OTOM, Chicago, Illinois

After a few thwarted attempts to visit friends in Chicago, I was finally able to swing a last minute trip this past Thursday. With nothing more on my agenda than to try a new restaurant (to me, anyway) and to spend a day at the Art Institute, I set about to find the latest and greatest addition to the city's ever-burgeoning restaurant scene.

From Urban Belly to Xoco to Purple Pig, I gathered recommendations from friends, magazines, and blogs. Go carnivore? Herbivore? Asian? Latin? It was all too overwhelming. Fortunately, my friend Ronda had just purchased a $30 Groupon worth $60 at OTOM, in Chicago's Fulton Market district. For two on a budget, this sealed the deal. OTOM it was.

In the heart of the city's meatpacking district, OTOM sits one block away from The Publican, the pork-laden menu of which I glowingly reviewed on this site last year. It's also next door to sister restaurant, MOTO, which has gotten great reviews for the "future food" approach led by chef-slash-molecular gastronomist Homaro Cantu. The brainchildren of Chicago restaurateur Joseph DeVito, MOTO features post-modern cuisine in a futuristic "molecular tasting room" setting, while OTOM features modern comfort food in a chic, industrial, brick-walled former gallery interior.

The menu at OTOM shouts "comfort" like the big, fluffy sofa in your parents' rumpus room growing up, only trimmed in orange resin and upholstered with shiny, white vinyl. Macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, and fish and chips get a modern makeover by Executive Chef Thomas Elliott Bowman and his team. Feeling carnivorous, I selected the Pork Tenderloin entree, brined and smoked, and served with a creamy white bean puree, sauteed swiss chard, and dressed with a savory piquillo pepper sauce. Ronda took the herbivore route, opting for the daily Forager Plate special, which featured a substantial red rice risotto cake, flowering kale and shiitake mushroom sautee, and a chunk of sweet corn on the cob. Our meals were preceded by a barbecued pork belly appetizer, served atop thinly sliced fresh pineapple and a poblano sauce.

All three of these dishes were spectacular, from the sweet and salty belly with its hint of heat from the poblano, to my smoky tenderloin and its unexpectedly standout white bean accompaniment, to Ronda's red rice cake and its satisfyingly crunchy--yet lightly airy--breadcrumb crust. Our only complaint--which we were both disappointed to admit--was our shared side of macaroni and cheese, served in a preciously miniature cast iron dish. Consisting of twisted, trofie pasta tossed in a creamy white cheddar sauce, the mac and cheese was overwhelmingly salty, almost to the point where I thought, perhaps, the chef had accidentally knocked the contents of an entire cellar of salt into the sauce, yet served it anyway. Its only saving grace was the accompanying corn fritter, chock full of whole corn kernels, lightly battered and deliciously sweet.

Unfortunately, with bellies completely full from our appetizer and entrees, we had no room left for dessert. The menu sounded intriguing, however, featuring a Sazerac baba, soaked in a rye syrup and accompanied by absinthe ice cream, and a lavender-polenta honey cake, with sweet corn ice cream and peach coulis.

Adding a glass of rose' for me and a whiskey cocktail for Ronda, our bill for dinner came out to a reasonable $81 with tax. Subtracting the $30 savings from the Ronda's Groupon, our final tally of $51 was more than satisfying to our pocketbooks. At the end of the evening, however, Ronda and I debated whether we'd return to OTOM. If invited on someone else's dime: definitely, but with all of the new and exciting joints opening left and right in the city, OTOM is not one we would put on regular restaurant rotation. I would, however, fancy a feast at MOTO some day, to satisfy a "future food" fix.

Top 10 Foods I Hate That Other People Love

1. Sushi The ubiquitous sushi. It's not just at sushi bars and Japanese restaurants anymore. You can find it at Cajun seafood joints, at all-you-can-eat buffets, and at breakfast places in the form of "frooshi"--fresh fruit carved and shaped to look like sushi. Like most foods on this list, I don't necessarily hate it--it's just that it's been so overdone and I'm just bored of it. It's the last on my list of things to eat when dining out. Maybe I've just never had good sushi.

2. Goat Cheese Despite my affinity for goat (see #10 in my "Top 10 Foods I Love That Other People Hate" list), it does not extend to goat cheese. It's another ubiquitous ingredient, and has found its way from the cheese platter into too many dishes, from salads to savory tarts to pastas to pizza toppings. I simply just find it so gamey in flavor that it overpowers my palate and diminishes the flavor of everything else it is paired with.

3. Truffles Another ingredient that has become so popular and overused. I'm not talking chocolate truffles--those, I can eat all day long. I'm talking about the hyper-expensive white or black fungi that are the darling of the culinary world. I know they're a luxury and all the food fans love them, but I just think they taste like dirty feet. Or, what I imagine dirty feet to taste like. Even freshly-rooted truffles from Tuscany were totally lost on me, shaved paper-thin atop homemade pasta tossed with olive oil and garlic. I want to like them; I just don't. Same goes for truffle oils and all things truffle-infused. Bummer.

