112128 Sun Jan 26 17:53:46 -0800 2003 8 7 Chicago Area 0 608514 Okay, now that I've written my headline I realize that the biggest restaurant no one knows exists must be some industrial facility's cafeteria somewhere. But as I was heading back on Ashland from Restaurante Oaxaca, I saw a building with lavish signage announcing a restaurant that I've never heard anyone mention before: Sophie's Ashland Wagon. Several two-story paintings of the eponymous Sophie, bearing beer in St. Pauli Girl style and garb, along with promises of food and a phone number. The building was quite good-sized for this kind of thing, think roughly the size of that Hacienda whatever place on Ashland near Chicago. From the neighborhood (north end of Back of the Yards? Pilsen? wasn't quite paying enough attention) I'm guessing it's a Polish or some other E. European place. Now it may be that the reason no one has heard of it is that it's been closed for a decade, but on the whole, Sophie looked freshly painted and it may well be a going and very popular concern. Anyone else seen this? Or know it? * * * As for Restaurante Oaxaca, which I finally tried after Rene G's many urgings on line and in person: I do think the weekend is the time to go, not only because there were various specials but because there seemed to be more English-speaking staff. We ordered way too much food for 2 adults and one kid, but it was so cheap, why not? One thing I'll say, Chowhound has sure improved my instincts for ordering in Mexican restaurants. Instead of being the expected totally clueless gringo, I seemed to impress the waiter favorably when I ordered an empanada, he said "beef, cheese or fluhduhzuhzuh" and I responded "Oh yeah, flor de la calabeza!" He smiled and said "Huitlacoche?" I decided not to gross out my son and said no. Then he set me the ultimate test when I ordered a Coke-- "Can or bottle?" "Bottle!" I said, suspecting rightly that meant real Mexican Coca-Cola. Okay, it's not buying a bag of live beetles at the stall, but I felt like I'd done all right... Anyway, so very nice flor de la calabeza (Myles ate the part that resembled a quesadilla, and let me eat the icky orange-green stuff). That really has become one of my favorite things, and theirs was quite good, not spinachy and very light. The chicken in a mole, at first I thought it seemed one dimensional, then a few bites later I was wondering what the hell I'd been thinking, seemed spot on. The most interesting dish came about because my friend Wyatt accepted the waiter's recomendation for some sort of chili dish. That turned out to a chili stuffed with everything from corn to some sort of fruit, fried in an egg batter almost like a croque monsieur or something, and topped with a sweetish sauce and luridly purple somethings that we finally decided were probably pomegranate seeds. Not what he probably would have ordered had he known what it was going to be, but very interesting, I like to see things that suggest a whole range of items unlike what we typically get in Mexican restaurants. Sun Jan 26 17:53:46 -0800 2003 0 Mike G 1 608516 That sounds a bit like "chiles en nogada" which would have a walnut sauce over it all. Francisco at The New Rebozo in Oak Park makes a great version. Sun Jan 26 19:44:40 -0800 2003 608514 0 JoanB 1 608517 Glad to hear you enjoyed Restaurante Oaxaca. That’s interesting about the empanada. On different visits I’ve ordered quesadillas and empanadas and got essentially the same item. Very good though. I also enjoyed the pollo en mole (the sauce was much better than the meat however). I wanted to try the chiles en nogada which as RST has pointed out is Pueblan not Oaxacan. The fruit in the could have been any number of things but probably included raisins, the sauce was walnut based, and topped with pomegranate seeds. There’s a nice recipe and some background in Diana Kennedy’s first book, The Cuisines of Mexico. I’ve been curious about Sophie’s at 3750 S Ashland but have never been. I’m afraid it might now be closed but I’m not sure about that. From what little I know, this old Bridgeport place, partly hidden behind a highway entrance ramp, served mostly American food, reportedly including some good home-made corned beef. I just tried calling the number listed in the phone book (773-523-0415) and got a message the number had been disconnected, certainly not a good sign. I look forward to hearing any other reports about Sophie’s. Sun Jan 26 20:03:06 -0800 2003 608514 0 Rene G 2 608518 Okay, after I