A Chicago Culinary Institution

The Chicago culinary scene is a deep, complex one that often is only talked about in terms of the restaurant experience downtown or on the north side.  There is an entire other side of native Chicago food on the south and west sides of the city.  Predominately black and poor, these areas offer a different type of Chicago culinary take that is just as good tasting as its counterparts in other parts of town. 

One such institution is the famous Home of the Hoagy.  This small, unassuming take out only restaurant touts some of the city’s best French fries and mild sauce, along with its famous “Meal on a bun.”  This steak hoagy is chopped steak, onions, and green peppers drenched in a sweet and tangy mild sauce with your choice of sweet, hot, or both peppers and cheese.  It is the type of sandwich that brings back childhood memories of long hot summer days and endless nights.  It is perfection on a bun, a mouthwatering dance of flavors, textures, and temperatures. There are ham, turkey, and mixed cold cuts for hoagies as well.  They all are served with super thinly sliced onions in a vinaigrette, lettuce, tomato, and cheese on a hoagy style bun. 

                But what stands out to me, what makes me crave for this restaurant are its fries with sauce.  Chicago is a town known for mild sauce; everyone has their own version of it.  Home of the Hoagy just happens to do it best to me.  Your fries are given in a regular paper fry bag, placed in a plastic bag with a fork.  What is so wonderful about these fries is that they are so crispy, that the sauce, which is doused on heavily doesn’t make them soggy.  I do not know how they manage that, but they do.  I have eaten cold fries that have been sitting for a while in sauce, and still the French fry has maintained its integrity.  The mild sauce itself is sweet, vinegary, spicy, and just wonderful with a thick sticky consistency. 

                While Hot Doug’s may have fries fried in duck fat, he does not have fries with sauce, let’s venture out of what is the normal Chicago food scene locations, and see the rest of the city.  Home of the Hoagy is located at 1312 W. 111th Street.  The lines are long, the service is questionable, but the food is outstanding.  All of the color adds to a different and exciting dining experience.  Opened Monday- Saturday from 10amish until 11pmish, closed on Sunday.  They have a number but calling ahead is not a guarantee of faster service 773.238.7171.  Explore the other sides of the Chi.

Breastfeeding

Feeding a Nation

The day I found out I was pregnant was one of the happiest moments in my life.  I immediately began planning her birth.  I am a planner, I like things to go according to my plan, but as we all know that is not real life.  So my plan was an all-natural water-birth where my baby is handed to me bloody and all and nurses for the first time.  Aww, I wanted the total hippie, crunchy granola, motherland experience.  I received an induced labor with an epidural, a little pushing, ending in a c-section.  After being in the hospital for 2 days, no food and now baby cut out of me, all I wanted was to nurse my newborn.  One hour later I finally got to hold my little Amina Sunshine.  I put her tiny mouth to my breasts and ouch!  This feels a little weird and uncomfortable.  A lactation specialist came in and helped me to get her to latch right and we were good to go.

            My next plan was to nurse for at least a year, longer if we both wanted to do it.  The first week my left nipple had scabs all over it. So I let her nurse on the right side which toughened up quickly, and pumped from the left until it was healed.  That first time feeling my milk let down I truly understood why I had breast.  Not to be big in dresses, or fun bags for our partners, but to nourish a nation.  It was the most significant action I had ever made toward humanity.  I was feeding my child.  The ease of it was what I really loved.  Anywhere we were, if she was hungry, I could feed her for free the best stuff on Earth.  I fed her at the mall, the park and restaurants.  I noticed I received a lot of smiles from other moms and stares from most others.  Who cared about them.

            As she got older she would just nose dive toward a breast when she was in my arms.  She fell asleep at night with me singing to her and nursing.  She really started eating solids around 5 months but still nursing most of the time.  She did take a bottle, because I pumped so my husband and others could feed her.  But as a stay at home, I was able to feed her most of the time.  I went back to work when she was 10 months.  The stress of a new job, being away from her, now being a working mom, I just didn’t produce as much milk as before.  She was eating most meals and took a bottle of formula if I didn’t have enough.  But that was short lived, by 1 she was drinking soymilk from a sippy cup and eating food. 

            I didn’t get the 1+ year I was looking for, but I enjoyed the 10 months I had.  Whenever I talk to a pregnant woman I always ask if they plan on breastfeeding.  I encourage young girls to breastfeed.  It is beneficial in many ways.  Yes, you are feeding your baby, but you are doing more, you are bonding in the most simple and profound way.  Plus you are treating your body right.  Your milk is made from what you eat, so you will be more inclined to eat what is right.  I understand the need and convenience of formulas, but hospitals shouldn’t hand it out as routine.  Everyone should at least try nursing.  Maybe you don’t make enough milk, fine use the formula.  But to never try is not using your breast for what they meant for, milk.