Chicago is a real culinary jungle
where you can become both the top of the food pyramid and the victim of local culinary predators. As you head to the shores of Michigan, get ready for an exciting hunt for a delicious breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
First, about the dangers:
First: street fast food is not an invention of Chicago, and you can’t buy anything “branded” on the street, but you can get poisoned with no less probability than whites at the Kiev railway station. In Chicago, you need to eat in small cafes and restaurants, where prices are not much higher than street hot dog vendors.
Secondly, if you want to try the local cuisine, you should not buy analogues of English fish and chips, standard donuts and hamburgers. There are a lot of them in Chicago, but what’s the point of going here to feast on what handymen and blue-collar workers across America eat for lunch? You can choke on overdried cod with french fries anywhere in the States.
Third, contrary to the beliefs of pale-skinned street spells, no Indian food was invented in the Great Lakes region. If you want something authentic, order game dishes at the nearest restaurant. For example, only here you can taste bison meat bred on local farms, including those on Indian reservations.
And now for the goodies…
There are several dishes that are prepared only here. The local pizza “Chicago Style” does not even look like an Italian one. This is a 4-layer pie: bottom thin dough, thick curd layer, filling, top thin dough and sauce layer.
Chicago borders the state of Wisconsin, where ethnic Swiss and Germans produce some of the best cheeses, milks and meats in the western hemisphere – the products used in the Chicago peak.
An average pizza is designed for 2-3 people, costs from 12 to 15 USD in the city center, it is prepared in almost all establishments with the word “pizzeria” in the title. For those who are strong in spirit and stomach, there is even a special bus tour of the main pizzerias of the center (70 USD): you can try different varieties that differ in sauces, toppings and cheese.
Signature dishes associated with two world-famous Chicago teams – the basketball Red Bulls and the football White Sox (football, of course, American). These are Michael Jordan’s $25 to $85 steaks at Michael Jordan’s Steak House, and the $17 Chicago White Sox signature pizza at Phil’s Pizza in Bridgeport.
You can also call “Chicago hot dogs” a local dish, but you need to buy them only in bars and cafes, and by no means in trailers. There are two types: “Polish” (Maxwell Street Polish), which necessarily contains a thick “Polish” sausage, fried onions, peppers and mustard, and a less severe “Chicago hot dog” where the sausage can be thinner and more ingredients. But the main thing – you can not add ketchup and simple mustard. It is believed that the sugar contained in them interrupts the taste of beef sausage.
Chicago is a real culinary jungle, where you can become both the top of the food pyramid and the victim of local culinary predators. As you head to the shores of Michigan, get ready for an exciting hunt for a delicious breakfast, lunch, and dinner.