![]() ![]() Fontelera’s chicken inasal starts the day before with a marinade of tamari, calamansi juice and coconut vinegar. That night’s mic-drop dish was unsurprisingly carnivorous, however-in the (somewhat) surprising form of a chicken thigh skewer so succulent it actually melted in my mouth. Vegetarians will be well-fed here, too-with a pleasant iteration of pancit Canton, packing springy stir-fried ramen noodles, mushrooms, cabbage and herbs. Coconut vinegar, fish sauce and burnt tomato lend magnetic tang and umami to paksiw, a vinegary soup teeming with cured mahi mahi that warms like medicine for the soul. His crunchy lumpiang Shanghai cigars shatter in satisfying percussion to reveal succulent, Berkshire ground pork seasoned with house-fermented sambal, ginger and garlic. ![]() He toys with intensity while maintaining astonishing harmony in dishes-for instance, sneaking kewpie mayo into the already umami-rich sisig. that we, for too long, have not had the opportunity to nurture.” Regardless, Boonie’s almost always sells out, so go early.įontelera later told me he feels immense responsibility, not just to honor the traditional cooking of his family that inspired his career path, “but also be a part of the development and growth of Filipino cuisine in the U.S. Fontelera has upped nightly available quantities of the fluffy, nutty rice laced with toasted garlic-available for, and worth, a $6 upcharge. ![]() On that note, nothing lights a proverbial fire under an indecisive group of diners like hearing the garlic rice is running low, as the server warned us a few minutes after we arrived at 7 p.m. Despite sensible guidance from our server (“You’ll be fine sharing two or three small plates and three mains”), my three companions and I took the “kain tayo” (Tagalog for “let’s eat”) neon by the entrance literally and ordered almost everything. And, oh, that food-boldly charred, umami-rich and satisfying, balanced by mouth-watering acidity and sweetness.īoonie’s concise, affordable menu breaks out into five parts: Panimula (Small Plates), Inihaw (Grilled Bites), Ulam (Entrées), Panghimagas (Desserts) and Sides. The diminutive, low-lit space-warmly dressed in blonde wood accents and framed family photos and whimsical prints-offers a cozy contrast to the sprawling, airy restaurants that have punctuated Chicago’s buzzier openings of late. ![]() Since debuting his brick-and-mortar storefront five months ago, the former executive chef of Arami has come into his own with Filipino-inspired cooking that honors his Philippines-born grandmother, Estefania Bondoc Clarito, and his forebears who immigrated to Chicago starting in 1970.īoonie’s hugs like a metaphorical grandmother in all sorts of ways, starting the moment you walk in and see bowls of individually wrapped Hongyuan guava candies in the entryway and on the host stand. At the very least, promise me you’ll start your meal with it every time you eat here, if you’re a meat eater that is.īoonie’s sisig doesn’t just elicit awed silences in fact, it was the subject of much chatter when chef/owner Joseph Fontelera’s pandemic popup, Boonie’s Foods, landed at Revival Food Hall in 2020. Tangy, sweet, unctuous and textural, such gestalt cooking merits a moment of speechlessness. The four of us sat, transfixed, as a server methodically worked the egg into the citrus-scented hash of minced pork belly and caramelized sweet onions, which sputtered their approval like applause. On a recent Friday night at Boonie’s Filipino Restaurant, the conversation came to an abrupt halt when the sizzling pork sisig topped with raw egg hit our table. ![]()
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