Street Corn?

In my effort, as a transplant, to sample the rich culinary offerings of the city I have been adventurously sampling the wares of street vendors. I have had particularly lovely homemade limeade on Milwaukee near Logan boulevard.

Tonight outside of the Division St. Jewel I spotted several people gathered around a vendor there (at 10 pm no less). A woman was eating corn on the cob, coated with something white and sprinkled with Cayenne. I ordered the corn "with everything".

To my surpise, my lovely ear of corn was denatured of its kernels, which were then stuffed into a styrofoam cup and subject to unseen machinations. I began to have second thoughts when what seemed to be liquid parkay was squirted into the cup.

The cup I received included, as far as I can tell - corn kernels, some kind of crema or mayo, mexican farmer's cheese that had a feta-like quality, the liquified parkay, and a lot of very hot paprika. I actually ate a good bit of it - the cheese and hotness combined with the fresh corn was quite good. I could have done without the fakey mayo flavor and especially without the dominant melted margarine taste. By the end I half liked it, and half never wanted to eat another piece of corn again.

So tell me: is this an Americanized version of some amazing mexican street food or dish? What other things do street vendors sell that I should try? And, can someone tell me where (ahem) to try authentic Mexican food? I think I'm hopeless, and need some education. I always end up wishing I could order some vegetables.

HI,

What you consumed was an elote, which is a traditional Mexican food available at home and in the street.

My first experience was after my Grandfather died in the early 90's. I was overseeing the overhaul of his two-flat before selling it. At the first opportunity of encountering a Mexican street vendor, I ordered the corn with everything on it. I stood there with big eyes as the corn was slathered in mayonnaise, then rolled in parmesan cheese, soft margarine in a squeeze bottle was applied in an up and down pattern and finished with a chili powder. What great theater and snack for a dollar in 1992.

My Mexican Aunts will serve corn at their home with a container of mayonnaise ready to apply. If you want butter, then you have to ask.

I prefer eating my corn off the cob, though it is offered in the cup like you experienced.

Another offering was fresh fruit: peeling and scoring a mango, then squeezing fresh lime juice and an application of the chili powder. I tried it once as they do it, then later had them go a lot lighter on the chili powder.

Regards,

FYI, the spanish word for what you ordered is "elote" (usually plural "elotes" when painted on the side of the cart).

I'm not a huge fan because I'm not into the mayo, but they will usually make things to your taste -- especially if you saw someone eating from the cob, you should be able to just tell them that's how you want it. I don't recall ever seeing it served the way you got it, but like I said, I don't buy it very often.

I love the fresh tropical fruit vendors -- there's usually one stationed at Pratt and Clark in Rogers Park. I could swear I posted about a great tub of fruit I got from them recently, but I can't find the link here.

Things seem to have cooled off a bit, but a few years ago, the city was actively subverting street vendors like this, so if you like their products, support them, and spread the word to people that they are good. Here's a page which hasn't been updated in many years with a lot of info. I'm hoping that the city realized that these vendors are not a threat.

When you say "try authentic Mexican food," are you talking about restaurants? There's a great bounty. EatChicago indexed David Hammond's "Beyond the Burrito" series, so that's one place to start. Of course, there's an overload of great Mexican food here in Chicago, so it might help if you tell us more about where you are interested in going or what specific foods you would like.

You could also look over the Great Neighborhood Restaurants for Mexican restaurants highly regarded by people here.

Also, if street food is your interest, you should check out the weekly Maxwell Street Market as well as the "vans" in various places around the NW side:

Maxwell Street Market Video -- Getting a bit dated as the market reconfigures, but the spirit remains.

Vans near Cafe Marianao -- Get past the Marianao stuff to read about the vans near Marianao and a post later in the thread contains more links to other threads about vans.

Welcome to LTHForum!

Best,
Michael

Nothing inauthentic or gringoed about elotes from a street vendor. Quite the opposite. Mayo is popular in Mexico. As eatchicago noted, very near the area you were are a couple of vans that set up on weekend mornings, selling very rustic street food. Spend a couple of bucks and sample a range of items.

