Sun Wah BBQ

-Grubbing in Chicago
Where the locals eat.

It's time for one of them epic posts, you know the ones that after reading your starving thinking about how good I eat this city and it's top food stops up, wouldn't you agree? Let's get at it. If you saw the Chicago episode of the recently new show on Food network called Meat & Potatoes then you saw today's place which is one of my favorite stops in the city. In fact I was at Sun Wah BBQ the day they were filming the segment on it for food network. Except this wasn't my first time like it was the hosts and his crew, this was an uncountable visit. Those of us that have been going to Sun Wah for a while now remember when it was back in its little spot around the corner on Argyle right off the train line. With its booming success and popularity they have since moved into a bigger building around the corner on Broadway. They now have more room for both the kitchen/butcher area as well as people dining.


a city wide favorite along Broadway in Uptown

Sun Wah is one of the best family owned and run restaurants in the city with the entire fam being involved in one way or another and always making sure service is smooth, the food is good and your dining experience enjoyable. It's impossible to pass by when you get a view of the Chinese bbq from outside, it attracts me in every time.


Chinese bbq in the window

It was possible to keep on pushing this post back since there are so many good options to eat at Sun Wah. The menu has 200+ Cantonese and Hong Kong style dishes and noodles and wontons are made in house. I could go there ten more times and keep getting different items off their menu and always be satisfied. I do have a few things that I order on different occasions or if I feel like feastin', then all in one order. Two things that remain a constant in every visit I make to Sun Wah are the hot pepper soy sauce (ask for it at the table or when picking up an order to go) Its just soy sauce infused with sliced super hot peppers and is not for the faint of spice. The stuff is legitimately spicy and will have you sweating if you use too much. I love a little mixed in with almost anything I'm eating from there.


pepper infused soy sauce

The other constant is an order of bbq pork fried rice. As you'll see as you read on the bbq pork at Sun Wah is stellar and they always do up a perfect batch of fried rice. I would recommend getting to Sun Wah with a group so you can try a few different things off the menu. However if you go solo they have stuff for you too at a really great price. Even if I'm solo and picking up just for myself I get a fried rice to have in the fridge for the next day. Some of the best fried rice in the city. I know it doesn't take much to make a good fried rice but so many places screw it up, not Sun Wah.


Sun Wah's bbq pork fried rice

Then there's the beef chow fun. While this dish might not the most adventurous eat on the menu, it's without a doubt one of my favorites. I'm a sucker for a good beef chow fun and Sun Wah's is the best in Chicago. In order for a chow fun to be superb it need a few things and Sun Wah achieves all three with theirs. The noodles are cooked up perfectly in an extra hot wok and the veggies are always fresh. So check and check. Lastly is the beef, so many places have awful beef in their beef dishes and in alot of cases you might wonder if it even is that. At Sun Wah they got it figured out and the beef is always tender with little fat and never chewy. I give them a ton of credit for this because at too many places it isn't like this at all. I eat it up every time.


Beef chow fun

Even though I did say that Sun Wah is great for a group, its just as good for a solo diner. They have the best lunch plates in the city and this is for both price and taste. They take their famous Chinese bbq which has options like roast duck, bbq pork, roast pork, soy sauce chicken, and ribs and you choose your choice and then a huge pile of meat goes atop a heaping mound of white rice and it comes with Chinese broccoli and half of a hard boiled egg. These individual lunch plates could feed two in some cases and cost less than $6. They will also let you do a combo if your having trouble choosing your meats. I'm a big fan of the soy sauce chicken. They are marinated boneless chicken thighs that are sliced up after cooking and can be highly addicting.


Soy sauce chicken individual lunch plate

The house bbq is the biggest draw for people into Sun Wah. Some of the items not pictured on here that I love include the salt baked chicken, bbq duck and bbq spare ribs with honey. But the main draw for me is the house pork. Sun Wah is thee Chinese place for all things pig and their Hong Kong style roast pork is from the high heavens. It doesn't matter which way you order it, by the pound, in a lunch plate or in your soup, it will all be good and a big part of that is the pig. I can assure you we will be taking a 2nd look at Sun Wah here on this site in the future. Stay tuned.


