Maybe we went at a bad time or day but I also thought "OK-good" not "great." My mole did not taste homemade -- it tasted canned. Green salsa also did not taste fresh. Does anyone know if they make all moles and salsas from scratch or only some of them?

Now this is interesting, Power of the Internet dept. Just received in my email box:

We are exhibit design house called Platypus, Inc. and we are working on the second part of our non-profit children's interactive exhibit in Copan, Honduras ,C.A. We are reintroducing children to their Mayan heritage. The children are taken to the exhibit as part of their lessons.

We would like to use your image in the section of the exhibit called "The Champa." I found your image that you posted in a forum when I did a search on mole. It was a mouth watering and beautiful to look at.

I hope to hear from you soon. And we would appreciate your help in this matter.

So if anybody's in Copan, Honduras, go to the museum and look for a picture of the chicken in mole at Taqueria la Oaxaqueña!

Mike G wrote:Now this is interesting, Power of the Internet dept. Just received in my email box:

We are exhibit design house called Platypus, Inc. and we are working on the second part of our non-profit children's interactive exhibit in Copan, Honduras ,C.A. We are reintroducing children to their Mayan heritage. The children are taken to the exhibit as part of their lessons.

We would like to use your image in the section of the exhibit called "The Champa." I found your image that you posted in a forum when I did a search on mole. It was a mouth watering and beautiful to look at.

I hope to hear from you soon. And we would appreciate your help in this matter.

So if anybody's in Copan, Honduras, go to the museum and look for a picture of the chicken in mole at Taqueria la Oaxaqueña!

A Canadian design firm doing an exhibit in Honduras using photos of Mexican food made in Chicago. Unbelievable...but congrats. It is a beautiful pic.

Hammond

Just went to La Oaxaqueña last night and I really liked it. The atmosphere is very friendly and warm. I agree that the chips aren't very good, ours were stale, but the salsas almost made up for it. Does anyone ever order the tacos here? I tried to search the archives, but would like to know how they compare to other taco places with good reviews from lth. I tried the chorizo and asada, and was very impressed with both. The asada was a very thin, charcoal grilled tasting slab of beef. It had a good chew but wasn't tough at all. I realized that I haven't had a good taco since moving here, until now.

The rice wasn't very good either, but I still can't wait to go back.

Also, the server told me they make their own corn tortillas. I guess that's not true?

Yes, like many LTHers I have to agree resoundingly. TLO is a wonderful neighborhood spot that deserves more credit than it gets. There is not really much to add to this post, other than lament the lack of Tlayudas. Sure, most eyes scanning the menu would see the name and move on, but in a city known for it's pizza it's not very hard to push a "pizza-like" Oaxacan staple such as this. They beat tacos any madrugada if you asked me, esp. on a beer belly. Also, TLO's micheladas are not bad at all.

BTW, I heard the new Oaxacan place on Lincoln actually <i>offers</i> chapulines (salted, fried grasshoppers). It's called Tepatulco and it's certainly not a cheap eat. And no, I have not been yet. Perhaps they import <i>quesillo</i> (Oaxacan laced-cheese, aka "Queso Oaxaqueño") from "El (Grande) Mercado" in East LA? Here's to hoping...

Oh, and in response to JeffB's comment, bones have no place in Hallacas. They do turn up a lot in tamales in Mexico, but I'm not sure that it's so much <i>de rigeur</i> as it is a regional thing or perhaps a result of economic choices.

Tepatulco
2558 North Halsted Street
www.tepatulco.com

jedibrand wrote:BTW, I heard the new Oaxacan place on Lincoln actually <i>offers</i> chapulines (salted, fried grasshoppers). It's called Tepatulco and it's certainly not a cheap eat. And no, I have not been yet. Perhaps they import <i>quesillo</i> (Oaxacan laced-cheese, aka "Queso Oaxaqueño") from "El (Grande) Mercado" in East LA? Here's to hoping...

Tepatulco
2558 North Halsted Street
www.tepatulco.com

We had the chapulines at Tepatulco last Friday night. They come in sopes, with lots of beans and cheese, so it takes a little digging to locate mandibles, wings, and other insect parts. A very accessible preparation of the popular Oaxacan bug (though Tepatulco is Bahena's hometown in Guerrero, and Oaxacan dishes are not really the speciality here, where they seem to go for a more Pan-Mexican menu, including favs from Sinaloa and other less well-represented states).

