Embrace Your Inner Bill Kim

 

Catered meals, even from snazzy chef-driven restaurants, can be a crapshoot sometimes. Often, the restaurant-at-home experience loses its luster when the food finishes its transit to your home kitchen. But in comes Bill Kim to the rescue with his new arsenal of Belly Kits, the latest expansion on his ever thoughtful Urban Belly brand of restaurants and provisions. With this latest addition, guests can experience the high-quality urban belly/Belly Shack/bellyQ concept in the comfort of their own home, thanks to Kim's masterful and meticulous arrangement of take-home ingredients and fixings. And the coolest part is each kit is inspired by one of the three restaurant concepts, along with another inspired by Ramenfest, which is set to take place at urban belly in the coming months. 

Belly Kits
(This. Now in the comfort of your very own home.)

Following the successful and interactive format of customizable menu options, wherein guests select their desired option from varying categories to fine-tune to their liking, Kim's Belly Kits are a multi-tiered process. First, customers choose two proteins from the following options: bellyQ beef brisket, lemongrass chicken, tea-smoked duck breast, glazed pork belly, pulled BBQ chicken, olive oil-poached shrimp, or grilled tofu with mushroom and bok choy. 

Next, they select their fixings. Options include the bellyQ kit outfitted with jasmine rice, steamed buns, soy-balsamic sauce, hoisin BBQ, Asian slaw, kimchi, and cilantro; the urban belly kit with stir-fry noodles, Seoul sauce, Belly Fire sauce, pickled cucumber slaw, chilled Chinese eggplant, and Thai basil; the Belly Shack kit, which contains jasmine rice, ssam paste, chimichurri sauce, pickled green papaya, green cabbage, bean sprouts, and cilantro; the Ramenfest kit with chilled ramen noodles, sweet chili pork broth, mushroom, radish, kimchi, bean sprouts, and scallions; or the lettuce wrap kit complete with bibb lettuce cups, jasmine rice, salsa verde, Seoul sauce, Asian slaw, pickled green papaya, and scallions. 

Finally, the third step is assembly. Belly Kits are designed to be spread and served buffet-style. There's a 10-order minimum at $35 per person. As we enter into the holiday season frenzy (gulp), it's an appropriate time to start considering large gatherings, parties, receptions, and anything else that requires feeding a vast amount of mouths and bellies. Orders can be placed by emailing kristen@bellyqchicago or calling 312-563-1010. 

- Matt Kirouac
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