When you talk about great Chicago cuisine, you're talking about Italian beef sandwiches, deep dish pizza and the Chicago hot dog. Those are just some of what's covered in "Made in Chicago," a guide book to 30 different Windy City delicacies gathered by two Chicago journalists, Monica Eng and David Hammond.
While Eng is a reporter for Axios Chicago and cohost of the podcast Chewing, Hammond is the dining editor for Newcity/Chicago magazine.
The pair know their stuff. Hammond runs down several possible origin stories for the legendary Italian beef while Eng traces influences on the "culinary 10-car pile-up known as the Jim Shoe" to Greek, Italian, Jewish, African American, Pakistani, Palestinian/Jordanian, Mexican and stoner culture.
For the uninitiated, the jim shoe has corned beef, roast beef and gyros meat on a sub roll topped with giardiniera, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, mayonnaise, cheese and "a liquidy approximation of tzatziki."
The guide also identifies the places that sell the Chicago goodies that Eng and Hammond write about--like Fat Johnnie's Famous Red Hots in Marquette Park on Chicago's South Side, "a landmark of Chicago food greatness," noted Hammond.
Fat Johnnie's is believed to have originated the Mother-in-Law, a Chicago corn roll tamale in a hot dog bun, covered in chili, dressed like a dragged-through-the-garden Chicago hot dog, he stated.
Eng goes back to WWII and the transfer of some Japanese American citizens to Chicago to lay out the origin of Akutagawa--hamburger meat with chopped onions and green pepper, bean sprouts and scrambled egg served with a side of race and gravy.
The two writers also helped Steve Tarter understand the no-catsup provision on a Chicago hot dog although Hammond did say that some Chicagoans may have gone too far in their objection to the red stuff.
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