Oscar's Taqueria & Pizzeria, SW Side [pics]

Oscar's Taqueria & Pizzeria on the Southwest Side

One of the many virtues of Chicago's culinary scene is, in my opinion, the considerable number of very good basic, informal Mexican restaurants that are found in so many of the neighbourhoods around town. Of course, there are some bad ones and certainly some that rise only slightly above the level of bad, but there are enough good ones that unless one bears some wicked curse, one is, I suspect, likely to stumble far more often on a decent little Mexican restaurant than on a lousy one.

On Monday, Amata and I were on the southside and in seach of a late lunch. Rather than return to one of a number of good places we know, we decided just to look around for any sort of a decent looking and preferably unknown to us place. While driving north on Kedzie from 63rd Street, we came upon a branch of La Condesa (we have visited and enjoyed the branch at Cermak and Ashland) and, while considering this option without too much enthusiasm, we saw on the opposite side of the street an apparently quite new little restaurant by the name of "Oscar's Taqueria & Pizzeria." Now, admittedly, the dual nature of this business seemed to promise mediocrity in two fields of endeavour, but a small sign in the window advertising tortas ahogadas caught our eye and we decided to give Oscar's a try.

Oscar's will likely never become famous as a dining destination but we both felt they did a very good job with the items we tried. An initial good impression was made by the salsa that came with the basket of chips; it was clearly a housemade salsa of the roasted variety, with a good bit of piquancy and a nice sweet element that was probably primarily from the roasted and charred tomatoes that formed the bulk of the sauce.



Since it was the sign advertising tortas ahogadas that had caught our eye, that's what we both ordered. My sandwich was with lomo, thin slices of pork tenderloin grilled, and it was decked out in the usual way for such a Mexican torta, and then drowned in a red chile salsa (presumably a commercially made sauce such as Valentina). Behold:



Amata ordered her torta with pork al pastor; the meat was nicely seasoned and, as one can see on the left of the following picture, the shreds of meat included a generous number of nicely charred and crispy bits. Lo:



As further proof that the perro caliente is not all that rare a dish in Chicago, I offer the following picture of a bacon-wrapped, Mexican style hot dog, which Amata and I split as a side-dish to our tortas. Note that this version is neither so fancy nor so Mexican nor likely so tasty as the ones JSM found in Tucson (link). But it was disturbingly good, with an interesting balance of flavours achieved throught the fairly complex dressing on the wiener. Mirad el perrito caliente:



The Mexican-style hot dog is an abomination but a decidedly tasty one. Given the presence of bacon, mayo and the slices of avocado, I suspect one of these sandwiches contains something on the order of 8000 calories and enough cholesterol to clog an artery in an Allosaurus. I intend next to eat one in April, 2015 (insha'allah).

With regard to the rest of the menu, there wasn't too much that stood out as being in any way unusual. The meat selections for tacos and burritos and tortas include the aforementioned lomo and al pastor and also, lengua, chorizo, carne asada and pollo. Quesadillas and empanadas are also offered, as well as some dinner plates which are served with rice, beans, salad and guacamole. The one item that struck us as something out of the ordinary was found among the list of pizza options: Especialidad de la Pizza - la Salsa Chimichurries.

Prices at Oscar's are pretty low (torta $3.50, ahogada $3.95, slice of pizza $1.75, XL pizza $12.99, burrito $3.95, quesadilla $1.75) and we left well sated and pleased with our meal for some $12 or so, including beverages.

If you're in that neck of the woods and want to get a tasty little meal, I think Oscar's is a good choice.

Antonius

Oscar's Taqueria & Pizzeria
5632 South Kedzie
Chicago, IL
ph: 773-434-5466
ph: 773-434-5526
Mon.-Thurs.: 9 a.m. - 11 p.m.
Fri.- Sun.: 9 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Antonius wrote: My sandwich was with lomo, thin slices of pork tenderloin grilled, and it was decked out in the usual way for such a Mexican torta, and then drowned in a red chile salsa (presumably a commercially made sauce such as Valentina).

A,

Isn't lomo generally beef? That has always been my understanding, but I am a gringo with little Spanish except for that which is necessary for ordering in a restaurant.

stevez wrote:

Antonius wrote: My sandwich was with lomo, thin slices of pork tenderloin grilled...

Isn't lomo generally beef? That has always been my understanding, but I am a gringo with little Spanish except for that which is necessary for ordering in a restaurant.

The word lomo means, I believe, just 'loin' and one then has to specify which beast it's from. The menu doesn't specify and from how the meat looked I thought it was lomo de puerco but, with so much chile sauce on the sandwich, all I can say for certain is that it was meat. I believe it was pork but having gotten only three hours of sleep the previous night (in part thanks to being out cavorting with one of the site officers the night before), I would allow for the possibility that it was anything other than iguana.*



A

* One would, I think, in light of prices, sooner expect it to have been pork loin rather than beef loin, no?

** Careful examination of the photo shows that the small bit of exposed, cooked flesh on the left more closely resembles pork than beef. My sleep-deprived brain seems to have been able to function at least partially on Monday.

Great stuff!

I think the underlining premis(es), about great Mexican food all of the place is also important. It is the following of, say tortas ahogadas signs, for instance, that lead to these gems.

BTW, I understood lomo to be ribeye.

Rob

The mention of tortas ahogadas reminds me to report that it appears, unfortunately, that La Aurora on Irving Park has closed. They made a very enjoyable torta ahogada.

Ribeye is "lomo de res," is it not? Which admittedly is the most common use of the word "lomo," at least at the level of supermercado window signage.