Also, you (and everyone) should read the elegant, informed, joyous description by RST in the link to Chowhound provided by eatchicago above. The piece will guide you through the van's menu, which remains virtually identical after 4 years.

Here's a shortcut:

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/112893

I grew up in the city and it seems as though there's always been elotes carts tooling around my neighborhood (where Irving Park meets Albany Park). It's been treat for as long as I can remember.

If you're lucky, you can find women selling homemade horchata (rice milk, sugar, cinnamon, & vanilla) from carts or Igloo containers in certain 'hoods (as well as @ Maxwell Street). There's a lady who sometimes sells it (along with tamales) from an Igloo outside of the Belmont Blue Line station.

Most Mexican groceries (at least in my 'hood) have several carts parked outside selling elotes, horchata, and agua fescas + cafe con leche in winter - all of which you can get (and more!) at Maxwell. Yum.

How do I indicate to the cart proprietor en Espanol that I prefer my elotes on the cob? I know how to tell them what I'd like on it, but I'd rather not eat it from a cup.

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:How do I indicate to the cart proprietor en Espanol that I prefer my elotes on the cob?

mazorca de maíz
Or on the cob, dipped in tequila:

"On-the-cobbo wabo, Dude!"

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:How do I indicate to the cart proprietor en Espanol that I prefer my elotes on the cob? I know how to tell them what I'd like on it, but I'd rather not eat it from a cup.

When they reach for the cup or position the corn to be sliced, say "No" with a smile. It's direct and understood.

Regards,

I have tried the corn from the same stand and come away with the same impression you did... half pleased, half revolted. On the other hand, if they are serving mango, I highly recommend you order it from any cart that is selling it. I am not one for super spicey food but I have yet to receive mango that is too spiced up for me.

It is a sliced mango covered in fresh lime juice and chili powder. Completely healthy, perfect for a hot day, and delicious. I ordered my last one on Saturday in Smith Park in the UK village. Yum.

Interestingly, I had a very similar item on the street in Pune, India sometime November 2006.

papua2001mk wrote:It is a sliced mango covered in fresh lime juice and chili powder. Completely healthy, perfect for a hot day, and delicious. I ordered my last one on Saturday in Smith Park in the UK village. Yum.

Or better yet, a cup of assorted fruit (which includes cucumber) sprinkled with lime and chile. I had a nice cup of mango, watermelon and cucumber spears the other day. I got it on Lawrence Avenue near Kimball. I seem to remember the best one I've had was at the corner or Irving Park and Kimball, and included pineapple as well. The carts are all over Albany Park. You can ask the vendor to go light on the chile, and there's nothing more refreshing on a hot muggy day.

Just had my first one a couple weeks ago at Indian Boundary park...my spanglish is getting a little better - I saw him putting the corn in a cup and asked for mine "entero" or hopefully "whole" and "con todo" "with everything" He did eyeball me a bit when he headed for the chili and asked (in English, so obviously my Spanish is understandable but still needs work) "Do you want the chili? I'm with you on the mixed feelings - it didn't help that the corn had been boiled and kept hot in a cooler - I have a feeling that this would be a terrific preparation for hot roasted corn. It is darn hard to eat gracefully on the cob.

Elotes is not a word used in Argentina to my knowledge, where the word for eating corn is "choclo." It may be specific to Mexico and maybe Central America...

Thank you all so much. I consider myself somewhat knowledgable about food but I am pretty ignorant about Mexican food in general, and have managed to pick up absolutely no Spanish. This has been incredibly informative.

Are there any fruit vendors around the Logan Square area or would it be the same cart? There's an elotes vendor sometimes right at the spaulding exit, very convenient for me if I liked it more! I wonder if I could tell them to hold the mayo and the margarine! How do you say that in Spanish? I'm sure I'd get a crazy look...

I have been making a little effort to go to some restaurants beyond my usual haunts in Logan Square. I don't have a car so some of the very interesting places in the south side mentioned on this board are inaccessible to me. The one place I truly enjoyed was Nuevo Leon in Pilsen. The mole actually had the complexity I've always heard about... and the hot chocolate was exquisitely rich.

