- Mike Sula
- Franky Roll, Pepper & Salt
Earlier this month Friend of the Food chain Rob Lopata decreed that the finest haleem in the land was to be had not on Devon but out among the strip malls and big boxes of Schaumburg at the Pakistani restaurant Pepper & Salt. Haleem, as he testified in the Trib, is the spicy, meaty grain porridge especially popular at Ramadan, though available year-round in some places. But Pepper & Salt is about more than just gruel: it’s another piece of evidence in the case that the west and northwest suburbs are home to outlets for subcontinental eats that rival or even best anything in the city. (And the burbs are like that for all kinds of expats.)
Pepper & Salt sits in a parking lot hard against busy Schaumburg Road, a convenient location that allows it to have a busy takeout and catering business (in the same way Sam’s Rasoi and Royal Malabar Catering operate). But you can eat in too, in a mirrored dining room that assures you a view of whatever anyone else is eating. That means six different biryanis, a dozen vegetable curries, 13 meat curries, kebabs, breads (including the uncommon saffron-spiced sheermal), and snackier things like samosas, chat, and the pictured Franky Roll. The last is often compared to the “Bombay burrito,” aka the kati (or kathi) roll—though this blogger begs to differ. It’s basically a warm roti wrapping some kind of filling (though it doesn’t have the allegedly de rigueur egg wash). At Pepper & Salt, it’s beef, chicken, or a tangy tamarind-slicked, chiled potato filling—more than enough for one reasonable eater’s lunch. But did I stop there? Read on:
