Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2022 i Chicago magazine

I HAVE EATEN A THOUSAND BURGERS, easily, in my lifetime. Precisely none of those were vegan or vegetarian or otherwise plant-based. That is, until I read dining critic John Kessler’s case for why such burgers actually taste better than their meat counterparts (page 76). This I would have to test for myself. So I went to the Epic Burger in the South Loop and ordered a Beyond Burger, one of John’s recommendations. It came piled with avocado, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, and vegan mayo. I lifted up the top bun — wheat, of course — to get a good look at the patty, which I was relieved to see was brown, albeit an unfamiliar reddish shade. I dug in. My verdict? I didn’t hate it. Coming from a staunch carnivore, this…

In 2017, the U.S. men’s national soccer team reached its modern nadir: For the first time in 32 years, it failed to qualify for the World Cup. The man hired to turn things around? Gregg Berhalter, who in late 2018 was named head coach by the United States Soccer Federation, which is based in Chicago. Berhalter knows a thing or two about the World Cup: He was on the U.S. World Cup team in 2002 — when it reached the quarterfinals, the furthest the U.S. men have advanced since 1930—and in 2006. He played professionally from 1993 to 2011, in the U.S. and Europe, and spent five seasons coaching Major League Soccer’s Columbus Crew. He managed to steer the U.S. team through qualifying for this year’s World Cup, which will…

1 BLUE TIN PRODUCTION The problem Exploitation of immigrant women in garment industry sweatshops The fix A fashion production co-op centering workers’ rights The backstory Hoda Katebi, an Iranian-born author and activist, wants to change the fashion industry—specifically, the way it exploits poor Black and brown women and wastes materials. Created in 2019, her Beverly-based co-op empowers female workers by paying them equitably for producing environmentally sustainable creations. Blue Tin teams up designers, seamstresses, production managers, and sourcing specialists—many of them immigrants from developing nations. Katebi calls it a “holistic approach to labor,” with shared decision making and profits and a sustainable work pace. Workers have access to health care as well as onsite interpreters and childcare. Katebi’s notion: “Push people to imagine and build not just what they need…

1 > PULLING FOCUS Following up on his revelatory HBO special Rothaniel, in which he came out as gay, comedian Jerrod Carmichael hits Steppenwolf’s stage with a new solo show, Ari Told Me I Lack Focus. Nov. 4–5. steppenwolf.org 2 > STRONG IMPRESSION Known for her uncanny vocal impersonations, recent SNL alum Melissa Villaseñor drops into Wicker Park’s Den Theatre as a standup headliner. Nov. 4–5. thedentheatre.com 3 > KID FLICKS Attention, young cinephiles: Facets’ 39th annual Chicago International Children’s Film Festival features more than 100 titles, with screenings tailored to audiences from toddlers to young adults. Nov. 4–20. facets.org 4 > CHAMBER MADE Members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra join the core players of the Rembrandt Chamber Musicians for an intimate program of small-group works by Mozart. Nov. 6–7. rembrandtchambermusicians.org…

KHMAI CAMBODIAN FINE DINING 2043 W. Howard St., Rogers Park ◼ Perfect order Sach ko ang, lort cha ◼ For Mona Sang, cooking Khmer food is both a balm and a celebration. The chef, who most recently worked at Lettuce Entertain You’s Ivy Room, did what so many others did when furloughed during the pandemic—she returned to her roots. Sang opened Mona Bella Catering with her mother, Sarom Sieng, who had a restaurant in Cambodia before being forced to leave during the genocide. Mother and daughter made chicken curry and egg rolls, cooking not just to get through the pandemic but to honor their heritage. In July, they took another leap, opening Khmai Cambodian Fine Dining. Chicago’s Cambodian food scene is not deep (there’s just Hermosa Restaurant besides), and Khmai…

