Mabenka

Mabenka Restaurant, 7844 S. Cicero Avenue, Burbank, Illinois 60459, 708.423.7679, serves Lithuanian and Polish cuisine. The owners named the restaurant using the letters of their children’s names. I’ve been eating there occasionally since it opened. I love their delicious food and the low prices. And the waitresses are always friendly. The only negative thing I can say Mabenka is that it’s not in Chicago where it really belongs. It’s across the street from Chicago, so that’s close enough in my books to count as a Chicago restaurant.

 I ate supper there tonight because I couldn’t think of a topic for my blog. As I was sitting at my computer, I thought to myself, How can I write when I feel so hungry? So I went to Mabenka’s for the first time in about a year. I went by myself and I must admit that I really enjoyed the company. I ordered the liver and onions with dumplings, sauer kraut, and mushroom soup. I’m not sure why, but I love liver and onions! I think that’s why I’m still single. I haven’t met a girl who loves liver and onions as much as me. I have only known one other person who loved liver and onions as much as me. And that was my mother. When I was little, she made liver and onions quite frequently. My brothers ate it without complaints until they got older. Then my mother got creative. She made the liver without the onions and told my brothers that we were eating tiburón (shark). So everytime we ate liver sans onions, my mother said we were eating tigre, león, cocodrilo, among other exotic meats. One day, we were all eating our liver and my brothers were about halfway finished eating it. Then, I accidentally said, “Mom, this is really good liver!” They all said, “I hate liver!” and stopped eating immediately. My mother was really mad at me for that.

So I ate my liver and onions remembering all those times that I ate it with my mother and brothers. But I couldn’t finish it all tonight because they served me two large pieces. So I took the leftovers to go. I’ll eat them in a few days and relive all my liver and onions flasbacks all over again while I eat the re-heated leftovers. As I drove home, I wondered what I would write for my blog entry.