BBQ Pork from Sun Wah

Sun Wah BBQ
5039 N Broadway
Chicago, Illinois 60640
(773) 769-1254
Website

The Egg Roll King?

-Grubbing in Chicago
The Elusive Egg Roll (Part 3)

Were back on the hunt for that elusive egg roll perfection we've been seeking. So stop #3 takes us to a place on Broadway over in Uptown. Well anyplace that calls itself the Hunan Egg Roll King certainly deserves a shot at the crown however I'll be determining who's King around here. I've actually been here for egg rolls before my recent visit but that was at least 3-4 years ago way before I had a camera and was on this quest. I didn't remember loving them but I also don't remember them tasting like hot garbage so I needed another visit and that came a few days ago.


In Chicago's Uptown neighborhood

Hunan has been in its small storefront for awhile now, I remember it from way back. Inside its a small no nonsense dining room and most of the orders are taken to go or delivered, which is what I recommend you do. The menu is your typical Chinese-American spots menu but I cant speak for anything but the egg rolls. The prices are really low over there and when I paid my recent visit here there were a couple people dining in and at least three others that stopped in for pick up and the lunch specials seemed to be popular. I peeked at the menu and saw that egg rolls came in orders of two and were about three bucks, so pretty cheap. The nice lady told me to give her 5-10 minutes and I said no prob and took a seat to wait for the Hunan Egg Roll Kings egg rolls. Would they take the crown?


Egg Roll from the Egg Roll King

So are they the self proclaimed King of Egg Rolls? or the peoples choice? well while they were not bad I still enjoyed the rolls from stops one and two much more. The Hunan's rolls were a little longer in length than the other two spots but that's about where it ended with advantages it had over them. The egg rolls were somewhat soft and not very crispy and it was even hard to slice it open because the roll was pretty limp. After I was able to gut it open I noticed it was real heavy on the cabbage and real light on the meat and or shrimp. The hot mustard was the stuff in the packets that most places use so another not so good thing. All in all the egg roll was fine but nothing about it was top notch. If I lived right near here I may even get an order of them again here and there out of convenience but have no reason to drive there for them.


These egg rolls didn't have the perfect balance sought

Hunan Egg Roll King
4204 North Broadway
Chicago, IL 60613-1610
(773) 883-2647

Going Back to Katy's

Smokin' Bowls of Soup
-Back to Katy's for more Soup

Well for a little while there we had some pretty damn good weather for the middle of January here in Chicago. However it looks like the cold and its windchill are back. So I thought it was a good time to take a trip back to Katy's for some satisfyingly delicious bowls of soup. With the now annual Super Bowl recipe blowout post coming next week I just wanted to remind people about Katy's and her so so good food out in Westmont. In all of my food travels throughout Chicagoland and beyond it is still one of the great examples of how in order to find the best you gotta look everywhere. Even if everywhere is a small unassuming storefront (next to a head shop) in a strip mall in Westmont, Illinois.


Katy's was already featured HERE

Katy's isn't exactly easy access for people in the city without a vehicle. However if you have one or know someone that does and loves Chinese food that's actually eaten by Chinese people, you need to get over there. I was tipped off a couple years back and I still haven't found a better place for noodles, which are made fresh daily. The soups at Katy's are the ultimate prize upon arriving after a haul in winter weather all the way from the city. You can take Ogden ave. in the city all the way to Cass st to get there. Should you make it you will be rewarded with some of Chicago's best Chinese dishes and oh yeah, did I mention the soups?


beef noodle soup


wonton soup


Szechwan Noodle Soup

Click Here for some in-depth coverage.