4. Pickles Okay, I don't hate pickles. I just don't like them very much. A couple of bites from an authentic delicatessen dill pickle is enough for me. I can't even eat a whole one. I think seeing a rack of vacuum-packed dill pickles in the candy aisle at Blockbuster Video put me over the edge. I must say, however, that I recently canned some dilly beans with my pal, Brooke, a couple of weeks ago, and I went through an entire jar the first day. They were good. Maybe it's a sign that my palate is maturing.

5. Cauliflower A white, cruciferous vegetable. What's the point? Bland and horribly dry, especially raw. However, I will admit that I quite enjoyed them in a gratin prepared by a friend, all creamy and topped with cheese. But, gratineed anything, all creamy and topped with cheese, is good. Unless it were topped with goat cheese (see #2, above).

6. Jello For some reason, my dad loves Jello. Strawberry Jello, to be specific. Sometimes, I'll look in my folks' refrigerator and find an entire tray of strawberry Jello chilling, just waiting for him to dig in. I can't say it's the fake fruit flavor, because I love fake fruit flavor in popsicles, Jolly Ranchers, and Kool Aid. I can't say it's the gelatinous texture, because I am not bothered by squirty, squishy food. Maybe it's the combination of the two? In any event, whenever I do eat it, it must be topped with whipped cream, in the proportion of 1:1. And it must be real whipped cream, not the junk from a can or Cool Whip from a tub. However, if anyone were ever to make one of those '80s-era poke cakes, made with boxed white cake and a layer of Jello oozed into little holes poked into the top of the cake by the end of a wooden spoon, I'd appreciate a slice. I'm strangely obsessed with the oddity of such a concoction.

7. Oysters Snot in a shell. Mussels, clams, scallops, they don't bother me. But, whenever I see those oyster-eating competitions on TV, I want to vomit. And then I imagine what that vomit would be like if I'd eaten oysters. And then I want to vomit again. It's a vicious circle.

8. Soft-shell Crabs See #7 above, regarding vomit. I've only tried soft-shell crabs once, but it was on the East Coast and I imagined they would be the freshest available. It was just weird eating an entire crab, knowing that there are parts of a normal crab that I would never otherwise eat, and wondering why I would eat them just because they were encased in a freshly-molted soft shell. That just doesn't make sense.

9. Okra I really want to like okra. I mean, she's like a multi-media goddess, what with her talk show, magazine, and Sirius-radio station. Alas, okra's just to slimy for me--while I'm pretty forgiving with texture, there must be an offsetting pleasance of flavor. Okra doesn't cut it.

10. Non-fat Food I once had a co-worker who was always trying to push her latest non-fat food find on me, whether it was salad dressing or cookies or whatever other nonsense. She was constantly trying to lose or maintain weight, but if she ever looked at the ingredients (the first of which was typically SUGAR to mask the chemical taste), she'd realize why it wasn't working. I recently bought a tub of non-fat vanilla yogurt to eat with my homemade granola because I didn't like any of the flavors of the non non-fat yogurts. Unfortunately, sugar was near the top of the ingredients list, presumably to hide the flavor of all the chemicals added to approximate the texture of a full-(or, at least, low-)fat yogurt. All things in moderation, darling. Just don't pour cups full of full-fat dressing on your salad or eat an entire dozen cookies. Enjoy your food, just don't eat so much of it. And if you do, just do what I do when I think of oysters. Just kidding.

Top 10 Foods I Love That Other People Hate

1. Anchovies Mashed into an Arabbiata pasta sauce, strewn atop a pizza, or ground into a Caesar Salad dressing, these tiny, cured fish add umami to any dish that seeks a deeply savory, salty, note. I eat them straight out of the jar. Fish sauce works in a pinch for adding to sauces. As a kid, I used to drizzle fish sauce (patis in Tagalog, nam pla in Thai, or nuoc mam in Vietnamese) on top of rice and eat it straight up. I still would, in fact, if no one were watching.

2. Brussels Sprouts Long gone are the days of boiled brussels sprouts, mushy and wilty and smelling of old shoes. Simply seasoned with salt and pepper and tossed in olive oil, roasting is a terrific way to go for a delicious caramelized crust and crisp-tender texture. I also toss them in a sautee pan with crisped pancetta, garlic, and onion for a similar, but more flavorful effect. Add a tiny bit of liquid--broth, water, wine--at the end to finish them off. These robustly-flavored veggies are a staple on my Thanksgiving menu, right in the heart of brussels sprout season (early fall, all the way through winter).

