Foods of the Southwest: Frybread

Foods of the Southwest: Frybread

I’ve had frybread at several Chicago pow-wows, usually served with powdered sugar or bison burgers. Not bad but not something I felt the need to have again.

I’ve never seen frybread served in a Chicago restaurant, though it’s hard to believe it hasn’t been. We do have an excellent range of Native American food in Chicago, if you take into account Mexican offerings, but frybread seems more a foodstuff of Native Americans who live in the U.S. rather than those who live in points further south. The white flour used in its preparation aligns it with the wheat growers of the north rather than the corn growers of the south.

About a week ago in Tucson, The Wife and I made the pilgrimage to St. Xavier, a mission a few miles outside town. Thanks for the heads-up, glennpan!

We went inside where I lifted the sacred head of the saint (which allegedly can be done only by the true of heart; thusly did I disprove that theory). Then we went to eat.



Outside the church, a food bazaar. Vendors from the Tohono O’odham (formerly Papago) had set up beneath ramadas of ocotillo branches.



This menu board was typical:



All vendors were selling one thing – frybread – with very minor variations from vendor-to-vendor.

So we ate frybread. Carne seca sounded good. I’d bought this dried beef at Hispanic groceries in Chicago, but have rarely had it served to me. This meat product is typical of Northern Mexico/Southwestern U.S., where cattle graze and sunpower is readily available for use as part of the meat preservation process.

The young girl who prepared our desert sandwich held it above the pan and squeezed it like a sponge; the juice ran back into the pan. This was a very, very juicy fist of food.



It was also very, very good, reminding me a lot of Italian beef, hot and wet, with giardiniera-like spicy carrot and pepper in there, a lip-smacker of a sammie. Like a Johnny’s IB, you have to eat a food like this relatively quickly, before the carb carrier disintegrates in your fingers, but like that Elmwood Park sandwich, we wanted to eat this carne seca frybread quickly on account of it was so delicious.



As frybread is an “ethnic food” relatively unknown in Chicago, it seems ripe for exploitation (irony awareness alert). Fairly easy to prepare, this fried dough delivery system for deliciousness has its own inherent tastiness. Like a pizza, it’s a potential platform for any ingredient or combination of ingredients.

If a place like Big Star put frybread on the menu, it could sell well. In our cold northern climates, it’d be a novelty, and although it’s got a rep for being kind of downscale, there’s no reason why it could not be toned up. However, there’s also no reason why it would need to be: the basic version is as worthy a vehicle as its brother, the taco, and like the taco, quite satisfying without elaboration.

Frybread. Now I get it.

Hmmm...I did put frybread in my Food Desert project, and had been trying to do a Carne Seca kind of a thing that kept failing...never thought of adding giardinera. Now I know...

Mhays wrote:Hmmm...I did put frybread in my Food Desert project, and had been trying to do a Carne Seca kind of a thing that kept failing...never thought of adding giardinera. Now I know...

Because carne seca has been, you know, dried out (with, I'm guessing, some tasty liquid lost), it probably needs to have some flavor added back in (it's not like store-bought jerky that's loaded with lots of spices).

David Hammond wrote:Satisfying without elaboration.

Frybread. Now I get it.

Looks delicious Mr. Hammond, a most worthy fried dough delivery system.

Fry bread tacos are available on a monthly basis* at the Anawin Center and we were served delicious fry bread, though with a different name and provenance, at Jibek Jolu.

Not quite the same though, and full agreement, love to see fry bread tacos and their less elusive, though still not available in Chicago, Puffy Taco cousins.

Enjoy,
Gary

*I would check and recheck before going to the Anawin Center for lunch on a random first Friday of the month.
Anawin Center
(773) 561-6155

G Wiv wrote:

David Hammond wrote:Satisfying without elaboration.

Frybread. Now I get it.

Looks delicious Mr. Hammond, a most worthy fried dough delivery system.

Fry bread tacos are available on a monthly basis* at the Anawin Center and we were served delicious fry bread, though with a different name and provenance, at Jibek Jolu.

Not quite the same though, and full agreement, love to see fry bread tacos and their less elusive, though still not available in Chicago, Puffy Taco cousins.

Enjoy,
Gary

*I would check and recheck before going to the Anawin Center for lunch on a random first Friday of the month.
Anawin Center
(773) 561-6155

The frybreads at Anawin Center look more “puffy,” and those are the type I recall having at Chicago pow-wows. The ones we had last week were flatter and, I think, crisper.

That looks great, David! I'm baffled when I see fry bread given the desert treatment as I've always seen it in the South West with savory toppings, although not the vast array you were offered.

I'm wondering how closely related Carne Ceca and Carne Cecina (which they serve at Cemitas Puebla) are related, does anyone know?

Ursiform wrote:I'm wondering how closely related Carne Ceca and Carne Cecina (which they serve at Cemitas Puebla) are related, does anyone know?

Nuevo Leon has a the classic northern Mexico breakfast Machacado con huevo, carne seca/shredded dry beef scrambled with eggs. If I remember correctly, and I may not, La Casa de Samuel has Cecina, marinated not dried, in a few forms.

Damn, now I want fry bread or puffy tacos. Might just have to attempt a FYOFB.

Enjoy,
Gary

The permanent snack bar across from St. Xavier del Bac serves up a pretty wicked menudo on weekends.

I'm glad to see they have finally completed the restoration of the exterior of the Mission ("White Dove of the Desert"). They searched hard to any artisans who understood the whitewash method used on the building originally, and it took several years to complete the project.

Not too far south of Tucson, near the "town" of Tumacacori, is the Santa Cruz Chile operation, where Gene England perfected his chile paste recipe. Worth a visit.

little500 wrote:Not too far south of Tucson, near the "town" of Tumacacori, is the Santa Cruz Chile operation, where Gene England perfected his chile paste recipe. Worth a visit.

Picked up a bottle of Ghost Pepper powder there:



Pound for pound, powder is supposed to be ten times more potent than fresh chiles. 15,000,000 SHU!

If anybody runs into a place that sells these tacos on the regular, please let me know. I'm from Des Moines and get cravings for a guilty pleasure, Tasty Tacos (http://www.tastytacos.com/), and I don't want to have to drive 5 hours to get one!

Don't know if it got mentioned upthread, but the only place I know of is only open the first Friday of the month: viewtopic.php?p=62769