It is well known that the filmmaker David Lynch is a longtime fan of the famous Bob's Big Boy in Los Angeles, even using it in a pivotal scene in his
Mulholland Drive.
Less appreciated is the role played by one of Chicago's venerable restaurants in his earlier film
Dune. From its clientele of elderly, Bene Gessarit and Baron Harkonnen-like patrons to its dimly baroque interior, Kow Kow, a Chinese restaurant at Pratt and Cicero, is unmistakably the inspiration for his adaptation of the Frank Herbert novel.
The Kow Kow egg roll was the obvious design inspiration for the blobbish Spacing Guild creatures. Especially in the Lynchian way G Wiv eats them, splitting them open and filling them with entrail-like chow mein noodles:
Like the baby in Eraserhead, not a sight one soon forgets.
While a plate of General Tso's Chicken inevitably invokes imagery of the great worms burrowing through the terrain of the planet Arrakis:
One could not help humming the theme by Toto at this point.
Well, enough of that. Kow Kow is elderly Jewish Chinese, and exactly what you would expect at Pratt and Cicero, but I have to say two things stood out: the egg roll is terrific, crispy, peanut butter-tinged, and filled with chunks of meat big enough that you can actually tell what meat they are-- possibly a first in my egg roll dining history. And the hot and sour soup was admirable, which is to say, it tasted just like what I had growing up in Wichita. (I realize that will not be a recommendation for most people, but it is, most hot and sour soup here is either not sour enough, or it's vinegary with no other real flavor.)
As for the General Tso's chicken... with enough soy sauce and hot mustard, it came very close to being flavorful. (Given the clientele, I suspect the General Tso's pastrami may be a better bet.)
Kow Kow
6755 N Cicero Ave
Lincolnwood, IL
(847) 677-7717
Last edited by
Mike G on September 21st, 2006, 4:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.