Taco Bell

Wut?

They have tacos at Taco Bell?

Well, sort of and this had to be done.  I had been to FreeGeek for our Supreme Coders Saturday afternoon hack.  I had been to Rocking Horse for some fellowship with our fellow free geekers and Cheryl had gone on down the 56 route to Myopic Book Store.  She mentioned on the way down that she might stop at Taco Bell or Burger King on her way home.  No Der Wienerschnitzel was available.  Seeing an opportunity to get our fast food fix and a promised blog post plus my Sunday breakfast all in one swipe I volunteered to stop on my way home.  I was able to get off get our food and get on the next bus home.  Careful of the ice though since I had slipped on a major not at all cleared at all sidewalk and gone down across the street from the Rocking Horse while on the way there.

So!  I chose and changed my mind at least three times and the cashier was patient with me.  I did manage to leave without little packets of hot sauce which is a very good sauce and they have more than one heat level.  I ended up with a 12 pack of hard shell tacos and it only came with the standard meat according to my cashier.  There were six regular, two cool ranch, two nacho cheese and two fiery shell tacos.  The shells were thinner than I remembered and broke easily as well as some got soggy before I got home with them.  Not a bad thing, just say'n.  What to say, what to say?  I like Taco Bell but I normally get a different meat ala cart and a side each of sour cream and guacamole.  There are memories here though and they may be good memories but maybe not.  The Doritos flacored shells brought back memories of flavored Frito's.  The fire was distinctly not the natural heat I am used to and stayed with me for about thirty minutes after I ate it.  The meat, veggies and cheese were all there and three tacos filled us up.  Not much else can be said for them.  It is what it is.  Ounce for ounce, not cheap but what we have voted with our dollars to have made available.  The other three each were brunch and snack on Sunday.  I had two in a bowl with some Aldi sour cream and the other for snack later.  I ate the snack cold out of the cardboard sleeve and it held together.  No, I did not eat the sleeve.

Brisket from Smoque 2/21/2014

It has to be done.  Yesterday, 2/21/14, was a beautiful, clear, breezy day in Chicago.  Almost too nice for take home BBQ.  Smoque got the most recommendations in my resent request for recommendations from everyblock users.  Smoque is my go to neighborhood BBQ place and the first place I found in Chicago that had brisket I would bother getting off the train for when we lived in the burbs.  They definitely pass the smell test.  This folks is good BBQ.  If you are from Chicago this may well be your best BBQ brisket in Chicago.  The by the pound price was on the board.

Now for the part I really hate.  Some of this pound really needed sauce.  Luckily it came with a really tasty sauce.  This is Smoque's market understanding at work.  Folks do not want full flavor, full fat, coat the inside of your mouth goodness and even think it is unhealthy.  For me slice me off a chard piece of pure fat and I am ecstatic.

The trip.  80 to 53, 53 to half a block away.  Reverse that to the Jewel and pick up a few things so the smell had me starving.

This is my first post with a date because I am going to make like Douglas MacArthur and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

One pound in the bag

In the box

and on a plate

Brisket from Small's

I will not be burying the lead.  This brisket is almost as good as mine.  There are many very fine brisket places in Texas that do not cook brisket this great.  From the taste I would say they do not put a rub on the brisket and let the smoke do the talking.

The trip.  I had been to FreeGeek.  When I leave there I normally just catch the 56 back to Irving Park.  I got to the corner though and realized I would be sliding on a hypotenuse if I did that so I went over and caught the 82 north.  Along the way I noticed how easy it would be to take the 82 to Joong Boo.  At Irving Park I took the 80 east to Albany which is two streets past Kedzie.

Small's is behind Lizard's.

I went in and though I had been here before I looked over the menu board.  I was prepared to buy two of their bbq brisket bibimbap boxes.  I have had that before and it is great as is their fried chicken.  The brisket boxes have kimchi which is the tie in to Joong Boo.  As some may recall though this blogs test case is one pound of smoked brisket.  Brisket by the pound was not on the board but I asked.  I was quoted a very reasonable price so I got my pound.  I chatted with Dan, one of the owners, got my pound and left.

They also have pork brisket so be sure to order accordingly.

The brisket came with some of their tiger sauce.  Their glaze that they put on the brisket that comes in the box is excellent.  The only things that would have made this experience better would have been if they were around the corner and if they had my favorite rub on this brisket.

Antique Tacos

So it is about the journey and not the destination?

I had eaten here before so I sort of knew where it was and what to expect.  I had walked down a couple of blocks with a group from a hackathon at a coffee shop though so was not completely sure.  Thanks go to the young fellow that introduced me to the place and to the Reddit Post that reminded me.

And for those who do not watch the program Check Please

Now to the journey.  This starts for me with a Google Search

So I click on the map, then on directions then on the bus or train icon.  Options are bus to the L and a good walk or short walk to bus then a short walk after getting off.  Time difference was one minute.  So the location really does not get the advantage of the L.  If you are out for a leisurely day though you might take the blue line to the Damen stop and hit a great Walgreen's, Myopic Books, Reckless Records, iCream a record shop and a lot of other places.

