Fred Sasaki relays his experience of growing up in Lakeview, and how the culinary flavors of the many Japanese meals he shared with his father at neighborhood restaurants shaped his identity as a multiracial American of Japanese and Polish descent. Sasaki is well-known among Chicago literati as the founder of The Printers’ Ball, curator of Homeroom’s “101” series, a former page at the Newberry Library, and Art Director at Poetry Magazine. From under the El on the corner of Clark & Roscoe, former home to restaurants Suehiro, Bento, Yamato, Tenkatsu, and Happi Sushi, as well as Star Market Japanese grocery.