Katy's Dumpling House
665 N. Cass Ave.
Westmont, IL 60559
(630) 323-9393

Hours: 11am – 9pm
Closed Wednesdays
Cash only

China Chef

-Eating like a local: Regional food specialties
The American-Chinese food of...America

So I decided China Chef's time was coming with the holiday season here. The Christmas holiday and Chinese restaurants have always shared a common bond together. We all remember in "A Christmas Story" when the dog eats the turkey and they spend thanksgiving dinner at the local Chinese restaurant. If your eating out on Christmas day then your going to Chinatown or your neighborhoods local Chinese joint, they're the only spots open. Its become an American tradition to do so. Although people of the Jewish faith don't celebrate Christmas they do have some traditions that go with it. What do Jewish people do on Christmas day? eat Chinese food. If your city is lucky enough to have a Chinatown then I guarantee that it will be the most hopping place this December 25th. No visit to Chinatown today though, which is the obvious place to visit for authentic Chinese regional cooking. Nope today we are going to the suburb of Morton Grove for Jewish American Suburban Chinese food. So its off to China Chef, a place that's been serving the mild tastebuds of the locals of the Morton Grove/Skokie area since 1977 with their mostly Cantonese-American-Chinese menu.


a locals favorite along Lincoln ave

At some point in time, my guess being when suburbs started forming, Chinese restaurants with an Americanized menu for the suburban eaters tastes started popping up across the country. Many spots around the city still have their vintage signs with "chop suey" all lit up and flashing. They also have the exact same menus today with all the regular dishes you would see on your local Chinese restaurants menu should you live somewhere in Suburbia. However most of these places can be very hit or miss and some are downright awful and others come and go in the same rental space on what seems like a monthly basis. The China Chef has managed to take everything loved by their neighbors and put that with excellent service and a dedication to great tasting food. Probably like that you grew up on if your from middle America somewhere. You can expect excellent takeout and delivery service along with all the regulars like the Chinese Zodiac papermat. The service is very friendly and during the weekends and Hanukkah season it can get very busy with all the parties dining in and orders being called in for pickup. Somehow they don't ever miss a beat.


2010 is the year of the tiger

The owners of China Chef call their restaurants food "homestyle Chinese" and have become a part of the community in their 32 years of China Chef's existence. What exactly is homestyle Chinese? What dishes make up this cuisine? well in this case its the aforementioned Jewish American Suburban Chinese and its dishes like chop suey, egg foo young, fried rice, egg rolls, crab rangoon, sweet & sour chicken and pork, General Tso's chicken, beef & broccoli, Mongolian beef etc...You know the stuff you grew up on or lived off of in college and high school. Well over the years this spiced down and in many cases dumbed down version of Chinese food became an offspring of Chinese food and in its own right, its own cuisine. Over these years I have been to many JASC food joints and I think China Chef takes the crown for best overall in this category. Its a family run joint where its so Americanized your servers will be named "Jeff, Joe and John" (which are obviously not their real ones) and of course they have the fish tanks and fortune cookies to go with your experience. But the food is really good especially if you know what to get. They deliver, do a wonderfully sufficient pick up business and have great lunch specials. There's not much not to like about this Suburban favorite.


What a to-go box from China Chef looks like (everything included)

China Chef is just another one of the gemmers I found over the years thru LTH. Since I never said I was a graduate from Princeton with a degree in writing let me quote poster Kudho who said it so perfectly...like I would like to say.

"This is a good example of how something positive can come out of a restaurant modifying it's original ethnic cuisine to suit local tastes. 'Jewish Chinese food" as served here along with other longstanding favorites, now exists as a cuisine unto itself (like Indian-Chinese), and should be evaluated accordingly." Kudho

I couldn't of said it any better. Its not just American-Chinese either, there's also Canadian-Chinese and if you remember my post on Negril, Caribbean-Chinese. Don't miss my upcoming monster post on where to eat Hawaiian (another Chinese fusion) in Chicago. I love it all, if its a Chinese fusion, I'm trying it and I'm loving it. Chinese cuisine made its way into other countries when immigrants moved from China across the world and cooked with local ingredients and to the tastebuds of Westerners. So as long as you don't go to a place like China Chef looking for dishes like Ma Po Dou Fu with ground pork or Xiao Long Bao, you should be just fine. Now onto the food!