Antonius wrote:With regard to the rest of the menu, there wasn't too much that stood out as being in any way unusual.

Just one other thing slightly unusual: Oscar's offers carne en su jugo, a specialty of Guadalajara as are the tortas ahogadas.

Google note: I was just searching for English sites with the string "carne en su jugo", to provide a link here. Three hits that came up near the top were by our own VI. Here is one. (thanks, Rob!)

Vital Information wrote:Great stuff!

I think the underlining premis(es), about great Mexican food all of the place is also important. It is the following of, say tortas ahogadas signs, for instance, that lead to these gems.

Definitely a sign advertising something not completely ordinary tends to be a good indication that a place may be interesting and offer decent quality food. But trying to judge an unknown place for me also crucially involves the reading of a number of not so easily verbalised cues one gets from the look of the place.

BTW, I understood lomo to be ribeye.

Sp. lomo, Port. lombo, It. lombata are all loin. I used to buy frequently lomo de puerco (also sometimes one sees lomo de cerdo) sliced thin and pounded out to be beautifully thin pork cutlets in Pilsen (for something on the order of $2.50 per lb.). What came in my torta ahogada at Oscar's was pretty much the same preparation. I don't know about 'ribeye' but lomo (de puerco/cerdo) is 'pork loin', as here (link).

A

It's been some time since I looked into this, but the Torta Ahogada(R), is a quite specific Tapatio sandwich matching A's description. A fairly recent phenomenon, I believe that a famous shop (now a chain?) lays claim to inventing it. It's a bit confusing because the term just means drowned sandwich. The DF torta ahogada is made with "choripapas" and can be found at the newish place on Ashland, I believe, featured in a recent Time Out. I'm blanking on the name.

The Guadalajara sandwich is definitely based on lomo de cerdo.

Mike G wrote:Ribeye is "lomo de res," is it not? Which admittedly is the most common use of the word "lomo," at least at the level of supermercado window signage.

I have to confess that I do not have the most complete control of the American vocabulary (or Spanish, for that matter) for cuts of meat, a shortcoming which is likely not wholly unrelated to my background, growing up in an Italian family in a heavily Italian area; meat was cut to a degree differently in the shops we frequented (aside from certain basic universals of the American kitchen) than in typical butcher shops in other parts of the country. The southern Italian approach to meat is more akin to the Mexican than the American and I have therefore always felt in a way more at home in a Mexican butcher shop than in a mainstream American one.

Anyway, that certainly sounds right that those little thin steaks sold as lomo de res are called 'ribeyes' in this language. But there's no way to get around the fact that there is something of a mismatch of 'lomo' to 'rib'. The best I can figure out about what's going on is that the 'lomo de res' is cut from the short end of the ribs and the bone is removed, which renders it rather like a loin cut (the same muscle runs on into the loin). In effect, the term lomo, which is specifically 'loin' has an extended use for this cut, which then most resembles the thing Americans know as a 'ribeye steak.'

Please note the following passsage from Merle Ellis' book Cutting up in the Kitchen:

The Rib Eye is a continuation of that tender muscle that runs along the back from the shoulder to the hip. In the Sirloin it's called the Top Sirloin, in the Short Loin it's called the Top Loin; in the Rib, for some incomprehensible reason, it's called the "Eye."

Ribeye steaks have various names across the country (e.g., east coast 'Delmonico', but Ellis also cites 'Spencer Steaks', 'Market Steaks', Beauty Steaks' and 'Rib Filets' -- unfortunately, he doesn't say where each of these is used).

But I would like to hear a butcher who knows both schools of butchering (Spanish/Mexican on the one hand, American on the other) discuss this topic. Any corrections or amplifications would be welcome. Meanwhile, I think the material in Ellis' book sheds at least some light on the matter.

A

Now, I should defer to the experts on this subject, but from my experience, in cow at least, tenderloin is filete de res.

Also on semantics, is not a DF torta ahogadas a pambaso?

Rob

Vital Information wrote:Now, I should defer to the experts on this subject, but from my experience, in cow at least, tenderloin is filete de res.

Yes, and so the filete de res is a distinct cut from the lomo de res which is both a different muscle and taken (it seems) from an area that extends into the lower end of the rib area... I think...

In the context of talking about the lomo (de puerco) on my torta at Oscar's in the original post, I think I said 'tenderloin' but that's not what I actually got, though it was some other reasonably tender boneless loin cut.

A

Well, a pambazo requires the bread after which the sandwich is named. To confuse matters more, the pambazos I've had did not have choripapas for filling. Though I've been to the DF several times, I have not had a sandwich there. My pambazo experiences were at the legendary taco trucks of Santa Rosa California, where a variety of meat fillings was available on my visits.

Antonius wrote:Since it was the sign advertising tortas ahogadas that had caught our eye, that's what we both ordered.

Antonious,

Sweet Mama Menuchki, those sandwiches look delicious. !

Nice pictures, nice post. You, A & L really have a knack for finding, and then getting the best out of, places that might get passed over as simply looking/being mediocre. (must repeat to self, never judge a book by it's cover, never judge a book by it's cover......... )

Enjoy,
Gary

Some of the confusion with loin versus rib may come from the American classification of primal cuts. Beef was often sold in quarters with the separation between the rib and loin primal cuts whereas pork was sold in halves. Pork loin includes both the rib section and the equivalent of beef loin. I am sure that relative weights of pork halves and beef quarters vs. halves had a lot to do with the definitions. Of course, this is American English and not any other language including other forms of English.