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White Palace Grill – Chilaquiles with Yasir Qadhi

Background

I woke up expecting to have some delicious Belgian waffles or fruit pancakes or something at Sweet Maple Cafe, but ended up going Mexican at White Palace Grill. The story of how this happened is quite roundabout.

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi was in town for the weekend to speak at the American Oriental Society 218th Annual Call For Papers at the Renaissance Chicago. He had been attending the conference and its banquets, but wasn’t scheduled to speak until Monday morning. So Saturday, he called up Siraaj, who Emailed the Qabeelat Wasat volunteer team saying:

Ameer Qabeelat Wasat to wasat-leaders

Salaam alaykum,

Shaykh Yasir just called and said he would not be able to hang out tonight or tomorrow night. He is able to hang out for breakfast tomorrow, so whoever’s down for that, let me know, I’ll be heading out tomorrow to hang out with him, insha’Allah.

Siraaj

One sister from the team suggested we hit up Sweet Maple Cafe, a super busy and highly rated breakfast place by UIC on Taylor St. I had heard it’s awesome from lots of different sources but that it’s super packed on weekends. When I called they said they weren’t taking reservations for the time we were planning to get there, 11:00am. We decided let’s get there at 10:30AM or so and try to get in.

The whole crew of 10 showed up by 10:40AM and when we tried to get into the place, they said they had room for only 6 for now and the rest would have to wait. Bump that; AbdelRahman suggested why not go to White Palace Grill on Canal and Roosevelt by the new South Loop mall and Target. Some other brothers from UIC said it was solid, so we decided to go for it (after calling to see if they have availability!)

We drove there, scrambled for parking by the Sunday morning flea market, and eventually made our way into the famous White Palace Grill.

Shaykh Yasir asked, “okay, who wants to split an order with me?”

“I’m down, let’s do it,” I responded.

“Okay, I’m looking at the Mexican Breakfast Specials over here,” he showed me.

I found one with all the ingredients for success: scrambled eggs covered with melted Monterey Jack cheese, tortilla chips, beans, sour cream, guacamole, Spanish rice, and salsa verde. “How about this one…the Chi-laa…ki…”

“The Chee-la-KEY-les?”. He corrected me. Fast. Lightning fast. The I’m-a-Houson-native, you’re-from-the-suburbs-of-Chicago type fast. It was clear that in addition to a diploma in Arabic, ijazah in Quran, bachelors and masters in Aqeedah and future doctorate degree in Philosophy from Yale, Shaykh Yasir had knowledge of Mexican cuisine far beyond that which any Chicago Muslim Desi kid could ever hold.

We decided one item wouldn’t be enough and ordered a stack of 5 buttermilk pancakes and hash browns and two glasses of orange juice to complete our split meal.

The Chilaquiles

Everything was great about this item. I’m a big on condiments, especially when it comes to the creamy type. That’s why I was sold on the sour cream and guacamole. The guacamole could’ve been spicier, but it was thick and had good taste. The beans were a great addition for the chips and rice to mix into. The main item by itself, however, was not spicy enough and we needed extra salsa verde to satisfy our Desi tongues.

The tortilla chips tasted and felt legit, and not just some opened bag of Tostitos or something, and they actually cooked some of the chips into the scrambled eggs. I was amazed by this, only to be kindly taught and reminded by Shaykh Yasir yet again. “That’s the point, akhi.”

Man, schooled again. MashaAllah, may Allah increase Shaykh Yasir in his knowledge, rank in Jannah, and love for Mexican cuisine.

RATING: 4.5 out of 5

The Pancakes

They were good, but I think we waited too long to go at them being so busy with the Chilaquiles and they weren’t as warm as they should have been. Also I accidentally put too much syrup so it was one of those wet and slightly soggy types. But still good nonetheless.

RATING: 4 ouf of 5

Others’ Orders

Mahin ordered some crazy thing, no idea what it was called, but it looked fabulous! It was an omelet type item, covered in beans, cheese, onions and greens. It even came served in the circular pan in which it was cooked. Eggs, beans, cheese, and onions. What more could you want, people?

Ahmed ordered a burger since he rolls non-Zabiha, which he said looked better than it tasted. AbdelRahman had a grin when he saw turkey sausage on the menu and ordered them alongside some pancakes. Raza Bhai and Jibs went the classical route with cheese omletes, pancakes, and hash browns and Shahrukh got some cool looking loaded-type omelet.

What really got my attention was when the waitress came and asked, “one French Connection?” Faiez raises his hand. What a cool name! Sure it’s just French Toast and scrambled eggs, but what that’s a really slick way to name it. I enjoyed my buttermilk pancakes, but next time I think I’ll get the French Connection and traffick some syrup to my plate on the way.

The Conversation

Of course, people were asking Shaykh Yasir all sorts of questions. Some were about his topic for his speech at American Oriental Society conference was about. His topic was “Contextualizing al-Muhasibi’s (d. 243/857) View of ‘Aql.”

Shaykh Yasir explained to us a little about early Sufism and al-Muhasibi in specific. Imam Ahmad actually went to listen to a speech of al-Muhasibi’s, which brought him to tears as he had never heard anything like it before. However, Shaykh Yasir speculated that Imam Ahmad was concerned with the methods of al-Muhasibi and others and what those methods would further lead to and become in the future. Shaykh Yasir plans to elaborate it on a future article on MuslimMatters.org inshaAllah. May Allah (SWT) have Mercy on the scholars.

I asked him about women changing their last names to those of their husbands after marriage, since most of what I had been finding here and there was either that it’s straight up completely impermissible according to some Hadith or totally permissible without any mention of such Hadith.

He responded saying, “this should be avoided,” and that the issue today is usually changing the family name and not the father’s name. The prohibition, known as tahreem, is denying one’s lineage and changing the father’s name which Muslims used to commonly keep. An easy example that comes to mind is Aisha bint Abi Bakr as-Siddique.

Today, our last names are usually more “family” names and not always the exact name of the father. For example, my wife, Ayesha Siddique, is the dauther of Sajid Siddique. Although there are some instances where people name their children the traditional way; for example Mohsin Sabir and Zainab Arshad’s kids names being Hira Mohsin and Bilal Mohsin (in which case Hira should not change her father’s name after marriage).

Since the family name is not exactly the father’s name, changing it would not fall under the same seriousness of tahreem. But the name is still linked to the father, so Shaykh Yasir still said changing it should be avoided.

After a some more questions from others, I asked a very serious question “can we celebrate birthdays on our anniversaries during national holidays?”

He said, “yes.”

The Restaurant

Very little to complain about White Palace Grill. Food was great, service was fast, and staff was super friendly. Since me and YQ split our orders, we needed extra plates and they were super quick and okay with bringing us new plates and taking away each one we finished using.

One of the waitresses, who I think was actually a part of management, was even kind enough to ask me, “I noticed you were taking pictures, would you like me to take one of y’all?”

“Sure, I said,” handing her the camera.

Awww look at that, 10 happily stuffed brothaz in need of adjusting their belts. I’d definitely go back the Palace again. They’re open 24 hours! Suhoor, anyone?