{"id":5221,"date":"2021-04-03T14:58:21","date_gmt":"2021-04-03T19:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/?p=5221"},"modified":"2021-04-03T14:58:22","modified_gmt":"2021-04-03T19:58:22","slug":"chicago-restaurant-week-2021-dinner-at-gaijin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/03\/chicago-restaurant-week-2021-dinner-at-gaijin\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Restaurant Week 2021: Dinner at Gaijin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is part of a series of posts about Chicago Restaurant Week 2021, held March 19\u2013April 4. To browse past Restaurant Week coverage between 2013 and 2020, click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Shrimp<\/a>
Osaka-style okonomiyaki with tempura fried shrimp, corn, creole butter, arare, and udon<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Best Bite:<\/strong> Esteemed Chicago chef Paul Virant opened Gaijin in 2019 as Chicago’s first restaurant dedicated to okonomiyaki, a Japanese savory pancake. I was excited to make my first visit during Restaurant Week, when five Osaka-style versions were available as part of the four-course menu. Our group of three chose shrimp, octopus, and pork to share, each topped with “dancing”<\/a> bonito flakes and kept perfectly warm on the teppan griddle built into our table. I loved all three: the tempura shrimp and corn with caramelized udon noodles, the sweet-and-salty octopus with crispy rice, and the breakfast-leaning pork with bacon and a fried egg. The flavor combinations and textural contrasts, all anchored by the cabbage-studded pancake base, were ones I’d go back for again and again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Octopus<\/a>
Osaka-style okonomiyaki with octopus, hot sauce, honey gastrique, bonito, and crispy rice<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Veggie<\/a>
Veggie yakisoba with spinach, mushrooms, sweet corn, cabbage, scallions, carrots, sauce, and sesame<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Other notes:<\/strong> The yakisoba in the second course was a delicious tangle of well-cooked vegetables and umami-coated noodles. And I loved the mochi donut, reminiscent of funnel cake but with chewiness from the rice flour, and topped with a coconut and pandan leaf glaze. This also happened to be the best Restaurant Week value I’ve seen in a long time: four generous courses at the lower-tier dinner price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pandan-coconut<\/a>
Pandan-coconut mochi donut<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The details:<\/strong> Gaijin<\/a>, 950 W. Lake St., Chicago.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is part of a series of posts about Chicago Restaurant Week 2021, held March 19\u2013April 4. To browse past Restaurant Week coverage between 2013 and 2020, click here. Best Bite: Esteemed Chicago chef Paul Virant opened Gaijin in 2019 as Chicago’s first restaurant dedicated to okonomiyaki, a Japanese savory pancake. I was excited to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-restaurant-week-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5221"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5238,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5221\/revisions\/5238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillaryproctor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}