One night after work Dallas and I decided to meet up for dinner at Belly Shack and then walk home in the nice weather. This was our second visit to the restuarant. On the first visit Jess joined us.
Dallas started out with the seasonal kimchi. I tried it, but kimchi is not really my thing. Dallas loves it though.
I had the Asian meatball sandwich with rice noodles and mint.
This was hard to eat as far as sandwiches go. I couldn’t even see the meatballs, with all the noodles, but it tasted great. I ended up eating it with a fork until I got down to a more manageable sandwich size.
Dallas and I split the special side that day which was togarashi fries with curry mayo. I wasn’t sure at the time what togarashi was.. the fries tasted like some kind of seasoned fries. Looking it up now, I see that shichimi togarashi is a Japanese spice mix with seven ingredients, the main one being coarsely ground red chili pepper. I don’t remember the fries being spicy, but having a good seasoned taste.
Dallas’s sandwich was also a special that day. It was a pecan smoked chicken and instead of bread it was on plantains.
Finally, I had to get this out of my system. One of the ice cream desserts at Belly Shack is bacon chocolate chip soft serve. I’d been thinking about this treat since the menu was first published when the restaurant opened. I had to try it, so I went up and ordered it to go, since we were walking home.
You know what? It wasn’t that great. For some reason I was thinking chocolate ice cream with bacon on top. This was like vanilla soft serve with dry cookies and some kind of bacon bits. At least I know now. I can stop dreaming about it. Ha.
Aside from the ice cream, Belly Shack did not disappoint. I think we’ll keep going back over and over. It’s not too expensive and it’s on our way home from work. We just have to get off the train one stop early.
Oh, also, on this visit Bill Kim, the owner and chef at Belly Shack was in the kitchen and his wife, Yvonne, was working the register and serving customers.
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::
Update: We’ve been back to Belly Shack a few times since I wrote this post. I haven’t published it yet, so I thought I’d just tack more on it. Above is a tilapia and shrimp salad that I ordered once. It was good, but the dressing was a bit overwhelming. Bill Kim seems to always be in the kitchen and even doing dining room work. I keep reading a lot about Korean/Latin fusion restaurants lately. They must be all the rage. I think Bill Kim was ahead of the curve in Chicago on that trend.
[Read more →]
