My absolute favorite weekend in Chicago has to be the one of Taste of Chicago. Every year, the city of Chicago closes down Grant Park and a few busy streets around it, and organizes a food festival where dozens of Chicago restaurants set up booths and sell tastings of their most popular dishes and specialties.

Being a foodie, I am always on the hunt for the next food trend and the next restaurant to try, therefore Taste of Chicago is pretty much heaven for me. I decided to go on Saturday morning, accompanied by my boyfriend Edoardo, and then Sunday morning with my brother Lorenzo.

On both days, we spent $30 which equaled 42 tickets. At Taste of Chicago, food doesn’t cost money, it costs tickets. Full portions can go from 11 to 18 tickets, while tasting portions are usually 6-8.

This is what we tried with a comprehensive budget of 84 tickets.

 

Nutella Gelato Brioche by Franco’s Ristorante

I’m both a Nutella and gelato connoisseur. They both come from the motherland and I’ve starting eating both of them when I was a toddler (and never stopped). Therefore, I consider myself an expert on all things gelato and Nutella. You can trust me when I say that this brioche is much more than just a regular ice cream sandwich: Nutella and hazelnut gelato work so well together they should just marry each other. And when that union is pressed between two delicious brioche buns, well, it’s a match made in heaven.

 

Lou Malnati’s Stuffed Cheese Pizza

Getting Lou Malnati’s at the Taste might sound extremely basic to most of y’all. And well, it is. However, please try to understand the discomfort that comes from being the only Lou Malnati fan in a family of Giordano lovers. The same is true for most of my friends. Gotta get that Lou Malnati’s whenever I get the chance!

P.S.: Non-Chicagoans might not be familiar with the never ending war that will decide Chicago’s best deep dish pizza, but I will definitely fill in this gap soon with another blog post.

 

Belgian Fries with Garlic Aïoli from Bruges Brothers

As Belgian singer Stromae likes to point out every concert before he performs Moules Frites, Americans did not invent French fries and, for that matter, neither did the French. Fries were actually invented in Belgium, they’re called frites and they’re to be considered the OG of fried taters.

Bruges Brothers (get the pun? Ha!) is a food truck that mostly sells – you guessed it – Belgian Fries. There’s a reason why they limit themselves to that specialty: it is because they cook them to perfection. Fries are cut, fried once, then covered in duck fat, then fried again. They are served with homemade garlic aïoli (aïoli itself is a garlic sauce, I don’t understand why in the US we call it garlic aioli. Does anyone know?). Both the fries and the sauce were absolutely delicious – the dark color of the potatoes kinda freaked me out at first, but I guess that’s due to the duck fat and oh my god. You want that duck fat to be there. The fries just melt in your mouth.

Along with Da Lobsta’s truck, Bruges Brothers had the longest line I’ve witnessed at this edition of the Taste. Seems like the food trucks stole the show this year.

Candied Bacon from Pork & Mindy’s

Candied bacon was to me the most surprising item of this edition of the Taste, and also the cheapest, costing only two tickets per tasting. For some reason, soaking bacon strips in caramelized sugar just works and gives our good ol’ pork staple a new, innovative taste. I’ve been meaning to check out Pork & Mindy’s for a while now, and after trying a taste of their inventive cuisine, I’m even more intrigued!

 

Paletas from La Mexicana

I couldn’t avoid a trip to get paletas because, honestly, water was really expensive, and I did not want to waste tickets on it. Therefore, paletas were an easy way to keep myself hydrated and refreshed. Also, the people at la Mexicana know their paletas, because they tasted delicious. They also make for a cute photo op being all colorful and stuff.

The day before, I actually got Italian ice from a different booth for the same hydration needs, but to be honest, I thought the paletas were better.

 

Steamed Pork Belly Bun from Yum Dum

I had never heard of Yum Dum, which is actually pretty crazy because between me and my brother, we know a great deal about Asian street food in the city. Well, turns out they’re a food truck that feeds the city delicious steamed buns, as well as dumplings, cold noodle salads and rice balls. Lorenzo and I tried the steamed pork belly bun and it was delicious. I honestly wish I could have had more, so now I’ll have to hunt down their truck – which, in case you’re trying to do the same, is pretty easy: they actually have a calendar on their website. So glad I found out about them! This is why I love the Taste.

 

Funnel cake by Xurro

Funnel cake is simply a classic of festivals, theme parks and summer in general. You know you’re having fun when there’s a funnel cake involved. I have been to Xurro before and I know you can trust them when it comes to fried dough, because their churros are amazing. Unsurprisingly, their funnel cake was delicious as well.

Were you at Taste? Did I miss something absolutely delicious? Let me know!