finally stopped searching for Sophie's Ashland Wagon and just tried Sophie's, I turned up the name Sophie's Pub as an alternate name for it-- and a mention in an old front page to the Reader restaurant section. Here's the listing and there are some reader reviews which make it clear that it is (was?) a Bridgeport institution where the likes of Dick Durbin and Ed Burke can (could?) be found chomping down, as well as popular enough for its ribs that it's allegedly full of downtowners every day (or was). I don't know, sounds sort of like how people would describe a place like George Diamond's where that hasn't really been true for 20 years, but maybe it really does still pack pols in, who knows. Anyway, here's the link to the page with the Reader reader reviews. Link: http://www.chireader.com/cgi-bin/rrr/comments.cgi?RestaurantName=sophie%27s&SearchByName&numb=1716 Sun Jan 26 22:28:33 -0800 2003 608517 0 Mike G 3 608522 The name "Sophie" in connection with a restaurant instantly brings to mind the late and lamented Sophie's Busy Bee on Damen in Wicker Park.... Mon Jan 27 02:55:25 -0800 2003 608518 0 mw 4 608531 This used to be known as the Wagon Wheel, a south side establishment of great renown. I haven't been there since I was a wee lad in the '60's, so can't provide any meaningful data. The ribs used to be comparable to "The Homestead", again, this is old news (frm the '60 - 70"s). Mon Jan 27 12:06:20 -0800 2003 608522 0 pietaster 2 608529 The cook (Sra. Guadalupe?) told me that she uses mexican citron, the candied cactus in her chiles en nogada. We ate at RO a couple of weeks ago with friends and that dish was the clear winner, although the mole and the coloradito were both excellent. The chilaquiles were good, but not as good as Taqueria Oaxaquena. However, they do offer the chilaquiles with guajillo (which I had), verde, and frijol. Next time I get them I will try the frijol, which will hopefully be made with a good thick bean broth with epazote. The quesadillas of flor de calabaza and huitlacoche are not on the menu as I recall, but empanadas de amarillo e hongos are. Thinking that this would be one empanada of mushrooms in yellow mole, we ordered, only to be delivered one of yellow mole with chicken (which was excellent) and one of sauteed mushrooms and cheese, which was good but not knock your socks off. They were out of pork, which would have been the choice for the coloradito. I had it with turkey on one occasion which was delicious. Last time my husband commented that the chicken in the mole oaxaquena was just a vehicle for the mole. Sra. Guadalupe also offered us a generous sample of chapulines, which all enjoyed. Mon Jan 27 11:34:09 -0800 2003 608517 0 annieb 2 608562 I am actually in Oaxaca at the moment at an internet cafe (there seems to be one every 10 steps in this city) on the calle 20 de Septiembre. I have been eating my way through dozens of food stalls at the market,trying everyone´s versions of clayuda preparada, of amarillo de res, verde de espinazo, chichilo de res, coloradito, mole rojo and mole negro etc. Restaurante Oaxaca is the real thing. One could argue about someone else´s version of a dish being more flavorful, more polished etc but there´s no questioning the authenticity of Sra. Guadalupe´s cooking. Wherever I eat, I spend the bulk of my dining time barraging the cook with endless question, even dumb ones. Just 10 or so minutes ago, I asked one of the ladies at the market a seemingly childish question. I asked why, given the fact that there are so many purveyors of mole pastes at the market and given the fact that most of these are of extremely high quality (with no added preservatives as these are expedients for busy local career women, and not meant for export), everyone with a stall still prepares their own moles. The senora looked askance at me and said: why, that´s bec everyone has their own "sazon". They have their precise way of making things that they inherited from their mothers and grandmothers and no one else´s sazon (sazon = taste, seasoning, preparation etc) will do. That sort of sums up my eating experience of the day: it was a series of very individual ways of preparing traditional dishes. Re: chicken. There is no comparison bet the rich, slightly tough and stringey, flavorful chicken served here and the bland, battery-raised crap that we have back home. Chile en nogada is a national dish with roots in Pueblan gentility. But as I speculated elsewhere, there might have been precolonial forms of this