The first reservation I made for dinner during the Nebula Awards weekend way back when I started planning my trip to Chicago has a science fictional connection of which you’re probably not aware—because Beverly Kim, co-owner of Parachute with husband Johnny Clark, is the sister-in-law of Wesley Chu, author of The Lives of Tao.

So a John W. Campbell Award-nominated writer is related to a James Beard Award-nominated chef. See, the Venn diagram of food and science fiction overlaps even more than you thought!

So last Friday night, Barry Goldblatt, Kate Milford, Fran Wilde and I headed over to Parachute—a Korean American restaurant named Restaurant of the Year by Eater Chicago in 2014 which recently celebrated its one-year anniversary—to find out what all the fuss was about. That’s Fran Wilde and me (and a little bit of lens flare) above. I wish Wes could have joined us, but he had to head off to the Cayman Islands with his wife so they could celebrate their anniversary. What kind of priorities are those?

And the meal was pretty much perfect, with but a single flaw—due to competition from that night’s mass autographing (the early part of which I skipped in order to be able to make this dinner), our party dropped from six to four at the last minute, which meant we couldn’t eat ALL the food on the menu! I guess that will have to be our goal when the Nebulas return to Chicago again in 2016.

We started off, as I’m told one must, with …

Baked potato bing bread, bacon, scallion, sour cream butter

Moist and savory, and I can see why it’s considered a signature dish. I should have ordered an entire loaf to go!

House pickles (kimchi, chili chayote, watermelon radish zuke)

Nice kick to the kimchi, which was some of the best I’ve had.

Asparagus, tandoori chicken skin, raita

Intriguing way to serve asparagus, turning it extremely addictive.

Little gem salad (lettuce, green garlic dressing, puffed wild rice)

Light and refreshing, and a good contrast with the dishes to come.

Boudin noir, rhubarb, raspberry vinegar, seedy salad

You don’t normally think of rhubarb as capable of delivering umami, but marry it to boudin noir, and it does. Oh, it does.

Pork belly and mung bean pancake, kimchi, black garlic, hen egg pineapple

My favorite dish of the night. Great combination of flavors and textures.

Dukbokki, mushroom, dried beef, perilla seed

Not a dish with which I’m familiar, so I can’t compare it with its Platonic ideal, but it was quite tasty.

Chicken, fava leaves, wood ear mushrooms, garlic confit

Tender and comforting.

Striped bass, Chinese black bean sauce, almonds, nasturtium

A good balance of flavors, with the fish perfectly cooked.

Dolsot bi bin bop, Spanish mackerel, escarole, preserved lemon, barbecued onion, seaweed, soft egg

Though the pork belly and mung bean pancake was still my favorite dish of the night, I have to say that this was the star. Rich, complex, and satisfying.

And after that, we ordered ALL THREE of the available desserts …

Misutgaru ice cream, cocoa roasted soy beans

Mascarpone panna cotta, umeboshi granita, lemon balm

Rhubarb buckwheat streusel, sakura ice cream

Hard to pick any one of them over the others, though perhaps the misutgaru ice cream (at least for me) was ahead by a hair. But every one was a winner.

Next year you’ll join us, Wes, right? And not do something silly like flitting off to a sunny beach again to celebrate your anniversary?

Keep those priorities straight!