Mil - Walk - ee
Summary

I will write a longer and better on the Mil - Walk - ee, but until then, here's a quick rundown on the places we visited.  Amazingly, as you will see below, right now, I do not have particularly accurate information on all the places.  Luckily, with the blog, I can update as I remember stuff (or otherwise get the better info).

Moving SE to NW

Blommers Chocolate Factory - We poked around, tasted the samples and then, with heavy guilt, left. 

Podhalanka - Polish diner on Division, just off of Milwaukee

MikeG sez, "menu sets time warp tone."

VI sez, excellent renditions of homey food.  It was good that we had a bit of walking under our belt.  Learned the secret behind white borsht (fermented flour), enjoyed the potato pancakes and sour cream.  No beans Breton style to try.

Big Tony's Pizza - Between Division and North/Damen - Looked lousy, tasted lousy

Artemio's Bakery - Between Division and North/Damen - Too sour guava "squashed pie" but excellent chewy macaroon.

Red Hen Bakery - Just past North/Damen - Did not try but others did.

Margie's Ice Cream - Armitage/Western -

All the kidz got cones: chocolate, NY cherry and strawberry.

Campeche Fish Stand - Between Western and California

Seth asked for ceviche, got cocktail, and an extremely ketchupy version therein.  Inside, there was fresh fish that can be cooked to order, and extremely fresh versions therein.  Worth a return visit.

Maroon van, now periwinkle van - Just south of California -

MikeG eats famous fare from no longer maroon van.

A wide array of stuff, none of it especially great: fried taco's with assorted fillings; soft tacos with potato, chicken, beans and chicharron; sopes with potato chunks; shrimp cocktail quesadilla.  Skipped the various atoles. 

Cafe Mariano - 2246 Milwaukee - Pretty good, not great cafe cubano, pretty, pretty good steak sandwiches, still chaotic ordering as it took SethZ two tries to get his order (for MikeG) across.

Blue van, still blue but absent the word's greatest sopes - Several people including the chowhounditas got the chunks of fresh fruit dressed, al gusto with lime, salt or chile.  A shame they had no sopes 'cause I was not so impressed with the Maroon van sopes.  The blue van sopes are crisper on the bottom, making for a wonderful contrast of textures. 

Mega Mall - 2502 N. Milwaukee

No one tried the Casa de las Gorditas, but Seth had a liquado.

El Condor - 2349 N. Milwaukee - This was the best food I ate during the day.  We got the house plate: roast pork, simple boiled hominy ("mato"), fried corn kernels and an excellent orange hot sauce.  Also, incredible house-made popsicles from assorted fruits.  These would be worth it just for the jaunty angle they come out of their aluminum cups, but even more worth it for their intense and real flavor.

Islas Marias - Nayarit style seafood - Dickson or others can fill in as I did not eat any until well after it cooled down.

Kurowski Sausage/Polish bar on Oakdale (I cannot think of its name)/- 2976 N. Milwaukee -

Would you know what to order?

This place smelled incredible.  SethZ did a grand job of buying sausages, bread, butter, herring (for me) and a few other things that we took over to the bar on Oakdale for a dark picnic.  Everything tasted great, but the taste that stood out the most was the super-fresh Clarendon Hills butter.

Polish Bakery - Slightly north of Kurowski with great curved glass window - Polish speakers kept on getting served ahead of us, should have taken the hint as most of this stuff sucked.

Mambo Club - 3336 N. - Ask ErikM how the cafe cubano was

Peacock Lounge - 3394 N. - Not a lot of drinking interest, but ErikM and I quaffed a quick buffalo grass vodka

Tobacco Room - 4020 N. - Good prices on cigars.  I got a Punch Rothchild for a quick fix.

Mexican place in Jefferson Park (around Lawrence) - Really, really good hot sauce with chunks of avocado in it.  This is how I'd prefer my guacamole.  Handmade huaraches and quesadillas, but the stuff was a bit chunky and artless. 

Superdawg - 6363 N. - Only Rich, Bob and I approached Superdawg, like pilgrims visiting Jerusalem on foot, but that's for another post. They gave me black bread for my whoopercheesie about 3 days past its prime. Still everything else they gave me tasted super. Too super. I wanted to stop eating the fries, as well as you can see, I ate a fair amount already, but I could not stop until I found no more in front of me.