Guess the fact that today is the first day of spring didn’t sit too heavily on the minds of the TOC and Tribune food section editors. That’s fine; we’re also already bored of the season.
Time Out Chicago’s headliner is a dining tour of Humboldt Park with its myriad Puerto Rican eateries. The Trib, meanwhile, is hardcore into breakfast, with Chris Borrelli claiming that Chicago is the breakfast capital of America. He admits there are no statistics to back this up, but we’ve made a handy (paraphrased) list of the reasons he cites:
1) Midwesterners need big morning meals to farm and be sufficiently fat
2) Brunch is less pretentious in Chicago than other major cities (i.e., NY & LA)
3) Eating breakfast is more of a hardship here because of the cold
Fine, whatever, Chicago has great breakfast, if this list is any indication. Then Phil Vettel has an article about eggs, and okay, Easter, breakfast, on theme, but suddenly we’re hunting around for egg salad sandwiches! Decidedly not a breakfast food, although it probably should be. Odder still is the piece on soups. Of all the things associated with spring…soup? Maybe matzoh ball soup for Passover, though.
Back to TOC, it’s mostly reviews, and none of them are pretty. Nia is woefully inconsistent, with David Tamarkin going so far as to say, you’re better off with the stuff they haven’t cooked themselves. NXXT got nexted by Heather Shouse, who liked the decor and thought it might be a nice place to get a drink, but found the food to be all but inedible. Oh, and David has some coffee he’d like you to know about.
All in all, a staid output this week. We did like the breakfast piece, though.
Nia [MenuPages]
NXXT Restaurant & Bar [MenuPages]
NXXT Restaurant & Bar [Official Site]
[Photo: egg salad sandwich, preconstructed, picturethepromises]
