Kuma's Corner

Kuma's Corner
2900 W. Belmont
Chicago, IL 60618


This past weekend was full of really a lot of good eats: Minnie's for lunch on Friday followed by a four course meal at Phil Stefani's 437 Rush for dinner; brunch at Orange on Saturday and then dinner at Fonda del Mar. Now, I'm not saying Kuma's Corner necessarily ruined that trend. It really was good.

I had the Yob burger: Smoked gouda, roasted red peppers, bacon, and roasted garlic mayo.

Here are pictures of my leftovers since I forgot my camera when we went:





Drew had the May special: The Swine flu burger. It had chorizo hash, tortilla strips, roasted green chile, pico de gallo, cilantro, and cream sauce (although we both agreed it tasted like Indian food).

I should point out that I also swayed Drew away from the Slayer: a pile of fries with a 1/2 lb. burger on top, chili, cherry peppers, andouille, jack cheese, onions, and anger.

Yes, the burgers were good. Pretzel bread buns were a nice touch. The appetizer was also good: waffle fries with pulled pork and jack cheese (well, ga-duh these were good. The bbq sauce was just Sweet Baby Ray's though, I'm pretty sure). They had homemade chips, which I always appreciate. But was all that worth waiting (both to get a table and subsequently at the table) 3 hours? Nyyeeeehprobably not.

Looks like DC is 2-0 in the Great Burger-Off with Chicago.

Chicago in January

I apologize already for not making this post as good as it probably deserves, but if we can remember all the way back to the middle of January, Drew came to visit me. Despite the weather being downright balmy with the windchill into the negatives, we did venture out a few times:

The Bourgeois Pig Cafe
738 W. Fullerton Pkwy.

Down the street from campus is the place where the who's who in pretentious faculty, staff, students, and Lincoln Park moms without Jamaican nannies to take care of their kids get together to enjoy oversized lattes, organic vegan brownies, and (this is why I go there) just really tasty sandwiches. And OF COURSE the sandwiches have to be named with literary themes.

I had the Walden, and thank goodness I remember the name because otherwise I wouldn't be able to refer back to the menu on their website to see what was in it: honey walnut curry chicken salad, tomatoes, romaine, alfalfa sprouts, and red onion on focaccia.



Sadly, I was superbly disappointed in my choice. Normally I get a vegetarian sandwich, and those feature their homemade hummus or pesto usually, but I felt like something different, and the walnut curry chicken sounded good to me. It was a pretty one-note taste, though, and it needed something else like cheese or a dressing to give it another flavor. The bread was pretty dry on this occasion also, which was a real shame. Drew's sandwich, on the other hand, was good, and I'm used to him making better choices in ordering. Unfortunately though, we can't remember the name or what was on it besides "bacon and turkey maybe." The best part was that it was hot, and all you get is a picture:



Boston Blackie's
1962 N. Halsted

So this was also a place I had been before with my parents and I thought it was delicious. It was actually after I ate here with them that I got the idea that Drew and I should do a burger blog, which immediately transformed into a food blog. We went here on a Saturday afternoon with my roommate Abby and her boyfriend Adam, and, as you can see, we ate a lot:



And again, this was a place that was just better when I went before. Drew got some burger that had chili on it. He said the burger meat itself wasn't good. I completely forget what I got (and now you can understand why I already knew before I started writing that this would be a bad post). Let's move on.

Tank Noodle
4953 N. Broadway St.



Let's look past how scary I look. Viet House is BY FAR better. Better broth, better ingredients, better service. But Tank has good bubble tea. We didn't get any this time, but the plum smoothie is delicious, and if you're a fan of tapioca, they give an ample supply.

Tiztal Cafe
4631 N. Clark St.

This was a spur of the moment decision, and the day was sunny and nice enough for us to walk there, which is always a plus to me. We have no pictures, and while the original plan was to only blog with pictures, I just need to at least mention this place. I had eggs florentine, which has completely changed my opinion of poached eggs. The garlic rosemary potatoes were good, and Drew had a chorizo scramble that he wasn't a giant fan of. Or maybe he just thought it wasn't worth the wait? We were waiting a kind of long time, which was a shame, but we did get a little extra oatmeal milkshake for compensation, which was really good and tasty.

Bar on Buena
910 W. Buena Ave.

I also just want to quickly mention this. This bar is down the block from my building, and they had a giant beer list and a very helpful waitress

So I guess that trip was kind of a culinary failure. Nothing really stood out, and the best places were the places we kind of just felt like going to randomly. I guess that's a good lesson for next time though. I don't know how to end this. THE END.

Sweet Potato Bison Burgers

Made these burgers the other night and thought to myself "I should photograph this and put it on that food blog i just started two days ago!" because I'm a genius. Anyway, the star of this dish was this sauce that i got back in birmingham during the holidays at the new Bass Pro Shop. Yeah that's right, I'm cooking with Bass Pro Shop ingredients, wanna fight about it?

So i cooked some bison patties with a little oil, onions, garlic (garlic powder, chili powder also) and this sauce, which is Mango Ginger Habanero if you can't see it on the label. After they were cooked i allow the onions to caramelize on their own in this sauce and it really made them taste good.

I also microved a couple sweet potatoes at this point, which i ended up throwing in the pan later to crisp up.

When it was all done the burgers consisted of the bison patty, slice of cooper cheese, a medallion of sweet potato, some chopped onions from the pan, and lettuce all on toasted whole wheat english muffins. Turned out pretty tasty. And yes i ate them both. The sweet potato idea was nothing short of culinary brilliance. Did i mention i came up with that? I'm a bastard.

The End.

Good Stuff Eatery

Location: 303 Pennsylvania Ave S.E., Washington, D.C. 20003

Best place I've found so far to get a delicious burger, with Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington coming in second place. It's run by Spike from Top Chef. He's been there working on the line every time I've been, which earns him a thumbs up from me.

I went with the Spike's 5 Napkin Burger this time. It has an egg on it. verdict: delicious.

The burger's aren't on the gigantic size, but somehow they are extremely filling and satifying. Also got a side of Village Fries, which are douched with a generous helping of rosemary and very greasy. That did not stop me from eating all of them.

Now it's time that i talk about the mayonnaises. There is a help-yourself mayo station downstairs that provides Old Bay Mayo, Chipotle Mayo, Sriracha Mayo (favorite), and Mango Mayo (also favorite). Ignore the neon yellow normal mustard cup in the foreground. (credit: brian miller) Along with all this i decided to get a.....

BAM. Toasted marshmallow hand-spun shake. This is the only shake i've ordered but it's pretty much their signature flavor, and for good reason. It's like drinking cold, frothy sex. Also they serve beer (with a few on tap) which is nice.

One gripe i have is the lack of choice in fry order sizes. For some reason they only serve the large. For a burger, fries, and shake i spent 17$, which i don't mind paying, but it makes it a very "once every few months" place. Typing this post made me want another Good Stuff burger, which is strange since i made burgers for dinner, but that's another tale, for another night. Sleep well, children.

The End.