Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin' town...
The Combo
I have had the opportunity to work with some long-time Chicago residents in the last few years. One of whom I got to talking with about differences in food between the north and the south. The conversation actually started with me convincing him that they were breaking ground behind our building to erect a White Castle burger joint.
Nooo Waaaay!
Yep.
Nooooo Waaaaay!
Nah, You're right. I'm messin' with ya.
I'm going to kill you, and kill you slow......
He told me all about the cooking Chicago is famous for. The way the pizzas are made, the way the dogs are made, how a dog at Wrigley field tastes, and what a delight that is 'the combo'.
The Combo is a spicy, not sweet, Italian sausage that is grilled and placed on a roll, not a bun. It is topped with thin sliced Italian Scala beef; thin slices of grilled prime rib, actually, and then topped with a combination of peppers and onions.
Stumbling on a Gold Mine
LBG and I were planning for some low-key action. I had just come off of two weeks of pure hell, as had he, at work and after wrapping things up, spent the better part of today in a coma. We are talking a total catharsis through sleep, and wakeful periods laying catatonic in bed watching a celebrity poker showdown marathon. Speaking of which, what kind of moron lays down pocket cowboys just because the dealer flopped a pair of tens? Chucklehead superstar was faced with a good bet and a good aggressive posture, but sheesh! He wasn't even on a short stack!
Anyway, LBG didn't want to spend much money and neither did I. We had to figure out where we could go to eat and enjoy an evening that didn't leave us more than fifty or sixty dollars each out of pocket. He is looking to slam cash into his bank account for the final stage of his bike modification and I am slamming all the funds I can so I can take 'Hilts' home with pure cash.(you like that, LBG? I'm naming it after McQueen in The Great Escape. Roll it off of your tongue: Dobra and Hilts, Dobra and Hilts.) We decided on, wait, If I name the place, everyone will start going there because of word of mouth and then the place will be packed all the time and it will no longer be our local place. Aww, who am I kidding, the only people who peruse this page are 14 year olds who got an odd hit on their search engines mistaking 'Clime' for 'Climax'. We decided on Ben's Half Yard House on Lower Greenville. Great Place. Expert staff.
Sex for the mouth without any hair.
So I open the menu and look it over. At the bottom of the lefthand page is a section titled 'Chicago Specialties'. The flagship item offered is, you guessed it, 'The Combo'. I guess the owner is a displaced Illinois native from the Chicago area.
I took the plunge and ordered it. I ordered it from Becca, one of the best servers either LBG or I have ever come across. Gotta give props. When the meal is served I have a plate in front of me with a french bread roll filled with Italian sausage, beef and mixed onions and peppers. If I had no restraint whatsoever, I would have ordered two more to follow. Man O Man. I am a believer. Hail the Combo!
The Plastics
On a side story, close to the end of our evening, three perfectly sculpted ladies, thanks to a surgeon on their eighteenth birthday most likely, strolled into the place and took a table. SMU chicks. Logical, since we were in SMU territory. I guess they were looking for something new and tried the place out. They took a table maybe twenty five feet from the one LBG and I were occupying, and I happened to be seated facing them. I noticed something. One was facing me, and the other two had their backs to me. The one facing me kept leaning in to the other two girls and then they would turn around and look over their shoulders at our table. This was curious, as they were paying some attention to us. Then it hit me. I'm still laughing at it now. At about the same time the Plastics came in, Fox Sports Net began broadcast of the USC-Arizona game and this was being projected on the establishment's big screen. The girls happened to be in DIRECT line between me and my USC Trojans, whom I haven't seen play in three weeks. I'm looking past them and watching the game, while they're thinking the knuckle-dragger in booth two is scoping them out. Tee-hee, Tee-hee......
Fun had by all. Give your folks my best regards. Clime.
I have had the opportunity to work with some long-time Chicago residents in the last few years. One of whom I got to talking with about differences in food between the north and the south. The conversation actually started with me convincing him that they were breaking ground behind our building to erect a White Castle burger joint.
Nooo Waaaay!
