Tanoshii
Ham’s known for his improvisational skills. Devotees will tell you to disregard your menu and let the master do the choosing. Trudy Delfosse, a consultant and Web designer who lives in West Rogers Park, was one of Ham’s first customers at San Soo Gab San. “For the first few visits, we’d order our favorite things off the menu,” she says. “Finally, on maybe our fourth visit, Mike looked exasperated and said, ‘Whatever you do, just don’t order.’ We agreed, and he just started putting things in front of us. These were things that you would never see on a menu anywhere. I remember he made this octopus roll–I don’t usually like octopus because it’s usually kind of cold and chewy–and he warmed a piece of tentacle, added his spicy sauce, rolled it up, and topped it with a mixture of chopped octopus, more sauce, and some other stuff. The thing about it is that it’s a little tart, a little hot, a little sweet. . . . I thought, OK, I’m hooked.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Further inspiration came from television. “Have you seen Iron Chef?” Ham asks. The Japanese culinary competition, where chefs race against the clock to make elaborate meals based on a main ingredient that’s revealed just before they start cooking, influenced Ham’s approach. “It’s amazing,” he says. “Those people don’t even know what they’re gonna get the next minute. It’s just genius. Think about it: I don’t know what fish is gonna be fresh every day. Imagine if someone gave you a piece of the best tuna and just said, ‘Make me something.’”