The Elusive Egg Roll (Part 2)

China Chef is also the spot for the next stop in the hunt for the "best rolls in Chicago" an ongoing chibbqking series. If you don't remember the first stop was at Orange Garden, another American-Chinese favorite around town. The places featured in this series have a reputation for excellent homemade egg rolls and are always mentioned when the "best rolls in Chicago" are discussed. China Chef is one of these places mentioned and its a spot that has very good renditions of a few of the JASC appetizer favorites. Including the egg rolls.


China Chef's Egg Roll...

I thought the rolls at CC were better than average to good but not quite as good as Orange Garden. I felt the peanut butter addition that I like so much was lacking in China Chef's rolls and the big downer was the hot mustard. China Chef's hot mustard would have your grandma saying "that's not hot". The one problem I have with this place is even the dishes listed as hot are anything but spicy. You really have to let them know that you like it hot like they do if you have a high heat tolerance. The dude (stevez) who put me on this place over at LTH says they are his favorite and that he thinks "they put just a tiny hint of curry in with the peanut butter when they make the egg rolls. That's what puts them over the top for me." I cant disagree with the fact they are very good and I always order one to start.


...Good ingredients in the rolls, not enough heat in the hot mustard

As long as you know what to order when visiting, at pretty much any Chinese restaurant, you can have a great meal. Here are some of the China Chef's loyal patrons favorites eats. If there was ever a type of food to eat with groups of people, Chinese is it. Try and go here with a bunch of people and this way you can have it all.


Potsticker perfection at China Chef

^I have a distinct memory of when I was younger and we were at a Chinese restaurant before a Bulls game or something with my dad, uncles and grandpa and I wanted Pot Stickers. So my grandpa asked me what I was ordering and I said "two orders of potstickers" and he said "ya I know were ordering that for the table but what do you want for a main course" I said "potstickers" he thought I was crazy. My dad tried to make me order something else for the table but hey, I'm hard headed and I loved potstickers and I still do. The China Chef version is as good as I can remember. Crisp, light skin with good flavor inside made great with the vinegar sauce they serve with it.


Pork Fried Rice...as good of a preparation of it as I've had

^Too many places screw up fried rice which is pretty hard to do. Not at china chef where they fry up huge piles of pork fried rice with the perfect color, phenomenal flavor and crispy pieces of pork. I could eat fried rice 4-5 days a week if its cooked correctly and China Chef does it up just right. Again, one of my favorite variations of an American-Chinese favorite.


Sweet & Sour Pork lunch special...made with CC's famous sweet & sour sauce

^S&S chicken is a dish I rarely order when eating out American-Chinese. Half of the time its not fried (which is how I prefer it) and the other half of the time the sauce is not to my liking. Its not the flavor of S&S sauce I don't like but the gooiness of it. Usually its too sweet and has too much cornstarch. Not so at CC. I'll also usually get chicken if ordering this but thanks to a tip I always get pork here.

If I can quote Cathy2 from LTH she tipped off that..."China Chef's sweet and sour pork is the best version I have ever had. The pork has a very light coating almost tempura-like with a light fruity sauce not weighed down too heavily in cornstarch."

Guess what? I totally agree. This was my favorite pork version, Chicken Lavish still has the best chicken version I can remember.


JASC favorite: General Tso's chicken...done up right

^I think that of all the main entrees on the American-Chinese menu that General Tso's chicken is the most consistent. I usually find good versions of this dish that has no origins back to China or General Tso and was first mentioned on record in 1977 in the NY Times. Its pretty hard to screw up the deep frying of dark pieces of chicken, which is then tossed in a sweet and sour sauce with a bunch of common American-Chinese ingredients. I do wish CC's version was hotter but I already knew that they don't respect my heat level. Other than that it is great.


Kung Pao Chicken

^Now here is one of my favorite dishes in Chinese food. Unlike the rest of these we've seen, this dish actually has traces back to China. So I guess because of this, China Chef doesn't excel in this dish. I would have to say take a pass on the Kung Pao at CC but this is my personal preference. I didn't like the chicken at all, thought it was too stringy. Kung Pao chicken is one of my favorites because when good its full of flavor but the taste and heat was lacking at China Chef.


