About the Job

By Leann Frola
Naughton Fellow

Forget the clinking crystal, white tablecloths and dimmed lights of the restaurants you're used to reading about.

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"Chain Reaction" columns By Kevin Pang "Precocious palates" By Kevin Pang Sign up to receive About the Job by e-mail: Click here (sent Mondays and Wednesdays at 9 a.m.)

Kevin Pang, a Chicago Tribune features writer, approaches dining critiques from a different angle -- one we journalists, and our readers, are all too familiar with:

The fast-food industry.

WE STAND IN LINE WE DRIVE THROUGH WE SAMPLE THE LATEST IN FAST-FOOD FARE

That's the motto of his monthly column "Chain Reaction."

"I just think that everybody eats fast food, so why not write about it?" Pang told me on the phone.

Some of his past stories:

• A review of the Pizza Hut's Sicilian Lasagna Pizza. Here's a sample of what he had to say about it:

"It suffers from identity crisis. Like a "woe is me" high school freshman, this aspires to look and taste like something it's not. Just be yourself, pizza. We like you just the way you are."

• A story about "kid foodies." These are "kids who are eating foie gras instead of chicken nuggets," Pang said.

When one of the kids Pang interviewed was asked by a waitress if he wanted ketchup, he replied: "I don't eat ketchup. I eat olive oil."

The kid was 5 years old.

"He's got a palette that puts mine to shame," Pang said.

Pang said he tries to emulate the writing of Calvin Trillin and Jeffrey Steingarten. They have a more personal approach to food writing, Pang said, that uses all the senses.

"You're following them throughout their adventures," he said. "You really live vicariously through them."

Here's a peek at what he's working on now:

Pang tells me he's on a mission to find the spiciest food in Chicago. He's also trying to learn about the chemical compound in peppers that makes you sweat (a chemical called "capsaicin.").

"It's not only talking to people with a bottle of Pepcid AC," he said. "I'm also talking to nutritional biochemists and scientists about what happens when you're eating spicy foods."

So what's your paper doing to follow the eating habits of your community?

Pang's been on this issue for about two years -- and said it hasn't been easy being the "go-to guy for fast food."

"It requires a lot of extra work on the elliptical machine at night."