Pleasant House

Urban Belly as seen from the waiting area (my Mini Cooper)

When I was in college I took some political-thought courses. One ideology professor challenged those of us in his class to write our interpretation of a complex ideology in very simple terms, so that even a fifth grader could understand it. One of the lessons that I took away from this assignment was that translating the complex into the understandable is not as easy at it seems. Because we are conditioned to learn a certain way, our brains can make it similarly difficult to articulate difficult subjects in basic terms.

Urban Belly is one gastronomic success where great skill and experience power a relatively straightforward concept. The chef, Bill Kim, a professor of fine cooking, has operated several outstanding kitchens, serving perhaps most notably as chef de cuisine of Charlie Trotter’s. The level of talent required to execute dishes at any fine-dining restaurant well, especially one like Trotter’s, is extremely high. So chefs like Kim who make the decision to, dare I say, think backwards concept-wise, are to be admired and respected when they pull off something so great.

There wouldn’t be a need to lay this all out if fine-dining chefs were opening simple concepts left and right. The fact is, in Chicago at least, not many have and not many are. Some chefs are intimidated to move beyond their comfort zone, and some view a simple concept as a step down for their ego or their skill set. And some chefs have just not been inspired by the more humble side of cuisine. Thanks to chefs like Kim who are creating “everyday” food, it is becoming harder to get a bad meal in Chicago.

Urban Belly’s strip mall location is just as simple. Inside, a rectangular room is awash with steely gray walls. Communal tables of heavy rustic wood dominate the space, minimally adorned with salvaged slabs of weathered hardwood. The chalkboard paint on the wall above the kitchen window lists the daily specials. Meals are self-serve; soft drinks and Asian specialty drinks are available, and you can BYOB.

Urban Belly table, specials above the window

One of the specials that my group and I tried was the sweet-and-spicy, crispy sweetbreads with pickled papaya. This little dish proved that a move from fine dining to a simple concept can be lateral. Perfectly sized morsels of delicately crisp and creamy sweetbreads perched atop paper-thin slices of pickled green papaya were laquered with just the right amount of sweet and hot sauce, counterbalanced with a tangy citrus supreme. This is the type of dish that could easily fall flat in a sophisticated salon or a simple noodle shop; poor frying, a cloying sauce, or a heavy hand with the heat could have easily destroyed it. You can take this chef out of the fine dining, but you can’t take the fine dining out of this chef.

sweet-and-spicy, crispy sweetbreads with pickled papaya

Dumplings with a pillowy soft skin that was slightly crisp on the outside held a tender, almost mousse-like filling of pork and cilantro. Chelsea appreciated the dipping sauce, which actually had enough viscosity to stick to the dumpling. Darrin, our dining companion, echoed this simple luxury, noting that he often has to poke holes in dumplings and pour the dipping sauce inside to achieve a dumpling/condiment union.

The real meat of Urban Belly are the soups. There are several noodle soups offered. My group had the udon with shrimp, the pork belly ramen, and the rice noodle with hominy, kimchee, and spicy pork broth. Having tried all of the soups, I noticed that each broth had a unique smoky aroma. Whatever the aroma, smoked fish or soy dashi, it was intoxicating. The soups were wonderfully rich in their flavor and body, a result of a low, slow, and long extraction on the stovetop. Sweet, sour, salty, spicy, bitter, and liquid-bacon umame were all there, working on the palate like a well-oiled machine. Toasted cumin seeds sprinkled on the spicy pork broth added unexpected aroma, flavor, and texture. In the heat of battle, Darrin and Chelsea called out several flavor explosions from the field.

shrimp udon

We shared petite wrinkle beans sprinkled with crispy shallots, chunks of unfermented daikon kimchee, and a bowl of short-rib rice with scallions to get a real feel for the range of the menu. None of these items would have been so good under the direction of a less-experienced chef. I appreciate this level of integrity and hope it inspires other chefs in Chicago to think outside the box and cook what inspires them, no matter how simple it may seem. By doing so they can still live out their dream and reach a ton of new people.

Urban Belly feast