The House Specialty: Mongolian Beef

^I always have to have an order of the house special Mongolian beef when dining at China Chef. Like most American-Chinese dishes it has no traces to China and the name is misleading. It has nothing to do with Mongolia as far as ingredients and preparation. However they do a great version of this JASC classic. Grandma, Grandpa, the kids, me, you, everyone likes this dish.

On top of all these favorites China Chef also has a Filipino menu and from what I've heard from reading around, its not all that bad. You better believe that they will be open and packed on Christmas day this upcoming holiday. Listen to a story about the Chinese food-Christmas day connection aired on NPR by clicking HERE.

China Chef
5920 W. Lincoln Ave.
Morton Grove, IL
847-967-6050
Website

"Little" Three Happiness

-Grubbing in Chicago
Where the locals eat.

It wasn't hard to find what is most definitely one of my favorite Chinese joint's in the city. If you do a search for Chinese food in Chinatown you may find a few results that come from LTHforum.com. Well that's because LTH-as its known-is one of the great food boards on the world wide web. Its based right here in Chicago but it also has amazing info on "Eating out Beyond Chicagoland" and also recipes and all the general food talk you could ever care for. The regular posters over there take their food seriously and you can find everything from info on Coney Dog's to amazing pictures and better reviews of the high end joints like Alinea and everything in between. Including a great Chinese restaurant that also happens to be the sites namesake. You see there are two "Three Happiness" restaurants and they also happen to be not too far from each other. So the distinction between the two is too call the smaller one located at 209 w. Cermak "Little" Three Happiness. Its a place that specializes in Cantonese cuisine.


Big flavor happening inside this little Chinatown gem

LTH is a site where I find alot of info and always get an answer. You better believe that a food joint that is the namesake of a site with this much knowledge is going to be pretty damn good. Well its really good and one of my favorite eating spots in the city. There isn't going to be anything fancy about the dining room. It has maybe 10 round tables and there's usually Chinese programming on the TV next to the cash register. A few old ladies sit at one of the tables peeling vegetables or prepping things for the kitchen while watching the tele. It does a pretty good takeout business and is a great option for it but I try to go there with a few people so we can get a few things. Just like any other Chinese restaurant its about knowing what menu items to get. One thing I always recognize is the difference in the customer base. Everyone from White folks to Black families to groups of Asian friends eat here. It is loved by all. I cant imagine anyone going there and ordering the RIGHT dishes and leaving not liking what they had.


Little Three's GNR award (for being a great spot to eat at) from LTH

Since their is so much useful discussion on this excellent neighborhood joint, I'm going to show you some of my favorites and lead you to the posts that will give you all sorts of other rec's. If your going into Chinatown with a group of people and want to keep the price reasonable and the food great-then try LTH. Some of the dishes that are on my must try list are-Salt & Pepper Shrimp, Crispy Skin Chicken, the Roast Duck/BBQ Pork Fried Noodles and the Stir Fried Blue Crab-served dry. I always like to order some pot stickers and am a big fan of their fried rice. I consider both from LTH to be better than good.


Pot Stickers

^The Pot Stickers aren't the best I've had but I really like them. A huge part of this is because I mix up the soy sauce, vinegar and Gary's chili oil. It creates a delightful sauce that pairs well with the crispy skinned pot stickers. Whats Gary's chili oil? click HERE to learn about that.


BBQ Pork Fried Rice

^If your a consumer of fried rice like myself then I imagine you've had some bad fried rice at one point or another. I don't know why it is but lot's of places screw up this simple dish. Not over at LTH where I have found their fried rice to be a very fine example of it. When you order the rice while dining in the plate is loaded high into the sky. Portions are very generous on top of the food being prepared very well.


Crispy Skin Chicken

^Another one of my favorites and almost always a must have is the CSC. I don't know much on the preparation of this Cantonese dish but I can tell you its good. I think they flatten a half or whole chicken and then cook it on high heat in a wok or something to that extent. Spices are also a factor and the end result is the most amazing crispy skin chicken with juicy meat inside. When you add the juice from the lemon and salt they provide it really goes from choice to crack. Its addicting and well leave it at that.


