Chow Down Chicago: Good Eats from the Windy City

The "mother-in-law" sandwich is quite possibly the strangest, most inventive, and most overstuffed Chicago culinary concoction. It consists of a Chicago corn roll tamale--you may know it as a Tom Tom--placed on a hot dog bun and covered with chili. And since mother-in-laws are usually sold at hot dog stands, they may be further topped with some or all of the traditional toppings of a Chicago-style hot dog: mustard, relish, chopped onions, tomato wedges, a pickle or cucumber spear, sport peppers, and celery salt. A variation of this sandwich is the "father-in-law," sometimes called the "humdinger," which is a mother-in-law covered with cheese. The late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain once called the mother-in-law "the evil stepbrother of the hot dog" and also "perhaps the greatest, most uniquely Chicago food invention."  The story of the mother-in-law begins with the late John Pawlikowski, who owned Fat Johnnie's Famous Red Hots at 7...