A BLEARY-EYED WOMAN HAD JUST ARRIVED AT O’HARE International Airport after a 15-hour overnight flight from India. She stopped at my Terminal 5 information desk to see if she needed to fulfill any immigration requirements. As we talked, she put her passport into her purse—and then she couldn’t find it. “You stole my passport! You stole my passport!” she screamed. “No, I saw you put it in your purse,” I told her. “Keep looking.” I could see she was exhausted, so I didn’t take it personally. Fortunately, amid the general din of this busy terminal, the fuss was barely noticeable. She frantically searched for another few moments, found the passport, and then immediately walked away, muttering half apologetically, “It was a long flight.” I’ve met plenty of stressed travelers at O’Hare,…

When my 6-year-old son, Ike, proclaimed his vegetarianism a year ago, I wasn’t shocked. At age 3, he shunned pepperoni pizza at a kid’s birthday party, opting instead to house an entire veggie tray. When I told 4-year-old Ike he could choose one thing from our neighborhood toy store, we went home with a smiley-faced stuffed eggplant. Though the rest of our family loves meat, I find it easy and fun to create meatless meals at home for Ike. When we dine out, however, the poor guy gets the shaft. He could order a vegetarian item off the regular menu, but inevitably it’d be “too spicy” or simply too much for his first grader’s palate. Nine times out of 10, a kids’ menu offers only two vegetarian options: grilled cheese…

My friends think I’m either affected or not the Feinschmecker I claim to be when I say I prefer Beyond Burgers to beef ones. “They’re so processed!” they say. “Just as high in calories and fat as real beef! Filled with weird-sounding ingredients like pea protein isolate!” I know all this, but I just like them better. Beef patties can have, to my nose, an off-putting smell. The meat sits like a lead weight in my stomach. And any enjoyment disappears the second I hit a piece of bone or an unidentified sproingy thing. Plus, there’s this: I can’t stop thinking about the fact that the meat in one patty could come from hundreds of different cows. It wasn’t until I had my first juicy, fatty Beyond Burger piled high…

◼ Chef Jean Joho was very tough on me. At the time, I was like, Why are you doing this to me? After I became a boss, it was, Why did you do this for me? He toughened me up. I was a 23-year-old softy from California. Every day he just broke me down, broke me down. Professionally, not emotionally. I would do something and it wasn’t good enough, so I’d go back and try harder. It was like the movie Whiplash, but not to that level. You don’t realize why your best bosses were a certain way until you get to their position. ◼ I think blind arrogance served me well, because I always had the sense that I deserved to be in the room. And if you had…

IF ANYONE KNOWS WHAT GOES INTO photographing an athlete, it’s Nolis Anderson (pictured, right), who has shot the likes of LeBron James and Candace Parker. So when Chicago asked him to capture the Bulls’ DeMar DeRozan for this month’s cover story (page 56), he knew how to approach it. “When you come on shoots and you talk to them like they’re a regular person, they respect that,” he says. The challenge was getting DeRozan to feel at ease as he was being photographed at the Advocate Center, where the Bulls practice. “You see basketball players in their uniforms all the time, and I didn’t want him to feel like he was at work,” Anderson says. The answer? “Instead of shorts, we did warm-up pants. That gave it a more casual look…

1 The 2018 Final Four raised Loyola basketball’s profile and sent it seeking tougher opponents–hence this season’s move to the Atlantic 10. The Ramblers open at home Nov. 7 against a patsy, though: Fairleigh Dickinson. 2 If Tammy Duckworth is reelected Nov. 8, she’ll be the first U.S. senator to win a second term from Illinois’s Class III seat since Alan Dixon in 1986. She was preceded by five one-and-dones. (Yes, Obama counts.) 3 Nov. 28 is the deadline to submit petitions for February’s municipal elections. Departing Tom Tunney, Susan Sadlowski Garza, and Howard Brookins lead the biggest City Council turnover in 80 years. 4 Common, pride of 87th Street, is a T away from an EGOT. He could get it starring on Broadway in Stephen Adly Guirgis’s Between Riverside and…