dish i.e. chiles filled with fruits. The article on Diane Kennedy in New Yorker described her recording such a dish right in Oaxaca. In the summer, Sra. Guadalupe used orchard fruits (pears, peaches, apples). Her stuffing changes with the season. I remember that we had a discussion on her orchata and her aguas (tamarindo etc): they are in fact as they should be, being exactly the way everyone makes it in this city. Let me know if anyone needs anything (rare chiles etc) from Oaxaca or wants me to check up on anything. I will be leaving tomorrow night for Puebla (will be checking on the cemitas there) but will check back tomorrow morning. Was blown away in Chilapa yesterday. What a great market. It is really still essentially a peasant market and through some 6-7 hours of exploring, not once did I run into a foreigner or even sharply-dressed folks from Mexico City or any other big cities. Spent some time talking to Magdalena Covarrubias, who has written a cookbook on the culinary arts of Chilapa. She is fairly well-known in the country and has given talks in the capital etc. When I told her that I live in Chicago, she said that some guy from another town once came to her begging for recipes bec he runs a restaurant in Chicago specializing in dishes from Guerrero (chalupas, pozole verde etc). She doesn´t know the name so I will have to look for him when I get back. Also spent time with two hilarious, lusty, earthy old ladies who run stalls at the old market (about to be torn down). How they talk! They cannot form a single sentence without weaving in some sly double entendre! All the little kids (their kids and nephews etc) hanging around were laughing hard at all the salty talk about farting, f--king (coger) etc. When I told them I was interested in local dishes,one of them asked me to come around to the stove area where she was going to devirginize me (te voy a desvirginar). There, she had me taste all her moles and sauces of which the most fantastic is a certain richly-textured guaxmole made with guaje seeds (this, she said, is guaranteed to make me fart uncontrollably por arriba y por detras). And what noses these women have! They knew and could tell exactly what I have been eating by standing next to me. And they tested my nose too: making me guess the ingredients of a mole just by sniffing the vapors coming from the pot. Naturally, they ended up denouncing me goodhumouredly as a fraud (que tipo de aficionado de la gastronomia eres!) as I fumbled about and attempted to bullshit an answer. Amazing range of foodstuff at the market: all sorts of seeds, foraged herbs brought in by barefeet Indians from the surrounding areas, fresh milk being dispensed by a senora walking around the market, the dozens and dozens of breads that Chilapais famous for etc etc. More later (my internet hour is ending). RST Mon Jan 27 21:41:46 -0800 2003 608517 0 RST 3 608575 Sorry, didn't have my notes yerterday when I typed this. It's Cassarubias: Magdalena Cassarubias Guzman and the name of her cookbook is El arte culinario de Chilapa, Guerrero. I got a signed copy for about $5. She had never heard of Geno Bahena before I told her that two of the most famous Mexican restaurants in Chicago are called Chilpancingo and Ixcapuzalco. With just a slight hint of haughtiness, she remarked that Chilpancingo (the state capital) has NO gastronomy per se and that what "they" call their cooking is really chilapena cooking. Earlier that Sunday, I was chatting with senora Juanita who runs a little bread stall at the (new) market. I was sipping her cafe de olla along with fresh milk when I told her that I am from Chicago. She said to me that there are most of those from this area who have emigrated to Chicago are not from the city itself but from very poor little hamlets nearby. She mentioned places like Nehapa, Malamacintla, Atempa, Chuchula, Tilsomilpa, Lamate, Lantana. But where exactly are they in Chicago? Incidentally, I don{t want to give the impression that Chilapa is some picturesque and cute little town like those in the glossy pages of Food and Wine or Martha Stewart. It is not. In fact, it is quite dusty, hot and ugly. But the gastronomy!!! P.S. some of the breads Chilapa is famous for: pastelillos de manjar, panochera de requeson, carita blanca, hojaldre, reganada, sobada, chamuco, encanelados, "gringos", besos (senora Juanita playfully added the word ingratos = kisses of an ingrate), viudas (she added alegres = merry widow). RST Tue Jan 28 12:27:21 -0800 2003 608562 0 RST