Chicago’s Signature Sandwich, Italian Beef, Gets a Multicultural Update
The New York Times
In this city so protective of its traditions, a new generation of cooks is creating fresh variations on a deliciously soggy sandwich.
CHICAGO — Do you like your Italian beef dry and sweet? Dipped and hot? Or perhaps wet, hot and sweet? Ordering the beloved Chicago sandwich is not unlike the drill at a coffee shop; there’s a language to know, a culture to understand, decisions to make.
The city has several famous foods to its name, like deep-dish pizza and the Chicago hot dog. Yet Italian beef stands apart: roasted, thinly sliced meat that is bathed in its own jus and nestled in a plush roll, then topped with tart, spicy giardiniera or sweet peppers (or both), and often dipped in a rich broth of beef drippings. The broth supercharges the beefy flavor and saturates the crevices of the bread, while the peppers offer tangy relief. In one messy, intensely juicy bite comes a whole meal’s worth of complex flavors.
The sandwich may not be the best-known, or most visually enticing, of those three dishes, said David Hammond, the dining and drinking editor of the local magazine Newcity, and the author of a coming book on the city’s foods. But while deep dish is primarily for tourists, he said, and the hot dogs are sold in many cities, Italian beef belongs to Chicagoans.
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