“Being a Jew,” Dan Salls says, “I grew up on horseradish. It was at every family party.” So when Won Kim of Bridgeport’s yet-to-open Polish-Korean restaurant Kimski challenged Salls, chef of the Salsa Truck and its West Loop brick-and-mortar location the Garage, to create a dish with the pungent root, Salls says he wasn’t exactly worried. “The joke’s on him, because that’s, like, the easiest ingredient in the world for me.”
Beyond his childhood love for horseradish, Salls says that he appreciates its versatility. “You can get the really spicy, piquant kind, and it’s got a really subtle flavor when it’s freshly grated.” For the Jewshi he went with a “more is more” approach, grating horseradish with potatoes for the latkes before forming them into patties that mimicked the shape of the rice in nigiri. He panfried the latkes and smeared two with horseradish mustard (where the wasabi would go for nigiri), topping one with corned beef and one with pastrami. After putting a sprig of dill on each, Salls wrapped them with rye-bread crusts he’d cured in horseradish and salt—”like nori for sushi,” he says.
