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Sopa de Fideo
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    Post #1 - April 24th, 2006, 11:17 am
    Post #1 - April 24th, 2006, 11:17 am Post #1 - April 24th, 2006, 11:17 am
    Everyone seems to think all Mexican dinners are accompanied by rice and beans.

    I grew up eating another staple which I never see on menus and that,s fideo which is angel hair pasta browned and cooked like mexican rice. I wonder why the lack of prescence on menus?

    Also I would love to find a favorite dish Sopa de fideo which is the pasta in a chicken broth with chunks of chicken. The final dish was in between a soup and a stew.

    Thoughts?
    Pops - You are deeply missed. There are many baskets of tortillas yet to share. I hope they have good menudo and carnitas in heaven!
  • Post #2 - April 24th, 2006, 11:31 am
    Post #2 - April 24th, 2006, 11:31 am Post #2 - April 24th, 2006, 11:31 am
    I haven't had it there, and it may be different in execution, but Borinquen has sopa de fideos (con pollo) on the menu ($9).

    Sopas de Fideos o Arroz
    ( Soup with Noodles or Rice )

    Mariscos...........................................................................$14.95
    Camarones.......................................................................$13.95
    Langosta..........................................................................$19.95
    Crab.................................................................................$19.95
    Salchichon..........................................................................$8.95
    Jamon.................................................................................$8.95
    Pollo...................................................................................$8.95
    Res.....................................................................................$8.95


    But make sure to call before heading over! I was trying to find some PR-style sopa de arroz y pollo for my wife who was sick at the time, only to be told they didn't have it that day.

    z


    Borinquen Restaurant
    1720 N California Ave #1
    773-227-6038
  • Post #3 - April 24th, 2006, 11:39 am
    Post #3 - April 24th, 2006, 11:39 am Post #3 - April 24th, 2006, 11:39 am
    orgullodemexico wrote:Everyone seems to think all Mexican dinners are accompanied by rice and beans.

    I grew up eating another staple which I never see on menus and that,s fideo which is angel hair pasta browned and cooked like mexican rice. I wonder why the lack of prescence on menus?


    OdM,

    You're right -- it doesn't show up all that often on menus here, though I have seen it and gotten it as a side in place of rice on daily special platters a few times. Somewhere I have a photo of one such platter that I'll try to dig up and contextualise.

    Also I would love to find a favorite dish Sopa de fideo which is the pasta in a chicken broth with chunks of chicken. The final dish was in between a soup and a stew.

    Thoughts?


    Once again, this turns up far less frequently here in restaurants than one would expect. Amata and I have mulled over this some over the years and I think we have sort of settled on the idea that it must be judged by some to be too homey, too mundane. Whatever the reason, it has been relatively neglected in the filtered and compressed repertoire of the average Mexican restaurant in town.

    I did, however, have a really outstanding bowl of sopa de pollo con fideos / sopa de fideos con pollo last fall at a short-lived Veracruzano restaurant in Heart of Chicago / West Pilsen. There may also be a photo of that in the archives; I'll give a look. It was simple and beautiful, with the noodles not cooked to mushiness. Unfortunately, the restaurant closed down before we had a chance to write it up. :cry: :cry: :cry:

    Antonius
    Alle Nerven exzitiert von dem gewürzten Wein -- Anwandlung von Todesahndungen -- Doppeltgänger --
    - aus dem Tagebuch E.T.A. Hoffmanns, 6. Januar 1804.
    ________
    Na sir is na seachain an cath.
  • Post #4 - April 24th, 2006, 11:57 am
    Post #4 - April 24th, 2006, 11:57 am Post #4 - April 24th, 2006, 11:57 am
    orgullodemexico wrote:Everyone seems to think all Mexican dinners are accompanied by rice and beans.

    I grew up eating another staple which I never see on menus and that,s fideo which is angel hair pasta browned and cooked like mexican rice. I wonder why the lack of prescence on menus?

    Also I would love to find a favorite dish Sopa de fideo which is the pasta in a chicken broth with chunks of chicken. The final dish was in between a soup and a stew.

    Thoughts?


