The Tlacoyo
Los Cazos Restaurant

The full extent of Mexican food in Chicago never ceases to amaze me. There is always something new to find. Yesterday, I found the tlacoyo. At Los Cazos, a small restaurant on Fullerton near Austin I have been meaning to try for ages. I noticed a few things that made me want to try it, not so much the tlacoyos, but pambasos and homemade tortillas. But when I saw the sign, upon entering, for tlacoyo's, I was immediately drawn to that.

Our waitress did not have a huge command of English, so she just brought out an uncooked tlacoyo to explain. The best way to describe it as a cross between a huarache and a pupusa, but smaller. It is a small masa paddle with a filling of requeson, Mexican ricotta cheese, between the dough. It came topped with a choice of beans or cactus. I asked for beans but got cactus. Was it the best tlacoyo I ever had? Well, it was a bit dry, but like all these antojitos, still intrinsically great.

Actually, even greater, little sopes they gave us as an amuse. What is it about the sope that I find so enticing. I know the brilliant one will probably disagree, but I think maybe the sope is the greatest of the antojitos, all the Mexican snackish type things made from corn flour (i.e., tacos, gorditas, picaditas, huaraches, etc.). Keeping the masa thicker produces an array of textures from Wiv-crisp to toothsome. Moreover, this no fat added product tastes almost as buttery-flaky (or lardy) as a biscuit. I liked the amuse sope.

I was in a trying mood. I went with a taco al pastor--it seemed very D.F., they told me they were from Mexico City--and a pambaso, also very D.F. Good choices both. The pambaso, the bloody red sammy (bread dipped in a chile sauce) got griddled a while, and that really infused the sauce into the bread, anodized it. The sausage potato filling was fine, but it was really about the bread. The taco came out in a small commercial tortilla, not the home made tortillas. Luckily, we had a big stack of the homemade tortillas on the table, and I just tossed my filling into a real tortilla, a very good, large tortilla, almost as good as La Quebrada. The pastor was crunchy and good too. The Condiment Queen enjoyed her arroz con mariscos, which included, acording the menu, shark. It was a very passable paella really.

We were a slight oddity at Los Cazos, firstly for our intense interrogations of the staff (the Dona had to come out from the kitchen to check us out) and secondly, as I later found out, the place is also a hangout for Mexican heavy metal heads. Go for the food.

Los Cazos Restaurant
5945 W. Fullerton
Chicago, IL 60639
773-637-9456