Locals Eat Chicago - Episode 4 | Great Italian Beef & More Food Classics

Welcome back to another episode of Locals Eat Chicago. We're approaching the end of summer, and the city continues to be full of life. It's truly the best season around here to just enjoy a drink along the river, maybe explore a new neighborhood, and of course try yet another Chicago classic, or two, or six. You know that's what this video is about. Today we're headed to the Avondale neighborhood to stop by a market that we know all too well, and it's also been around since 1992, offering authentic Korean and Pan-Asian products. Alright so our first stop today is at Joonbu Market, and one of the things that they're famous for is their little shop that sells Wang Mandu. Basically it looks like a huge steamed bun, and they have some really good mandu dumplings. We're gonna try some out today. Yeah so this is one of the first things that you're gonna see here at Joonbu is that stall where they have the steamed buns and the mandu. They have a pretty good variety. I'm gonna see if I can get one of each at least, and maybe the kimchi one, because I remember it being very spicy. It'll warm you up during winter. Alright so we're gonna be eating outdoors. Joonbu Market is a little bit small and tight, and we're in COVID times right, so let's eat out in the open al fresco. Korean sodas. Boom. Put your hand for comparison. So for comparison right, these are pretty big. Alright so boom. So these are like the regular dumplings. They had a sampler available, so we decided to get the sampler. This was $11.99, and then each of these large dumplings, they're $3.50 each. So yeah these are big, and as you can see they're full. Like it's not like, it doesn't look big, and then it's like empty on the inside. These are full from I guess all around, side to side. So let's take a big bite. Nice savory porky flavor. So this has green onions, onions, I think vermicelli noodles, and the minced pork is really nice and soft and tender. It's very savory, very good, but it's not too salty right. So it's like, don't worry about that. It doesn't really need soy sauce or anything. It's just very good on its own. It's very juicy too. I'm gonna try the spicy one, the kimchi one, because Nabal can't take this one. That one has some heat. So it's basically the same filling, but it has obviously a ton of kimchi and gochugaru and all that spicy goodness. You really eat two of these and that's a meal. It's all you need. Okay so I'm gonna grab one of the shrimp ones. I think those are spicy too. Yeah these might, it looks spicy. They have shrimp, they're delicious. I like how it's the, the wrapping is thin because you can see like the inside. I'd definitely order one of these just for myself. They're that good? Yeah so the filling of this is the same filling for the large steamed dumpling, Wang Mandu. So they taste very similar. This one has a really soft bread so it's really good. So this one is red bean paste. It's supposed to be like a dessert Yeah I don't know about that. I'm not the biggest fan of red bean paste. Oh you went all in. The actual bun is nice and sweet. Oh yeah? So yeah, so actually after not having it in such a long time, I actually quite like it. It's kind of nice. While we're here, it's also a good idea to do a little shopping because you know the Korean side of me will take any opportunity to treat myself to a few favorites. Banana milk, some fresh noodles, dry noodles, maybe some fish cakes. Well that's for Maria. You have all the meats and kimchi and they also have a good banchan or side dish selection. Plus most importantly, you can't forget the soju. Moving on to Portillo's. This local franchise has been around since 1963 and focuses on celebrating what we consider Chicago street food, including our style of hot dog. Of course we had to grab a hot dog while we were here. Who wouldn't right? But this, this is why we're here. Their chocolate cake is famous. Just look at this moist fluffy perfection. Locals sometimes get a whole cake to celebrate birthdays and special occasions and there's even a shake made with an entire slice of cake, if you're willing to put in a thousand four hundred calories in your system. That wouldn't be us. We're perfectly happy sharing a slice of cake. Who are we kidding? We had to come back for the shake. We were also giving a it might be mighty thick. I look thick. Oh that's so good. You can really taste the cake. Moving on to a little Italy shop that you've all been asking us to do for a long time. The origins of this next Chicago classic are a bit controversial, but it's said that Al's number one Italian beef stands by the claim that Al Ferreri invented the sandwich back in 1938. I've tried a few Italian beef sandwiches around the city, but never here, so I was excited. So another one of the classic things to get here in Chicago is an Italian beef sandwich and Chicago has many shops that sell Italian beefs and one of the more famous ones is Al's Italian Beef where we got our sandwich today. But since there were so many recommendations, we might go to another one just to check out what their sandwich is like. So what is an Italian beef sandwich? Like why is it so popular? Well an Italian beef sandwich is a sandwich that's composed of thinly sliced beef on a French roll and a lot of times it's dipped in like a beef sauce or an au jus and I think ours is dipped so let's take a look at it. There's a debate whether you