Chicago Foodies

Manny's Coffee Shop & Deli -- A Chicago Legend

Manny's Coffee Shop & Deli has been a personal favorite of mine since I moved to Chicago. Located amongst a rather undescript collection of clothing stores, tailors and small strip centers, its also home of some of the best deli food in the city.

When you walk into Manny's, you know immediately you're not in any old regular Chicago deli or coffee shop. The menu items are familiar, but the place is an 'old-school' cafeteria where you get in line, grab a tray, maybe some silverware and proceed. Only open mornings and afternoons, I prefer heading there for lunch. They do have a full breakfast menu too, but its the deli items -- sandwiches in particular -- that have kept this joint in business for more than 60 years.

Dorado

I've been reading rave reviews about Dorado for some time now and finally decided to give it a try.  If the food is consistantly like I tasted last night, I've been missing out on a lot of fantastic meals.  Dorado serves Mexican cuisine with a French flare. 

There are some traditional Mexican items on the menu, like Queso Fundido, Carne Asada and Chicken Enchilades Mole.  However, there are far more non-traditional items, each sounding more delicious than the next.  We decided to start with the popular Duck Nachos.  I'm not a huge Nacho fan but these were tasty - topped with crispy duck, black beans, cheese, sour cream and jalapeño peppers. 

Chinese Delivery on the North Side

So, there're Chinese restaurants of all types in Chicago -- your upscale variety, your greasy spoon variety, those that specialize in Szechwan, those that focus on Cantonese delights -- whatever you want, its out there. We have Chinatown on the South Side and seemingly every neighborhood boasts a list of other favorite locations. On the near North Side, options for Chinese delivery are similarly plentiful. The following highlights some of my favorites for take-out/delivery.

Rioja: Out Of Business

There's more to a good restaurant than good food.  There's also the atmosphere and the service.  For me, all three factors need to be working together to make the dining experience a good one.  Rioja was missing two out of three - atmosphere and service. 

Formally Atlantique (which I had been to once and enjoyed) the seafood restuarant had been minimally updated and lacked character.  The wianscoated walls that were previously painted hues of green and blue for a nautical motif were now painted yellow and red.  Bullfighters and Flamenco dancers now hung on the walls and that was as far as the transformation went. 

Bamee Noodle Shop

Having spent most of my recent years in the Lakeview area of Chicago I developed a few regular spots along the Broadway strip between Diversey and Belmont. I went back to one of them this past week and got what I used to usually get – Bamee Soba...

That being said their entree's are very good. I gravitate to their noodle soups which seem to be their specialty. It's very reasonably priced and in addition to Thai iced teas you can get beer and wine.

4th of July Flower Pot: BBQ Beef

This 4th at the last minute we had a few people over and smoked some meats... Employing the same Flower Pot smoker from Father's Day I enjoyed a new perspective in the meat department of my Dominick's.

I got a top round roast cap off (oops...) and two packs of chicken thighs. I went back to get some thick Hungarian bacon to lay on top in lieu of a fatty layer and some banana leaves to line the smoker sealing in more smoke.

Cutting the roast into thirds, I rubbed it with the following:
2 tsp mexican paprika
2 tsp hungarian paprika
2 tsp pepper
2 tsp salt
2 tsp yellow mustard seed ground
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp cayanne pepper
1 tsp black (brown) mustard seed ground
1 tsp chopped dried and ground onion