carnitas don rafa restaurant in brighton park

I stumbled across this place yesterday, and don't recollect reading any previous posts. "Simplemente lo mejor en carnitas" ("Simply the best in meat"), and "A family tradition for over 40 years."

The sit-down menu is pretty much standard fare, but the take-out meats looked outstanding:
Carnitas (all meat) $6.50/lb.
Carnitas (trimmings) $6.50.lb.
Carnitas (mix) $5.95/lb.
Barbacoa $6.95/lb.
Birria de chivo (baby goat) $7.95/lb. (weekends only)
"Homemade" tamales $5.90/doz., $3.50/1/2 doz.

I was in the mood for tamales exclusively, so I got red pork, green pork, and chicken/mole. This was about 1 p.m. on a Saturday, and I snagged the last of the green. All were excellent and meaty.

Now, I'm disappointed that I didn't try the carnitas, barbacoa, and chivo. I certainly will the next time I'm in the area, and I'll post again.

Cheers,
Wade



L-R: Red pork, green pork, chicken/mole

Carnitas Don Rafa Restaurant
4617-4619 S. Kedzie
773-847-VEGA
(Ralph Vega is the restaurant manager)
http://www.carnitasdonrafa.com/

Interesting find. Best web site I've ever seen for a carnitas place.

What a tease you are, giving us a photo of tamales still covered in their hojas.

BTW, for those new to the Mexican butcher take out menu, carnitas are chunks of pork (all parts) long-cooked in lard; birria de chivo is steamed goat served with its consomme and certain condiments such as chopped onion and cilantro, and barbacoa, in this instance, is steamed beef.

Tamales look, I don't know . . . more formal?, when they are photographed en hojas.

BTW: I just noticed that the menu refers to a sister restaurant/market in Pilsen, Sabas Vega, 1808 S. Ashland.

Cheers,
Wade

P.S. While waiting for my tamales to be packed, I overheard others in the carrry-out line voicing praise for Don Rafa's Nopalitos (cactus) salad ($3.89/lb, weekends), and pozole soup (every day: 1/4 gal. $4.75, 1/2 gal. $9.50, 1 gal. 19.95).

Sabas Vegas was one of the stops on the Short-Notice-A-Thon. (I think it was the one where I picked up the card and learned that an illustrious Chicagoan is the manager: Saul Bello.)

JeffB: More specifically, I imagine the barbacoa isn't just steamed beef, but steamed cow head? Below is a picture from a place in Portland (Tortilleria y Tienda de Leon) that makes their own every morning. Scott -- DFW has a report on dallasfood.org about a place in the Rio Grande Valley that is possibly the only US location to still make it in a pit with mesquite. I imagine if they give choice of meats or offal for the carnitas they do the same for the barbacoa. Wish I could get a look at those tamales's insides and some closeups of the carnitas and other dishes. btw, anyone making uchepos (aka, tamales de elote or fresh corn tamales) now that spring is coming? I've noticed a few places here, though we have a lot of Michoacanos, having them as specials lately.

Bowing to pressure, here are the tamales from Carnitas Don Rafa, naked and exposed for all the world to see. L-R, red pork, green pork, chicken/mole.

Cheers,
Wade

You're right, they look better with their hojas on. Perhaps next time leave a bit to the imagination: leave hojas on with the masa and meat just peaking through.

I'll add, Mr-Know-it-all-y (which will probably mean I am wrong...)

Birria is not so much steam meat, typically goat but also lamb or even beef, but more of a stew or braise (i.e., meat and liquid cooked together).

Barbacoa is a method of cooking and is often but not only used for cow heads--baby goats (cabrito) is commonly barbacoa'd. Traditionally, barbacoa was meat cooked in an underground pit, but the meat did not go over the fire. Rather a bucket of stuff (water and other ingredients plus the drippings) went over the fire. The meat was cooked by the radiant heat of the fire PLUS the steam. Traditional barbacoa would have some smoke flavor (so I've read), but obviously I have never tried. Around these parts, barbacoa is made in an oven/steamer.

The most interesting source for steam cooked cow head is, of course, the well documented guys at Maxwell Street.

Rob

Having never had pit-cooked barbacoa, I don't know how it tastes. The kind Scott refers to isn't entirely traditional in that it was wrapped in foil, which would make it less smoky. I would think the closest thing I've had is the Polynesian pork cooked in an imu, kalua pig. A little different, but very similar in cooking style and the wood used.

