S07.E02: Chicago

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Chicago’s iconic Old Town Ale House and its colorful patrons are the gateway to Bourdain’s tour of the “City by the Lake,” which includes the host dining on breaded steak sandwiches at Ricobene’s with music producer Steve Albini, sampling Mapo Doufu at Chinatown’s Sze Chuan with Chef Stephanie Izard, and a home cooked meal with Chicago-raised rapper Lupe Fiasco and his mom, plus a tour of comedy mecca Second City with mainstage performer Paul Jurewicz.

[clod]

maybe he won't insult Chicago pizza this time.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Does skipping Chicago pizza count as insulting it? Because he didn't mention it even once during this episode! But he did kind of mention it in his blog about this episode.

I was surprised that he didn't know Chicago had a Chinatown.

Edited May 2, 2016 by ElectricBoogaloo

[biakbiak]

Other than not eating pizza this episode seemed like such a rehash of his last Chicago episode that I wonder if they recycled footage and I say this as someone who wants the world to know Ebert was more than his thumb and movies and wrote beautifully on a gazillion topics from life, politics, love, food, childhood, labor rights, sobriety, dying, family, etc. I swear the dude from The Ale House said the exact same things about Roger on the last episode and there are also a gazillion other writers/journalists who were could easily be featured.

Edited May 2, 2016 by biakbiak

[Athena]

On 2016-05-02 at 2:43 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I was surprised that he didn't know Chicago had a Chinatown.

I don't think that's what he meant. I think he was pleasantly surprised that the Chinatown had good Szechuan cuisine. In a lot of places with Chinatowns, the quality of the cuisine varies significantly and it is often American-Chinese or half decent Cantonese based Chinese food.

[Snarklepuss]

I loved the Ale House but geesh, too many scenes in it for one show.  Like Chicago is a big city and all he wants to focus on is THAT?  I did find myself wishing I had known about some of the places he went to eat when I visited Chicago - There's always next time.  So he dissed Chicago pizza - I'm still upset with him for 2 crappy shows on Sicily that made a lot of people upset, and a show on the Bronx that really bore no resemblance to huge areas of the Bronx.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

I loved the Ale House but geesh, too many scenes in it for one show.  Like Chicago is a big city and all he wants to focus on is THAT? 

I have never been to the Ale House, but I agree that too much of the episode focused on that particular location and the random patrons there. Chicago is a huge city with tons of great restaurants, different neighborhoods, etc. and we got an episode that was mostly about the regulars at one bar with a few field trips outside of the bar for meals.