I'm sure this sounds completely inane, but, I have a little trouble understanding why, (at least as it appears to me) there are so few vegetables in Mexican cuisine as it's presented in restaurants. I don't know what to order if I don't want only beans, rice, meat and chesse with a bit of garnish on top. I have had some luck with seafood but to me I always feel the meals are unbalanced. Is this an accurate representation of authentic food or simply that eating out is a celebratory act which encourages the presentation of the best dishes?

It's not that I haven't been exposed to the cuisine at all - I have always lived in major cities - but my tastes went towards the "california" style food that I hear is really not authentic, and I'm hoping Chicago's amazing culinary scene can help educate me.

I have my research to do! All the amazing links you have provided will be my starting place. But if anyone has a response to my really uninformed question, or a suggestion of what to order, do tell!

Really, I don't think you need to worry about speaking Spanish. An honest smile and some gestures can probably get you where you want to go...

that said, the Spanish word for "without" is sin (pronounced "seen"), so without mayo would be sin mayonesa (pretty much sounds like you think it should) and without butter would be sin mantequilla (remember double-l is pronounced like "y" so "seen mahn-tay-KEY-ah")

My ability to construct grammatical spanish is extremely rusty, and my vocab is pretty much on deep freeze, so whether or not there's a more direct way to say it, that's all I got for ya...

Mhays wrote:I'm with you on the mixed feelings - it didn't help that the corn had been boiled and kept hot in a cooler - I have a feeling that this would be a terrific preparation for hot roasted corn.

I moved here from New York, and lived in a neighborhood where there's been a large influx of Mexicans within the last 5-10 years. I was so excited when a vendor appeared one day who served roasted corn. It may have been pre-cooked, I'm not sure, but there he was at the train station with a supermarket cart with a little hibachi-type grill with skewered corn in the small upper basket, and a jar of mayo, a container of grated cotija, etc. in the big part of the cart. There was no butter or margarine available at first (the 2 choices were lime and chile or mayo and cheese), but it was added a few weeks later, I guess at the customers' request. Unfortunately, he also switched to plain ol' boiled corn, which was still good, but not nearly as exciting. To come home form a long day at work to the smell of roasting corn was divine... while it lasted. And the taste!

a couple of add ons . . . in this month's Saveur there is an article on the La Merced mercado in Mexico City and they call the cup of corn with mayo and lime and chile "Esquites" it says it's from the Mayan word "izquitl" for toasted corn. I always thought elotes referred to the corn on the cob but I really am not certain.

When I lived in Guanajuato there was always a vendor selling the corn on the cob with the farmers cheese, the mayo and sometimes the Parkay and then the chile powder on top. It was an insanely popular street food, especially on the weekends. (On Sunday mornings they cobs and attached husks would lie hither and thither on the cobblestone streets). My brother-in-law lived in Mexico for several years and he claims that the reason all the different things are slathered on the corn is because the corn in Mexico doesn't have as high a sugar content as the corn here and so this is a tasty way of doctoring up the cob.

It seems like the mayo or the Parkay serves as a binding agent for the cheese . . . I always wanted to try one without either the mayo or the parkay, so the cup option seems like the perfect opportunity to do so.

bjt

nutella wrote:I wonder if I could tell them to hold the mayo and the margarine!

If you skip the mayonaise, especially, then all you have is just plain corn on the cob and may not the best one at that. The mayo allows the cheese and chili powder to cling to the corn. While you could skip the squeeze margarine, then at least you have something worth doing. Skipping both Mayo and Margarine, then you may as well take pictures and ask us how it tastes.

If you treat an elote as a treat, then it is worth trying as-is.

