Chicagoland Shawarma Special

-Grubbing in Chicagoland
Five of a Kind: Solid Shawarma in the city and Suburbs  

There's no shortage of shawarma options in the Chicagoland area. This is pretty much how it is in every major metropolis on earth as Middle Eastern spit roasted meat is truly one of the worlds most recognized foods and it can be found all across the globe. It's said to be traced back to the Levant region of the Arab World during the Ottoman Empire. Wikipedia says this about it's history - "Although the roasting of meat on horizontal spits has an ancient history, the shawarma technique—grilling a vertical stack of meat slices and cutting it off as it cooks—first appeared in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century in the form of döner kebab which both the Greek gyros and the Levantine shawarma are derived from." While every country in the Middle Eastern region has a variation on shawarma they all start with thin cuts of seasoned and marinated meat that's stacked on a skewer and spit roasted. The spicing varies by restaurant and region but cumin, cardamom, and turmeric are all common. The meat is shaved from the spit and typically consumed as a wrap or sandwich depending on where you are. Today we visit five spots in the city and the suburbs where you can find some super solid shawarma. 

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EZ Shawarma (Norridge) 

We'll start out in the enclave of Norridge where there's some stellar shawarma to be found in a busy strip mall. EZ Shawarma opened a couple of years and I remember being told there was a connection to the old Salem in Albany Park but I cant quite remember the exact details. Anyway they have an Arabic style shawarma that has really hit the spot on two separate visits. Arabic Shawarma is the term used for a chicken shawarma wrapped with garlic sauce and pickles that's cut up into pieces and served with fries. You'll find this dish at most shawarma spots but EZ Shawarma makes one of my favorites. The chicken is sliced fresh, the pickles are crisp and the toum has that garlicky zip to it. 

Arabic Shawarma at EZ Shawarma 
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Spice & Fire Grill (Morton Grove)

For our second stop we head 20 minutes north into Morton Grove to another strip mall find of mine. This Iraqi owned restaurant has been around for about three years now. The menu is a mix of mezze, kebabs and sandwiches and also features a lamb quizi which is a slow cooked lamb and rice dish that's considered one of Iraq's national dishes. But my go-to move here is the Iraqi steak shawarma aka Guss. I almost always prefer chicken when ordering shawarma but beef is most popular in Iraq and I've had some good beef shawarma at Iraqi spots bc of that. It's always a tad chewier than chicken as it is steak but at some places the beef shawarma is just too chewy but that's not the case at Spice & Fire where they layer tender cuts of steak that's cut from the spit and along with onion, tomato, parsley and a Middle Eastern brand of steak sauce is stuffed into soft bread called Samoon. 

Iraqi Steak Shawarma at Spice & Fire Grill 
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Lawn Craft Hamburger (Chicago)

Next we head into the city to the Ukrainian owned Lawn Craft Hamburger where shawarma recently joined burgers on the menu. I was walking through Wicker Park when I noticed "shawarma" was added to the awning so I decided to investigate a little bit with this being the second time I’d seen a Ukrainian place serving shawarma. I came to find that Ukrainian style shawarma is indeed a thing. Some online researching led me to lots of listing of restaurants serving shawarma in Ukraine, DIY videos on YouTube as well as Reddit threads about where to get the best shawarma in Kyiv (near the train stations). I even came across a tidbit that Ukraine president Vladimir Zelensky has a painting of a shawarma kiosk as those have become a symbol of the democratic nature of his presidency. Ukrainian Shawarma is kind of its own thing due to a few things as far as ingredients go. The meat is typically chicken and toppings are usually a combo of garlic sauce, spicy mayo, tomato and crunchy vegetables like cabbage, pickles, jalapeño. It became a thing the same way that Tacos Al Pastor, Greek Gyros, Halifax Donair, Lomito Arabe, French Tacos, and Berlin style Döner Kebap all did.

Ukrainian Style Shawarma at Lawn Craft Hamburger 
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Sinya Mediterranean (Chicago)

At it's current pace Roscoe Village is never going to be mentioned among the city's best food neighborhoods but it's gotten better over the last five years or so. Sinya Mediterranean opened a few summers back and has had a steady flow of business since then. You can chalk that up to carefully prepared plates of chicken shawarma served over fluffy yellow rice with hummus and a side salad. The first time I decided to try this place I did a double take upon the delivery of my chicken shawarma meal. It looked exactly like the version served at Falafel & Grill in Wicker Park which has been one of my go-to spots for more than a decade. I asked if there was a connection and sure enough the guy who owns Falafel & Grill is part owner of Sinya and with that you'll find a virtually identical product. 

