We asked some of our most active critics to list their “best bites” of the past year–the truly outstanding dishes they’d encountered in the course of exploring what has become one of the premier American restaurant scenes. For more of their picks, see our blog the Food Chain at chicagoreader.com.
Jeuk suk yum so bok um (goat stew) at Chun Ju Restaurant Among a raft of positive health effects, this superrich and earthy stew is said to have virility-enhancing qualities and is a more socially acceptable delivery system for them than dog meat. After the solids are consumed, a second course of rice and kimchi is dumped in the pot and cooked until crispy. Make man strong.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Kaji (eggplant) kimchi at Lincoln Restaurant This tiny lunch counter serves basic, home-style Korean eats, but I’d never seen this wonderful kimchi before, and I haven’t since been able to find a recipe that duplicates it: tender lengths of sliced eggplant that hold their integrity in a peppery, oily mix.
Martha Bayne
French cheese flight at Fiddlehead Cafe A nutty, sheeps-milk Ossau-Iraty from the Basque region; a rich, creamy Edel de Cleron by Perrin Vermot; and a devastating co-op-produced bleu d’Auvergne that combined a sweet creaminess with some powerfully earthy, moldy scunge. This new restaurant may still be stretching its wings, but its cheese plates soar.
Chocolate ice cream at Bittersweet In my gastrocosmology, this is the ice cream that immediately precedes the rapture. From Chicago’s best ice cream shop, which isn’t even an ice cream shop.
Green mole at Sol de Mexico I have a crazy aunt who used to eat ketchup sandwiches, and I think of her every time I eat Senora Clementina’s pumpkin seed-based sauce straight up, on tortillas. I’ve had it on shrimp, chicken, and tamales as well, but I think I prefer it commando style, the better to savor the dimensions of this complex, elusively flavored mole.
