Once again, it's time for the World Wide Food (WWF) Smackdown - a totally unscientific, wholly
biased and completely personal, opinionated, non-blind taste test between some Chicago places I tried on a recent
trip and relatively similar places in LA. If you've been following along, you know Chicago is up 2 to 1
for both Rick Bayless' kicking the
Too Hot tamales' butts, and PJ Clarke's beer battered
vegetables stomping all over Finn McCool's calamari. LA's one point comes from Pink's, though they might
have to surrender that point since Portillo's just opened in Orange County.
Today, beef sandwiches go head to head in a battle of epicurean European proportions. The West Coast offers Philippe's in downtown LA, the
home of the original French Dip, and the Midwest doesn't
hold back with Italian beef from
Mr. Beef in Chicago.