    I haven't seen that on any menu in chicago...but working at a restaurant with a mostly mexican kitchen staff, i've always wondered about the lunch comeda they prepare for staff - it's usually exactly one of these dishes (usually the soup/stew). it's rare when they make what i consider an authentic mexican meal. but now i guess i've got to change my perception of what it is i consider 'authentic' mexican meals!
  • Post #5 - April 24th, 2006, 12:48 pm
    Post #5 - April 24th, 2006, 12:48 pm Post #5 - April 24th, 2006, 12:48 pm
    In one of Antonius's cooking threads, I noted the lack of sopa seca in town. Now, plain old chicken sopa de fideos sometimes shows up as the free starter, e.g., at LaLo's. Not enough reason to go there, however.
  • Post #6 - April 24th, 2006, 1:22 pm
    Post #6 - April 24th, 2006, 1:22 pm Post #6 - April 24th, 2006, 1:22 pm
    JeffB wrote:In one of Antonius's cooking threads, I noted the lack of sopa seca in town. Now, plain old chicken sopa de fideos sometimes shows up as the free starter, e.g., at LaLo's. Not enough reason to go there, however.


    A big cookbook from Mexico wiritten in the 19th century that I have (though not at hand at the moment, so I can't cite title and author now) gives a number of sopa seca/pasta recipes and, indeed, in classic Mexican bourgeois cuisine, there was, I believe, always a sopa seca course at formal, full-blown meals. From my reading on traditional New Mexican cookery, I gather that the basic (chicken-)tomato-noodle dish was eaten with considerable frequency there too.

    We make sopa seca at home fairly often and I'm especially fond of the nested fideus gruesos for that purpose. In fact, yesterday, I made a carbonara-like sopa seca for lunch: toasted fideos, eggs, pork products, cheese. Quite tasty.

    Probably the best way to go is to make this stuff at home, as with Italian pasta. Aside from the excellent soupier version I had at the Veracruzano place, I haven't had any restaurant versions that went much past the level of 'pleasant', while some have been wrecked by utterly soft and completely characterless noodles.

    Antonius
    Alle Nerven exzitiert von dem gewürzten Wein -- Anwandlung von Todesahndungen -- Doppeltgänger --
    - aus dem Tagebuch E.T.A. Hoffmanns, 6. Januar 1804.
    ________
    Na sir is na seachain an cath.
  • Post #7 - April 25th, 2006, 3:53 am
    Post #7 - April 25th, 2006, 3:53 am Post #7 - April 25th, 2006, 3:53 am
    I'm glad others agree.

    Just as a final thought, my abuelita used to use various "pastas" made in the same manner as rice and fideo as side dishes in her meals.

    Some of those were "bowties", "shells", "stars", and the little pasta that looked like pumpkin seeds.

    All evoke fond memories of years past and I would hate to see this get lost
    Pops - You are deeply missed. There are many baskets of tortillas yet to share. I hope they have good menudo and carnitas in heaven!
  • Post #8 - April 25th, 2006, 6:24 am
    Post #8 - April 25th, 2006, 6:24 am Post #8 - April 25th, 2006, 6:24 am
    Image

    This is the one example I can recall of chcken soup with a Mexican meal. Not especially close to what you describe, but there it is.
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  • Post #9 - April 25th, 2006, 8:23 am
    Post #9 - April 25th, 2006, 8:23 am Post #9 - April 25th, 2006, 8:23 am
    Oye, Orgullo, I have a source for sopa de fideo for you: Taqueria de la Casa del Pueblo, just south(west) of the Pilsen grocery store La Casa del Pueblo. You may have visited this spot when you were looking for tamales last Christmas, I can't remember, but for others who haven't been there I'll just point out that the restaurant is set up as a cafeteria/steam table kind of place. One of the items available is sopa de fideo, and I got a small container to go yesterday, for $2.

    Antonius and I actually had the sopa this morning for breakfast, and thought it was pretty good. (Picture to follow soon.)

    La Casa del Pueblo restaurant has an impressively extensive menu -- you don't always see huevos tibios 'soft boiled eggs' as one of the breakfast choices in Mexican places around town, for example.

    Thanks for posting such an interesting (as always) query. Now, what place has those costillas al carbon...?

