Chrissy Camba has guts. The former Bar Pastoral chef and Top Cheftestant’s menu at the new Laughing Bird features dishes containing whole chicken livers, strands of slippery beef tendon, pork rinds, kimchi-and-pork paté, and a saucy riff on dinuguan, a thick blood stew filled with pig innards that’s sometimes referred to as “meat chocolate.”
Attempts to brighten or contrast deeply funky flavors and challenging textures with delicate spring produce yield similarly unnerving results. A bowl of gelatinous beef tendon mounted on white mashed potatoes is given much-needed texture by fried garlic and shallots, but the copious garnish of fresh spring peas and watercress seems completely out of step with the dish, as do the same vegetables added to bland fried rice tossed with whole chicken livers. Subtle flavors are submerged, and crisp textures feel like anomalies—figurative flies in the soup.
4514 N. Lincoln 773-506-2473laughingbirdchicago.com