Regards,

Don't know how the mayo/parkay version came into being, but I've made this for years at home; it's wonderful and easy: grill the ears of corn until nicely browned, then slather with crema fresca (Mexican sour cream, but regular sour cream works well, too) roll in crumbled queso fresco, or other fresh cheese, and sprinkle generously with chili powder. I'm sure Mayo works well in place of the crema fresca, but I'd leave out the parkay -- whether at home or on the street. It's especially fantastic when made with seasonal fresh corn, which won't be around for another couple of months

HI,

Thanks for a new variation, or at least unknown to me, on elotes. I live for char grilled corn dipped in butter. I can taste in my mind the crema combination and it is dreamy!

Regards,

I don't suggest simply walking up to any vendor sellng elotes, buying the corn and then eating it . . . without first standing off to one side to observe how the corn is handled, having a look at the water it's cooked in, etc. Sanitation/cleanliness is as important here as in Mexico - and I've friends who've gotten sick eating without first thinking more about what they're eating and how it's handled beforehand.

nutella wrote:. . . I spotted several people gathered around a vendor there (at 10 pm no less). A woman was eating corn on the cob . . .

Here's George Ade writing on nighttime street corn in Chicago over a century ago.

Chicago Record, 18 August 1894

There is a street vender every Saturday and Sunday that starts about 8am or 9am in the Brighton Park neighborhood that makes by far the best made Tamales I've ever had. He's a hidden gem. I might in the near future post an entirely new forum dedicated to this man that makes great tamales.

The tamales are superb because they are not too soft or over done. He has the traditional types:Cheese, Pork, Chicken. He's more than likely honed his skills over the years. I've been going to his corner 5 years now, I was introduced to him when I used to work at the TCF bank in brighton park.

The exact location is across the TCF Bank parking lot infront of a grocery store called "Las Palmas." Get there early becausethey go quick

The Bank parking lot is on
4192 S Archer Avenue.. The Tamale vendor is out on the corner across Archer at Las Palmas.

I buy elotes and fruit from vendors all the time.

You can get elotes (corn) any way you want and it's not "impolite" to tell them how you want it. I get mine with cheese and chili, that's it. No mayo, no squeezed butter. My Latino friends will not get elotes without butter and mayo so it's a cultural choice. I like to get mine in a cup (en vaso) since it's a cleaner way to eat it, but you don't have to get it that way (no quiero un vaso, por favor!).

As for fruit, I think it's the best deal in the city. You can get a decent-sized bag of fresh cut fruit for $3 or less depending on where you get it from. I get mine with Chili, lime, and salt (con chili, limón y sal) - very tasty. When I'm downtown eating lunch I pay upwards of $4 or more for some crap 10oz cup of fruit. Rip off!!

Also try cucumbers with chili, lime and salt. "Pepino" is the spanish word for cucumbers.

rdstoll,

How well does the cheese and chili stick to your corn?

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:rdstoll,

How well does the cheese and chili stick to your corn?

Regards,

Moderately well. I have to sort of mix it up because they usually throw some cheese in the cup before they put the corn, and then throw more cheese on top of it along with the chili. Sticks pretty well though since the corn is moist from being in the cooler.

I should have mentioned this before - I really like chili, altho the vendors sometimes do go a bit crazy on it making it quite spicy. Sometimes I'll ask for a little chili (poquito chile) which gives it just the right amount.

I've been looking for this elote stuff. Where can I find these vendors? I live in Niles, so the further Northwest, the better.

If you come in a bit towards the lake, you're in Elotes heaven; there's a vendor at almost every park along with the ubiquitous Monarca carts.

What's Monarca? Also, does it matter which neighborhood near the lake?

Pie Lady-

You can easily find elotes and fruit carts in Rogers Park, mainly between Pratt and Rogers, although there are one or two that set up south of Pratt. This wouldn't be a far journey for you from Niles. Bring a good appetite and explore some of the dining options along Clark. (There two threads about North Clark-a-thons where LTHers explored the bounty of the area.)

As for elotes, Mr. X introduced them to me a year or so ago. Even though I was practically surrounded by the carts, I had never tried the corn. We don't allow ourselves to have them often because they are pretty much heart attacks in a cup. (And I prefer the cup. I enjoy mixing everything up.)

-The GP