Salt & Pepper Shrimp

^The one thing I always know when I'm headed there is that I will be getting Salt & Pepper shrimp. The only thing that switches is whether I get it with the shell or without. With the shells they become messy but that's evened out by the extra flavor they pack. Yes I do eat the head. But if you don't like the shell then its also amazing without them. In case you don't know what S&P shrimp is-its fried shrimp (w or w/o head) stir fried to a beautiful color and seasoned with salt and pepper. It also has sauteed onions and jalapenos and is served with white rice. It just might be my favorite shrimp dish in the city. I cant think of one I like more. Little Three Happiness are experts at this popular Cantonese dish.

If you wanna know more about this Chinatown crowd pleaser with a cult like following then I suggest checking out the GNR page over at LTHforum. Just click HERE to do so. It will tell you everything you need to know and give you an idea if its your type of spot for Chinese. I didn't even get into the clam's with blackbean sauce Evil Ronnie style or the dry stir fried blue crab along with so much more.

'Little' Three Happiness
209 W Cermak
Chicago, IL 60616
(312) 842-1964‎

Orange Garden: a trip back to 1953 for an egg roll

-Grubbing in Chicago
The Elusive Egg Roll (Part 1)

The egg roll is on every American-Chinese restaurants menu in the country. The problem is that at about every 9 out of 10 of these places they are just bland frozen logs that have no flavor at all. Most places don't make their own egg rolls anymore and that's a damn shame because a fresh fried homemade egg roll is one my favorite things to eat. As time has passed and I have grown older I have found myself exploring more authentic Chinese dishes and not just the American Cantonese stuff like sesame chicken, orange beef and of course, egg rolls. But like everything you grew up eating as a kid, every now and then you just have a craving that can only be beat with what you grew up on. In this case good old classic greasy 50's style American/Chinese.


old-school Chinese spot stuck in time on Irving Park rd.

Orange garden is a neighborhood favorite of the locals from the Lakeview area. Located on Irving Park just off Lincoln it is one of Chicago's best remaining examples of mid-century design. The place is straight out of 1950 with its amazing old school neon sign on the outside and old black leather booths and wooden tables/chairs with dim lighting upon entering. I have been told and read on the internet that Orange Garden is the longest operating Chinese restaurant out of the same location in Chicago. When locals who also grew up in the area need some nostalgic eating experience then Orange Garden is their place. Just like any other locals favorite it attracts people of all sorts. You'll see families, couples, high school kids and city workers enjoying a meal inside. The menu at the garden consists of the usual dishes found on a 1950's style American Chinese restaurant. But its that egg roll that's the star if the show and what keeps me coming back.


Orange garden's egg roll is one of the best in Chicago


The housemade mustard will test your heat inhaling limits

The egg rolls are stuffed with both baby shrimp and little slices of pork and have a nice hint of peanut butter in them. One of the important factors for a good egg roll on my radar is the hot mustard. None of those packets with lame amounts of heat please, I want it hot. The fresh fried egg rolls are already better than almost anywhere else but when served with the made in house hot mustard it makes one of the best egg rolls in Chicagoland. Unfortunately the menu is hit and miss and as mentioned before it's very standard Americanized fare. The barbecue ribs and pretty much everything else that fried is pretty good but there is a reason that I usually just stick to a couple egg rolls and a small shrimp fried rice. Its not bad just not amazing. Except for those egg rolls. did I mention they were amazing? Stay tuned for a few other spots that offer real egg rolls.


the egg rolls are stuffed with the right combination of ingredients

Orange Garden
1942 W Irving Park Rd
Chicago, IL 60613
(773) 525-7479
Menupages Menu

How to make fried rice

--Tailgatin' and how to make mofos start playa hatin' (Recipes)

Sometimes the celeb chefs on the big food shows are just too damn annoying to read and watch. I was just watching a show with one of these annoying hag's ex. Rachel Ray, Martha Stewart, Paula Dean and a handful of others and in it they were doing a Chinese fried rice dish and they made the rice for the dish on the spot as they were preparing to make the fried rice?!?!

