, much like the foie gras ordinance, but that's really getting ahead of ourselves. So, we open the floor: does anyone have any insight into this pressing legal issue? How detailed and tangled are the federal, state and city rules for what restaurants can serve, and do they, together, rule out breast milk? Slightly twisted minds want to know.

Public Act 093-0942 [Illinois General Assembly]
Breast milk Cannibal [AustinMama]
How to Buy Breastmilk [eHow]
Breast milk enters Chinese cuisine [BBCNews]

[Photo: frozen breast milk, hoi polloi/flickr]

A friend of ours is moving to Chicago and looking for an apartment on the far North Side, and wanted to know where she could take a vegan friend out to dinner. We will paraphrase her request:

"I wanted to know where I could take a vegan friend out to dinner."

Lovely. Actually, that's not fair. She's quite witty, and also should be pitied as her hunt is going poorly: "I'm trying to stay strong, but Craigslist-driven apartment hunting can be a demoralizing experience. Yesterday I spoke on the phone with a potential roommate who turned out to be 19, but assured me that she's 'very mature' because she has 'been through some stuff', and 'has a fake ID that says she's 23, and no one ever thinks it's fake'. Argh."

That was a real quote (you chuckled?). But at any rate, the vegan.

• Green Zebra: probably Chicago's most expensive vegan-friendly restaurant and certainly the only one where you can get an entire tasting menu devoted to your dietary restriction. If there is to be a splurge, this would be the place at which to do it.

• Lake Side Cafe: up in Rogers Park (convenient), you'll find this laid-back, spiritual-friendly (shrug) spot that serves a vegan Polish Sausage. Authentic!

• Cousin's Incredible Vitality: because you should not be limited to American food, or cooked food for that matter, here's a Turkish raw restaurant for your inspection. It's buffet-style, but warning - they seem really into themselves.

• Chicago Diner: classic vegetarian diner. Great middle-of-the-road choice.

• Arya Bhavan: no one does vegan like the South Indians. Thali your heart out.

• Karyn's Raw Vegan Gourmet: one more raw spot for you. A sample entree: pasta primavera covered with a creamy macademia pine nuts-based sauce melange with shiitake mushrooms, English zucchini, seasoned pine Nuts, and teardrop tomato for $22. Sounds yummy, but isn't "sauce melange" a tad redundant? We think so.

Oh, one more thing. The Tribune had a piece a few weeks ago on meatless substitutes for classic Chicago food items, if that's your visitor's thing.

Alright, friend, the best of luck to you in your housing search; we hope we've at least made your vegan food search a little easier.

Dear MenuPages,

A friend of mine is visiting me next week, but there's a problem. My car broke down, so we can't drive to restaurants. I live near the Halsted bus on 18th street - could you give me some recommendations for restaurants that can be easily reached on that line?

Thanks,
Penniless in Pilsen

Dear Penniless,

A shame to hear about your loss. Here are some close-to-the-8 ideas for you and yours that won't break your evidently tight budget. Actually, some of them will, but, you know, live a little:

• Trattoria 31 in Bridgeport is practically walking distance (if you consider a mile and a half to be walking distance, which you ought to), and is purported to have some of the best Italian food in the neighborhood.

• Haro in the Heart of Italy is not on Halsted, but it is right off the Cermak bus. Who wouldn't walk a mile for authentic, relatively inexpensive tapas?

• Sepia in the West Loop just opened today-ish, and we were pretty impressed with the menu. You can be on the cutting edge!

• The Dining Room at Kendall College on Goose Island is an intriguing way to try some high-end experimental cuisine on a dime. Well, on $28 for a dinner prix fixe. Also, everything is cooked by students. So it's a crapshoot, but people seem to like it. And really, what isn't a crapshoot these days?

Hope this helped. You can also just walk to Chinatown, but you knew that already.

[Photo: transit options along Halsted, CTA]

Yesterday, we received an inquiry from a new resident of Bridgeport who's heard a lot about Polish buffets on the Southwest side and is ready to hop the Orange Line towards that end. Sadly, our favorite SW side Polish spot, Tatra Inn, closed late last year (don't let the cheerful and out-of-date website fool you). But don't dispair! There are still tons of Polish places around - especially on this stretch of Archer Avenue. In fact, we think a day can be made out of Polish-restaurant-hopping; this will help work off the kielbasa, anyway. Take the Orange Line to Pulaski and walk over to Szalas, where you can try some herring in sour cream (would you want it any other way?) A few feet west-southwest on Archer is Bobak, a restaurant and deli, where one would be remiss to skip the cold cuts. Finally, two miles down the road is Orion, where you may end up spending the rest of the day and night (it's open until 2am). Plates of pierogis and vials of vodka ad infinitum ought to do it. Too bad LOT doesn't fly out of Midway...