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Healthy Food

My nomination for the current round of GNRs is Healthy Food in Bridgeport. Here are some reasons why:

Excellent food.

Warm service.

A vital institution in the neighborhood for decades.

The best beet soup I’ve ever had.

The best cheese dumplings I’ve ever had.

Bacon on or in nearly every savory item!

KUGELIS!

Plenty of sweet choices for breakfast, too (blynai, buckwheat pancakes, wheat pancakes…)

No wait for weekend brunch (a pox on all the trendy Northside spots!)

House made pies.

Blueberries on the blynai were picked by the owner (thanks to LO for this information in the thread linked below).

Bacon buns for sale by the cash register.

Shopping opportunities, if you need a kugelis t-shirt or some amber.

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Most of the previous LTH discussion of Healthy Food is in this thread:
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=37606

That thread has numerous pictures by Antonius of many of our favorite dishes at Healthy Food.

Healthy Food also has quite a few mentions in other threads, as the answer to such questions as where can I eat near White Sox park? Where’s a good breakfast place near University Village? Or, where can I find sauerkraut soup?

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.ph ... 047#132047
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=83124#83124
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=74638#74638

Healthy Food is a wonderful spot serving delicious examples of a cuisine hard to find in this country outside of Chicago. It’s one of the Chicago restaurants I love and it would make a fine addition to this year’s round of Great Neighborhood Restaurants.

If our son Lucantonio posted here, he would second the nomination. As it is, I’ll just let this picture do the talking for him:




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I believe Lucantonio and I may have brunch at Healthy Food on Sunday, Sept. 9, the day after the LTH picnic (Antonius will be out of the country). If there’s interest, if you all need to maintain a high calorie intake two days in a row, I could post on the Events board and organize a group outing.


Healthy Food Lithuanian Restaurant
3236 South Halsted
Chicago
312.326.2724

To quote myself:



...Healthy Food.

Of course Healthy Food.

As a customer of Healthy Food for some 20 years, it is the only breakfast place I will endorse in Chicago. Buckwheat pancakes that are wonderfully severe, not to mention the bacon buns and wonderful pie.

I love the place.

That cliche "Old World hospitality" hardly begins to cover the tremendously warm and kindly greeting offered by the Lithuanian ladies at Healthy Food.

I don't know if it was Amata's intent, but her nomination was extremely well timed for Sunday's breakfast. Myles liked the sound of potatoes and bacon together and went for the kugelis:



Liam had the blynais, pretty as a lace skirt, though I couldn't talk him out of canned peaches and into fresh blueberries:



And I had the buckwheat pancakes, which are like French toast made with rye bread:



How did we like it? Read for yourself in the guestbook:



What a wonderfully preserved gem of old Chicago. We really liked Healthy Foods and heartily endorse its GNR.

Amata, Lucantonius and I have been going regularly for some time to Healthy Food and, as Amata indicated in her nomination, there are many reasons why we love the place. I second the nomination with pleasure.

Antonius

Any endorsement that includes a costume change by Myles deserves special notice.

Excellent choice, Amata. A tailor-made GNR. It's been too long since I've been to Healthy Food.

Best,
Michael

Thanks for all the good words above about Healthy Food. It really is a great little spot.

On the matter of an event....



... I'm going to back off from the minimal-level commitment expressed above to go there on Sunday, and won't be organizing anything on Events. The past weekend was a rough one for the A&A&L team, so it seems a little crazy to schedule three social outings in the next 5 days. The two of us will certainly be at the picnic on Saturday, expect to be at Xni-Pec tomorrow night as well, but I have no idea at this point whether L and I will feel up to going out for brunch on Sunday.

see many of you on Saturday or tomorrow, I hope.

I guess as a casual user of this site I just assumed Healthy Food already had GNR status.

I remember my first time dining there, getting the Koldunai, the amazing silky pillowy pork dumplings with just a drizzle of clear warm liquid bacon fat causing them to glisten like pearls. They were truly exceptional dumplings. Dumplings that could give China a run for its money.

The other dish to note is their sauerkraut soup. What seems to separate the men from the boys in Eastern European cooking is getting the perfect balance in the kraut. Too sour, and you might as well eat Frank's out of the can. Too sweet or too savory, and you lose the initial impulse of the dish. Healthy Food threads the needle of sauerkraut and then turns it into a fantastic soup. And you can take home frozen quarts, too.

One of my favorite places for the last several decades. Definitely deserves a GNR. Meat dumplings with bacon, kugelis and sauerkraut soup continue to satisfy after all these years.

This restaurant is currently up for GNR renewal. Please post your comments below.

Thanks,

=R=
for the GNRs

I have been going to HF for about 30 years now and it remains the only place in Chicago where I enjoy going out for breakfast. There is something about the whole place that satisfies me, and the excellent buckwheat pancakes are just part of that.

In recent years I have branched out and tried some other offerings, and can report that their pies and bacon buns are both consistently delightful, but it also is the timeless feel of the place, the staff, the relaxed pace, the amber jewelry always on offer (an interesting metaphor for the timelessness of HF itself, if one is prone to such leaps) and more.

I guess that on some level the Bride should be jealous of my long-term relationship with HF and the rest of you could dismiss my opinion as the ranting of a love-smitten fool. GNR for me, for sure.

More on Healthy Food

viewtopic.php?p=237560#p237560
viewtopic.php?p=236980#p236980
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=181877