Ian Chillag

There are those who say "less is more," and there are those who say "less is stupid." The latter are responsible for taking a steak sandwich, deciding it needed more calories, and creating the Breaded Steak Sandwich. A thin cut of beef is breaded and fried, placed in a hoagie ...

It's -16 degrees today here in Chicago, which for many of us has triggered hibernation mode. Fortunately the great Jerry's Sandwiches has created the Ignatius R., with enough calories to get us to the end of winter, which we expect to occur sometime in August.

The ingredient list: fried ...

Right there at the end of "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch," the narrator sings, "you're a three-decker toadstool and sauerkraut sandwich ... with arsenic sauce." So we made one, to celebrate/ruin the holidays.

Our local Whole Foods was fresh out of arsenic sauce, so we went with the next ...

Each year around this time, Pringles comes out with a new, limited-time-only, holiday-themed flavor. A couple of years ago it was White Chocolate Peppermint Pringles, then there was Awkward Visit With Family Pringles, and now we have Pecan Pie Pringles.

Ian: Depending on where you're from, it's either pronounced ...

Fast food, for the most part, is about huge, innovative leaps: the heat lamp, the KFC Double Down, the Wendy's Sentient Bacon Classic. But imitation has its place, too, and Burger King has unveiled the Big King, an unapologetic knockoff of McDonald's Big Mac.

Ian: This is a clear violation ...

Subscribers to Oprah's O magazine wait all year for the "Oprah's Favorite Things" issue, in which Oprah lists a bunch of things you need to buy if you want any chance of becoming Oprah. It's just out, and in it Oprah mentions that she makes for Stedman something she calls ...

It's been a big couple of weeks for Sriracha hot sauce. First, a Los Angeles suburb sued a Sriracha factory for allegedly producing a spicy toxic cloud. And now, Subway has unveiled its Sriracha Chicken Melt, made with only the finest spicy toxic cloud.

Ian: I'm guessing it's spicy ...

If you sell food, this is the time of year you have no choice but to sell something with pumpkin spice flavoring. This has been especially hard on Taco Bell, which — nationwide — has sold only one Pumpkin Spice Dorito Loco Taco. Today, we try the Pumpkin Spice Eggo ...

In its October/November issue, Running Times has a piece by distance running great Bill Rodgers. Among the most compelling of his reflections are the details on his diet while training for the 1976 New York City Marathon:

I ate like a horse, consuming 4,000 calories a day. I ...

There's a thing you can find, mostly in Brooklyn, called lard bread. It's bread, with cured pork baked right into it, and it's not the slightest bit embarrassed about its name. We had ours imported from Brooklyn's Mazzola Bakery.

Eva: Now I know when people call me "lard bread" ...

A food named for its size sets a certain expectation. When you order a McDonald's Quarter Pounder, or Taco Bell's Acre of Beans, you expect volume and satisfaction.

Could the Two Bagger from Lucky's Sandwich Co. here in Chicago, topped with corned beef, pastrami, cole slaw, french fries and ...

The Burger King doesn't stay king by resting on his laurels. No, he stays king by constantly innovating (and by executing dissenters). New on the menu is the French Fry Burger, which is, you may have guessed, a burger topped with french fries. It costs $1, which should be considered ...

There is still debate as to whether the hot dog evolved from lesser sandwich forms or is the work of an intelligent designer, but everyone can agree it's a marvel of simplicity. At the Gapers Block Hot Dog Cookoff earlier this summer in Chicago, though, five chefs were challenged ...

The Chicago sandwich containing gyro meat, roast beef and corned beef goes by many names. This is one of many ways in which it's like the devil, and Sean Combs. People call it the Gym Shoe, the Jim Shoe or the Jim Shoo.

Ian: With a name this unappetizing, the ...

There are, for eaters of sandwiches, pilgrimages that must be made. In fact, the pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower were on a pilgrimage to try the first day-after-Thanksgiving leftover turkey sandwich. After that, the next most important pilgrimage may be to the Beacon Drive-In Restaurant in Spartanburg, S.C.

You may be familiar with the Italian Beef, a Chicago roast beef sandwich you can get dipped, completely, in Meat Juice (or jus, if you insist on trying to be classy while dipping a sandwich in Meat Juice). Order "gravy bread," and you get nothing but the bun, soaked, ...

Burger King has made great reforms in the past few years, in case you haven't noticed. First, the election of its first Burger Prime Minister freed its citizens from the absolute monarchy that had ruled the restaurant for decades. Second, it created a veggie burger.

Eva: I wonder where they ...

By now, you've probably heard of cronuts, the half-doughnut, half-croissant pastry equivalent of a liger. They're so coveted, people line up for hours at the Dominique Ansel bakery in New York, where they're made, or they pay exorbitant sums on the cronut black market. Here in Chicago, where ...

Since Sandwich Monday began, certain sandwiches have been our white whales: the Hippogriff Burger, a Reuben signed by J.D. Salinger, an Actual White Whale sandwich. Also, the mysterious St.Paul sandwich, native to St. Louis: It's an egg foo young patty, with lettuce, pickle and mayo, on white bread. But ...

It's a testament to the food at Zombie Burger that it's named the place after a species best known for eating human brains — and yet, still trusts that you'll keep your appetite.

The entire menu at the Des Moines, Iowa, burger joint is zombie-themed. There's the "T-Virus," the ...