Have you ever tried to make fried rice and it came out to damn sticky or not brown enough or just plain bad and nothing like the stuff from the Chinese shack down the street? maybe I can help. I too love fried rice and over the years have figured out how to do it perfectly. The first key is to make sure you use leftover white rice from the previous night. It helps the rice to not stick together and it is how fried rice has always been made, its a leftover dish. To go along with your rice your going to need a meat of some sort and some vegetables along with eggs and vegetable or sesame oil and oyster sauce. My standard is bean sprouts, green onions, peas and carrots along with some leftover Chinese BBQ roast pork, usually when I'm eating out in Chinatown or along Argyle I will grab some of the stuff hanging in the window from the butcher.


My standard selection for adding to my fried rice


crispy sauteed BBQ pork and green onions

I like to cut up my pork into little cubes and sautee them with the onions until crispy and then cook the egg on as wide of a flat surface you can spread it on and when the egg is done pour more oil and some of the oyster sauce and throw in the rice. When the rice has browned and is nice and separated from sauteeing add the pork and the rest of the condiments and top with the scrambled eggs and green tops from the scallions. To kick up your dish you can add whatever else sounds good and of course salt and pepper. Sounds pretty easy huh? It is. So why do so many places continue to serve garbage fried rice?


a great meal for leftover from a Chinese BBQ pork dinner

To all my loyal readers: I am rounding down my 3-week trip to Jamaica and I will get back to the states and regularly updated posts during the month of April. Expect one hell of an article on my favorite place on earth very soon: Negril, Jamaica.

Connect with me on twitter and facebook.

The Hidden Soups of Katy's

Smokin' Bowls of Soup
-Katy's Beef Noodle Soup

Its getting frigid so I'm gonna help you fire up some cold winter nights. During the months of December, January and February you can expect some reports about the best bowls of soup around town, you know the dank stuff. When winter hits in Chicago so does the need for food to be hot temperature wise because you cant always stay warm and numb from the booze and cigars. You can expect the real deal spots around town and nothing on Chili Mac's or any of those wannabe overpriced soups from places like Whole Foods. This is real Chicago.

For the the first bowl pack I take you to Katy's Noodles & Dumplings in Westmont, IL the most amazing unassuming little Asian noodle shop in the state. Katy's makes hand rolled noodles and dumplings that just cant be matched anywhere in the city. Unless you get tipped off on the place its virtually impossible to even know it exists and if and when you see it nothing about it would catch your eye. If you live within city limits like I do then just trust me when I say its worth the drive. The menu at Katy's has some of the typical American-Chinese items like fried rice and such and that is really good and better than most but the soups and dumplings are the star of the show. The fresh dumplings are rolled with hands and there are homemade frozen dumplings from a machine avail. to go along with other pre-packaged lunches.


Homemade Pork Dumplings


Pot Stickers


Stir Fried homemade noodles are a good option if you don't do soup or in the summertime


Beef noodle soup with homemade chewy noodles is over the top good

My first bowl pack was the beef noodle soup. The broth was rich and full of flavor with hints of star anise and a fresh taste of cilantro while the beef tasted like it had been simmered for hours on end and was as tender as could be. The bowls of soup are substantial in size and could feed two but you wont want to share. The price could be double and a half what they charge if they had booze and it was in a hip ass trendy looking spot with waiter service or even the new trend-communal seating. Katy's sits in a very vibrant little strip mall just North of Ogden on Cass that includes a few Indian restaurants and a few Indian stores, a Thai restaurant and a head shop where you can purchase hookahs, pipes, bong's and the tobacco people use to fill those with. You can expect quite a few of these bowls to be packed by Katy. So much more to come.

Katy's Dumpling House
665 N. Cass Ave.
Westmont, IL 60559
(630) 323-9393

Hours: 11am – 9pm
Closed Wednesdays
Cash only

Click Here for some in-depth coverage