Hammond

Thanks for the correction! Too bad the chapulines at Tepatulco are not featured centerstage, much less self-standing.

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=11307

My formative hallacas experience came courtesy of my Venezolana neighbor growing up in FL. A great cook but humble person, she probably didn't know any better. Considering the vast effort that goes into making tamales, paches, etc., and the special-occasion angle, it never crossed my mind that penny pinching or corner cutting explained the bones. I always understood the objectives to be flavor and proof of a relatively expensive ingredient -- fowl as opposed to pork or something lesser.

If you ask for chapulines at TLO you shall receive. They are on the smallish side- for those who've been to the markets of Oaxaca know that they are available in a range of sizes and even a coarsely ground variety.
I havnet been to TLO in quite some time, a friend of mine told me that they weren't located at their Milwaukee outpost any longer.

Jefe wrote:If you ask for chapulines at TLO you shall receive. They are on the smallish side- for those who've been to the markets of Oaxaca know that they are available in a range of sizes and even a coarsely ground variety.
I havnet been to TLO in quite some time, a friend of mine told me that they weren't located at their Milwaukee outpost any longer.

I did get a packet of chili-spiked chapulines from TLO about a year ago -- very granular. I think Tepatulco's were somewhat "meatier," though in both versions, the bug was well disguised.

JeffB, no worries! You're probably right about the flavor angle on the bones. As a kid in Venezuela, chicken fillings with bones in them were often associated with corner-cutting (or value-extracting, depending how you look at it ). Also, in Hallacas those parts of the chicken are usually left for the broth. Were the Hallacas of your childhood/youth boney and where in FL was that? I spent most of my adolescent years in Tampa...

As far as I know, La Oaxaqueña is still on Milwaukee, some ways up north from Kedzie. Can anyone vouch?

I do recall bones in Concha's hallacas, but I could be wrong. My block in Tampa was pretty Pan-American, and around Christmas we got quite a few treats from the Puerto Rican, Venezuelan, Chilean, Colombian and Cuban ladies, many of whom raided our banana trees for leaves. At the time, I was paying less attention to the tamales and more to Concha's pagent-contestant-in-training niece who often visited for holidays...

Just edited my previous post. I'm gonna guess you grew up somewhere around Armenia and Waters (though I could be very wrong,).

Great guess. I went to HS about 1.5 miles from the intersection you mentioned...

That high school, does it happen to be JHS? I don't want to take up too much space with personal stuff on this forum, but have you tried the Colombian bakery on Hanley? It's called "Mi Patria" and they have some pretty good <i>caliche</i> (echando broma ) grub. Their empanadas and pastelitos are great and come close to stuff you can get in a Venezuelan bakery (and I don't mean <i>Don Pan</i>). They also have this mass of dough and meat that's to die for--it's basically a ball-shaped croqueta about the size of your fist. Oh, and their ají sauce is even better! And yes, this place beats any of the Colombian shops near Waters and Armenia.

Mi Patria
6714 Hanley Rd.
Tampa, FL

http://mipatriabakery.com/

Same area, less Catholic. Leto. As for the food, Colombian bakeries are a beautiful thing. The Don Pan chain is pretty good, but next time I'm back I will have to check out the linked place -- a Colombian Bakery in Tampa Florida. (Gratuitous landmark in case someone is searching for Tampa info later.)

Back to La Oaxaquena, I was back there for the first time in many months last week. They still do a spectacular job with seafood (and everything else, really). The Snapper stuffed with shellfish is pure genius, and at 16 bucks for at least a two pound fish overflowing with octopus, squid, shrimp and mussles, it's one of the best seafood deals in Chicago.

Leto was my second guess...

The Hispanic market just up the street is one of the best in the area. I forget the name. There's another one I believe down the street that's also good. And, since we're talking about Tampa, I'll conclude with a mention of a great, small shop that specializes in Venezuelan snacks and foods. The place is <i>Un Solo Pueblo</i>. Sometimes they get small stocks of <i>Belmont</i> cigarettes, which is a rarity (try around or after christmas time).

Un Solo Pueblo
4023 W. Waters Ave, Suite 11
Tampa, FL 33614

Dined at TLO last week, everything was top notch as usual.

I did notice that they had crossed out the address of the Diversey location on the front of the menu. Spoke to Mrs. TLO, who confirmed that the Diversey location is no more.

The Milwaukee Ave. location is still going strong.

We visited for dinner Friday night. There was only one other table occupied the whole time we were there (though it was only 5:45).

