Due to a lack of substantive intellectual content today, you will get to see last night’s dinner, consumed the Sol de Mexico restaurant in an isolated part of west Chicago. It isolation is good, though, because the food was absolutely fantastic and yet it wasn’t hard to get reservations. Some of the finest Mexican food I’ve had in this town—certainly better than that of the much-vaunted Frontera Grill. (The menu is here, and Yelp ratings here.)
The unprepossessing storefront on North Cicero Avenue. The restaurant is famous for its moles.
Appetizers:
and a soup, which was fabulous:
The main course (I had my lamb rare):
I didn’t ask the server for the names of the 28 ingredients, but it was an extremely complex sauce. Besides the potatoes, which were fabulous, and encased in a tortilla cub, the vegetables consisted of three green beans and a sprig of parsley:
I forgot to photograph the homemade flour tortillas, which were superb.
For libations, I brought a bottle of fine Portuguese red (corkage was $10, but they didn’t charge it because they liked us).
This place is highly recommended if you want an upscale but not overpriced Mexican meal in Chicago. Skip the Frontera Grill and come here. Service was also immensely friendly and attentive.
*A Professor Ceiling Cat Recommendation™*
Mmmmm rare lamb!
You can say that again!
Yeah I was thinking the same. This is the first time WordPress did that to me. I think it was probably a reset in the Matrix.
Kindly, if it’s not too much trouble, courier me a dish of that rare lamb!!! Much obliged;-)
Mmmmm rare lamb!
I absolutely love mole, and something tells me that you do as well.
I still say Mexico has to be on any short-short list of the world’s greatest culinary traditions. And mole has to be one of the highlights.
b&
And don’t forget caldo and tortas.
And flan, which may be really Spanish.
Flan is a variation on the creme brule theme, but I think I prefer flan.
b&
Me, too. Flan = crème caramel
Oh, yeah….
b&
I’ve only been to Chicago 3 or 4 times but I’ve always been astounded at how good the Mexican food is there!
Looking at your nom pictures is the closest David Bentley Hart ever gets to being right.
Aesthetically, I experience the divine.
Vaal
Nice, will be there shortly for sure, thx Jerry.
Is there a list of Prof.Ceiling Cat recommended restaurants in the Chicago area?
Man, that looks good! I don’t generally think of lamb when I think Mexican food (I doubt I’ve ever seen lamb in a Mexican place in 27 years I’ve lived in Texas.) But who cares! It looks like a terific fusion dish. I love it when “unprepossessing” places have great food.
But young goat is very common in Mexican cuisine, especially in the Chihuahuan Desert region. Birria is usually made with goat meat. This seems like an obvious substitute if goat is tough to find in Chicago.
When you say ‘flour tortilla’ I hope you mean maize flour tortilla (rather than wheat).
Usually flour refers to the wheat kind. The others are just called corn tortillas.
All the food looks fantastic. Minor correction on Morpheus (Morfeo): he was the Greek god of sleep according to Ovid. If one doesn’t believe in gods/goddesses, it doesn’t matter much, does it? Unless you’re into mythology.
“because they liked us”
and that’s what make you cool, Dr. Coyne. Those of us in service jobs do what we can for those we like aka those who seemed to have worked in retail or food service and know that those who are behind the counter are just as human as everyone else.
Unfortunately, for most of the rest of humanity?, we could hope die in the first month after a “zombie apocalypse”, those who can’t think of freezing their own chicken breasts or those who can’t figure out how to chop their own bacon.
Somehow I’m reminded of the Peruvian restaurant my parents and I tried in Montreal a few months ago. “Deceptively simple” but with many flavourful dishes.
Peruvians do wonderful things with potatoes, among many other things.