Rich’s Deli, Chicago
One of my favorite places to buy my food in Chicago is Rich’s Deli in the Ukrainian Village. It’s a tiny, claustrophobic little Eastern European market at Western and Iowa. As the floor to ceiling window decals indicate, you’ll find fresh bread (that looks a lot better than in the photos), sausages, booze, Ukrainian magazines and produce. The sign says “Delicatessen” – but if you’ve ever lived in Europe it’s more like “staples”. I lived down the street from Rich’s for three years and shopped there almost exclusively.
Even though the place is tiny, it’s packed with great stuff. Here’s a few of my favorite things. If you also shop at Rich’s you should let me know if you have any hot tips!
• The sausages. There’s classic kielbasa, and also quite a few other ones. Some have huge chunks of garlic cloves. It’s hard to figure out the names and order them from the counter. They usually vacuum seal a bit (as well as the awesome “gypsy bacon”) to reduce the lines at the counter – you can find them in the back of the store near the butters.
• Speaking of butter. They have so many kinds! Try them all.
• Bread. No additives, made daily. Classic euro sandwich bread without that American yeasty/sugar taste. Finally.
A few eastern European beers
• Booze. I once bought every beer at Rich’s and tried to do taste tests. I got through my third “magnum” or whatever the 10% drunky beers are and I quit. A good tip is to not by the stuff in green bottles. It goes skunky on it’s way from the motherland(s). In the summer there are some really awesome seasonal unfiltered wheat beers. A real treat.
• I once bought a line caught whole Northern Pike there. It was cheap and I think they were going to pickle it. Not sure when this happens.
• There’s almost always rabbit. It’s frozen, affordable and good.
• Honey – many interesting kinds, pretty cheap compared to fancy stuff at Whole Foods
• Last but not least, Mushrooms. Dried boletes and trumpets, pickled mushrooms (haven’t tried these), and the freshest button mushrooms around. My most recent discovery is the frozen chanterelle mushrooms they have. I wanted to keep this a secret because they’re GREAT. I don’t know how they were able to freeze them and not loose much quality, but they are much better than dried chanterelles. Even frozen they smell fragrant.
Now I just need to muster up the courage to ask about all those indecipherable wines and liquors behind the counter…