VI and Extra, thanks for the amplification. I mostly wanted to identify the meats and basic preps, but any further detail that can be illustrated by a steamed cow's head is fine by me.

At the place mentioned originally, the birria is birria de chivo. Though it is not uncommon to see other meats. I understand that chivo is the traditional and original.

I do believe also that the traditional prep is more of a steam than a boil, with the consome being prepared later, using the juices that are left over from the steaming. The following article discusses a very old-school way of making birria, specifying the size of animal, its preparation, the proper arrangement of kid parts in the olla voporera, the sealing of the pot with masa to keep in the steam, etc.

As the Mexican state cultural article says, certain things such as barbacoa and pastor are widespread, while "la birria es exclusiva de Jalisco y se prepara de distintas maneras."

(Note also the reference to barbacoa de chivo and pastor de chivo.)

http://www.cnca.gob.mx/cnca/nuevo/2001/ ... ocindi.htm

Did I mention how lucky we are to have so many sources for these great Jalisciense meat specialties?

I did a quick search of the threads and didn't see reference to this Birria place near Bucktown:

Birria Estilo Jalisco
2045 N. Western Ave.
773-252-8425

Contrary to the Metromix implication they serve goat birria every day, not just Sunday. I've never seen any sign that they serve anything else except for goat tacos. Even when I'm interested in tacos to take home I get the "birria plato", because it gives me 7 tacos worth of meat, tortillas, and broth for later use as a goat stock all for $7.50.

They still look at me funny and suspect I think its beef and not goat when I walk in, because I appear to one of the few gringos to go there.
They close by 7 (and sometimes a little earlier).

In my quest to do right by both the tamales AND you kind folks, I persuaded the tamales to pose again.

I decided that cathy2 was right: there had to be a happy medium between pictures of tamales fully clothed and tamales buck nekkid. I found the inspiration in her line about "leaving a bit to the imagination," and remembered that that desire is the preference of some folks as it relates to nudity.

So, here, slightly exposed and slightly concealed, and in a flattering light and, I think, posed at a provocative angle, are the tamales again. L-R: red pork, green pork, chicken/mole.

I'm at a loss about whether this image is PG-13 or R.

Cheers,
Wade

Wade, excellent picture!

Today, I noticed that La Ley, the never impressed me enough to try it before fast-food-y looking taqueria on Austin and Grand was advertising IN REALLY BIG LETTERS birria de borega (lamb) estillo Durango. Anyone know? I'm gonna try soon.

Rob

Hey, Rob, don't tell the Mexican cultural police about Durango style lamb birria.

I have had "birria de borrego" in the burbs http://www.elpiquebbq.com/ and at a few butchers, such as the one that used to be in the strip mall at Magnolia and Montrose. (I rarely leave any carneceria on the weekend without a chunk of some cooked meat.) If anything, the lamb version to me is a bit more earthy and gamey than the goat. Not sure that what I have had was "Durango" style, but the spicing at Pique seemed pretty dissimilar to what you normally get with regular goat birria. Lots of bay and cumin.

Is la Ley a mini chain? I thought I saw another.

PS, that is a magnificent tamal pic. The foreshortened perspective gives the tamales a look of speed and urgency.

In re barbacoa:

Here's the pit (and stripped-skull bin) at Vera's Backyard Bar-B-Que, in Brownsville, Texas.


And here's what the cachete (i.e., cheek) looks like after the process...


And again...


I can enjoy good steamed/braised-style barbacoa, which is prevalent through most of Texas. But, given the choice, I'll take the more traditional pit-style any day of the week. I only wish I didn't have to drive nine and a half hours to get it.

Scott

That cachete just looks awesome. It's one of my favorite things. Some places around here will slow roast cachete or braise it like a potroast where it's seared first giving it some extra color.

btw, a lot of the birria I've had in Jalisco at birrerias is actually much more subtle and lighter than what I've usually gotten in the US. Honestly, I probably prefer the more intense birria, like this from Ochoa in Hillsboro, Oregon, (on a huarache, see report here), than the subtler.



Also, there's a lady and her husband from Guerrero that have an awesome taco truck in the Columbia Gorge in a little town called The Dalles. They make birria, but they make it from carne de res, beef, instead. I asked why not de chivo and she scowled, crinkled up her nose, and said something like "no me gusta chivo" and then something I didn't understand which her husband translated as something I can't remember, but reminded me of a phrase a friend uses: "tastes like ass".

More on Sabas Vega carnitas.

