@chitribfood
Explore variety of Indian vegetarian recipes from authentic South Indian recipes to North Indian dishes, global cuisine and eggless baking. Enjoy healthy, restaurant style recipes with easy step-by-step pictures, videos to make cooking fun and effortless.
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Paczki, a deep-fried, yeast-based, stuffed doughnut, originated in Poland as a way to use up butter, eggs and other ingredients that were off-limits during Lenten fasting. Polish immigrants brought the tradition to Chicago, and bakeries offer prodigious amounts of the decadent treat around Fat Tuesday or Paczki Day, which falls on Feb. 21 this year. Paczki are also eaten on Fat Thursday in Poland, so celebrations will kick off at many places on Feb. 16 or even earlier. Take note, at the city’s most popular and longest-running bakeries, preorders often sell out and walk-ins can involve waiting in lines that snake around the block. It’s best to pick your paczki well in advance. Tap the link in our bio for 26 bakeries in Chicagoland with your pick of paczki for Fat Tuesday, including Beatrix shown here. ?Samantha Nelson / for the Chicago Tribune ?Cara Yaffe / @beatrixrestaurants
A foreboding Instagram post in June warned of Half Birthday’s demise (@halfbirthdaychi). “Sign up for a cake before I pass away,” the Chicago-based microbakery advised, captioning a photo of a white cake strewn with wildflowers, a red sprinkle of tart sumac hinting at the sour undertone of the post. In a comment, baker Alexa Linsemeyer, shown here, elaborated: Inflation had chipped away at her business’ sustainability, and she needed a break. In late spring, she’d decided “I don’t have it in me to figure this out,” she said. And she wasn’t alone. When the 2020 pandemic shutdown put restaurant workers out of a job, a push to support down-on-their-luck restaurant workers drove demand to a crop of food entrepreneurs with media savvy and professional pastry know-how. A microbakery boom ensued. But where there’s a boom, there’s often an inherent risk of a bust. At the tail end of 2022, a spate of Chicago microbakeries shut down, citing rising ingredient costs, burnout and decreasing customer interest. Tap the link in our bio to hear from microbakers on the boom and bust of the business. ? Charlotte Goddu / for the Chicago Tribune ? Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune / @briancassella
“Back in 2017, I wrote about how the best bowl of ramen in Chicago couldn’t be found in a restaurant,” writes the Tribune’s Nick Kindelsperger. “Instead, if you wanted to sample the most satisfying bowl of miso ramen in the area, you’d need to ask Mike Satinover (@ramen__lord), an amateur ramen obsessive, to make it for you. Fortunately for Chicago ramen fans, that’s changed. This fall, Satinover plans to open Akahoshi Ramen (@akahoshiramen) in the Logan Square neighborhood. After growing up in suburban Oak Park, Satinover fell hard for ramen while living in Sapporo, Japan, for a year during college. When he returned to the United States, he found all the ramen he tried lacking. So he spent years perfecting his own, devoting countless hours to understanding every intricacy of the dish. The slim menu will feature four to five bowls of ramen and two or three rice dishes. Satinover is still tinkering with the official lineup, but you can be sure his miso ramen will make the cut. Tap the link in our bio to find out how obsessive Satinover is about ramen and for a peek at the menu at Akahoshi Ramen. ?Roger Morales / Chicago Tribune
Valentine’s Day can mean a lot of pressure to plan the perfect date. Should you opt for a decadent dinner out with a tasting menu or wine pairings, or share an intimate meal in your own home? Do you want a dramatic view or elaborate experience, or just some good comfort food and a bit of bubbly for a night that feels celebratory without being too involved? Or are you single and just want a way to celebrate Galentine’s Day with your pals? No matter what you’re looking for, Chicagoland restaurants and bars want to make it easy for you to feel the love. Tap the link in our bio for 77 Valentine’s Day specials at Chicagoland restaurants, like the heart-shaped pizza from Bartolis Pizzeria (@bartolispizza). ? Samantha Nelson / for the Chicago Tribune ? Bartolis Pizzeria
One of the hottest trends in barbecue is coming to a new restaurant in Chicago. Bell Heir’s BBQ (@bellheirsbbq), opening Friday in the Canaryville neighborhood, will indeed offer iconic Chicago-style rib tips as a signature dish, but Houston-style smoked turkey legs smothered in baked macaroni and cheese too. The Black-owned business is a first for owner Tyris Bell, but he’s no novice in the restaurant industry: Bell helped open and manage the award-winning Luella’s Southern Kitchen in Lincoln Square for his brother, chef and owner Darnell Reed. "My goal is that Bell Heir’s BBQ will rise above the crowd of Chicago barbecue joints and be considered one of the best,” Bell said. Tap the link in our bio for more on what they'll be serving, including the barbecue brisket cheeseburger, shown here. ?Louisa Chu / Chicago Tribune / @louisachu1 ?Curtis Handley / Bell Heir’s BBQ
