I'm still on vacation. I could have easily extended "Meet my Metaphors" for another week, but thought, "enough already," and decided to tack in a new direction. Writing about food is fun and easy. As for reading about it, well, you tell me.
Business took me to the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab last month — that story is coming. My appointment was at 2 p.m. so, responsible journalist that I am, I of course had one thought: get downtown early, swing by Star of Siam for lunch.
The Star of Siam has graced Illinois Avenue, tucked just west and below Michigan Avenue for ... I'm going to hazard a guess before checking: ngggg, 32 years.
Not close: 42. The Star of Siam opened in 1984, the same year I started writing, freelance, for the Chicago Sun-Times. Fashions come and go, but we icons soldier onward, defying time.
When with a group, I'd start with chicken satay and peanut sauce, and am passionate about their Pad Thai. But by myself, and with Mr. Diabetes standing over my shoulder, clucking disapproval, I went with my. go-to: beef and broccoli.
No rice, of course, no big glass of super sweet Thai iced coffee. (What's the Stones song? "Dancing, dancing, dancing so free/Dancing, Lord, keep your hand off me/Dancing with Mr. D..." A song not up to the Stones' elevated standards, critics felt at the time, but I'll take my symbolism where I find it. I should have put it on my list of diabetes songs — Mick is singing about death, not elevated blood sugar, though the two do intersect, uncomfortably.
Beef and broccoli is not Thai, but Chinese — well, Chinese-American that is, concocted in California chop suey shops about 100 years ago, according to what little is known. Just as spumoni is unknown in Italy, so beef and broccoli isn't really a thing in China. Or so I'm told.
Speaking of which. I probably should add that, last time I was at Star of Siam with my wife, she felt the place was not up to their previous standards. I demurred. It was fine. Was she right? I'm not the one to tell. I tend to like what's put in front of me, particularly when it's beef and broccoli. But even if she is correct — and she usually is — well, even noble Homer dozed, and the best can have an off night, like the rest of us. I'm hoping to get her to go back. This most recent visit, I found it especially good, cleaned the plate with gratitude and appreciation, then headed off to my appointment.
Yes, food columns are better.
ReplyDeleteYUMMMY! My husband and I love Chinese. If you are in the southwest suburbs, Bamboo Garden in Tinley Park is outstanding! We now order chicken and broccoli to cut down on our cholesterol problems, but it is also wonderful. Love their vegetable egg rolls, and beef fried rice (you can't always worry about cholesterol). Can't wait for your tomorrow column!
ReplyDeleteAhhh, beef and broccoli. In 1976, fresh to the big city from the U of I and after growing up in Rockford, my boyfriend and I found a place in Lincoln Park, long gone now (both the boyfriend and the restaurant). On the third or fourth floor, I recall, of what seemed to be a newer building - or maybe newly rennovated. The best Chinese food I'd ever had (in 1976, coming from Rockford, with canned chop suey as my guide). Still, the beef and broccoli was excellent and became my gold standard for my expectations anywhere else. But for weekday lunch that was too far to go from my office at Rush and Superior, and Thai - more than Chinese - was more prevalent north of Wacker in the 1970s-90s. So, not beef and broccoli, but pad see ew became a favorite for me, and my gold standard was at a little place in a brownstone on maybe Huron between Wabash and State. Soooo good. Likely long gone, too, but in my mind's sense of flavor my expectations are high, and only sometimes met, for all the beef and broccolis and pad see ews that have come in the past five decades!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the flashback! Many a night, I left Trib Tower to pick up carryout for a group of us. Pad woon sen was my go-to. I haven't had it in many years. But a friend lives in Marina Towers. We should make the very short walk sometime.
ReplyDeleteMy breakfast looks lame now. I want beef & broccoli
ReplyDeleteLove that door with the question mark.
ReplyDeleteOne of my absolute favorites.
ReplyDeleteLove this foodie column! I personally did not like the metaphor columns from last week but I'm sure plenty of others did. I'm a fan of beef with pea pods. Hope you're enjoying your time off. Judy
ReplyDeleteAnd I was among the ones who did. I'm a wordie, not a foodie.
DeleteBut as the postal workers like to say: "To each his zone..."
I worked at 444 N Michigan Avenue when Star of Siam opened directly behind our building in 1984. It provided my introduction to what has become a lifetime love affair with Thai food. As I recall it was always packed and with good reason. The smells alone were intoxicating. The exotic (for me) dishes were flavorful and savory. There were about a dozen entrees I could choose from in rotation. And they were inexpensive; quite important at the time. Glad to see they're still thriving.
ReplyDeleteI dated a girl that worked at the record/bookstore that was next to Star of Siam.
ReplyDeleteWhen I picked her up after work we would go there to eat I love Thai food and that place was great.
I recently ate at a favorite Mexican place I've been eating at for 35 years and the food was not so good way too salty. I waited a couple of months and went back because I love the place and the food was great it was a one-off homer snoozing I love to read about food.
The photo of the block above the block excellent once again today hope you're enjoying your vacation is this like a paterfamilias leave ?
Several years ago, my first impression of Thai cooking was spoiled by a super hot peanut sauce. Even my Korean wife, who never stinted on the gojuchang in her kimchi, couldn't take the heat. I later learned to my eventual delight that Thai food is not always unbearably hot, although I'm still never quite sure which meal to order. Nevertheless, my later day experiences have been entirely positive. When in doubt, of course, I fall back on Mongolian Beef, which I would say is pretty much the same as Neil's favorite.
ReplyDeletetate
My favorite source for Beef and Broccoli was "Eat & Drink," an impossibly small and slightly bizarre little building that used to occupy a small portion of the lot at 212 West Randolph Street, snuggled up next to the parking garage at Wells, and seemingly named more by translation than inspiration.
ReplyDeleteIt was not much larger than a CTA bus, just big enough for a full-width counter and a door at each end for customers to file in, pick up their orders and head on out again. Behind the counter at the east end wall were three guys jammed in shoulder-to-shoulder, working on furiously on woks, with others relaying orders and darting in between the cooks to retrieve finished dishes.
Someone recommended their Beef and Broccoli to me, and I can't remember much of the rest of the menu, because that was my go-to from there on. You would receive a styrofoam clamshell that barely closed over your meal, a generous quantity that you would rush back to the office before it got cold.
They've been gone from that site for years now (to my amazement, Yelp still has an entry for them, including photos), but I have fond memories of that little place every time I sample that dish anywhere else.