This past Saturday I met an old friend from school who is a life-long San Franciscan (Potrero Hill) for breakfast at Nuevo Leon. I had chicharones en salsa verde con huevos and a "small" menudo. Let me digress and say this is the best breakfast I've had in a long, long time. NL's menudo is textbook, with the server taking care that a wide variety of tripe ends up in the bowl. And fresh fried pork rinds in tomatillo salsa with just-barely-set scrambled eggs is last-meal stuff for me.

We took a stroll after breakfast. This fellow gets around, both in the Bay Area and beyond, Mexico included. He says there's nothing like it where he's from.

Now the point: after a coffee and bunuelo at Bombon, we ducked into Sabas Vega. At that very moment, the carnitas were ready. The double doors to the kitchen opened, revealing a glimpse of the huge twin, hand-hammered casos. Then through the doors with restrained fanfare came four butchers and a rolling table holding the gaudiest display of pork I've ever seen. All the parts were there, glistening and reassembled into a castle of carnitas, intricately scored skin on top, and the whole edifice held in place by several long sticks.

I took a pound of meat, ribs and skin (the cuero is soft; not chicharon). The traditional gratis handful of pork is offered both before and after weighing by the wonderful staff.

I was maybe fifth in line, giving up a few places to the regulars, mostly older women, who had been hanging around in anticipation. I was struck by the cuts that these pork groupies went for. It reminded me of what I know from my pig-tail stealing uncle and roadside parrilladas in Argentina: the true gourmand goes for the rare items, the things that come in limited sets of four or fewer. (My upper limit for parrillada involved a one-off, bull-only item, but that's another story.)

There's plenty of pierna and costillas to go around, but one lady before me scored two patas and half a liver (pig livers are big). Another took an ear and what looked to be the heart. In other company I might have taken some tripe, but I'd had my quota for the day anyway.

And everything was spectacularly good.

If you arrive around 11:00 am (call ahead) you can see the show.

waderoberts wrote:BTW: I just noticed that the menu refers to a sister restaurant/market in Pilsen, Sabas Vega, 1808 S. Ashland..

Wade,

Yes indeed Sabas Vega is the sister restaurant of Carnitas Don Rafa. I was at Sabas Vega on Sunday for lunch and thoroughly enjoyed carnitas, birria de chivo, with comes with a light coating of (what I'm pretty sure is) a chile de arbol based sace, good rice and terrific lardy refried beans.

Sabas Vega Carnitas


Sabas Vega Birria de Chivo


Sabas Vega Rice and Beans


One thing I particularly like about Sabas Vega is you can usually score a table on the weekends without waiting an hour, at least later in the morning. This Sunday we were even treated to a song or two by wandering Mariachis.

Wandering Mariachis at Sabas Vega


No tamales at Sabas Vega, and this Sunday at 1pm they were out of menudo, nopalitos and my perennial favorite Cabecitas de Chivo, split steamed goat head.

Note to Mike G, no more Saul Bello, Sabas Vega Jr. is now the manager.

Note to Jeff B, everything was excellent, but I was too late for the show, maybe next time.

Enjoy,
Gary

Sabas Vega Meat Market
1808 S Ashland Ave
Chicago, IL

WOW!

I went to the new Carnitas Don Rafa, in Joliet. I got the Carnitas, of course. The waitress asked me if I would like it served with a mix with the fat...well yes please!

They were really good, as was the rice, beans, guacamole, pico de gallo and a whole bag of fresh pork rinds.

real nice place.

Dan

Like Gonefishin I too have been to Carnitas Don Rafa in the Joliet area. While I don't consider myself a carnitas expert everytime I've been the carnitas have been excellent. The carnitas are ready at 10am M-F and 8am on Sat. and Sunday. Raf has always done the carving when we've been there and always offers a taste. He now knows what we like...dark meat, skin, and some stomach topped with the salty bits (no charge) from the bottom of the pan. The meat is consistent...tender, flavorful and juicy with just enough crispy bits.

They keep a couple of different varieties of corn tortillas in a warmer for carry out. One brand is El Milagro; can't remember the other. The cactus salad is great as a side or as one of the servers said as a topping. For carryout, if you want cilantro and onion do ask for it. The horchata is also very good and is made on site.

For those inclined they offer a 15% discount on Monday through Thursday with their membership card. I'm not sure if that's just carry out or dine in too.

Carnitas Don Rafa
2224 Plainfield Rd
Crest Hill, IL 60403
815-741-2222
http://www.donrafarestaurants.com