An Offally Good Plate at Chicago's Argentine Meat Market, Folklore
[Photograph: Michael Nagrant]
Call me the Fergus Henderson of food writers or the Chris Cosentino of culinary scribes—I'm mad about offal. But it wasn't always so. As the first generation son of a close-knit Polish family, I regularly turned my nose up at the ubiquitous Czernina (duck blood soup), head cheese, and various tripe at our holiday celebrations. Having the stuff around so much eventually took the fear factor out of such foods, and I started to experiment to the point where I'm now only a few tarantula nugget bites away from transforming into Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern.
As such, I'm always on the lookout for a good deal on organ meats, and with the opening of Folklore in Wicker Park—an offshoot of the popular Argentine steakhouse in Lakeview, Tango Sur—I've found my desert island plate: the parrillada para uno. The parillada is sizzling platter piled high with juicy grilled flap steak and cross cut short ribs, succulent pork sausage, crispy sweetbreads featuring a rich, almost fried chicken-like crust, and blood sausage that eats like a firm cinnamon-spiced meat custard. There's also a side of chimmichurri, a garlicky herb and oil dipping brew so addictive that it's kind of the like the Argentine version of bacon, i.e. it makes everything taste better.
Folklore Argentine Grill
2100 W. Division Street, Chicago IL 60622 (map)
773-292-1600
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2 Comments:
Very Typical in tuscany and excellent street food in an elegant city like Florence, try the Panino al Lampredotto , the abomasus in a bun will stun you... simply http://bit.ly/1J3Rol
oriana at 11:37AM on 11/05/09
No way! I think you read my mind - My boyfriend and I found this place last week and plan to go there next Friday! We're so excited!
Chew on That at 6:55PM on 11/05/09