should eat it uh soaked or not soaked, but we got it dipped in you can also order it on the side too so that beef like it just my teeth went right through it like butter. That's a lot of beef. Yeah that is a lot of beef. So this Italian beef has onions and peppers and you can customize it right there's a level of customization when you order it but the beef is really good it's nice and tender has a really good beef flavor and that beef gravy the bread is soaked in it it's really soft I can see why a lot of people prefer it dipped because the bread might be a little bit too dry so this really helps help it and it keeps it nice and juicy. So I'm going to take another bite because this is really good. Taylor Street. Yeah so we're on Taylor Street and if you've seen our other local East Chicago videos this is the street where you can find Pompeii at. So you can grab some Italian beef, grab some pizza at Pompeii and next we're going to be going to a lemonade stand because Italian ice is also very famous here in Chicago. Mario's Italian lemonade was established in 1954 by Mario Di Paolo and his son Mario G. Di Paolo. His father gave him a hand-cranked lemonade machine to channel his energy by making and selling lemonade and the rest is history. It's perfect for the summer. Yeah it is actually. So how convenient that right across from Owl's you can get some Italian ice. Owl's beef is right there. Yeah you can go here. So they actually do have a lot of flavors but we went with the classic lemonade and it's also a nice summer day so what better way to cool off than with a lemonade Italian ice. Is it very sweet? No it's it's just right. It's like Goldilocks and the Red Bears. It's not too lemony, it's not too sugary, it's just right. I can get behind that. Maria's the one with the sweet tooth so. Yeah this is very light. It is right? I like the texture of the ice because it's not like it's not shaved ice, it's very smooth. Yeah. Yeah Owl's is some really good Italian ice. Like definitely come down, try one, buy the gallon. That's how good it is. And Taylor Street. Taylor Street is actually really really nice. It's nice and quiet and a lot of trees so you don't get exposed to the sun too much. Awesome, definitely awesome. Let me just give you a little look. Let's go across. Next we'll be featuring a bonus spot since we wanted to try one more Italian beef sandwich location and Bari was recommended to us. It was opened in 1973 on Grand Avenue and is not too far from Owl's. We're on Grand and downtown. It looks like it used to be like a meat industry or an industrial section here and it got redeveloped. Really cool. So we're two for two. We're actually at Bari's. A lot of people recommended this place so we're gonna be going, we're gonna be getting another Italian beef here. Bari's is like an old school Italian deli. Nice. I really like it. I used to visit these a lot when I used to live in New York and I don't visit them as often as in Chicago as I would like because mainly because we live farther up north but I like it. Check it out. Pasta, cheeses and now we're gonna do the deli. Grab that famous sandwich. What did you get me? I got you the Italian beef and Italian wedding soup. I love that soup. So yes you got your giardiniera. That's very Chicago. Medium for those of you who don't like spice which is probably me and then the hot giardiniera and then you got mild too. Nice. Since it's Covid times we didn't want to stay in the store but Maria was kind enough to find us a park that's actually right across from a chocolate factory. Yeah. I don't know if you guys can see it. Smells amazing. Yeah like. Smells amazing guys. The chocolate right? Yeah I wish I had a store. I don't think Oh wow. Oh my goodness. The au jus is dripping. It's wet. I guess you get more of the, I don't know if it's giardiniera or what they put in here. We have one more place for you that has stood the test of time. A Polish restaurant in Wicker Park that's been open for over three decades. One last stop. How do you guys feel about pierogies? Let's see what that kind of soup looks like. There goes the chicken. It's really good. I like this. I like it. It has a little bit of, I don't want to say sour but like a little bit of vinegar I think. It's really good. So Chicago has a really large public community. How could we not come to get pierogies right? So we got a miscellaneous assortment of pierogies. I don't know which ones these are going to be. I think they're meat, cheese, there's cabbage, oh potato and cheese, cabbage and meat. So let's dig in. Let's see which one I get. I'm gonna pick this one. That cabbage is perfect. It's nice and savory. It goes really well with the meat. And it's, I think it's beef. I love that pierogies are very versatile. You can stuff them with anything. I've had some dessert ones that were really good. I think these are all savory kind, which is perfect. Yeah that one so far has been. And it's a meal that has olive oil or something on top. It could be. Talk about simple comforting food. This place is a true city gem and we hope you guys give it a try and give them some support. Well guys, we hope you enjoyed this Locals Eat Chicago episode. And if you're interested in watching more of our Chicago videos or our other adventures, we invite you to subscribe to our channel or our social media, specifically Instagram. Anyways, thank you guys so much for watching until the end. And as always, we'll see you in the next one.