Among the classic American diner fare at Uncle Mike’s Place, you’ll find a second menu featuring silog, or Filipino breakfast combos. In 2008, co-owner Lucy Serrano made herself one, catching the attention of nearby Filipino customers. Her husband, co-owner Mike Grajewski, added a few components, and the rest was history. Their silog comes with a bowl of lugaw (chicken rice porridge), a plate filled with sinangag (garlic fried rice), eggs, and your choice of longanisa (anise-cured sweet sausage), tocino (anise-tinged grilled pork), Spam, bangus (butterflied milkfish), or skirt steak (pictured). Dip the meat into the vinegar or eat it with the tomato, green onion, and cilantro served on the side (you can also mix the vinegar and veggies together for a chunkier dip). The meal ends with champorado, a chocolate rice porridge, to send you on your way with a kiss of sweetness. From $9.25; 1700 W. Grand Ave., West Town

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The beloved menu staple at Eddie Lakin’s counter-service spot is everything you want a griddled burger to be. An amply seasoned, smashed-flat quarter-pound patty of freshly ground chuck is seared on a just-greasy-enough flattop until the meat is crisped around the edges before getting topped with your choice of cheeses, like American or Merkt’s cheddar spread, and condiments. A double gets you two patties; a triple gets you respect. $5.75 for a single; 1571 Sherman Ave., Evanston

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Let New Orleans have its Mardi Gras parade. We celebrate Fat Tuesday here by actually getting fat — eating as many pączki as we can. If you’re planning to pig out on this Polish filled doughnut, first learn to pronounce the name: “punch-key.” Then try one at the nearly 100-year-old Dinkel’s, which sells them on the six days leading up to the big day. The pączki here are pillowy and stuffed with exactly the right amount of filling, with flavors ranging from strawberry and lemon to Boston cream. $2.09; 3329 N. Lincoln Ave., Lake View

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You’re going to have to forgive Kaufman’s its high-gloss update and shelves of gourmet packaged goods. Look deep into the menu and you’ll find a through-line to a much older vision of what Eastern European Jewish immigrants wanted — endless choice. How much fat do you want on your corned beef? What about the pickles? Half sours or full? Regular egg salad or just the whites? Similarly, the lox comes in three speeds: The belly is so old-country salty you’ll need a thick schmear of cream cheese on the bagel to balance the salinity. The Scottish salmon is luscious and rich, while the nova, the least salty of the three, comes closest to modern tastes. Also this: Whichever you choose, if you don’t order the bagel and lox — ideally with you and your S.O. going halfsies on it and an overstuffed pastrami sandwich — you’re doing Kaufman’s wrong. From $11; 4905 W. Dempster St., Skokie

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For the past four decades, this butcher shop and restaurant has been turning out Chicago’s best gorditas — griddled disks of masa stuffed with meaty fillings. The gorditas here come filled with cheese and beans along with your choice of al pastor, nopalitos (cactus), arrachera (skirt steak), carnitas, or chicken, but the Doña Cuca is what locals order. Named after former owner Andres Macias’s mother (the business is now run by his son and daughter-in-law), it’s stuffed with both carnitas and buche (pork stomach) and punched up with a housemade salsa verde. $4.25; 3132 W. 26th St., Little Village

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The namesake item at this iconic drive-in, which Maurie and Flaurie Berman opened in 1948 (that’s them, in hot dog form, on the restaurant’s roof), is a Chicago-style hot dog — just a bit bigger and better. The oversize all-beef wiener is served on a poppy seed bun and comes topped with mustard, onions, a dill pickle, a hot pepper, and the genius addition of pickled green tomatoes, which solve the out-of-season tomato problem and add some piquancy. It’s lovingly tucked in a box with crinkle-cut fries and served via carhop. The experience is enough to make you nostalgic, even if you didn’t grow up coming here. $6.75; 6363 N. Milwaukee Ave., Norwood Park East; 333 S. Milwaukee Ave., Wheeling

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Chicago’s most famous 24-hour eatery has been a part of Little Italy for more than 80 years, and you know you’re close when you can smell grilled onions in the air. Tourists might be quick to order a Polish sausage, but picky locals go down the street for one of those (see Polish Sausage at Express Grill), because they know the tender bone-in pork chop sandwich, topped with those grilled onions, is the star of the show. The sandwich comes dressed with yellow mustard and spicy sport peppers, and it’s all nestled into a bun, bone and all. Don’t fear that bone: Use it as a handle and carefully bite your way toward it. $6.60; 1250 S. Union Ave., Little Italy

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When this South Side doughnut shop opened in 1972, the apple fritter wasn’t even on the menu. But over the last decade, the now-beloved treat has become synonymous with the neighborhood institution (that’s owner Buritt Bulloch left). The fritters are made fresh every morning using leftover dough scraps, resulting in a mammoth confection — each one clocks in at around a pound — that’s stuffed with warm chunks of apple, flavored with cinnamon, sweetened with a glaze, and, if you ask for it, sprinkled with chopped pecans. $4; 11248 S. Michigan Ave., Roseland

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Visiting this Mexico City–style taqueria, which is attached to a corner grocery store, is a joy, from the colorful papel picado decorations to the housemade pineapple tepache. But all that is just a preamble to the food, and while it’s hard to argue against any of the tacos on the menu, the lengua is justifiably the standout. Taquero Cesar Castillo serves up thin slices of beef tongue that nearly cover the entire El Milagro tortilla. The meat is fatty and tender, topped with a shower of chopped white onions and cilantro, and finished with a squeeze of lime. The trio of salsas on your table add a final worthy accent. $3; 2500 S. Whipple St., Little Village

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