"Taqueria" Zapata on Kimball south of Lawrence

I put "Taqueria" in quotes because even though that's what the sign says, it's the non-taco offerings that seem to shine here. In particular, the Michoacan-style mole, made in house from scratch and served over juicy chicken parts for a shockingly good $6.99 price tag.

Chicken With Michoacan-style red mole:


Complex, smoky chile flavors with a definitive chocolate background without a hint of the sweetness I find distracting in lesser moles. The nephew of the owner waited on me, and told me taht this is mole the way his Grandma makes it, but her's is better. I hope she invites me over for dinner sometime.

The two salsas pictured were quite good too: the green one especially heavy on tangy tomatillos, and the red one a well-balanced arbol and pasilla blend with a bit of vinegar.

The tortillas they served were freshly nuked, which is what left me thinking that this is not the place for me to order tacos.

That mole is damn good though.





Taqueria Zapata
4742 North Kimball Avenue
Chicago, IL 60625-5305
(773) 509-0399

I'm intrigued by the signage. "Panvaso" would seem to be an fun alternative spelling of pambazo, the brioche-like roll and (more likely in this case) the "drowned/ahogada" sandwich made with it. Picaditas, the sope-like antojitos of Maroon Van fame are also interesting because they don't show up on menus much.

JeffB wrote:I'm intrigued by the signage. "Panvaso" would seem to be an fun alternative spelling of pambazo, the brioche-like roll and (more likely in this case) the "drowned/ahogada" sandwich made with it. Picaditas, the sope-like antojitos of Maroon Van fame are also interesting because they don't show up on menus much.

Yes, Panvaso is pambaso, which the owner was eating when I arrived. He was devouring it and it looked delicious, so I asked a couple of questions and found out that the drowning liquid is the pasilla-arbol salsa fried in lard with a little tomato juice added. The roll looked like the bolillos you see all over town, but I could be wrong about that.

Yeah, pambazo is something of a synonym for torta ahogada in a lot of places. The real thing involves the specific bread, though.

Not for nothing, but I should note that "real" tortas ahogadas, despite the generic name, have a fairly orthodox ingredient list going back to the original place in Guadalajara -- carnitas, beans and pickled onions on a bolillo. Pambazos usually have potato and chorizo inside.

Both are "drowned" in thin salsa.

JeffB wrote:Yeah, pambazo is something of a synonym for torta ahogada in a lot of places. The real thing involves the specific bread, though.

Not for nothing, but I should note that "real" tortas ahogadas, despite the generic name, have a fairly orthodox ingredient list going back to the original place in Guadalajara -- carnitas, beans and pickled onions on a bolillo. Pambazos usually have potato and chorizo inside.

Both are "drowned" in thin salsa.

Thanks for the interesting info. The one the guy was eating was indeed potato and chorizo. Don't know if they serve pambazo's with alternative fillings too.

Kennyz wrote:

JeffB wrote:I'm intrigued by the signage. "Panvaso" would seem to be an fun alternative spelling of pambazo, the brioche-like roll and (more likely in this case) the "drowned/ahogada" sandwich made with it. Picaditas, the sope-like antojitos of Maroon Van fame are also interesting because they don't show up on menus much.

Yes, Panvaso is pambaso, which the owner was eating when I arrived. He was devouring it and it looked delicious, so I asked a couple of questions and found out that the drowning liquid is the pasilla-arbol salsa fried in lard with a little tomato juice added. The roll looked like the bolillos you see all over town, but I could be wrong about that.

Dinner. Thank you.

So, thanks for posting that pic. A potentially important (to me at least) sandwich find. The whole place sounds good, but a brick and mortar store selling some of these things is rare. Nice to know I can get a real pambazo when I want a change of pace from genuine cemitas (BTW -- Cemitas Puebla now delivers) and tortas ahogadas (Xoco, to name one spot).

For Jen and anyone else considering a visit, I should note that as with many places, it was tough for me to get real recommendations from the nice guy who served me. When I first asked what he'd recommend, he steered me to the long list of burritos. When I said that wasn't really what I was looking for and asked "what's the best thing? what would you eat" - he pointed out the T-Bone steak with shrimp. While it's possible that he genuinely likes burritos and T-bones with shrimp, it took a little bit to get him to tell me that the mole was made in house and something special. I suspect there are other things just as good or better on the menu, and encourage you to persist beyond the initial suggestions the staff might offer.

