26th
Hyde Park: A Grocery Epic
I made the 12 mile bike trek to Hyde Park today to eat at my favorite fusion restaurant. Yes, Rajun Canjun is everything I think cheap good food should be. My friend tells me that the owners of Rajun were Indian immigrants who took over the local Cajun restaurant, but when the neighborhood revolted at the prospect of butter chicken instead of fried, the Indian owners decided if you can’t fight ‘em, feed ‘em.
And while its origin of force fusion can be read as some sort of multicultural assimilation thesis, I prefer to think that nothing can be wrong in a world where I can eat fried chicken with paratha and mango lassi. While I was living in the HP (as it is affectionately called by locals), I was crying into my flavorless Noodles, Etc entree. I detested the Med’s Italian and their stranglehold monopoly on the student ghetto, the Asian food never strayed far from the suey, but one blessed shining beacon always came through, and that was Hyde Park Produce. If Hollywood made a movie about Hyde Park Produce, HPP would be a rag-tag group of outsider with hearts of gold. At least, this is what I imagined when gorging on their pungent pico de gallo and gulping down their fresh squeezed orange juice by the quart. Just a two years ago, they moved into a huge new location and they’re better than ever.
But things are looking up in Hyde Park. Now, there’s a green market IN HYDE PARK at Harper Court as well as a line of fancy looking rides outside of Jerry Kleiner’s new restaurant, Park 52. I guess the ole’ Kleiner did it again.