So on to the food.  I ordered fish, shrimp and pork.  Tuesdays are seafood night.  The order taker did a little dance for her own benefit but a real surprise to have a happy order taker.  Sat down and waited while enjoying the antiques and music.  Order taker number two brought me my food in a brown paper bag with a clothes pin on top.

The tacos were in little boxes and had the contents written on them.  I appreciate that.

The food looked nice in the boxes and as you can see the eye appeal here is leaps and bounds above the usual taco that gets wrapped in thin white paper and foil and you have to guess the ingredients.  Now the traditional way is not a bad thing and for me often that is the experience I am really expecting.

The tacos were all delicious and generous in their fresh hand made corn homes.  Two are actually plenty and I had to leave half of my third one for breakfast this morning.  Now this is the brisket in Chicago blog and of course I am a smoked and blackened kind of food guy.  The blackened taste though was overpowering so now I will have to force myself to go back and try them again.

Force myself is an old family joke and what we say at family gatherings when offered more deserts than anyone should ever eat.

At Home Brisket

Like At Home Tacos this will be the journal for briskets prepared at home.

1/15/14

So this entry starts with me stuck in a building where if I fire up my smokers everyone thinks the building is on fire and a rabid vegan comes out to try and convince me to give up meat.  Worse yet the seal on my oven has dried out and repeated call to management have gotten me no feed back on a eta for repair.

1/16/14

Midmorning knock at the door and there is our engineer with a new Hotpoint.  He really is a good kid and you can tell that he is feeling like Santa even though his communication skills have left us feeling in the lurch for the last week.

So out I go to a section of Milwaukee Ave. that is up for grabs and to  Ellengee for some briskets and pub burgers.

I have things to do Saturday and Sunday so I am going to initiate that oven quickly.  It has been too long since my chest freezers have had a proper amount of beef and since I have had the primordial pleasure of hauling home and cooking big meat.  I have Woody's Cook-In' Sauce so into the foil covered pan and then the fridge it goes.

1/17/14

I woke up at 2:30 AM.  Not usually glad when this happens but today I am.  I stumble over to the kitchen and breaking my rule of no lights from 7 pm to 5 am I turn on the light long enough to set the oven on 350 F.  At 3 am the brisket goes in.  At 3:30 am the tamp is turned down to 225 F and I go back to bed.  My pan is a bit shallow so the bottom of the oven is lined with foil just in case the fat melting through the meat over flows it.

Five AM and the day starts.

The juice is either removed or used for basting then removed.

3 PM it is ready to cut and I make a proper mess of the tip.

Thankfully I stop at that and later Sherry uses our electric knife to cut up the rest.

It is all good but there are folks who better like slices or chunks or ends or sides or bark.

At Home Tacos

This will be more of a journal than a blog post. Tortillas plus stuff equals taco will be the theme.  Will be in need of less carbs so at some point tacos might actually look like sushi.

1/15/15

I normally do the shopping.  Sherry normally does the cooking.  She had been making noises about making a pot of chili so I did my part and made sure the ingredients were available.  Her chili uses one secret ingredient that I will not share at this time. For that matter I will just say she made chili last night while I was at hack night.  So today at Jewel I bought ingredients for sort of standard tacos.  Tomorrow hopefully I will add text and pictures about those.  Today I nuked up some of her chili.  Added cheese because I was afraid the fat content might be too low.  Spooned that onto tortillas and enjoyed.

1/15/14 - supper

Here is what can happen when you take a picture without putting on your glasses.

Here are the main ingredients for a classic tortilla.

 After chopping, slicing and whopping.

 And just before they disappear.

1/16/14

Then Sherry said "Let there be breakfast tacos."

Tacos at Lomas Verdes

So I am north of Irving Park walking north on Milwaukee.  I pass a law office and think of the Kathy Bates tv series.  Then I come to the costume shop.  I know I have gone to far.  I guess maybe a lot of other people have gone to far... in costume.  So anyway I turn around, I repent, I know the reward is behind me.  I have dined there before.  Today's task though is to try most of their tacos.

So front to back and left to right we have relleno, pork, ground beef, chicken, steak, tongue and avocado.  I think.  To tell you the truth there was little taste difference except for the relleno, chicken and avocado.  I asked for four grilled jalapenos as well and got a cup of pickled jalapenos.  I swear I will need to learn Spanish properly if I continue to insist on eating authentic tacos.  The lettuce was beyond what I would serve.  So on a given day of just wanting a quick meal I would likely have two chicken or tongue tacos or one relleno taco.  On this day our mother of Lomas Verde seemed distracted with helping a young man that best I could understand had made his way in from Bollingbrook and had a promise of work on Adams in El Centro close to the Post Office.  So I got home without red or green sauce but I have plenty of that and until the snow all melts this is a neat place in the hood to grab a hearty meal.