There are a lot of cities in the world where you could dedicate yourself to eating nothing but street food and eat like a king for the rest of your days: Mexico City, Bangkok, Istanbul, Singapore, Austin, Los Angeles, and on and on. Chicago isn’t on that list. Yes, we have food trucks, but they’re crippled by an unfair law that inhibits them from thriving. We have sidewalk eloteros, fruteros, tamaleras, and taqueras, but they’re forced to exist as outlaws, dependent on the benign neglect of police and City Council members, and always vulnerable to their persecution. That’s about it.
The standard bearer for this street-food focus is a take on elotes, something that makes me wince every time I see it on a restaurant menu. In this case, Zimmerman takes it around the globe, presenting tempura-battered corn fritters, shallow fried and garnished with Kewpie mayo, Grana Padano cheese, and the classic Mexican lime-and-chile-spiked seasoning salt Tajín, just to keep it real. There’s also something called “farmer’s market bhel puri,” a riff on the Mumbai beach snack that is, at present, a bowl of red potato, red onion, shaved radishes, tomatoes, and green mango, tossed with puffed rice, crispy chickpea bits, and fried lentils and seasoned with cilantro-mint and tamarind-date chutneys. It’s an explosive bite, but its crunchy components soak up the liquid fast. Don’t sleep on it when it hits the table.
Pastry chef Sarah Mispagel checks in with a slightly overstabilized avocado mousse bedecked with texturally compelling crunchy-thin puffed rice crackers and black tapioca pearls, while a spiced chocolate semifreddo is thatched with the threadlike dough of the Greek pastry kataifi.
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