Yep.
Nooooo Waaaaay!
Nah, You're right. I'm messin' with ya.
I'm going to kill you, and kill you slow......
He told me all about the cooking Chicago is famous for. The way the pizzas are made, the way the dogs are made, how a dog at Wrigley field tastes, and what a delight that is 'the combo'.
The Combo is a spicy, not sweet, Italian sausage that is grilled and placed on a roll, not a bun. It is topped with thin sliced Italian Scala beef; thin slices of grilled prime rib, actually, and then topped with a combination of peppers and onions.
Stumbling on a Gold Mine
LBG and I were planning for some low-key action. I had just come off of two weeks of pure hell, as had he, at work and after wrapping things up, spent the better part of today in a coma. We are talking a total catharsis through sleep, and wakeful periods laying catatonic in bed watching a celebrity poker showdown marathon. Speaking of which, what kind of moron lays down pocket cowboys just because the dealer flopped a pair of tens? Chucklehead superstar was faced with a good bet and a good aggressive posture, but sheesh! He wasn't even on a short stack!
Anyway, LBG didn't want to spend much money and neither did I. We had to figure out where we could go to eat and enjoy an evening that didn't leave us more than fifty or sixty dollars each out of pocket. He is looking to slam cash into his bank account for the final stage of his bike modification and I am slamming all the funds I can so I can take 'Hilts' home with pure cash.(you like that, LBG? I'm naming it after McQueen in The Great Escape. Roll it off of your tongue: Dobra and Hilts, Dobra and Hilts.) We decided on, wait, If I name the place, everyone will start going there because of word of mouth and then the place will be packed all the time and it will no longer be our local place. Aww, who am I kidding, the only people who peruse this page are 14 year olds who got an odd hit on their search engines mistaking 'Clime' for 'Climax'. We decided on Ben's Half Yard House on Lower Greenville. Great Place. Expert staff.
Sex for the mouth without any hair.
So I open the menu and look it over. At the bottom of the lefthand page is a section titled 'Chicago Specialties'. The flagship item offered is, you guessed it, 'The Combo'. I guess the owner is a displaced Illinois native from the Chicago area.
I took the plunge and ordered it. I ordered it from Becca, one of the best servers either LBG or I have ever come across. Gotta give props. When the meal is served I have a plate in front of me with a french bread roll filled with Italian sausage, beef and mixed onions and peppers. If I had no restraint whatsoever, I would have ordered two more to follow. Man O Man. I am a believer. Hail the Combo!
The Plastics
On a side story, close to the end of our evening, three perfectly sculpted ladies, thanks to a surgeon on their eighteenth birthday most likely, strolled into the place and took a table. SMU chicks. Logical, since we were in SMU territory. I guess they were looking for something new and tried the place out. They took a table maybe twenty five feet from the one LBG and I were occupying, and I happened to be seated facing them. I noticed something. One was facing me, and the other two had their backs to me. The one facing me kept leaning in to the other two girls and then they would turn around and look over their shoulders at our table. This was curious, as they were paying some attention to us. Then it hit me. I'm still laughing at it now. At about the same time the Plastics came in, Fox Sports Net began broadcast of the USC-Arizona game and this was being projected on the establishment's big screen. The girls happened to be in DIRECT line between me and my USC Trojans, whom I haven't seen play in three weeks. I'm looking past them and watching the game, while they're thinking the knuckle-dragger in booth two is scoping them out. Tee-hee, Tee-hee......
Fun had by all. Give your folks my best regards. Clime.
2 Comments:
after such a nice post, i hate to call you out like this, but you can't name what you don't have. not until you actually have made the purchase and it's sitting in the garage being rubbed with a soft diaper can you actually name it.
...So A couple can't come up with names for their newborn? I guess they just call the child 'hey, you.' for the first coupla days.... I'm going to talk Linus into a trip to Chi-town this next summer for my first trip to Wrigley, Dutch, I've got buds there that have been begging me to come up for two years now... Get yer hotdogs here! Get yer hotdogs here!...
Post a Comment
<< Home