chicago italian beef

*drool* H&J took me to Johnny’s Italian Beef out in some distant western suburb (Lake Forest? Forest Park? Lakewood? take two nature words, stick ’em together, and you’ve got a Chicago neighborhood — i can’t keep ’em straight) for lunch today. Italian beef turns out to be roast beef au jus on steroids: thin slices of beef, on a french sub roll, with giardiniera (pickled peppers — either sweet or hot) and thin gravy. It’s the gravy that’s the key; it’s kind of like beef broth with lots of salt & basil & oregano. You can get them dry, so they keep their sandwichy form, or you can get them wet, or extra wet, in which case they submerge the sandwich in lots of the yummy gravy so that what you’re actually eating is a smushy, gooey mess of pickly beefy goodness. Readers of this blog know how I am about sauce, so you know i got my sammie extra wet. French fries serve as a condiment, and homemade lemon italian ice cuts the grease. Bliss.