Like many food-crazed Americans, we were mesmerized by the Hulu TV show, The Bear. We even recreated the act-of-love boursin omelet in episode 9 of season 2. (The critical element, we learned, is not putting the beaten eggs through a sieve. Crumbling sour-cream-and-onion crinkle-cut potato chips on top makes all the difference.)

Okay. We could do that. And did. And even made our own boursin substitute with goat cheese, Greek yogurt, grated garlic, and chopped chives. It was every bit as good as the original.

But there was no way that we were going to experience the show’s Italian-American Chicago beef sandwich without an expensive road trip. Or so we thought, until Devra First in the Boston Globe tipped us off to Culinary Delights (229 North Main St., Natick; 508-653-5553; culinarydelights-natick.com). Turns out that Alex Palterman has been running his Latvian deli cum sandwich shop since 2003. We can be excused for not knowing because it lies amid the asphalt tangle of Natick and Framingham mall world. Fortunately, the shop is in a small strip mall away from the rolling tarmacs of the big malls.

When we told Palterman that we’d come to try the sandwich, he asked if we wanted it ‶baptized,″ i.e., dunked in a beefy au jus. ‶In Chicago, they don’t even ask, but it’s messy,″ he told us. This being Massachusetts, he advised au jus on the side. The sandwich was so big that we could split one serving. And while we were at it, we might as well also split a Chicago hot dog (all ingredients and condiments from Chicago) and at least an extra small order of fries. ‶They are the best in town,″ he said without a trace of self-promotion.

We will attest that the fries are really good, though we have nothing in Natick for comparison. The beef sandwich is hearty, filling, and delicious — both with and without the juice. We’ve had Chicago hot dogs before when we were stuck at O’Hare between flights, but they were not as pretty as the one we had at Culinary Delights. The food makes it worth navigating mall world traffic….