AN ANIMAL LOVER FROM AN early age, Paula Fasseas dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. Instead, she studied business administration, honing skills that helped her found PAWS Chicago 25 years ago. Through its no-kill adoption shelters and sliding-scale spay-neuter clinics, the nonprofit leads a movement that has reduced Chicago’s euthanasia rate by 91 percent since 1997. The PAWS executive chair lives in the Gold Coast with her 4-year-old terrier mix, Mr. B. It’s been a grief-stricken year for Fasseas, who lost her mother, her husband, and her 19-year-old dog, all within six months. “What’s really helping me through this period,” she says, “is the fitness and wellness part of life, keeping busy, and being grateful instead of focusing on the sad parts.” HOW DO YOU START YOUR DAY? “I’ve always been a…

PUBLICAN QUALITY BREAD’S BIG SANDWICH BY THE NUMBERS AT 7 A.M., THE PASTRIES COME out of the oven. Those might be a cinnamon roll or a savory Danish. At 9 a.m, it’s loaves of bread, which fill shelves next to a window looking into the bustling kitchen. At 10a.m., the first Big Sandwich lands on the counter, as do tartines, like one piled with baba ghanoush, feta, and rosemary pesto. Finally, at 1 p.m., it’s time for jambon-beurre, that classic French sandwich with ham and butter tucked into a burnished baguette. Everything is on offer until 3 p.m., or until it’s sold out, at which point the team closes up shop and you’ll need to come back the next day. With Publican Quality Bread, head baker Greg Wade takes inspiration from…

EVER WONDER HOW CHEFS DO Thanksgiving? They lean into seasonal sides and cozy flavors—but most importantly, they plan ahead. “The key is creating a menu where nothing is made in the moment,” says Monteverde chef-partner Sarah Grueneberg. This kale dish, from her new produce-centric cookbook Listen to Your Vegetables, ticks all the right boxes: It’s anchored by a soffritto (a traditional Italian veggie base) of tomatoes and butternut squash that’s cooked until caramelized and deeply aromatic. Best of all, it can be made in advance and gently rewarmed before eating, so you can hang up your apron and enjoy the big day. SARAH GRUENEBERG’S BRAISED TUSCAN KALE WITH BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOFFRITTO Makes 4 servings Active time 20 minutes Total time 1 hour ½ cup pancetta or thick-cut bacon, diced1 tsp. olive…

This is not as tired as DeMar DeRozan gets, but it’s close. The Chicago Bulls star forward is quietly decompressing in the third row of a luxury SUV driving through Los Angeles, his hometown and where he lives during the off-season. He has just finished the second of two consecutive two-hour gym sessions. The real exhaustion will come in August, with its three workouts per day, but late July is no slouch. A few friends are along for the ride, and DeRozan breaks his silence when their conversation turns to the ever-growing Mega Millions lottery prize. Yet another drawing had gone by without a winner, and the potential jackpot was now up to a staggering $1.025 billion. “If I won that,” DeRozan says, “you would never hear from me again.”…

CABERNET-SOAKED ALMOND-CASHEW FETA “Almond milk gives the cheese a crumbly texture, which you want for feta. Cashew milk adds fat and the creaminess, while the wine gives it a tannic, grapey flavor.” PRESERVED LEMON ALMOND-CASHEW RICOTTA “One of my favorite flavors. It’s made by aging lemons in their juice with salt and spices. The lemon cuts the richness of the ricotta and gives it a complex flavor of citrus turning floral.” SMOKED BEET PÂTÉ “There’s a vegan sushi restaurant in San Francisco called Shizen that uses smoked beets on a roll. Since eating there, I’ve been using them on various things. This pâté has a smokiness that’s carried by the earthiness of the beet.” TRUFFLED CASHEW BRIE “The key here is really good truffle salt and truffle oil, which I…

AT HIS POP-UPS (check @herbivore_chicago on Instagram for times and locations), the chef, who honed his skills at places like Cafe Spiaggia and Au Cheval, creates plant-based versions of comfort food favorites such as pizza puffs and Italian subs. One of the most popular: his counterpart to McDonald’s signature burger. Here’s what goes into it. PATTIES Musto starts by seasoning Impossible Beef, a mock meat made from soy protein, and forming it into two thin patties for each burger. TOPPINGS Lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions. (Are you reciting the Big Mac ad yet?) Except here the American cheese is vegan. SIDE Pair it with Musto’s truffle fries. Salt-brined and skin-on, they are loaded with white truffle oil, flat-leaf parsley, and grated vegan Parmesan. They come with a garlic aïoli dipping…

