Chicago Playtest Society Kimski Takeover

Chicago Playtest Society is an underground dining series. Our goal is to foster a friendly and welcoming tabletop gaming community in Chicago. We believe that food and games have a unique ability to bring people together and create a sense of belonging. We invite you to join us for a great meal, learn a new game, and make some new friends. All of our events are secret, invite-only, and we never do them again.

The Game

Exquisite Corpse or cadavre exquis is a parlor game created by French Surrealists (Breton, Duchamp, Tanguy, and more) in the early 20th century that collaboratively creates works of art piece-by-piece. Each participant leaves their mark on a given drawing, making something together that none had anticipated separately. Drawing skills or a reasonable grasp of reality not required. We'll have paper, pens, and everything you need to play.

The Menu

From Chef Aaron:

"When I moved to Chicago, my first real kitchen job was at Le Lan. We prepped our own stations, worked six day weeks, and pushed each other insanely hard because we were all so proud of the food we were putting out. Moving here from Iowa was a huge adjustment, but that food blew my mind. We had bins and bins of fresh herbs that we sourced from our produce company, local farmers, and most weeks, the markets near the Argyle Red Line Stop. I had no money, and no time to spend it, but the weekly trip up to Argyle made it worthwhile. Every week I tried something new, and it was such a great education to go through the markets and restaurants and learn about things like pho, ngo om, bahn xeo, and nuoc cham. I would come back with rau thom, maybe some bahn mi for the other cooks, and a renewed drive to get this food right. While we aren’t opening a Vietnamese restaurant right now, I’ll always be influenced by my time at Le Lan and my trips up to Argyle Street. This menu is the result of that time and a look forward to bringing some of the dishes I’ll always find fascinating to you all."

Bun Ga Nuong: Crispy chicken thigh and rice noodles with the quintessential Vietnamese sauce - this is a street food staple. Rice noodles are great. Whether they are served just cooked in hot broth, or cooked and tossed with sesame, chile, and rau thom (as here), they are immensely satisfying. They serve as a textural and flavor contrast to a crispy chicken thigh that has been marinated in lemongrass and nuoc cham.

Thit Nuong: Caramelized, smokey pork over jasmine rice and a cucumber salad. Our take on Vietnamese BBQ. Grilled pork is a staple, and makes appearances in noodle dishes, spring rolls, and sandwiches in Vietnam. With the deep flavors of palm sugar caramel and fish sauce already worked into the raw pork shoulder, it’s grilled over charcoal, an important part of the final product.

Bun Chay: Crispy tofu with a sweet and sour tomato sauce. A vegan dish with huge flavors. Crispy tofu is a great medium for assertive flavors, so we are using pho spice (Vietnamese cinnamon, fennel, coriander, star anise, clove) to coat, and pairing with a salad of mango and rau thom. Sot ca chua, a bright tomato sauce usually served with catfish.

Ca Ri Fries: Crispy fries, coconut curry, and herb salad over rice. French/Vietnamese fusion junk food. Vietnamese yellow curry uses a Madras style dried spice blend, but incorporates some of the fresher elements more typical in Thai and Vietnamese curries. This coconut based curry is one of my favorite things to make at home, and I love it plain over rice with some fresh herbs and chile. After enjoying a Massaman curry, I decided to try adding potatoes, and when we landed on fries, it just made sense, and more importantly, we couldn’t stop eating them.