When I came to Chicago 11 years ago, a vegetarian from Pittsburgh, I was pale, underweight, and awestruck by how much there was to eat here. I’d had a few revelatory eating experiences back home–Thai, Indian–but I had no idea how poorly those meals would compare to so many in my future.
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Between giant metal Puerto Rican flag arches in Humboldt Park, Division Street becomes the Paseo Boricua, the epicenter of the venerable Puerto Rican community. An older landmark within, the 46-year-old Latin American Restaurant and Lounge (2743 W. Division, 773-235-7290) has a daily buffet laden with comforting, heavy cocina criolla (Puerto Rican cuisine), including the fatty, crispy marinated pork known as lechon, blood sausages, plantains, stuffed potatoes, stews, and soups. Borinquen (1720 N. California, 773-227-6038) is the home of the Chicago-invented jibarito, a heart-stopper of lechon, sliced ham, steak, chicken, or veggies sandwiched between deep-fried, flattened green plantains.
Up north in Rogers Park, La Unica (1515 W. Devon, 773-274-7788), a Cuban grocery store, has a lunch counter in the back with a wide variety of cheap meals and daily specials including chicken and rice, papas fritas and yuca fries with garlic sauce, garbanzo soup, roast pork sandwiches, oxtails, and sweet, creamy Cuban coffee. But Devon’s most renowned for its Indian and Pakistani restaurants, groceries, and banquet halls–you can smell the spices blocks before you hit the street. Khan BBQ (2401 W. Devon, 773-274-8600) is best for its chicken boti–juicy, tender pieces of bird marinated in yogurt and hung in the tandoor, a clay oven–but also plates other cheap eats ideal for soaking up a late-night drunk, like frontier chicken, rice greasy from the griddle, kebabs, and vegetable dishes.
After Chinese, Thai may be the most bastardized cuisine in America, and in Chicago there’s no shortage of uninspired spots pushing bland pad thai, crab Rangoon, and canned curry. But the city has a great trinity of Thai restaurants in TAC Quick (3930 N. Sheridan, 773-327-5253), Spoon Thai (4608 N. Western, 773-769-1173), and Sticky Rice (4018 N. Western, 773-588-0133), which specializes in in the northern Issan style (you can eat bugs here). Each has a translated Thai-language menu that goes far beyond the offerings of any other place in the city.
The stretch of Kedzie Avenue from Wilson to Ainslie in Albany Park has a glut of great cheap places to eat, many of them Middle Eastern. Salam (4636 N. Kedzie, 773-583-0776) is always dependable for fresh falafel, shawirma, and the creamiest hummus on the strip.