Bloom Plant Based Kitchen’s Purple Pisco TRADITIONAL INGREDIENT Eggs SWAP Versawhip and xanthan gum Egg whites normally give a pisco sour its frothy layer of foam, but director of operations Brett Lander found a replacement that would make Walter White proud. He uses Versawhip, a soy protein powder that mimics egg whites, and adds xanthan gum to keep the texture stable. “For mouthfeel, it’s the closest thing out there,” he says. He shakes it with pisco, crème de violette, lemon, and lavender bitters. 1559 N. Milwaukee Ave., Wicker Park Nine Bar’s Paradise Lost TRADITIONAL INGREDIENT Cow’s milk SWAP Thai coconut milk For their tiki-influenced take on a milk punch, co-owners Lily Wang and Joe Briglio add coconut milk to their concoction of cachaça, Rhine Hall mango brandy, ube, and pineapple,…

BRUCE RAUNER HATED UNIONS. BUT AS A REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR WITH A Democratic legislature, he knew he couldn’t push through a statewide “right-to-work” law. Such legislation would have allowed employees in unionized workplaces to opt out of joining the union, costing it dues and bargaining power. So he attempted an end run: He proposed that local governments create such ordinances instead. Only Lincolnshire, a northwest suburb rich in corporate headquarters, took him up on it. But a federal court struck down its ordinance in 2018, and the next year, Rauner’s successor, J.B. Pritzker, signed a law preventing other local governments from attempting the same thing. Still, Rauner’s anti-union attempt put a scare into labor and its legislative allies. They have collaborated to place an amendment to the Illinois Constitution on this November’s…

TIKTOK HANDLE @ericaeatseverything FOLLOWERS 38,900 ◼ What it is High-energy restaurant reviews by Erica Noblecilla, 26, an Albany Park marketing director ◼ How it started In 2020, after moving here from South Florida, Noblecilla saw a food review video on TikTok. “I was like, Damn, this is badass,” she says. She began posting her own during 2021 Restaurant Week. ◼ First big post Her March 2021 review of Bites, an Asian fusion bar in Wrigleyville, has 90,000-plus views. “Everything was really good and everything was really big,” she gushed as the words “so big omg” popped up over a sandwich. ◼ Fave neighborhood spot The Persian eatery Kabobi ◼ Sign of fame Restaurants now ask Noblecilla for reviews. “It’s a good opportunity to meet other foodies doing the same thing,”…

IN THE 1973 DRAMA THE Island, a pair of Black political prisoners endure hard labor while endeavoring to mount a two-man version of Sophocles’s Antigone for their fellow inmates. Written by Athol Fugard, a white South African whose best-known works opposed apartheid, and actors John Kani and Winston Ntshona, who originally portrayed the prisoners, the play is set on Robben Island, the infamous prison compound where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated at the time. It alternates between scenes of the two men futilely shoveling never-ending piles of sand and rehearsing scenes from their bare-bones adaptation of Antigone, in which the title character is punished for refusing to comply with her uncle Creon’s unjust laws. That urge toward resourceful protest in the face of severe hardship speaks to Gabrielle Randle-Bent, who is directing…

AS FAR AS RESTAURANT namesakes go, you could do a lot worse than Obélix. True, this French comic hero is simple-minded and combative, but he has a gentle soul, is a true friend to his bestie, Astérix, and cares deeply about his Gallic ancestry and culture. That last bit also applies to Oliver Poilevey, executive chef and co-owner, with his brother Nicolas of the new River North restaurant that bears the name of the beloved buffoon. The frères Poilevey have put a great deal of thought into what it means to be a French restaurant today — not just the food but the team-work service, the tile and tablecloths, the clacky energy, and that hard-to-translate benchmark of overall quality that the French would call correcte. The results, in the estimation of…