Shawarma Dinner at Sinya Mediterranean 
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Falafel Kebab Station (Chicago) 

Last but not least is my favorite prep of shawarma in the city right now which you can find at Falafel Kebab Station on Grandville in Edgewater. This place takes the extra step in just about everything they make including rotisserie chickens. The Arabi style shawarma is fresh cut chicken from the spit that's a bit juicer than most others due to the use of dark meat. Add in garlic sauce and pickles and wrap it all up in thin and soft shrak that gets pressed until toasted and you got a fantastic meal served with fries and crispy pickles. The fries are frozen but that hot sauce enhances everything it touches. 

Arabi Shawarma at Falafel Kebab Station
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See ya next time @chibbqking

Akahoshi Ramen

-Grubbing in Chicago  
Next Level Ramen in Logan Square 

As we continue to get caught up with all of the worthy openings from last year it’s time to check out one of 2023's best. I know I’m a little late to the party but it’s just getting going at Akahoshi Ramen on California just south of Fullerton. It’s story started when owner / ramen head Mike Satinover went to Japan to study abroad while in college at University of Wisconsin. While he was in Japan he developed a deep love for the local ramen culture that he brought back with him. At that time there wasn’t a lot ramen spots in Chicagoland and those that we did have didn’t satisfy like the bowls in Japan did. So he went to work and started making his own ramen and he documented most of it on Reddit where he has a cult following who know him as u/Ramen_Lord. Mike spent years on end experimenting with ramen in all of its various forms and if you go back and look at some of those Reddit posts you’ll see why I used the word experiment to describe what he was doing. Reading some of his posts is like trying to read a lab report of a scientific experiment from NASA.

Recently Opened in Logan Square

As Mike grew more confident in his product he began to do pop-ups that would sell out within minutes if not seconds of the tickets going on sale. In doing so Mike became an underground legend of sorts and with that the demands for a brick and mortar were met with the opening of Akahoshi Ramen at the end of November. To call this a passion project just doesn’t cut it. This is a story of kodawari in the form of a Ramenya. Mike has spent a large chunk of his life on the never ending quest of perfecting his craft and with that comes one of Chicago’s best restaurant openings last year. It’s also one of the most hyped - reservations go quick when released online and there’s always people lining up before they open. I live near there so I’ve been able to walk over and hop in line. My first visit came back in December when I arrived at 4:50p to a line of people 33 deep (they open at 5p). I was inside by 5:10p and put my name down upon being told I would get a text within an hour or so which is how it went down. I returned and was quickly seated in a slick and clean space with zero trace of appropriation.

a peek inside 

It seems like everything from the spacing to the lighting to the eye catching open kitchen setup was given much consideration. The menu is small with a selection of four different styles of ramen ranging from shoyu to a soupless Aburasoba selection. With my first visit being the first time I ever got try Mike’s ramen I decided to go with the namesake bowl. The Akahoshi Miso is described as a “blend of misos, homemade crinkly Sapporo-style noodles, and plenty of lard topped with beansprouts, green onions, menma bamboo shoots, pork chashu.” It’s the style of ramen Mike fell in love with while studying abroad in Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido is where miso ramen first originated. I added an Ajitama egg (soft boiled) and a side of white rice which I used to finish off the broth. Every component of this bowl was given preferential treatment from the creamy and extremely flavorful broth to the wholesome made in-house noodles and masterfully seared Chashu (Japanese braised pork belly). I knew it was going to be good but I didn’t know was just how good a bowl of miso ramen can be. It can be tough for places to meet the hype when it’s as big as this but I can’t go against the grain on this one - it was some of the best ramen I’ve ever had, as good as many of the bowls I had in Japan.

Akahoshi Miso Ramen (click pics to enlarge)

I recently returned to try the tantanmen and that was also fantastic. I first tried Japans spin on Chinas dandan noodles when I was in Osaka and happened to come upon a satellite location of a famous place from Hiroshima. Tantanmen is a soupless ramen made with spicy and numbing Sichuan peppercorns and loads of green onion with minced pork and ramen noodles. The rest of the ingredients will vary by ramen shop but at Akahoshi they use extra thick noodles, ma-la spice, sesame, pork soboro, house-made chili oil, green onions, and bok choy. Add an egg to your order and mix it up really well and you got one of the most toothsome bowls of noodles in the city right now. Mike and team whip up a different special each month but aside from that there's nothing else on the menu and I like it that way. You might find the pricing ($25+ with a 20% tip included) a bit off-putting but you wont find a better bowl of ramen in the Chicagoland area. Logan Square is where it's at!