Panvaso or Pambazo is delicious.

Pambazo with chorizo and potato:




I think this soft, football-shaped roll is called a talera rather than a bolillo. Either way, I do think it's the thing used for tortas at most palces around town rather than any kind of special pambazo bread. It was fresh and nicely toasted for the sandwich, which was filled with greaseless, charred and tasty chorizo and small-diced potato. As noted above, the sauce is the arbol-guajillo salsa fried to concentrate the flavor, but I tasted something extra and inquired. Turns out the cook also toasts and grinds some cloves to add to the pambazo sauce. Very nice.

I also noted a sign for "tortitas de camaron", which I'd never heard of. Server told me these are pancakes made out of dried shrimp that's pulverized and mixed with flour to form the masa. They're served with a nopales salad, and that's what's next up for me at this fine little restaurant.

Thanks for posting this. I just had my first pambazo in Morelia and I was hoping I could find them here. Any idea if they have enchiladas placeras?

Kennyz wrote:I also noted a sign for "tortitas de camaron", which I'd never heard of. Server told me these are pancakes made out of dried shrimp that's pulverized and mixed with flour to form the masa. They're served with a nopales salad, and that's what's next up for me at this fine little restaurant.

It's a big lenten thing, which starts in a few weeks. It's a sandwich at all, but rather a cake, but loose defination of cake, kinda thing. Like barely connected 10 year old shrimp dust. There might be a good version, but I've never had one. On the other hand, after the few I've tried, I've never had a need to have another. Maybe a great torta de camaron is out there I just don't know.

My understanding on the pambaso vs torta ahogada, which has been the subject of discussion before, is that besides, as JeffB notes, the ahogada has that defined mix of ingredients; the pambaso is just about the soaked bread. The traditional ahogada loaf, like Xoco's, has more tooth to it. The pambaso is pretty much made with standard squishy bread.

Yep. Tortitas de camaron are pretty easy to find during Lent and tend to be made with ground up dry shrimp. I've seen it most often fried in little pucks, sort of like mini egg foo young patties, and sometimes placed in tortillas for tacos. As Rob says, they are usually pretty perfunctory and bad.

I want to emphasize what I noted above, though: pambazo is a type of bread first -- from "pan baso" which means essentially cheap bread. Teleras are often substituted for pambazos and they do a good job. I also wouldn't say that teleras are more commonly used than bolillos in tortas around here. Bolillos are more commonly used, though almost any bakery selling bolillos also sells teleras. I also wouldn't assume pambazos (the rolls) are unavailable. Mexican bakeries are pretty good about special orders and I'd bet a place like Markellos might have them. Cemitas, for example, which of course are elemental to the sandwiches at Cemitas Puebla, are more unusual than pambazos in my unscientific observations.

Last, while tortas ahogadas and pambazos can and do have any number of ingredients, the orthodox versions of these sandwiches have specific fillings on their home turf. It's chorizo con papas for pambazos in Michoacan as I understand it.

JeffB wrote:...I also wouldn't say that teleras are more commonly used than bolillos in tortas around here.

Might depend how one defines "around here". I think the football shaped rolls are more common than the circular rolls among the many taquerias in the Lawrence-Montrose/ Central Park-California area.

Both can be somewhat football shaped, but I think you might have your bolillos and teleras flipped - unless by "football" you mean soccer ball (a half deflated one). Bolillos are the more fulsome, dry and airy NFL football shaped things. Teleras are usually somewhat flatterwith rounder ends. The more important difference is texture. Teleras are softer without much if any crust. Teleras are closer in shape and texture to pambazos in my experience -- though I've had lots of bolillos and teleras and not so many pambazos. The pics in the below link to a Mexican baker in LA show the rolls as they are usually encountered here (and in my experience in Mx.). If you mean bolillos are commonly used for tortas in Chicago, I agree.

http://thebreadfactoryinc.com/photo.html

Probably more relevant: LaBaguette's wholesale page. Where I suspect much of the torta bread used by Chicago taquerias originates.

http://labaguettechicago.com/wholesale.htm

I have a knack for starting threads about places that are about to close. Windows at Zapata are papered over.

That's one way to look at it, Kenny.