Though I’ve been following the discussion of
Zaragoza Restaurant, and it’s particular version of
birria, since it began - the restaurant is situated in a part of the city I have little reason to visit (other than the restaurant) and if I did want to visit the travel time is too lengthy to justify the journey. So I designed a Saturday trip – yesterday – encompassing visits to
Great American Cheese Collection (“GACC”) and Zaragoza Restaurant. I’ll discuss the visit to GACC on the shopping forum.
If the trip to the southwest side was solely to visit GACC I would have returned home a bit disappointed, because I don’t think it was worth the effort. However, my visit to Zaragoza Restaurant
made my day, my week and probably my month.
It took a little bit of a round-about route to get from GACC to Zaragoza Restaurant, but I made it fine. For people for whom transit on the Orange Line elevated train is convenient the restaurant is within relatively easy reach – situated about two blocks north of the Pulaski Ave. station (if you don’t want to walk the distance (nighttime, rain, snow, etc.) you can find a CTA bus at the station that’ll drop you almost across the street from the restaurant).
As soon as I opened the door and stepped inside the restaurant I felt at home. Juan (though I think he introduced himself as “John,” instead) – wearing the white jacket of a chef - quickly greeted me and son Jonathan joined-in quickly afterwards, and wife, Norma, stuck her head around the corner from the back kitchen to add her greeting as well. I first thought of occupying a two-top table on the window wall but seeing Juan working away with the goat meat behind the counter I sat in front of but off to one side facing him.
Almost simultaneously Juan and Jonathan asked me if this was my first time visiting the restaurant and if I understood the food being served, etc. When I replied that I knew something about the restaurant he asked how and I mentioned LTH, and both Juan and Jonathan mentioned their previous visits with LTHers. I brought along a “hard copy” of this discussion thread and the family (now including son Eric) thumbed through the text – and particularly the photos – and laughed and talked about the times the photos were taken.
Juan said he’d fix me a “first timer’s” plate of meat ($8.50) and he carefully selected some rib meat, some from the shoulder and some of the previously discussed “love handle.” I marveled as Juan picked through the oven pan of meat and bones and how he so carefully made his selections, trimmed the meat and arranged the meat on the platter – and how so delicately he bathed the meat with the clear broth before serving it. The man is a perfectionist. Juan’s artistry and behavior in the “kitchen” is probably no different than other good chefs in the city – but, given the type of operation Zaragoza Restaurant appears at first glance to be – I was impressed.
I’ve eaten
birria before – in Mexico – and it’s not a dish I go out of my way to look for. I’ve been unimpressed each time. This was the first time I had
birria in the
estilo de La Barca, however – and it was an extraordinary experience for me. Never before – in any of the forms it’s served – have I enjoyed goat meat as much as I did with this
birria. I was enjoying it so much I didn’t add any of the few condiments available – until Jonathan suggested some of the house-produced smoked pepper salsa, and Juan suggested some onion.
I enjoy freshly-made corn tortillas but wasn’t as over-the-top excited about them as others posting in this discussion seem to have been. True, most Mexican restaurants in the city use commercially-produced tortillas, but I travel in Mexico regularly and more often than not the meals I eat there are accompanied by freshly prepared tortillas. Two women produce the tortillas for this restaurant and each has her own styles of preparation. Juan told me one woman makes the tortillas thin and the other thicker than the first. The woman making the tortillas during the time of my visit made the thin variety – which I prefer. With this type of meal I don’t use a fork, just pieces pulled from the tortilla and when Jonathan watched me eat he commented about it and we talked about the eating habits not only of the restaurant’s customers but of his family – and he said he eats the same way I do (without the utensils).
To wash-down my plate of
birria I chose a 24 oz. bottle of bottled-in-Mexico
Fresca (
toronja – grapefruit flavored). ($2)
My visit to the restaurant was but an hour, or slightly longer, but it seemed an eternity. During my meal and while Juan was preparing platters of
birria for other customers he and I had a back-and-forth discussion which included: sourcing and suppliers of the goats (he’s using 15 weekly, now), baking and staging for quality control, his decision to focus on
birria and eliminate other food items (such as enchiladas, which he served when he opened the restaurant) and how that decision sparked a continuing discussion amongst family members, and other things. The dialogue included, also, Juan asking me as many questions as I was asking him – about
birria in the section of Chicago where I live, about
birria in cities and towns I’ve traveled to in Mexico, about mole and
pozole, etc. The wide-ranging discussions weren’t just between Juan and me, but also included each of the family members jumping-in and out at various points. As was mentioned earlier in this discussion thread, if you sit yourself at the counter it'll be impossible to avoid an interaction with family members.
After I’d left the restaurant and was headed back home I thought of how Juan’s style/personality/appearance closely resembles Dr. Sanjay Gupta – the Neurosurgeon/Physician medical affairs consultant at CNN.
I found it difficult to tear myself away from the restaurant, but I was facing a 1.5 hour bus ride home. And for the entire time on the bus I kept thinking about the flavoring of the goat meat, the broth and how this visit to Zaragoza Restaurant fundamentally changed the way I will view
birria in the future . . . and how very fortunate we are to live in a city that affords us the opportunity to sample the depth and strata of so many cuisines.