Nacional 27
My friend Jane is in town and so I thought we'd do a little Culinary Tour of Chicago 2011. I'm gonna mix in some restaurants I enjoy with one's I've never tried. I always see signs for Nacional 27, the Lettuce Entertain You restaurant group's Latin American restaurant and I thought that now would be the perfect time to try it.
Jane and I started with an app of grilled vegetable empanadas. They were stuffed with a couple types of squash, including chayote which is Latin American in origin. I've become so much more adventurous with vegetables and I now enjoy squash. The empanadas were drizzled with a chili crema and sat on top of meaty tomatoes and avocado. The empanadas were crispy and bite size while the crema wasn't dumped on top of them. I don't think of empanadas as gourmet but these really changed my mind.
I had roast suckling pig for my main course. Spicy, smoked, and tender. The pig came with rice and black beans, chicarrones, caramelized onion mashed cuban sweet potatoes, and eggplant with spicy tomatoes. That's a mouthful! I usually don't like sweet potato but whatever Nacional 27 did to these made me enjoy them. I could've done without the chicarrones. They tasted like what they are: fried, crunchy fat with little flavor. No thanks. But everything else was delicious. Very spicy which probably made me eat slower, which always helps with digestion.
For dessert, churros. Usually when I think of churros I think of long, fried dough covered with cinnamon and sugar that you dip in chocolate soup. Nay! These were small dough balls topped with caramel ice cream and chocolate sauce. Crunchy and sugary with an excellent balance of cream. Churros reimagined.
Nacional 27 put me into my third trimester with my food baby. Sushi may be my favorite food, but with the amazing Latin American cuisine I've had in my lifetime, Latin American food may be my favorite cuisine.
Nacional 27
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