A few weeks back I was tearing up a plate of masgouf at the two-month-old Shawarma Inn on the Budlong Woods stretch of Lincoln Avenue. Masgouf is Iraqi-style grilled river fish (in this case, catfish), a dish that when executed well crisps up the exterior skin but leaves the interior flesh, moist and glistening with its own voluptuous fat. At the moment I can’t seem to get enough of it.
But I wasn’t so focused that I failed to notice a photograph on the wall from a Smithsonian article about ethnic food in Chicago. It showed George Koril standing in the window of his George’s Kabab Grill.