Stroger Makes Hollywood Play
Put Down Your Nanowrimo And Leave The House
Sox Shuffle Continues
Jay-Z Announces 2010 Tour Dates. Chicago Not On List.
When Chicagoist was a young'un our family took sort of a "free love" approach to religion. The closest we came to Catholicism was the Missouri Synod version of the Lutheran Church. As an adult we find ourselves living in a neighborhood - if not a city itself - that's heavily informed by Catholicism. While for some the sight of scores of ashy foreheads hark the start of the lenten season, we look for the arrival of lenten menus in eateries throughout the city.
The apparent anchor of lenten menus is the pepper and egg sandwich. For us it's a study in the contradiction of religious teaching: a way to adhere to the arbitrary "no meat on Friday" rule while committing the cardinal sin of gluttony. We've never seen a carb-conscious version of the sandwich; most of the places down here in Bridgeport offer it as a lunch special with fries and a can of pop. It's always at least six inches long and stuffed with green peppers and scrambled eggs. Most of the people we know who order this ask for mozzerella - "motts" - smothered over the whole soft mess.
We all have varying opinions about where to find the best pepper and egg. Back when La Milanese on the corner of 32nd and May was open, Chicagoist would only buy pepper and egg there. La Milanese also made the best breaded steak sandwich in the city. Gio's Cafe and Deli is another standby, but they placed a lot of thought into their entire lenten menu. Pepper and egg registers way down on the list when placed next to crab fingers, caprese salad, and linguini shrimp diavolo. We could go to Freddie's Pizza on 31st and Union, but they barely get pizza right.
Oggi Trattoria and Deli on Grand Avenue makes a good pepper and egg, according to this website. The obsessive foodies over at the LTH forums (thanks for the correction last week, by the way) aren't shy with their opinions. Even Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown weighed in on the subject a couple time in the past year - most recently imagining Joey "The Clown" Lombardo having someone fetch him a pepper and egg at Johnnie's in Elmwood Park.
Where's your favorite place to get pepper and egg?
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
My fav for the pepper & egg is Calabria Imports, The finest sandwich "."
Johnnie's Beef in Elmwood Park makes the best pepper and egg sandwich, and if you don't mind going to Hell, you can get it with Italian sausage.
The name and url of the Chicago food forum is LTHForum and www.lthforum.com. Please drop the "S".
Hee hee. I dated a woman who was Catholic once and her mother said I was OK, she supposed, because I was raised Missouri Synod Lutheran, which is the only religion stricter than Catholics.
Buona Beef makes a pretty mean pepper and egg sandwich too.
I, too, favor the Buona beef sandwich. That and mac & cheese kind of makes meatless Fridays not much of a sacrifice.
I'm not Catholic, but I thought the churck got rid of the no meat on fridays decades ago. Is it still in effect for Lent? Some of my Catholic firends don't give up meat onf ridays though, they will do a vodka-less lent or chocolate-less lent or volunteer a lot or something. So how does this thing work?
The only Friday you have to fast is Good Friday. Ash Wednesday, also. Before Vatican II it was every Wednesday and Friday during Lent. Most people who fast today do it as a carryover from the old days or tradition. I guess I feel that it's good for the soul.
The answer is YES you should abstain from meat on friday unless your Cardinal has given you a dispensation (which he has for Mar 17)
more about abstaining during lent here:
http://catholicism.about.com/cs/lent/f/whynomeat04.htm
NSH: You are absolutely right! MI BAD. It's a good thing I err on the side of caution. Mea culpa.
Curmudgeon, you weren't wrong. You are supposed to fast only on Ash Wendsday and Good Friday (I think). Like anyone can!
as someone who is not catholic, can someone explain to me why god doesn't want them eating meat on fridays? and why do fish and unborn chickens not qualify as a meat?
jeffp, it's just another way for a religious cult to maintain the obedience of its members. If they don't maintain rituals and superstitions, someone might actually THINK about what's going on and say "Well, this is stupid"
Right, because there have never been ANY intelligent, thoughtful Catholics in history.
I thought that it was God who made the rules and not the vatican. If this was something that earlier christians did then why change that now? Or is it that we have become self proclaimed gods. Those that want to follow their desires and not God's will? I think that's it. It's just easier to change the book of God to whatever suits what we want. What a shame. Don't forget there is a judgment day. And don't forget what we always want isn't always right.