Maxwell Street Market - Sunday, Oct. 5, 10am

I'm far from the professional Maxwell Street Marketer that other LTHers are, but I'm looking forward to visiting the new location and communing with friends while discussing the GNR nomination over huaraches and licuados. Since the market has moved, our usual meeting place of White Palace Grill is no longer appropriate: Shall I suggest we meet outside the Churro truck near the Fishman's Fabrics sign (shown on Google Street View, I hope it's still there) at the corner of Desplaines and Roosevelt? (I defer to the pros, if you've got a suggestion for a better meeting place, let me know.)

The move has made transportation a bit more challenging, as well: David Hammond noted that there is still street parking, and there's a pay lot near the Dominick's. By public transportation, taking the Red Line means it's a longer schlep from the Roosevelt stop, but there is a #12 bus that runs down Roosevelt on Sundays.

Maxwell Street Market
Desplaines Street and Roosevelt Road
650 Roosevelt Rd
Chicago, IL 60607
Sundays (7:00AM to 3:00PM)

Hi,

David Hammond, Bruce Kraig and I are escorting 17 students and their instructor from Grand Rapids, MI to Maxwell St next Sunday. If you don't mind, we will be including them on the LTH walk-about.

Regards,

Not at all, the more the merrier! I'll see you all there - do you have a better suggestion for a meeting point?

Mhays wrote:Not at all, the more the merrier! I'll see you all there - do you have a better suggestion for a meeting point?

Thanks, I was hoping you wouldn't mind.

I would rely on David for that answer since I haven't been to the new one, yet.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:

Mhays wrote:Not at all, the more the merrier! I'll see you all there - do you have a better suggestion for a meeting point?

Thanks, I was hoping you wouldn't mind.

I would rely on David for that answer since I haven't been to the new one, yet.

Regards,

I wouldn't recommend planning to meet at any vendor location (because that specific vendor might not show up on Sunday, or their location might change). Instead, I'd go with a solid, immovable meeting place, like the new metal signage at the northwest corner of Des Plaines and Roosevelt:

I'm moving in two weeks but if I can spare the time I would love to see the new market!

So, we'll meet at the giant, red...M? At 10am, Done. Feel free to join, even if you haven't posted; it's not like they need reservations!

Mhays wrote:So, we'll meet at the giant, red...M? At 10am, Done. Feel free to join, even if you haven't posted; it's not like they need reservations!

My eyeball taco eating partner (does that make us blood sisters of some kind ) I will try to join you at the market.

Jyoti

I've always considered us so!

(non-eyeball eating folk welcome as well!)

Just to be clear, I will not be eating any eyeball tacos. There's just too many delicious things there to waste space on something like that.

Well, since it is a GNR nominee, I feel obliged to mention that while the eyeball and sesos tacos were interesting and all that, there are many craveable options like tortillas hecho a mano, carne asada, al pastor cones, fresh churros, huaraches, etc. that are far and away a better reason to go. I'm not driving halfway across Chicago to search for parking with my fingers crossed just because I might get a second shot at eating an eyeball.

I'm going to try to join you folks -- assuming I can wake up in the morning.

(the next day)
Yup, made it down there, sorry for ditching the crowd after the Tamale stand -- I realized I probably wouldn't have enough time to see it all if I stuck with the group, before I had to go pick up MrsF and my nephew (as it is they were running late).

Highlights:

• An outstanding gordita near the beginning -- fantastic green salsa with a lot of lime in it.
• Dried chiles at $5/lb
• Spices being sold out of huge bins -- need to take a list of what I'm short on next time
• Those tamales -- I took six home for supper
• A salvadoran pupusa, stuffed with cheese, beans and pork -- nummy!
• Lots of used tools, I may pick up some drill or dremel bits or something like that next time
• The acrobats in the IDOT lot

I haven't been anywhere near that neighborhood in 25 years (Northwestern had an Intro to Urban Geography class that had a 2AM field trip that walked through that neighborhood, South Water Market, ending up in Haymarket Square), and it's cool to see something so vibrant in the heart of downtown that often seems either sterile of decaying.