1 SECOND GENERATION What Chef Ed Kim and the owners behind Mini Mott rebranded their counter-service burger joint as this full-service Asian American restaurant, where the menu is influenced by their childhoods spent straddling two cultures. Why Think galbi steak frites with chimichurri, octopus with fermented black soybeans, and a misoyaki eggplant tartine (yes, you can still get the delectable Mott burger with miso butter onions and hoisin aïoli). Where 3057 W. Logan Blvd., Logan Square 2 LOAF LOUNGE What Top-tier bakers Sarah Mispagel-Lustbader (Sepia) and Ben Lustbader (Giant) debut an all-day café. Why Mispagel-Lustbader consulted on The Bear, so grab a slice of the famous cake, or go savory with a BLT on jalapeño-cheddar bread. Where 2934 N. Milwaukee Ave., Avondale 3 BAMBOLA What The latest spot from Bonhomme…

The 20 Best Vegan Dishes in Town FROM HUMMUS TO DAIRY-FREE SUNDAES, THESE ARE THE BITES (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER) THAT EVEN NONVEGANS WILL RELISH. 1 Veggie House’s Three Cups Sauce Lion’s Mane Mushrooms The big puffballs known as lion’s mane mushrooms have one of the great textures of the plant kingdom. Seared, braised, or stir-fried, they absorb cooking juices but keep their meaty integrity and chew. Their flavor, however, has a bitter edge that can be off-putting. Not so at this vegetarian restaurant. The kitchen prepares inch-size chunks of the mushrooms in the style of Taiwanese Three Cups chicken, with plenty of soy sauce, cooking wine, and sesame oil. But there’s more: Tiny bits of cinnamon stick, fried ginger, and ginseng in the sauce make for such an evocative…

No-Bake Vegan Vanilla Funfetti Pie 1 14 oz. can coconut cream or full-fat coconut milk, refrigerated overnight1½ Tbsp. powdered sugar½ tsp. vanilla extract2 Tbsp. vegan sprinkles1 6 oz. graham cracker crust1 cup fresh fruit, such as raspberries, banana slices, or strawberries 1. Remove the solidified coconut cream from the can (save the liquid to use for smoothies) and put in a mixing bowl that has been refrigerated for 15 minutes. 2. Add sugar and vanilla to the bowl and use a stand or hand mixer to whip on medium-low speed until creamy and thick, 2 to 3 minutes. Adjust sweetness to taste. 3. Fold sprinkles into the mixture with a rubber spatula. Do not overmix or the color from the sprinkles will bleed. 4. Pour mixture into pie crust and…

In the 43 years that Blind Faith Café has been serving vegetarian fare in Evanston, owner David Lipschutz has seen plant-based dining’s popularity come and go. This time feels different. “The wave has crested over us a couple of times, but now it’s much more integrated into the marketplace,” he says. “It’s no longer just the relationship between diet and health and well-being. People’s awareness has also grown about how the choices we make impact ecology and the environment.” His café regularly serves dishes like yellow coconut curry and seitan marsala, and each fall he adds a shiitake-walnut loaf, a Thanksgiving favorite available for takeout. “We love that everyone enjoys sharing this with their families,” he says. CHEFS’ FAVORITE MAKE-IT-AT-HOME RECIPES Shiitake-Walnut Loaf 1 cup chopped onion1 cup grated carrot1…

◼ October’s Very Own (OVO) opened under the radar in late 2019, and exclusive continues to be the thing at this downtown storefront, co-owned by hip-hop megastar Drake and named after his birth month. It’s intimate. It’s minimalist. It’s elusive. (Tags don’t have prices, but employees know them by heart.) When new drops hit on Fridays, shoppers need to be quick to snatch up the owl-marked hoodies, tees, caps, and more before they’re gone. These days, a new fall-winter collection is bringing throwbacks into the picture. Called Collegiate, it features letterman jackets and crew necks designated with the year 2008, when OVO launched in Toronto. Also fresh to the racks: a collab with the Keith Haring Foundation, highlighted by denim jackets imprinted with an iteration of the late artist’s Night…