I hadn't been since they expanded into the storefront next door.

The food was good as always. We shared an order of guacamole, I had the Torta Oaxaquena, my husband had the Enchiladas in Mole, my daughter had a chicken taco and a side of rice and beans.

We also had a couple of pieces of Tres Leches cake - they must use a new vendor, as it was pretty awful.

They have raised their prices a little - dinner before tip was $44.

Still a bargain. With the exception of the cake, everything was outstanding.

I had a nice lunch with Gypsy Boy at La Oaxaqueña on Monday. It had been literally several years since my last meal there and I've got to say that not much has changed. Service, at least at lunch time, is still the laid back Mother/Daughter team that both wait on the tables and do the cooking, and the TV was blaring some show that appeared to be the Mexican Oprah. Food wise, not much has changed, either. They still serve the same outstanding housemade salsas with (slightly stale) chips and everything else is just trucking along the same as ever.

We started with an order of sincronazadas, kind of a ham quisadilla with avocado, tomato and onion.

La Oaxaqueña Sincronazadas


Gypsy Boy had the chicken Enchiladas con Mole and I had Cornish hen in mole.

Chicken Enchiladas con Mole


Cornish Hen with Mole


All in all, the food was a good as ever, however I think La Oaxaqueña has been surpassed by some places that have opened up more recently. For example, the moles at other places in town, particularly Sol de Mexico, has eclipsed the somewhat one note version (if that is even possible with all those ingredients) served at La Oaxaqueña. Still, this place is deserving of a visit, and from the looks of things at lunchtime, they could probably use the business. While no longer top of mind for me, La Oaxaqueña is still a solid contender. Is it still worthy of maintaining its GNR status? Of that, I'm not completely convinced.

Ditto. Too many GNRs have somehow escaped my attention and I've decided to remedy that oversight. I began here and was pleased to have the delightful company of stevez. He introduced me to the sincronizadas, something completely new to me. The entire experience was quite enjoyable. As stevez noted, mother and daughter handled the lunch rush (perhaps two or three other tables at the height of the rush) and visited with each other. Service never suffered (except, possibly, when it came to getting the check, but hey...) and was, in fact, pretty attentive. And I never mind a wait when the food is this freshly prepared.

The food, as expected, was top-notch. Oh, to be able to make a mole like that! The chicken and hen were both flavorful and juicy and generous portions. I'm ordinarily stuck with public transportation during the week and, were it not so long a journey for me, I would certainly be there more often.

One small disagreement with stevez. He thought the chips were slightly stale. My take on it was that they were a bit overfried, though he may be right. Hard to say. Still, the selection of three salsas was great. I especially enjoyed the atmosphere, a true family operation, down to all the decorations (and GNR certificate proudly displayed on the front door).

And one somewhat larger disagreement: I didn't find the mole a one-note sauce. While I do not, admittedly, have vast and extensive experience in this particular niche, I found the mole to have quite a bit of depth with many layers of flavor. I wouldn't want to have it daily--nor would I want, I suspect, to have anyone's mole every day.

Sorry only that it took me so long to get here. Only 91 GNRS to go! (Kidding)

We hit Taqueria la Oaxaquena every couple of months, the kids always like it having grown up with it, and I introduce it to people regularly with success, but ordering the same things over and over, it's hard to come up with new things to post, so I rarely do. I think it's absolutely a stalwart of the Mexican scene, and I disagree with Stevez about the mole. Yes, there are places producing more and more varied and seemingly more complex moles, no question. But La Oaxaquena knocks out one mole, beautifully, time after time, the way a great diner or a great pizza place or a great Italian beef stand knocks out their one great thing time after time, and I wouldn't ding La Oaxaquena for not being Sol de Mexico any more than I'd ding Johnnie's or Marie's or Patty's for not being Avec. Whenever I have that classic mole somewhere else, La Oaxaquena's complex, balanced version is what I compare it to, and it's what it's invariably found wanting next to.

Now, the question was raised about GNR status. It absolutely belongs for me, but I also absolutely think that the list should always be fluid, that it should reflect the state of the board as it exists now, not as it existed three years ago when I was a macher and giants strode the earth. No place should be sacrosanct, even a certain three-lettered Chinese place doesn't seem to get much love any more and ought to be fair game for reconsideration. So if that's how the chips fall, that's fair enough; but hopefully that prospect will encourage a few folks to visit it between now and then and discover what I still consider, unquestionably, one of Chicago's best little neighborhood Mexican joints, a category everyone should have a couple of choices for in their lives.

stevez wrote:Is it still worthy of maintaining its GNR status? Of that, I'm not completely convinced.

