• There was a Chicago Korean Festival?! How did we not know about this? We would have gone. We are jealous. [Chicago Gluttons] hrm. for some reason this post got taken down.
• Misty at has a new favorite restaurant: Afghan Kabob (4040 W Montrose, 773 427 5041). It is apparently even better than the now-shuttered Afghan Restaurant. [CenterStage]
• 50 under-the-radar restaurants? We’d say it can’t be done. Mike Gebert says bring it on. First up: Frank’s Karma Cafe in northwest suburban Wauconda. [Sky Full of Bacon]
• Orange serves themed pancake flights. Like, for example, “movie night”: a stack topped with Coca-Cola syrup and Coca-Cola mousse, and a stack topped with sweet and salty clarified butter and pieces of popcorn. We should eat brunch there constantly. [Fruit Slinger]
• Gluten-free baking is way harder than it looks. It involves things like xanthan gum. Deerfields Bakery in Schaumberg does a pretty awesome job of it, though. [Chicago Bites]
• Punning restaurant names: do we love them? We’re not sure. En*Thai*Ce (get it?!) has “very good” food, despite the questionable name over the door. [Chicago Foodies]
• OSBMS went to Canada! And he ate like a king at Toronto’s Cowbell, which is like their version of Mado. [Food Chain]
• Gebert also hits up Stanley’s Grille: white noise, nothin’ special, not horribly bad. Probably standing in the way of better stuff, though. [Sky Full of Bacon]
• Mike Nagrant goes all the way to Michigan to visit quite possibly the perfect restaurant: “The Journeyman is a culinary dream, a destination so incongruous with its location you’re not sure it really exists. It’s the real life embodiment of fictional isolation fantasies like the Brick bar and restaurant from the TV show Northern Exposure or the Mystic Pizza parlor.” [Hungry Mag]
• The Mac & Cheese slice at Ian’s Pizza is really more like a Mac slice covered with cheese. It’s a subtle, yet crucial, distinction. [Chicago Foodies]
• EMILY WENT TO SCHWA. Y’all. [Chicago Dining Examiner]
[Photo: the mac-n-cheese slice at Ian’s, via john kannenberg’s Flickr]
