Posted by Michael Nagrant, February 15, 2008 at 2:00 PM
For those of us without backyards, it’s tough to sate a hankering for moist roast pork with shiny laquered cracklins. As much as I’d like to park a Caja China in my Chicago condo and vent the porky smoke out to the street, I’m afraid the hundred year old timber trusses, which happen to be as dry as an AA convention, would somehow spontaneously combust. So it’s with great relief that I can at least head up to the north side and drop maybe the best $6 of my week for some tosilog at Tapsilog at Iba Pa.
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Posted by Michael Nagrant, December 21, 2007 at 10:30 AM
For a city/metro area with 9,000,000+ people, Chicago has a dearth of good egg rolls. You can find great Szechuan braised tendon, head-on salt and pepper shrimp, and a celebration of the diverse fungal bounty of Yunnan province down in Chinatown, but a personal dynasty's length search for sublime crisp deep-fried won ton skin pockets in this same 'hood have turned up nothing.
Instead, I have to turn to the Filipino Uni-Mart grocery on the northside for my fix. Ford the stainless steel shelves filled with salty and sweet shrimp and squid chips and you'll be rewarded with a take-out counter filled with pork glazed in thick syrupy adobo; orange laquered barbecue chicken; beefy, brothy oxtail-studded kare-kare, and a host of Filipino favorites. The object of my affection, though, is the golden fried Philly blunt–size lumpia Shanghai filled with moist pork. Snap one open and a garlicky perfume that roils about your nostrils should take care of any vampire infestations you might have.
As much as I love to cook, my annual holiday party usually requires mis en place for 50, which means the culinary army of one that is me usually limits the homemade goods to two or three passed hor d'ouevres. The lumpia is one of my standbys for filling out the rest of the menu. Last year I bought 150 rolls, and they were gone in the first hour.
Uni-Mart
Address: 5845 N. Clark, Chicago IL 60660 (map)
Phone: 773-271-8676
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 22, 2007 at 12:37 PM
Mick Vann on Filipino food, in the Austin Chronicle: "But imagine a cuisine that uses fish sauce and shrimp paste; olives and chiles; olive oil and tomatoes; bread; noodles and rice; sweet, baked tropical desserts; chorizo and longaniza; escabeche made with coconut or sugarcane vinegar; skewered barbecue; fresh spring rolls made with crepes; dishes with lemongrass and bay leaves; lots of seafood and pork; and tamales made with sticky rice. It's like someone combined a lot of my favorite things from different cuisines and mixed them all together into one huge, wonderful menu." There are 10,000 Filipinos in the Austin area now and currently only four Filipino restaurants, but from his descriptions they all sound pretty good.