    Amata


    La Casa del Pueblo Restaurant
    1834 S. Blue Island
    Chicago
    312 421-4664
    open daily 6 am to 8 pm.
  • Post #10 - April 25th, 2006, 9:06 am
    Post #10 - April 25th, 2006, 9:06 am Post #10 - April 25th, 2006, 9:06 am
    Sopa de Fideos

    As Amata mentioned above, we had the sopa de fideos that she had gotten at Casa del Pueblo yesterday for today’s breakfast. It was pretty good:
    Image

    We both added a little grated queso añejo and black pepper to finish it off; I confess to having also added a drop or two of olio santo (not pictured here):
    Image

    ***

    I mentioned that in the archives of the Victological Institute-ANB, there was a photo of the especially fine version of this soup I had at the now defunct Veracruzano restaurant. Eccola:
    Image

    Orgullo de Mexico also asked about places where one encounters the use of fideos as a side-dish and I said that I have encountered it now and again as part of a daily special. Here’s the only photo I have from a restaurant:
    Image

    ***

    In the Bibliotheca Maccaroniana of the Victological Institute of the Academy, there is always a fairly wide array of Mexican pastas on hand. As OdM says, the shapes used in Mexican cooking are pretty varied and I find the little packages of 200gr. convenient for quick lunch (or breakfast) preparations.
    Image

    Thanks to OdM for bringing this topic up.

    Buen Provecho,
    Antonius
    Alle Nerven exzitiert von dem gewürzten Wein -- Anwandlung von Todesahndungen -- Doppeltgänger --
    - aus dem Tagebuch E.T.A. Hoffmanns, 6. Januar 1804.
    ________
    Na sir is na seachain an cath.
  • Post #11 - April 25th, 2006, 4:51 pm
    Post #11 - April 25th, 2006, 4:51 pm Post #11 - April 25th, 2006, 4:51 pm
    Now you're talking! That was a great post, Thank You!!

    Fideo with queso anejo - What time do you want me to show up?

    The restaurant you referred to, showing the platter of frijoles, carne asada and fideo - Does it still exist?

    OdM
    Pops - You are deeply missed. There are many baskets of tortillas yet to share. I hope they have good menudo and carnitas in heaven!
  • Post #12 - April 25th, 2006, 4:57 pm
    Post #12 - April 25th, 2006, 4:57 pm Post #12 - April 25th, 2006, 4:57 pm
    Amata wrote:Oye, Orgullo, I have a source for sopa de fideo for you: Taqueria de la Casa del Pueblo, just south(west) of the Pilsen grocery store La Casa del Pueblo. You may have visited this spot when you were looking for tamales last Christmas, I can't remember, but for others who haven't been there I'll just point out that the restaurant is set up as a cafeteria/steam table kind of place. One of the items available is sopa de fideo, and I got a small container to go yesterday, for $2.

    Antonius and I actually had the sopa this morning for breakfast, and thought it was pretty good. (Picture to follow soon.)

    La Casa del Pueblo restaurant has an impressively extensive menu -- you don't always see huevos tibios 'soft boiled eggs' as one of the breakfast choices in Mexican places around town, for example.

    Thanks for posting such an interesting (as always) query. Now, what place has those costillas al carbon...?

    Amata


    La Casa del Pueblo Restaurant
    1834 S. Blue Island
    Chicago
    312 421-4664
    open daily 6 am to 8 pm.




    Thank You. I will put that on my list of places to try and I'll report back.

    I'm still looking for those costillas!!

    I did enjoy some costillas at La Brasa Roja (Colombian) on Montrose, west of Western.
    Pops - You are deeply missed. There are many baskets of tortillas yet to share. I hope they have good menudo and carnitas in heaven!
  • Post #13 - April 25th, 2006, 5:12 pm
    Post #13 - April 25th, 2006, 5:12 pm Post #13 - April 25th, 2006, 5:12 pm
    orgullodemexico wrote:The restaurant you referred to, showing the platter of frijoles, carne asada and fideo - Does it still exist?

    OdM


    Yes, and because of this thread Antonius posted about it in a separate thread. It's "the other" Nuevo Leon, in La Villita.

    Here is the link:

    http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=8133

    Amata

    Nuevo Leon Restaurant
    3657 West 26th Street (by S. Millard)
    773.522.1515

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