Eat. Watch. Do. — Flawless Cambodian food, pumpkin patches, plus ‘South Side’ preview

It’s Thursday, Chicago.

We’re deep into fall and spooky season is well underway. Take advantage with our appropriately themed weekend activities these next few weeks — pumpkin patch plundering, cemetery sightings and haunted house hopping included.

Or as the nights get longer, why not try out a new restaurant or bar in town? We’ve got a review of Khmai Cambodian Fine Dining in Rogers Park and a first look at Clever Coyote, a new bar in Wicker Park. Or stay in and catch up on HBO’s “South Side,” which just wrapped up filming for Season 3, or check out ABC’s latest drama “Alaska Daily,” which both have write-ups from our staff this week.

And with cooler weather in town, it’s the perfect time to crank your oven back on and dig through family recipes — because the Tribune’s annual Holiday Cookie Contest is back. Enter your recipe by Oct. 16 for the chance to win an $250 cash prize and citywide bragging rights.

Enjoy the weekend, and we’ll see you back here next week.

— Lauryn Azu, deputy senior editor

Khmai Cambodian Fine Dining, the city’s second Cambodian restaurant, “deserves acclaim for dishes as complex and mesmerizing as anything I’ve eaten all year,” writes Tribune food critic Nick Kindelsperger. The Rogers Park restaurant is often overflowing with customers and regularly has to turn away people without reservations.

“I instantly fell for the amok morn, a complex coconut curry featuring tender pieces of chicken wrapped in fragrant steamed banana leaf and topped with crispy lime leaves,” writes Kindelsperger. Read his full review here.

“South Side,” the HBO Max comedy filmed on the Near West Side, wrapped up filming its third season in August.

“The show has been a big hit with South Side residents who appreciate its surreal landscape looking at the quirky randomness of South Side life,” writes Tribune reporter Will Lee in his preview of the upcoming season. “Finally a TV show that South Siders can proudly claim as their own, providing a cynical absurdist worldview as an antidote to the focus of violence plaguing the city.”

This season will feature a homage to Christopher Nolan movies and a Kwanzaa holiday special, as well as Chance the Rapper’s reprisal of the currency exchange employee Herbert, who starred in the season 2 finale.

“We’re giving Chicago the spotlight, the most important character,” show co-creator Bashir Salahuddin said. Read the full preview here.

The Clever Coyote opened last week as a Tiki-inspired cocktail bar filling an unused space at The Robey hotel in Wicker Park. “Its name pays homage to The Robey’s 1929 landmarked art-deco building that Chicagoans once called The Coyote Building for its spire, which some said resembled the muzzle of a howling coyote,” writes Food reporter Tatyana Turner.

The bar is serving up tropical-inspired and colorful drinks, as well as small bites such as chicken wings and steamed buns. Read her story here.

Oscar winner Hilary Swank stars in the new ABC drama “Alaska Daily” as a veteran investigative journalist who relocates to a modest paper in Alaska after she’s cut from her swanky New York reporting job.

“If you’re in the mood for anything that doesn’t center on first responders, the options have been limited,” Tribune critic Nina Metz writes of broadcast TV dramas of late. “Which is why ‘Alaska Daily,’ from creator Tom McCarthy (writer-director of the 2015 Oscar-winning newspaper film ‘Spotlight’), is such a welcome addition.” Read the full review here.

This week we launched our 36th annual Holiday Cookie Contest. Submit your recipe for a shot at the $250 cash prize (and your induction to our cookie hall of fame). The winner last year? An inventive, perfectly buttery Mint Pistachio Choco-Chunk Shortbread Cookie.

Readers can enter their recipes through Oct. 16, then come back to vote for your favorites, which we’ll put to the taste test next month. Find out how to enter here.

Among our selection of spooky spots to visit this year, 13th Floor Haunted House in Schiller Park, writes Tribune reporter Zareen Syed, offers “obnoxious bangs and chain saw noises (always unsettling) and scare-actors crouching in the corners waiting to pounce.”

Enter, if you dare, or check out our other top picks for scares this year here.

Eat. Watch. Do.

Weekly

What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life … now.

For wholesome family fun, visiting pumpkin patches is an all-ages activity, and there are plenty to chose from in Chicagoland. Tribune reporter Kori Rumore, with help from her 7-year-old son Boone, hit the road from northern Illinois to southern Wisconsin to scope out the pumpkin patch scene, and along the way they gathered some helpful tips and suggested itineraries for your next weekend adventure.

Check out her fully updated list of pumpkin patches within 100 miles of Chicago, completed with opening hours, admission costs and special features for each listing.

In his review, Tribune critic Chris Jones reminds readers that “Wicked” made a big commitment to the Chicago theater scene in the early aughts.

“The buoyant downtown theater and restaurant districts in those years owed much to ‘Wicked,’ which put money in servers’ pockets, helped at least a couple of actors buy houses here and filled the streets of the Loop, eight times a week,” Jones writes.

Since Chicago theatergoers packed the house for yet another run of “Wicked” during its current national tour, perhaps it’s a sign of more to come. Read his full review here.

Home movies take center stage at Chicago Home Movie Day at the Chicago History Museum this Saturday, a free event where viewers can relive their own memories or those of strangers, along with free PB&J sandwiches “keeping with the homey vibe,” Tribune reporter Chris Borrelli writes. Read his story here.

The Chicago Marathon is Sunday, beginning in Grant Park and following a route through 29 neighborhoods. Runners from all over the world will gather for the event. Here’s what to know, no matter if you’re running, cheering on a runner, or simply want to avoid the traffic.