Lately, Andrea and I have been missing some Chicago street food “delicacies”–especially the famous Italian Beef sandwich. Our favorite is form Al’s #1 Italian Beef on the corner of Wells and Ontario. It is SO juicy and mouth- wateringly delicious! There is nothing close to it out here in the east. Some York County favorites are crab cakes and pickled beet eggs–not quite a Chicago hot dog or Italian Beef. So last night, we decided to make our own!
We found what looked like a good recipe online, and tried it out. After marinating over night, we heated up the juice and dipped that beef in it…very good! We found most of the ingredients we needed except giardinara (try finding THAT in PA). The thing most native Chicagoans find tasteful (including my wife), is to dip the whole sandwich back into the juice. Italian beef is overflowing with all kinds spices and flavor. We just finished eating a few minutes ago, and were pretty impressed. Now it wasn’t quite up to par with Al’s, Portillo’s, or the Fairhaven cafeteria, but it was close. A valiant attempt indeed!