3. Pork Rinds These are a comfort for me. Not the cheap pork rinds sprinkled with "BBQ" powder and sold in the snack aisle of your local liquor store. I'm talking the crunchy, savory rinds typically sold in ethnic markets--the kind with a little layer of fat that turns just as crispy as the rind when fried. Ground atop Filipino pancit palabok noodles or straight out of the bag and dipped in a sauce of vinegar and garlic, pork rinds put me in a happy place. It's food of the poor, which is typical in cultures of color--making do with the least costly cuts of meat. Top restaurants like Roast in Detroit and The Publican in Chicago are doing their own versions, with great success.

4. Liver Chicken, duck, pork, it's all good to me. I used to have trouble with it as a kid, disliking the texture and thinking about what it is. But, especially when ground into a tasty pate' de campagne or breaded and sauteed like the chicken livers at Polish Village in Hamtramck, Michigan, I've gotten over my textural aversion and learned to appreciate this not-so-awful offal. Foie gras is a rare luxury, but one I will indulge in on occasion. Just don't ask me about the foie gras cupcake I bought at a trendy cupcakery in Chicago last year. That was just taking it a little too far.

5. Sardines Growing up, my mom would sautee tinned Spanish sardines in tomato sauce with garlic and onion, and serve it with garlic rice or toast for breakfast. Such was typical fare in a Filipino household. As was a smoked sardine called tinapa, fried 'til crisp and served with fresh, diced tomatoes dressed with fish sauce. A sardine filet, straight up on crostini, makes a tasty hors d'oeuvre. More recently, I enjoyed whole sardines served slightly charred from the grill, in the courtyard of a tiny Spanish tapas place in Pittsburgh (the name of which I can not recall) and at The Girl and the Fig in Sonoma. It takes a little dexterity to attack it with a knife and fork to remove the skin and bones, but it's well worth the effort.

6. Canned Meat Products I always joke that it's the food of my people resulting from wartime airlifts by the U.S. military, but whatever the reason, the Filipinos love their canned meat. From SPAM, sliced and fried, to tiny Vienna Sausages, fried to a crisp, to Corned Beef sauteed with garlic, onion, and tomato, canned meat holds great memories for many of us who grew up in Filipino households. I absolutely crave it.

7. Beets Michelle Obama hates them, but they are, thankfully, growing in popularity. This is thanks to the increasingly more common method of cooking them by roasting. Trimmed and scrubbed, I wrap whole beets in their skin in foil, then roast at high heat, checking for tenderness after about an hour, with a paring knife. When cooled, I use paper towel to remove the skin by gripping the beet with the towel and pulling the skin easily off. Red beets, yellow beets, they're all sweet and robust in flavor. I slice them and toss them in salads, topped with crumbled feta, pine nuts, and vinaigrette. Say "no," however, to canned beets. They're probably the reason most people hate beets, due to their mealy texture and non-existent flavor.

8. Peas My mom still can't stand them. When we're out for dim sum, I notice a little pile of peas in the corner of her plate from the Yang Chow Fried Rice. Admittedly, I didn't like them as a kid, but that was more because I was a kid and didn't like to eat anything green. But, especially when freshly shucked from the pod in the early spring season, peas are sweet and tasty, and a delicious addition to pastas and rice dishes. For a recent brunch, I made a frittata studded with peas and asparagus. The sweetness of the peas balanced out the verdant flavor of the asparagus and the creaminess of the eggs. Along with corn, peas are the only frozen vegetables I keep on hand. They have the rare ability to stand up to long storage in the freezer, flavor and texture uncompromised.

9. Tofu Again, my affinity for tofu can be attributed to my upbringing. It was not introduced to us by my mother during an experiment in macrobiotic cuisine during the '70s. It was just a typical ingredient in Asian cooking that I simply took to as a matter of fact. Typically diced and fried 'til golden, it was included among other such proteins as pork or shrimp in traditional Filipino stewed or noodle dishes. Once you get over the spongy texture, it's actually quite tasty. As we all now know, tofu absorbs the flavor of all of the other ingredients in the dish in which it is prepared. I use it now primarily as a substitute for meat in my home cooking, mostly in Asian dishes.

10. Goat I'm sure there are many other foods that I love that other people hate, but goat came to mind first as I was trying to finalize my list. My dad first introduced the family to goat meat when he was on a mission to re-create a Filipino stew called Kaldareta. I remember him taking us down to Eastern Market and tracking down the one butcher who carried goat. Kaldareta is a slightly spicy meat stew (typically beef or goat), with a tomato-based sauce, bell peppers, potatoes, and peas, and seasoned with chilis and liver paste (see #4, above). I've enjoyed goat in various Caribbean and African dishes, usually braised or curried. It's a bit gamey and has lots of jagged bones, but it strikes me as something akin to lamb in that it's texturally similar to beef, only stronger and more robust in taste. If you ever happen upon it at an ethnic food festival or restaurant, I recommend you give it a go.