Tantanmen 

Akahoshi Ramen 
2340 N California Ave (Suite B)
Chicago, IL 60647

Website 

Maxwells Trading

-Grubbing in Chicago  
New to the 'Scene'

As regular readers know I always have my ear to the ground when it comes to restaurant openings in and around Chicago. I keep a little list of them in my head as far as places of intrigue. Upon learning of it Maxwells Trading is one that I immediately added to that list. I was very intrigued with this project from Chef Erling Wu-Bower who made a name for himself at Pacific Standard Time and Publican, among other spots in town. Maxwells Trading opened just before the new year on the outskirts of the West Loop just off Ashland in the still industrial part of the neighborhood. 

Recently Opened in West Loop

From what I’ve read at sites like Eater and Block Club Chicago, Maxwells is a very personal project for the locally born Wu-Bower who’s half Vietnamese and half Cajun. He’s serving the type of food he likes to eat but it doesn’t have a label. There’s lots of Italian and Asian influence from dish to dish but you’re not going to find anything standard so to say and that’s a big reason why I was excited to check this place out. The space is big and modern with room for 100 people including a wrap around bar with first come, first served seating. The kitchen is mostly open with a live wood fired grill in full view. They have a rooftop farm where they’ll grow their own produce and such. It’s a big time production that also includes a coffee shop, flower store and a second floor for private parties. 

a peek inside 

But enough of all that let’s get into the food - the menu is broken down into five sections with a handful of dishes in each of them, give or take. We opted to pass on the four options listed in the “Beginnings” and went straight to the “Griddle Bread and Dunks” section where you can choose between four types of dips all of which come served with a naan like bread for dipping. Options like a hummus with spring peas or a Japanese eggplant were tempting but our waiter said the French Onion Dip with truffle oil and chives was his favorite so that’s what we decided to try. The bread is like a scallion pancake mixed with naan and it makes for the perfect dipping vehicle. The French Onion dip had the taste and consistency of chicken liver mousse minus the chicken livers. Both the bread and the dip were outstanding to where I had to ask for an extra piece of bread to scrape out the dip. 

French Onion Dip - truffle oil and chive

I found the most tempting dishes on the menu to be listed among the “Starch” selections. We ended up trying three of the four options leading off with a Japanese sweet potato sitting in a puddle of Northern Thai Curry with basil. I forget how long but the potato is cooked for a long time before it’s seared and given a crisp and crunchy top while the inside is a creamy mixture of sweet potato that plays really well with a smooth and spicy curry sauce. I made sure to get every last drop of that sauce which had some real deal heat going for it. In an interview with Block Club, Wu-Bower described the menu at Maxwell's as “largely Italian with very specific Asian explorations, dish by dish.” That's a pretty spot on description of the 'Hay & Straw' - a delicious pasta with very Asian influences in the form of fettuccini, garlic chives, confit potato, dry vermouth, chili crisp, parmesan cheese, and poached egg. We were told to mix all of it up to get maximum flavor which was more than achieved in what might have been my favorite dish of the night. But not without a fight from the Soup Dumpling Tortellini which lists pork shoulder and Maitake mushrooms as the ingredients but this dish goes much deeper than that. The perfectly textured tortellini is stuffed with a Chinese dumpling tasting blend of pork and green onion and other typical ingredients like ginger and soy sauce. The pasta sits in a liquid that taste like both hot and sour soup and brodo with thinly sliced Maitake mixed in. As someone who considers both pasta and dumplings to be comfort foods this one hit very close to home. I can’t decide which of the pastas I preferred so I suggest trying both of them as each was a home run.

Japanese Sweet Potato - northern style thai curry and basil 


Hay & Straw - fettuccini, garlic chives, confit potato, dry vermouth, chili crisp, parmesan cheese, poached egg

Soup Dumpling Tortellinni - pork shoulder, maitake mushroom 

Last up was the turbot from the “Substance, Grilled” portion of the menu which features two different preps of steak including a 16 oz bone-in strip served with miso bagna cauda, lettuce wrap, ssamjang, tangerine nice cham, and pickles. As tempting as that was it was the wife’s bday and she’s not a big red meat eater so we decided to go with the turbot over the black cod which along with a wood grilled chicken and two veggie preps completes the entree selections. The turbot is served with swiss chard, fingerling potatoes and an incredible kombu beurre blanc that took me straight to Paris with how rich and delicious it was. We had no room for desert after all of that but I can’t wait to get back as the menu switches up with the seasons. My only complaint was it took two hours to eat from when we ordered to when we left as the place was packed and there was a table of 12 that ordered right ahead of us. I don’t like to wait around in between dishes too long but the kitchen was clearly backed up so that’s ok. That’s just how it goes sometimes especially these days as places like Maxwells try to figure out how to pay their staff a living wage and give customers the service they expect. All in all I really liked the food and found the lively vibes to be pleasing in a way other places are not. Cool spot. 

