Bill Kim's Urbanbelly

It's hard to explain how my Friday was redeemed. It was a long day. I was graciously getting a ride home that was delayed an hour due to construction on the inbound LSD... are they kidding! Traffic outbound wasn't much better so I was needed something nice. I saw a listing on LTH for Urban Belly and made the Bill Kim connection and talked the driver into a detour to California, just North of Diversey. In a strip mall is Bill Kim's new diggs. Sure enough three weeks into the endeavor he was right there in the kitchen dishing out dumplings, rice dishes and bowls of noodles. Once you order at the counter seating is at one of four communal tables. It surely isn't Le Lan. But TGIF.

The squash dumplings and lamb and brandy dumplings were both great. The lamb and brandy was served over edamame which I didn't catch and was my only moment of confusion. I don't like to eat them whole. The dumplings were slightly gamey in a good way and set the stage for dinner. The squash dumplings were steamed, light and sweet, with a bit of salty crunchy bacon crumbs and cool fresh orange supremes. It might have been the nicest surprise of the night, especially since the aroma of the various soups filled the restaurant.

The fourth rice option is a mix of the first three and came with a piece of short rib and the rice was mixed with too much spice and flavor to describe properly. The food that I've had from Kim has never been from Le Lan but special event concoctions which is a strange way to taste food. But I remembered his mirin broth from a Star Chefs event and he backed it up here. Very rich complex dishes. That rice dish had layers of flavor as did the pho spiced urban belly ramen. The sliced pork belly lived in it perfectly. Hints at asian 5-spice usually means you're in for a surprise. Man it was good.

The advantage of a BYOB with communal tables is obvious when you start comiserating about the awful prospects of certain potential political embarassments with people who remembered to bring multiple bottles of wine. Cheers to generosity and liberalism. Urban Belly is off to a great start.

Urban Belly
3053 California
773-583-0500
www.urbanbellychicago.com

Comments

[sj]

I live a couple of blocks from Urban Belly. The neighborhood is called Avondale, fyi.

[Disappointed Korean dude]

While Bill's take on Korean cuisine fusion en masse to all those that have recently discovered what I've known since my mama weened me on Kochujang, why oh why does he charge ridiculous prices for "ban chan"? Those yummy side dishes are ubiquitous to Korean cuisine and no one charges a penny...ever! Fine go ahead and charge me up the ass for a bowl of stir-fried rice crammed into a small rice bowl with one short rib, literally one rib, but kim chee? Really?

Some Chicago restaurants (San Soo Gab San, for example) will clutter your table with 10-15 varieties of ban chan, and you don't even need to do a full BBQ! Yep, order-up a $6.95 bubbly crock of soon-doo-bu-chi-gae (silken tofu stew with a raw egg cracked table side) and guess what, you get all those tasty ban chans, gratis--smile and you'll likely get a refill on some of your favorites for free.

Let me put it like this, even if you have an overworked, pissy, Korean serving your drunk ass at 3 AM, you'll at least get some kimchee to mack on. I've never been charged for a small bowl of Kim Chee in my entire life--even Korean food in France (where most restaurants will charge for bread) don't have the audacity to charge for kim chee.

...not to mention that when it came out, it wasn't even authentic. Some things are better left traditional--no need to "fusion" something that already tastes amazing; and certainly no need to start charging for it.

So, to the original poster, perhaps Bill can learn from the generosity floating around with patrons sharing their booze at communal tables--maybe we can have some communal kim-chee pits in which to mosh around.