Mike G wrote:So if that's how the chips fall, that's fair enough; but hopefully that prospect will encourage a few folks to visit it between now and then and discover what I still consider, unquestionably, one of Chicago's best little neighborhood Mexican joints, a category everyone should have a couple of choices for in their lives.

That is my hope as well! La Oaxaqueña remains a gem despite the lack of very much attention on LTH Forum over the last couple of years.

I, like Mike, hit TLO with regularity and what I'm always struck with is the consistency across the menu, and the consistency over time. I've been eating some of my favorite dishes there for years, and they all haven't skipped a beat.

Much of the interest about Mexican food in Chicago seems to hover around the Bayless descendants (reservations required), the basic taquerias, or Pilsen. What I love about TLO is that they're none of these. They're a family-run, family-friendly place on a non-descript stretch of Milwaukee Ave. They turn out great food and plenty of dishes that aren't exactly totally common. I've never needed a reservation and I've always walked out happy. If TLO weren't around, there would be a big hole for me in the Mexican food landscape of Chicago.

Best,
Michael

I will always have a soft spot of La Oaxaquena, the first great restaurant that I found through LTHForum. It's so friendly, affordable, and consistent, the idea of it losing GNR status breaks my heart a little bit.

It definitely seems less busy lately, but business must have been solid enough to justify the expansion into the room next door (when exactly that happened, I'm not sure).

Agreed. One of the great things, for me, about LO is it's one of those modest places where it pays off to go with the "high end" items on the menu. In many Mexican places featuring tacos and such, you'd be nuts to get the whole fish or the T-Bone. At LO they really rise to the occasion at the top of the menu. The snapper with shellfish and the steak with spring onions and nopales are knockouts.

Friday night and the dude and I are looking for a something to eat. Nothing springs to mind, so I go to the GNR list. Selection process varies - proximity was primary this time. La Oaxaquena it is.

We arrived around 7:30 and the restaurant was bustling - only 1 large table was available as we entered. We were guided to the room to the left. One of the patrons said we were making a mistake since we wouldn't hear the Beatles as well. (And they did play Beatles tunes all night.) Lively but relaxed crowd.

I couldn't recall whether I read any posts about this place and what the go-to dishes are, but choosing the Oaxaquen dishes seemed the way to go. I ordered the chile relleno and he got the carna asade. In a bow to my hunger and the end of the week - I was looking for some instant gratification - so we ordered a starter of shrimp wrapped in ham & bacon and a coupla margaritas.

The drinks and salsa/chips come out quickly. We immediately fell in love with the red salsa. The charred one grew on me over time. And the freshness of the green salsa was like a palate cleanser. The margaritas were expertly mixed - not with million dollar tequila - but with correct proportions. The appetizer - frankly - it would be difficult to imagine and downright criminal if that wasn't good. But it was.

The Oaxaquen carne asade with mole was amazing. Deep rich sauce over tender steak. The chile relleno was a surprise - I expected fresh chile - not reconstituted ancho. I ordered 1 cheese/1 meat filling and found myself picking out the filling because the chile seemed a bit reedy. I am not sure whether that is the correct preparation or the chile needed more reconstitution. For me, a mixed bag on the entrees.

All said, I really like the place and will be back. I will educate myself a bit better about the cuisine and look forward to trying some other dishes.

Good to hear the place is still doing well. FWIW, the reconstituted ancho is unusual and authentic, though I can see not liking it, particularly if it hasn't been plumped up enough.

I took an out of town friend to La Oaxaquena a few months ago and he ordered the chiles relleno and I thought they were fantastic! I had never had them made with the reconstituted anchos before, but I really liked it. Of course, I didn't hit any woody bits.

-Dan

dansch wrote:I took an out of town friend to La Oaxaquena a few months ago and he ordered the chiles relleno and I thought they were fantastic! I had never had them made with the reconstituted anchos before, but I really liked it. Of course, I didn't hit any woody bits.

-Dan

I quite like the ancho version they serve at LO but I can understand how it can be a surprise if one's expecting the more common poblano. Of course woody bits in either would be an unwelcome texture.

A must-have for me when I visit there is the nopales/cebolitas to start - I feel they do a great job at prepping the nopales and the onions are always grilled just right. The tartness of the cactus with the smokey grill-char + sweetness of the onions just starts the meal off right.