One Great Dish: Semur At Rickshaw Republic

By Melissa Wiley in Food on Mar 13, 2014 4:30PM

Call me Pollyanna, but I spy a sunny side to this downturn in the mercury: some more ice between the sidewalk cracks allows us to continue packing in warm, winter food, relishing a thick stew in a way that spring, for all its pollen, pretty much spoils. Case in point: semur, frequently the “mommy special,” at Rickshaw Republic ($16). Derived from the Dutch “smoor,” semur improves on the densest beef stew you’ve ever had through seasoning with Indonesian spices and reduction of the gravy so it becomes yet denser, followed by a sultry smothering in whatever strikes Emil Setiawan’s—aka “Mommy’s”—fancy. When I last stopped in, she had a hankering for tomatoes and shallots.

Indonesian cuisine typically tastes sweeter than other Asian eats, and semur is no exception. Mrs. S. flavors her gravy with soy sauce, garlic, ginger, nutmeg, candlenut, cloves, coriander, cumin and cinnamon. So however righteously viscous, it also tastes lighter than you expect. In that sense, semur actually works as perfect transition food for the long Chicago slog into some semblance of spring. Mommy also likes her Derrida and has done some nifty deconstruction, serving the hulking wedges of braised beef side by side the potatoes, tomatoes, rice and krupuk so you can assemble at will and very likely save some for later.

The Rickshaw Republic is located at 2312 N. Lincoln.