Joel, after that walk and all that food, I'm amazed you were upright enough to type. I, OTOH, became prone shortly after my return home (though I stayed the full visit and hit a few more stands along the way)

Great to see and meet so many of you, especially those who just showed up at the last minute: na, Cookie Monster, dansch, Vital Information and lovely family, Octarine, and it was particularly fun to randomly run into Laikom while we pondering camera crew shooting a scene about hot dogs in front of the Pupuseria. (According to Laikom it was the Travel Channel)
What fun to finally meet the members of the Culinary Historians, a group of hardy folk who I'm surprised don't visit LTH more often as they'd fit right in. Oddly, I found myself taking pictures of people and then forgetting my camera entirely (though I feel particularly honored that none other than food historian Bruce Kraig shot my huarache)

The band begins to gather under the red M


Professor Kraig awes the crowd with stories about the blues and "cheat you fair" along with a discussion of regional Mexican cuisine


In my admittedly few visits to the market, I always wind up trying something new - easy to do even if you're a regular. After turning the crowd on to huaraches de lengua, Bruce called me over for a taste of something he'd ordered: a taco de montaloyo (?), which a Google search informs me is sheep or goat stomach stuffed with spiced offal - i.e. Mexican Haggis. Intrigued by my first bite, I ordered one of my own: it was excellent, not sheepy at all - it reminded me of extremely giblet-y Thanksgiving giblet gravy, topped with cilantro and onions. Definitely on the return list, I find myself craving another one right now (beats the heck out of eyeballs! ) I also picked up some interesting-looking produce: a jicama the like of which I've never seen before, but I was assured was a sweeter variety, and a guyaba, which I intend to somehow incorporate into dinner tonight.



I had tremendous fun discussing Mexican food and ingredients with all the folks who came by; it's always a treat to go with Cathy2 and David Hammond and other LTHers, but the add-on of Bruce Kraig and all the culinary historians made this event even better. Kudos, too, to the Grand Rapids kids for enjoying all the new tastes, sights, and smells!

I didn't eat all that! Only the gordita at the start and the pupusa at the end (and a Coke). The tamales got taken home for dinner, and the three of us couldn't finish three rajas and three of the Oaxacan ones.

I know there are some LTHers that can put away more food than I can, but that wasn't that much to eat for me.

In my defense, though I only ate two things, those huaraches are HUGE!

Joel - out of curiousity, how different were the gordita and the pupusa? I suppose the pupusa is stuffed before it's cooked, but other than that, were there any differences that struck you?

Mhays -- Also note I'm a little bigger than you are -- a couple of antojitos is a snack. Those huaraches were pretty darn big, I will admit; that's one of the reasons I chose the gordita: leave room for more.

The gordita at that stand near the south end wasn't typical of those I've had at other Mexican taquerias: it was crispier and a little greasier, probably deep fried versus griddled. It's a yellow corn meal product, and it was somewhat crumbly (shoulda taken a fork). As you said, the meat, cilantro, onions, lettuce and salsa are added within the cut edge for serving.

The pupusa was stuffed with a paste-like mixture of pork, cheese and beans into a ball of dough which was rolled flat and griddled. The dough was white corn, and somewhat smoother in texture than the gordita. It's similar to arepas I've had elsewhere, although the arepas weren't stuffed (though some are).

The pupusa is a cakey unit, versus the gordita which is more of a wrapper around stuff.

Good description; thank you - I was stuffed by the time I got to the pupuseria and didn't get a whack at them (but I conveniently have a Salvadoran neighbor with a kid in Sparky's class who makes them by hand) I've had cheese pupusas and some meat ones I don't really recall, so I was wondering about the filling

Mhays wrote:Bruce called me over for a taste of something he'd ordered: a taco de montaloyo (?), which a Google search informs me is sheep or goat stomach stuffed with spiced offal - i.e. Mexican Haggis. Intrigued by my first bite, I ordered one of my own: it was excellent, not sheepy at all - it reminded me of extremely giblet-y Thanksgiving giblet gravy, topped with cilantro and onions. Definitely on the return list, I find myself craving another one right now (beats the heck out of eyeballs! )

Here is a link to a thread about Montalayo (which I really like). It seems to be becoming more common around town than when I first asked "What is Montalayo?" about two and a half years ago. The (not so) new location of Supermercado Morelia sells a very tasty version.

Wow, thanks! If I wasn't going to Tub Tim Thai for lunch, I'd be there!

On a down note, the illustrious Spice Lady of the Let's Spice it Up! concession at MSM has somewhat retired and is now selling only online: http://store.letsspiceitup.com/servlet/StoreFront

She told me she was stressed out by the biz and is going to take it easy for a while. I use her smoked paprika all the time.