Publican Sunday Dinner

My parents and I also went to one of Publican's Sunday Dinners in partnership with Allagash brewery.

First up was Nantucket Bay Scallops with celery root, vanilla bean & winter black truffles, paired with Allagash Curieux. The aroma of the black truffles was actually not that good, but I remember enjoying the celery root puree. The Allagash Curieux ended up being my mom's favorite beer out of all the pairings.

I insisted on ordering the pork rinds. I have a hard time turning down an opportunity to eat fried pork rinds. Sometimes when I am in polite company, I feel the need to restrain myself, but my eyes always linger on the bags of spicy crispy pork rinds at the convenience store.

Publican's pork rinds were light and crispy and delicately salted.

A serving of Spain's Jamon Iberico. Really nice. Richer than a prosciutto, not as fatty as a culatello. I prefer culatello, but I would choose this over Prosciutto San Danielle, Prosciutto Parma or Speck. Well, I really love Prosciutto San Danielle, but okay okay, I would still choose this Spanish ham first.


I seriously overdosed on pig that weekend with the parents. This charcuterie plate has pork pie, head cheese, country terrine, morteau sausage, pickles & mustards. The pork pie was not too my liking, the head cheese very nice, I could barely handle the sausage -- it was just too much food, and this girl always likes a good porky terrine.

A wood-oven pizza with guanciale and squid that had me fairly excited because I love the intense salty, porky characteristics of guanciale (cured pork jowl), but in a total diss, there was hardly any guanciale to speak of! Just loads of squid! Even I, the calamari sucker of all time, vote for a heavy guanciale:squid ratio. Someone should hire me to get their ingredient priorities in life straight.

This turkey ballotine with schnitzel, brussel sprouts and pears went a long way towards softening my heart though. Some of you may know of my deep aversion to the dry hulking mounds of white turkey breast, but this was a truly phenomenal turkey entree that really opened my eyes to the potential of this fine beast that Ben Franklin once proffered as a candidate for our national bird.

Dessert was a chocolate ice cream of some sort with burnt marshmallows, salted peanuts and caramelised banana. A really great upscale version of some classic American favorite sweets.

The Publican, 837 W. Fulton Market, Chicago, IL