"For his first stop in Chicago, Lee visited a tiny spot that specializes in arancini (fried Italian rice balls) stuffed with savory ingredients from various countries. It’s become a favorite of neighborhood Facebook groups. Lee, who posted his review on Wednesday, July 24, and his family spent $54 on six arancini, each with its own dipping sauce: Ethiopian doro wat, Mexican birria, Indian butter chicken, Indian tikka masala, Caribbean jerk chicken, and Italian meat sauce with cheese and peas. The birria arancini was an immediate hit for Lee, who praised the spices and “high-quality” meat and rated it 8.7 out of 10. A classic Italian submission, which Lee describes as a “hand-held meat pie homemade lasagna,” rated even higher (9 out of 10). Things get a little confusing when Lee proceeds to a “curry chicken” arancino, which appears to contain butter chicken, which was (unsurprisingly) low in spice but high in flavor, earning it a rating of 7.9 out of 10. The doro wat arancino, stuffed with berbere-spiced chicken, caught Lee slightly off-guard as he’d never tried it before, and he found it a little too salty, resulting in a 4 out of 10 rating. Finally, Lee circles back to the Indian tikka masala, which — like the other “subcontinent” option — also lacked flavor, though Lee ultimately assigned it 6.5 out of 10." - Naomi Waxman