Scandinavians can teach us how to turn our chilly season into a candlelit celebration of soothing comforts, stress-free socializing, and heartwarming foods and drinks. Smørrebrød sandwiches, cured salmon, hasselback potatoes, pancakes with lingonberries, saffron buns and warm glögg are just a few Nordic treats that lift spirits when it’s cold and dark out. Scandinavian cooking uses techniques like smoking, pickling, curing and fermenting, which date back to the days before refrigeration and the need to survive in a harsh climate. These preserved flavors are balanced with fresh dill and aromatic spices like orange peel, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. Tap the link in our bio to find five Chicago-area places, like @svearestaurant shown here, to experience Nordic cuisine with a modern or traditional twist. ?Nikki O’Neill / for the Chicago Tribune ?Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune
Smyth (@smythchicago), Obelix (@obelixchicago) and Khmai Cambodian Fine Dining (@khmai_fine_dining) are among 11 Chicagoland restaurants named as semifinalists for the James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards, in an announcement released this week. Once again, Chicago will host the restaurant award program, considered one of the highest honors for the nation’s dining industry, with the ceremony taking place June 5 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. While we will have to wait until March 29 for the official nominees, the semifinalist list suggests the organization is seriously attempting to broaden the playing field. While plenty of restaurants from New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco still made the list, you’ll also see restaurants from Anchorage, Alaska; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Roundup, Montana. Chicago chefs and restaurants were shut out of the Outstanding Restaurateur and Outstanding Chef categories, but they did well elsewhere. For example, Damarr Brown (@browndamarr), shown here, chef de cuisine at Virtue (@virtuerestaurantchi), is among semifinalists for Emerging Chef. Tap the link in our bio for the list. ? Nick Kindelsperger / Chicago Tribune / @nkindelsperger ? Victor Hilitski / for the Chicago Tribune
Chicago has been a hotbed of craft brewing for more than a decade, but a funny thing has happened along the way: the suburbs. The city remains full of memorable breweries, but many of the most exciting Chicagoland upstarts in recent years have sprouted beyond the city lines — in some cases well beyond. Tap the link in our bio for five favorites, in alphabetical order, that are well worth the drive. All sell beer to go. None sell food, though showing up with food is never a bad idea. And don’t forget your designated driver! ? Josh Noel / Chicago Tribune ? Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune
When Michelin-starred celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay opens his third Ramsay’s Kitchen restaurant this spring, it will be in downtown Naperville. The city issued a building permit for Ramsay’s Kitchen at 39 W. Jefferson Ave., the site of the former Ted’s Montana Grill, shown here, and the company has started advertising to hire key personnel. There are only two other Ramsay’s Kitchen locations — one in Las Vegas and the other in Boston — and both feature signature main dishes such as pan-seared scallops, beef Wellington and crispy skin salmon. Tap the link in our bio to learn more about the restaurant and renovations. ? Suzanne Baker / Chicago Tribune ? Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune
Ramen-san (@ramensanchi), the irreverent noodle restaurants by Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, just announced a new collaboration series with notable creative chefs from Chicago. Palita Sriratana of Pink Salt (@pinksaltkitchens), a former health care worker who introduced her Northern Thai-inspired cuisine at a food hall in 2019, will kick off the series Jan. 19. All three locations currently open will serve Sriratana’s khao soi nua ramen, promising flavorful braised beef in a light red curry and tamarind broth with pickled mustard greens, featuring the restaurant’s “Tokyo wavy noodles,” from Jan. 19-31. Tap the link in our bio for more on the collaboration and upcoming chefs for the series. ? Louisa Chu / Chicago Tribune / @LouisaChu1 ? Lindsay Eberly / Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises
Baker Miller, one of Chicago’s most acclaimed bakeries since it opened in 2014, is going into “hibernation.” This doesn’t mean the Millers are vacating their Lincoln Square storefront. In fact, they’ve already rolled out a new concept for the space called Miller Bagel (@bagelmiller). Though the switch seems sudden, Miller said the idea of a bagel deli had been around since about 2016. “When we used to have three locations, we thought about turning one into a bagel deli,” Miller said. “But then we decided to wait.” Tap the link in our bio for more on what they’ll be serving. ? Nick Kindelsperger / Chicago Tribune ? Youngrae Kim / Chicago Tribune
“Compared to the outright chaos of the previous two years, 2022 felt bizarrely normal,” writes the Tribune’s Nick Kindelsperger. “Instead of rickety outdoor patios with plastic partitions, diners mostly ate in dining rooms. I stopped reflexively pulling out my vaccine card when I walked up to the host stand. While many people still wear masks if they want to, busy restaurants mostly now contain a sea of unadorned faces. “Some legacies of the pandemic continue to shape the dining scene. My favorite new restaurant is technically a pop-up. Pizza continues its hot streak. And a growing number of places experimented with different ordering systems. “These 12 dishes are just one look at the scene. My fellow critic, Louisa Chu, could just as easily come up with her own complete set of 12 dishes to recommend.” Tap the link in our bio for the ones I’m still thinking about as we head into the new year. ? Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune
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