Turbot - swiss chard, fingerling potato, kombu beurre blanc

Maxwells Trading
1516 W Carroll Ave
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 896-4410
Website

Eating BIG in Greenville

Eating like a local:
Regional food specialties 
- Exploring the hub of South Carolina's Upcountry 

While I realize Greenville South Carolina is a spot most people will never find themselves you never know exactly what the future holds. We stopped there on the drive down to South Florida last January but it wasn't at random. I decided to make it the halfway point (give or take) and spend a couple nights checking out the hub of South Carolina's Upcountry region. I'd been hearing that Greenville was on the come up and decided why not stop there and check it out as it made sense from both a geographical standpoint and also getting to go somewhere I've never been. Plus I've always been intrigued with the local chili dog culture as there's lots of hot dog stands in the area. Also it was just for one full day as we would arrive in the early eve and hit the road early upon leaving. At the very least I figured there would be restaurants to check out and some areas to walk around and see the town. 

Pics from Greenville
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Duke Sandwich Company 

Greenville's biggest culinary claim to fame is being the birthplace of Duke's Mayonnaise. It's a long story that starts in the early 1900's with a local woman named Eugenia Duke who started selling sandwiches with her mother and her homemade spreads during the first World War. The all female operation served soldiers stationed at the nearby Camp Sevier and then when the war was over they began supplying sandwiches to local stores and textile mills. In the mid 1920's Duke sold her sandwich spread recipes and her mayo recipe to two separate men. C.F Sauer went on to open a Duke's Mayonnaise factory in the area while her former bookkeeper went on to establish a wholesale market for the sandwiches along with the opening of a few stores where they were sold. Today there's zero connection between the sandwich shop and the mayo - in fact back in 2019 there was a lawsuit filed by a private equity firm that had recently bought the Duke's Mayonnaise brand. They claimed the sandwich shop was trying to profit off of their name. That's nonsense as the sandwiches and the shops it spawned have been a part of the Greenville area dating back to the first World War. I'm not sure what happened with the lawsuit but Duke Sandwich Company is still slanging old school sandwiches stuffed with spreads like pimento cheese, egg salad, and their famous baked ham with pepper and onion as shown below. They come toasted upon request and cost around $2-$3 each. 

Sandwiches from Duke Sandwich Company 
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Northgate Soda Shop

Our next stop also has alot of history in the area. The Greenville News describes it as a "living museum of Greenville history." It's one of those places that looks kind of dirty from the outside but in a good worn down way. Little has changed at this locals spot I've had on my radar going back to the days of Roadfood. It was featured for it's pimento cheeseburger and the Cincinnati steak - the latter of which is a fried baloney sandwich with chili sauce. As much as I would've liked to try a Cincy steak sandwich (nobody knows why they call them that) I couldn't pass on a classic pimento cheeseburger paired with a cherry smash from the soda fountain. I'm not sure why but they love cooking their burgers to well done in these parts but the creamy made on site pimento cheese really lifted it all up. 

Pimento Cheeseburger at Northgate Soda Shop 
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Holmes Hot Dogs (Arcadia)

Holmes Hot Dogs was the first stop on the 'Upcountry Chili Dog Trot'. It's about 30 minutes from Greenville on the outskirts of Spartanburg. It's been a hot dog stand since 1953 when Walt Holmes purchased a popular lunch counter and added hot dogs to the menu. Ever since then locals have been flocking to Holmes for chili dogs with crinkle cut fries and ice cold bottles of coke. They give you the option to add slaw so I tried one with chili and one with chili and slaw. Overall this was probably my favorite stop of the chili dog trot. I enjoyed both the atmosphere and the hot dogs were pretty good for what they were. I think they were like $2 each and despite being skinless they had a little bit of snap to them. The size of the hot dogs are much smaller down here too which is why they’re often just a couple bucks. The buns are heavily steamed which means they’re kind of like hot dog sliders.

Hot Dogs at Holmes Hot Dogs
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The Hot Dog Cafe (Lyman)

Hot Dog Cafe is about halfway between Greenville and Spartanburg. There's not much online info aside from an entry on the old Roadfood website. They make a thick and meaty chili that reminded me a bit of Flint style coney sauce due to how dry it was, like loose meat. Once again the wieners themselves are nothing special but when you add chili, mustard and onions they kind of become their own thing. The star of the show here though are the fries cut fresh with an antique potato slicer. 

