Oysters at Home, Plus a Chicago OG Dish That's Not a Hot Dog or Deep Dish Pizza
Your Chicago quarantine delivery and takeout recs, plus some notes:
Lincoln Park, Lakeview
Dirk’s Fish (via Mercato or Pickup) – Maybe the most triumphant moment of my previous week, was sitting down to a dozen French Kiss oysters with a side of mignonette. I could do this because Dirk’s Fish, one of the best local purveyors of fish is still plowing along in pandemic times. There’s lots of fish available of course, but don’t sleep on the chocolate pot de crème or key lime pie either. If you don’t know how to shuck an oyster, Dirk’s will do that for you. As for the mignonette, mix 1 tsp diced shallot or red onion, ¼ cup of red wine vinegar plus a sprinkle of fresh ground pepper.
Quality Crab and Oyster Bah – Yeah, the name is funny, ha, ha. But, the seafood chopped salad featuring a mountain of lobster, crab and shrimp is one of my favorite “healthy” delivery options in the city. Then again that creamy Louis dressing is still gonna take your arteries down, but whatever.
https://www.qualitycrabandoysterbah.com/
Uptown (Weekends only)
Sun Wah BBQ – Sadly you can not get the Beijing Duck curbside. Then again, the delicate cracklin’ skin would be a disappointment by the time you got home. Still, you can salve your sadness with the house bbq combination and some pork and egg congee.
http://sunwahbbq.com/sun-wah-is-open/
Pilsen
The Jibarito Stop – Though the Jibarito gets bunched in with general Puerto Rican cuisine these days, it was actually invented in Chicago, which is to say it is basically on par with a Chicago dog or deep dish pizza. In fact, it’s probably better, because you may want to eat one of these every week instead of one a year. This place serves one of the best examples.
https://thejibaritostop.com/Home/HomeManager
Loop, Downtown
Café Spiaggia – Hopefully you enjoyed my interview with ex-Spiaggia chef Joe Flamm yesterday. Maybe it also has you craving a little of the Spiaggia magic at home? Well, you’re in luck. How about some wild boar ragu or chili, guanciale, and pecorino romano dusted bucatini? Here you go.
https://spiaggiarestaurant.com/about/cafe-spiaggia-story
Mike talks to himself!
Well, not exactly, but I do talk to another Mike, i.e. Mike Gebert of Fooditor, on his new limited edition podcast Fooditor Radio. I try to get all controversial by yelling at Chicago Tribune food critic Phil Vettel for disgracing the reviewing profession. Also I talk about how I might have had the COVID-19 virus in February, and also I review my experience eating El Ideas takeout.
Donations, Newsletter Updates, etc.
I made another $700 in donations from newsletter subscriptions proceeds last week which brings us to $1,300 donated so far. I’m including screenshots of a random assortment of receipts below for transparency. I could include them all, but then this newsletter will get very long. If you want to see everywhere I’m donating, follow my Twitter feed to see the donation tweets. I plan on making more donations this week. We’re up to $1,900 raised so far and I expect another round of donations to go out next week as the processing company pays out. This is also a good time to remind you if you are reading this for free, you can join for $5 a month. Tomorrow’s post will be for subscribers only, the first subscriber only post I’ve done. I also want to reduce the clutter in your inboxes, so I am going to reduce the delivery recs to twice weekly instead of daily (unless you all email me complaining that you need them everyday).
