As an update, Los Comales Taqueria turned out to be quite disappointing considering the raves it got from my co-workers. Taco filling were dry and unimaginative.

A very pleasant surprise was Scudiero's Bakery, an old style Italian-American Bakery right across Lake Street from Los Comales. The bread, crispy on the outside and light in texture inside, can be made into a number of good sandwiches. My favorte was the meatball sandwich stuffed with three light as a feather garlicky housemade meatballs sauce and provolone for a mere $5.50.

Scudiero's also serves its own home made sicilian style pizza that looked absolutely delicious.

Los Comales
2116 W Lake Street
Melrose Park

Scudiero's Bakery
2113 W Lake St
(between 21st Ave & Rice St)
Melrose Park, IL 60160
(708) 343-2976

Amata wrote:By the way there's also a Mexican popsicle/etc place about to open on Lake Street. And a "coming soon" sign for El Pollo Giro, Sinaloa-style pollo al carbon, on Lake Street in the old location of Taqueria La Herradura.

I suppose with camp over, someone else has to do the legwork on these things.

Last night we tried both El Pollo Giro and the Mexican popsicle place on Lake which is called La Michoacana (2012 W. Lake). It was a night of mixed, if mostly satisfying experiences, and one that bears repeating.

First, El Pollo Giro, of Sinaloa style. In general, Mexican chicken places seem, by nature, inconsistent and difficult to love. As MikeG has noted, nearly all advertisements of al carbon, mean al carbon de natural gas. Still, this place met the carbon in al carbon threshold. I could see some glowing charcoals upon entrance. Still, the second problem with Mexican chicken places is the timing. The chickens are almost always either not ready or had been ready. This place went with the had been ready.

Regardless of the various microwave beeps and the grilled onions, jalepenos held under heat lamp, the stuff met some minimum standards of deliciousness. It certainly helped that the house salsa, a thick puree of tomatoes and peppers, came out very good. Of additional note, we had attempted to order a platter of nachos, which sounded fun, looked good on the wall menu, but having started the whole preparation, the cook and sole worker that night, came over to our table to confess the house was out of chips. He took our refusal to eat the nachos without chips in stride, and comped some drinks, a house salad (surprisingly good for this kinda place), and grilled jalepenos, knob onions. That, some tasty, thick beans, the charcoal, make us willing to return, if probably for lunch.

It helps, for sure, that down the street is La Michoacana. Amata called it a popsicle, etc., and it, has, for sure, a surfeit of etc., in the the popsicles, etc. La Michoacana is a Mexican snack shop, selling an array of items, probably best known to be street foods, including several kinds of paletas, ice creams, elotes and agua frescas. It is a place, I will go there and say, weird, to "our" tastes.

My wife made the funny, knowing comment last night, that Mexicans (and their standard bearers like Rick Bayless and Dianne Kennedy) trick us into thinking their cuisine is all melted cheese and grilled steaks. What Mexicans are really loving is the most tart, the most piquant, the most salty stuff imaginable. Take, for instance, my daughters paleta de agua, of mango con chile. This was, essentially, chunks of mango suspended in a slurry of chile powder, salt and lime juice. Really, for me, honestly, it was too painful to eat after one bite. She liked it, showing the differences, I suppose in generations; she having only known "real" Mexican food. And you think that's weird, what about the "mangoneada", which is a mixed drink of fruit ice cream, hot sauce, lime juice, AND chile powder. My wife said, "I liked it", but I was too afraid to even taste. More to my palate were the ice creams, in Mexican flavors like queso and guava. Of all I sampled, I liked best the coco, a/k/a coconut, featuring chunks of real coconut. Unlike the Mexican ice creams at Flamingo, which have a tendency towards crystallization, these were soft, more gelato like in texture.

We had partially gone down Lake because I've been in a donut mood--due partially to a D. Hammond daughter's Instagrams. We picked up the standard Dunk PM, 8 for a 1/2 dozen, mix for AM eating. All the family picked 2 donut varieties a person. Today, the kids went, of course, for my wife's and I's varieties, leaving a box filled with their choices for later eating. Call it marking.

No Harlo Grill?