This week at Monday Night Foodball
[READER]( [Food & Drink]( Abuelita Dircia wanted to know why thereâs no rice and beans or sancocho on her niñaâs menu. You might know âniña,â aka chef Angelina Bastidas, from her work at the late AMK Kitchen Bar and BIN 36. Or maybe you know her from her turns on Top Chef or Bong Appetit; or her private, fine-dining (with or without weed) experience [Tournant](. Maybe youâve made her [cannabutter recipe](. What you probably donât know is that before she learned to throw down burrata salad with confit cherry tomatoes, pickled shallots, and Thai basil pesto; or [crab cakes with lemon coriander aioli, chili oil, and arugula]( she learned to cook at Dirciaâs side, specifically Dominican soul food, which is abundant in Miami, where she grew up, but in pretty short supply in Chicago, where she made her name. What you will come to find out this Monday, May 9, is that the food of the Dominican Republic is much more than rice and beans. Thatâs when Bastidas applies her skills to her grandmotherâs culinary legacy at [Monday Night Foodball]( the Readerâs weekly chef pop-up at the Kedzie Inn in Irving Park. That means quipe, the Dominican take on kibbeh, the meat-stuffed, deep-fried, bulgur wheat orbs, brought to the island by Lebanese immigrants, here sauced with harissa yogurt. Sheâs also doing a sirloin burger topped with caramelized red onions on crusty pan de agua, aka water bread. The mid-pandemic demise of the late, great [Morenaâs Kitchen]( left the city devoid of the DRâs miraculous citrus-marinated fried chicken, but Bastidas has that covered too, along with the crispy chicharron-mined smashed plaintain mofongo with gently stewed shrimp and garlic confit, along with a singular tres leches cake built on sweet potato bread with dulce de leche and chantilly cream. âI think when people think Dominican the first question is, âIsnât it the same thing as Puerto Rican?ââ says Bastidas. âAnd itâs not. There are dishes and flavors that you donât see a lot and you donât see them the way weâre gonna present them.â But what does Abuelita Dircia say? âI donât know if sheâll think itâs as good as hersâand it might not beâbut sheâs happy Iâm finally representing where my family is from.â Preorders are [on sale now]( for this final Foodball before our three-week May break (Jon Pokornyâs getting hitched!), but as always a limited number of walk-in orders are available beginning at 5 PM. Meanwhile, stay tuned for a smashing new Monday Night Foodball lineup beginning in June.
[Pig & Fire present Filipino pork belly tacos and sizzling pig face at Monday Night Foodball](
by [Mike Sula]( [Sfera Sicilian Street Food ghosts its virtual kitchen](
The new brick-and-mortar will feature the signature arancini and a new roster of formerly obscure snacks.
by [Mike Sula]( 2017 [Cooking Congolese cuisine without recipes](
âIf I write it down that would be American food,â Francine Maombi says.
by [Mike Sula]( ð£ï¸ We are free AGAIN and STILL freaky! The Reader will be owned by YOU, our readers, and no one else. Invest in our future together by making a donation to [#KeepReaderFreeAndFreaky]( ð
[Issue of
April 28 - May 11 2022
Vol. 51, No.]( [Download Issue](
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