We answer your burning questions -- what (and where) do chefs eat (and drink) when they get off work -- in today's Food pages. Their midnight cravings may not surprise you. Who doesn't love a bowl of Raisin Bran or a messy taco in the light of the moon?
Thanks to Rodelio Aglibot, I now have a particular craving for fried Spam and eggs over rice, something he ate growing up in Hawaii (even McDonald's there offers it on the menu, he says) and which, along with those horrible canned Vienna sausages, harkens back to my own childhood. Aglibot in fact has his sous chefs trained to make his late-night snack for him, just as he likes it.
It also serves as a barometer of their egg cooking skills, he says.
Here, then, is the Rodelio Aglibot way:
"Sunny side up, wth the egg on the side. Get the rice and mix it with the yolk. And don't overly season the eggs, because you get the salt from the Spam. There's a certain ratio of rice to eggs. When you mix the egg up into the rice, if it's too light yellow, there's too much rice. And the perfect thickness is to cut the Spam into eighths. They know how I like it -- nice and crispy."
On a non-Spam note: Aglibot is referenced in the story as Sunda's chef and while that is still technically the case, he is transitioning out of that kitchen and into the consulting role with the New York-based BLT Restaurant Group that was announced in March. His role going forward will be menu development for forthcoming BLT properties, including in Chicago.
"I'm still the chef of record [at Sunda], and I'll be spending a third to a quarter of my time in Chicago," he says. Good bet he'll take his Spam wherever he goes.
Sun-Times Food editor Janet Rausa Fuller is always thinking about her next meal.

Leave a comment