Tacos from Big and Little in Lakeview

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web site.

Bargain bites.

On The Road

and

Guy Fieri

Then I show up in Lakeview early for a meetup and grab a Big and Little seafood taco.  They must have known I was coming because they are flying my nations flag.

 The meetup sound system was giving me vertigo so I went back and told the guy who seems in control I want some tacos for tomorrow and he turns me over to Omar.  Now Omar is not Big but Little let me tell you when it comes to his food his heart is huge.  He was not wanting to separate the ingredients and the tortillas for me but Little convinced him it would be O.K.  Good thing because I was about to go home and cry.

Scroll through these bad pictures for more bad pictures of the food.

 I almost forgot the trip.  80 to the Brown to Wellington and wondered up a few blocks North to Belmont then a block West.

This is not the way home.  Clark's is nice.  We had brunch there once.  Belmont is actually the better stop and take the elevator or stairs down to Belmont then a block and a half West.

Those lights out there are Wrigley.

7 bites of perfection.  The gyro made me have two bites.  You can blow the pictures of the Little bags up Big or Huge or even Medium but if you wait I will type some more.

There are really just too many good flavors here.  I am going to have to take Fingers and a laptop with me like a dozen times and let her make a file for me to put up for you about all of the ingredients and sauces just for the tacos.

They Call It A BBQ Fest

For some reason though the Meat on Milwaukee competition aficionado gives us pork ribs and chicken to cook.  Luckily I had plenty of warning this was going to happen so I showed up early with briskets and smokers.


We did have fun with those chickens though.

Needed safety equipment to eat my ribs.

No problem with my brisket though except for those folks who do not like flavor of a spice or fat variety.

iirc

A place to put those things I may not remember as others do.

from Third Rock - Why do they call it the Human Race?  Do they think someone is going to win?

Parklet 3968 - 3998 N Lamon 3 am had 13 BBQ Brisket Food Trucks lined up and all the 3 am-ers were lined up to order.

Brisket from Green Street Smoked Meats

The trip begins online when I learn this another of the Chicago places that does not open until 5 pm.  Later the trip moves on along the 80 to the Blue Line to Grand where we catch the Halsted to Halsted.

We scheduled ourselves a bit early because Randolph west of Halsted is a regular stop for us at Columbus Meat Market to get a months worth of rind on bacon sliced to a thickness we like.  Not early enough.  They had already closed so we took the second option of already sliced rind on at Olympic Meat Packers.

A few minutes on a bench and then we were second in line when Green Street Smoked Meats opened.

They are to be commended for carving out this little section in the Haymarket.

Meat was wrapped in butcher paper but not waxed I guess as it was very messy inside this bag.

A nod to Chicago.  We got ribs as well.

They left the fat on but only because we asked them to but it was good to see it there since so often it is trimmed before cooking losing that extra flavor.  Brisket is good and smoked right but of the variety that you want to add one of their sauces.  That is a Chicago thing and they have several good sauces.  If you are going to spend time on Halsted West of Randolph this a good place to spend it.  Maybe down the road they might add some nice rubs instead of sauces?

Tacos from Pasadita Express

Should something this enjoyable be work?

I have a friend who calls himself a talent acquisition expert?  One day, maybe six months ago, he calls me up and goes through a mini rant about people he meets when socializing.  The what do you do question is getting new responses.  Content manager, Content creation, Blogger and apparently in the conversational mix there are folks like myself looking to recreate themselves as OO developers.  That he is ranting means he will continue to dig and figure out how to connect people looking for these people with only the best.

For myself I just want to be connected with the best coffee shops, taco places, brisket joints and maybe the occasional rueben, dim sum, curry and even Italian beef.

The trip this time was simple but it took me two trips to get my blog material.

The first trip.  I thought I would deviate and just have my two favorite taco meats while on the way to an Open Gov Hack Night presentation on Github for Governments at 1871.  So I took the 80 to a block away and then when leaving had to traverse a block again to a stop and on down to the Brown Line.

So I went into the nice little yellow and black building.  I was greeted by a nice counter person and ordered my two tacos with added guac.

I sat down at table facing a big screen TV that was playing a gladiator movie.  I am not sure, at this point, which was which but there was subtitles and audio.  One was in Spanish and one was in English.  As you can see there was salsa verde and salsa another color to go with chips.  I began to enjoy the cross cultural, cross language and cross other things environment that I was in and forgot to take pictures of my tacos when they came.

So, the second trip.  Just the 80 to then a block down and a block back to the 80 home again.

Going inside since no one was at the window I found again a helpful counter person and the same movie playing though at least a week had passed.  I ordered steak, tongue and steamed beef.  No extras.  Cilantro and onion.  I remembered to ask the counter person to label them for me.

A nice little brown bag to carry home.

Each was wrapped in paper and foil.

The ingredients are all prepared ahead of time.  Small packets of factory tortillas get tossed in a microwave then separated onto a piece of parchment held in hand while the other hand grabs handfuls of meat and my chosen onion and cilantro.  Then wrapped in foil and labeled.  All is flavorful and tender.  There is more meat in these than at most taco places, maybe double.  One warning is that the salsa verde es muy caliente very hot by Chicago standards.

Brisket and more from Hecky's

There is a soft spot in my gut for Hecky's.

I first found Hecky's as we were just venturing out in the area.  I was driving so at that time there was not a CTA trip.  We were on our way toward the lake.  Driving East on Golf we got to Evanston which technically is not Chicago.  I smelled a BBQ joint and after circling past it a few times I saw a back door that looked like that must be the place so I circled one more time.  I found a place to park and the front door.  The offerings were strange to me but we settled on two sandwiches.  A hot link sandwich for me and maybe a pulled pork or pulled brisket for Cheryl.  We took our sandwiches up to Glencoe.  Sitting in a park at the edge of the lake we ate, watched planes coming over the lake and the moon rise.

So now to this trip.  The trip is sort of long but fun and in this case a lot of walking.  Buses are available and I will get to some of that.  I started on the 80 to the Brown Line.  Towards The Loop to the Belmont stop where I caught the Purple line express to the Davis Station.  From there I used the East towards the lake method again towards a Meetup.  Along the way I saw this sign I liked.

I went to one building were I thought we would be and found the voice of Conference of the Birds who happily chirped at me that I was in the wrong place.  He and some others were about to head over though and if I wanted to hang out for a bit I was welcome.  So I did and in a room with a view we shut out that view below and got a view of how data becomes open in another country and culture.

I then walked through gardens

Past many handy steeds

Through streets and courtyards

Toward that familiar scent

I got an Obama Super "Mutt", a brisket sandwich,

and a pound of sliced brisket.  You have to ask separate for the sliced brisket and this time there was a bit of discussion and a delay in getting that since it is really not on the everyday menu.

Just out the front door the Pace 213 came along and I took it back to the Davis Station which is right by the Metra Station.  My Ventra card works on Pace and CTA.

They put the brisket in this too large pan but the smoke smell from the other foods served the purpose of filling all areas I traveled with that scent.

Plenty of food.  The brisket though which is the point of this blog is not designed for Texas taste buds.  I think it was deprived of some of it's fat before smoking and it is cooked to be sliced on sandwiches where it is wonderful and still a great thing.

Tacos of Purple