Chili Dog at Hot Dog Cafe
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Red Hill Hot Dogs (Lyman)

You'll find Red Hill Hot Dogs a half mile from our last stop. This place looks like a house if not for the sign hanging above one of the front windows. Inside feels like a prohibition bar except they're pushing cheap hot dogs as opposed to watered down Canadian booze. According to their website they've been around for more than 30 years but it feels much longer than that. The chili at Red Hill Hot Dogs a bit wetter than the previous two stops likely due to some sort of tomato sauce being used. 

Chili Dog at Red Hill Hot Dogs
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Skins Hot Dogs (multiple locations) 

Last stop on the chili dog trot takes to us to a hyper regional fast food chain known as Skins. They got into the game back in 1946 when Skin's Thrashers opened in the small town of Anderson. I really wanted to go to the original location with a pool hall like atmosphere where they also serve beer (limit two) but Anderson was the opposite way of the previous four spots. But with Skin's having more than 10 locations in the region I was able to stop in at one of their Greenville outlets for a chili dog. Skinless beef/pork franks are topped with mustard and onions and slathered in a dry chili. The steamed buns from here have a little more girth to them, almost like a lobster roll bun. If I hadn't just been to the previous three spots I might've tried the hot dog in a cup along with the one in a bun. 

Chili Dog at Skins
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The Jones Oyster Company 

Greenville is about 3 hours from Charleston and the South Carolina coast which isn't exactly close but it's also not too far. My point being I shouldn't have been as surprised with Jones Oyster Company as I was as you can get fresh seafood from the Low Country delivered up here in no time. Same goes for fresh oysters from up and down the coast. Between the fresh seafood and the wonderful job they did rehabbing the old building that housed a furniture store for which the restaurant is named after, Jones Oyster Co. felt like a spot you would come across in Charleston or Savannah. We had cold and briny oysters from a family ran farm in Virginia and also hot and cheesy grilled oysters from the Gulf Coast and a stick to your ribs plate of Low Country Crab Rice with a fried egg and bits of crisp bacon. 

Seafood at Jones Oyster Co. 
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Sum Bar 

Greeenville got a good one when a local chef known for her Chinese dumplings went from pop up to brick and mortar. Sum Bar is the project of Khailing Neoh who made a name for herself and her handmade shumai on the pop-up circuit. This isn't an old school spot with the carts and the menu that you circle what you want. It's new school in that there's a smaller menu with cocktail options and some untraditional dishes like the crab rangoon which are served up as nachos with wonton chips and a warm mix of cream cheese and green onions for dipping. But the shumai with pork and shrimp is very traditional as it's her grandmas recipe and it was as satisfying as any I can remember. An order of the green beans, also grandmas recipe, rounded out a fantastic pre-dinner snack.  

Dim Sum at Sum Bar 
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Scoundrel 

I always like to read those 'Best New Restaurant' lists by local and national food publications. That's how I found Scoundrel which was named in one by Omar Mamoon and his team at Esquire. The kitchen at Scoundrel is led by Greenville native Joe Cash who had cooked at a few of the country's best restaurants before returning home and starting his own. Cash and his team cook French fare with local flair like a deviled blue crab infused with chilis, bay leaf and sweet cream - you'll be reading about it again at years end if you catch what I'm saying. A simply prepared bowl of pasta made with Reginetti, Parmesan and Aleppo pepper showed great restraint by the chef as it didn't need any truffles or bacon as it was delicious as is. A well cooked piece of duck breast has become a favorite of mine lately and with that it was easy to decide what we would try from the entrees. Aged Pekin Duck is mixed with grilled swiss chard, big cherries, and mustard. Having just come from the previous spot we only got a few things from here but they were all delicious with the deviled crab being memorable.

Dinner at Scoundrel (click pics to enhance)
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Clare's Creamery 

I'm a bit of a ice cream snob in that I mostly only eat the small batch stuff. But it helps me stay away from getting it at the grocery store and eating it all in one sitting or just getting some bc I'm paying for gas and there's a cooler of ice cream bars next to the checkout. But I do like to check out the independent spots so I searched around and found Clare's. There's nothing special about it per se in that it has that clean and light aesthetic that most of the new ice cream shops have going for them but it also has some out of the ordinary flavors that switch with the seasons. Good stuff.  

Ice Cream at Clare's Creamery 
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Previous stops to and from South Florida 

(click links)

Roadfood in Chattanooga
Eating BIG in Alabama 

See ya next time @chibbqking