Test your taste buds' adventurous side: Five of the most unusual Chicago food items

From deep-dish pizza and Chicago dogs to Italian beef and tri-flavored popcorn, Chicagoans are not shy about the eclectic taste that has created our city's vibrant culinary tapestry. However, sometimes in a city this big, you come across menu items that shock and surprise even our slightly unorthodox palettes. So, for those with adventurous taste buds, here are five of the most unique food items to try around town. 

Mother-In-Law Sandwich

The food item late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain once called the evil step-brother of the hot dog, the Mother-In-Law sandwich both inspires and strikes fear in the hearts of any soul brave enough to give it a try. An audacious concoction, the Mother-In-Law sandwich features a cheap, machine-extruded tamale (traditionally a Tom-Tom Tamale) wrapped in a hot dog bun and topped with spicy chili, relish, tomato, pickle, and sports peppers. 

The name is a playful reference to the heartburn and fierce bite that the sandwich evokes, a joke alluding to the classic trope about difficult relatives. The dish can be found at a number of establishments around town but has maybe best become associated with Fat Johnnie's Famous Red Hots, a small roadside stand in the Marquette Park neighborhood of South Chicago that first opened over 50 years ago. While some may debate whether the Mother-In-Law qualifies as a sandwich, nobody can question its deliciousness or place in Chicago’s culinary lexicon.

Whole Smoked Alligator

Situated on Milwaukee Avenue in West Town, Frontier Restaurant and Bar has been serving up mouth-watering bites since its debut in 2010, but be careful, because one of its menu items might just bite back (or at least it used to). A bastion of bayou cuisine, one of Frontier's most popular menu items is its Whole Smoked Alligator, served in all its glorious completeness from coiling tail to menacing jaw. 

Alligators are caught and brought in from Louisiana, where they are generously rubbed in Creole seasonings before being stuffed with chicken and smoked for 12 hours, creating a masterpiece of Southern cuisine ripe for enjoying right here in the Midwest.

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Alinea’s Painted Desert Table

If there's one common thread among high-end fine dining restaurants, it's that they love to push the boundaries of what a culinary experience can be. Nowhere is that more apparent than with Alinea's iconic final course named “Paint.” A theatrical dessert arrangement that blurs the line between performance and cuisine, chefs lay out silicone mats directly over the tabletop and proceed to smear, spray, and ladle a variety of sauces, crumbles, and nitro-frozen elements together to create a Jackson Pollock-esque edible canvas right before guests' eyes. 

Flavor profiles for the menu item change often, ranging from tropical inspirations like a deconstructed banana split to seasonal variations like chocolate and licorice.

Jibarito Sandwich

One of the most distinguished food items on this list, the Jibarito has wasted no time making a name for itself in Chicago’s food scene since its introduction in 1996 at the Borniquen Restaurant in Humboldt Park, according to the Chicago Tribune. Hailing from Chicago’s vibrant Puerto Rican community, the Jibarito is a sandwich known for its distinctive flattened and fried plantain bun, traditionally stuffed with seared steak, veggies, cheese, and garlic mayo. A distinctly Chicago flavor, the Jibarito can be found at a variety of establishments across the city.

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Chapulines (Fried Grasshoppers)

Yes, you read that right: at the popular Uptown and Logan Square restaurant Kie-Gol-Lanee, adventurous guests can try one of the brand's most popular dishes, fried grasshoppers, also known as Chapulines. A traditional appetizer dish from the Oaxaca region of southern Mexico, grasshoppers are deep-fried until crispy, then seasoned with salt, lime, tomato, and cilantro. 

This menu item is seasonal, as the restaurant has to wait for the rainy season when grasshoppers are out and available in order to source the insect for cooking; however, the establishment incorporates insects into several other items on its rotating menu, including a salsa made from leaf-cutter ants.