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Rereading my post on carne apache, I see I left out quite a bit of explanation. I’m still confused about what carne apache really is. Most recipes I’ve found are for citrus-cured, uncooked meat dishes (e.g., this recipe). These “beef ceviches” are very unlike what I ate at Los Gallos #2. What they served as carne apache had no detectable citrus flavor (except for the lime half that garnished the plate) and was definitely heat cooked. Other than meat it contained onion, chile, tomato, and probably a few other ingredients (no bacon or cactus that I remember). It was not unlike alambres, a sort of Mexican stir fry, except the meat seemed like it had been cooked longer. Has anyone run into carne apache elsewhere in Chicago? Or tried the dish in Mexico?

It's been a while since anyone has posted in this great thread-- well, it hasn't been a day you'd even consider having soup on until today-- but fighting a longlasting cold, I ventured down to Taqueria Los Gallos #2 to finally try Pigmon's #1 rated carne en su jugo, a dish I had tried only one other time, on the 47th-a-Thon at Taqueria Los Altos:



My memory of the version at Los Altos was of a thick, Scotch Broth-like stewy soup, cloudy and a little rough-edged; I now suspect the best bits of beef and bacon had been eaten by the time I got to try a spoon or two, because it certainly wasn't as full of such things as this:



This was clear, extremely clean flavored, a vehicle for grilled beef and bacon to shine through. I scarfed it most happily. But which is better? I don't really have to decide. They were different, they were both good. One was homey (Los Altos), the other seemed more professional. It's a big world and you won't be sorry to try more than one carne en su jugo.

Thanks again, Pigmon.

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Thanks, Mike.

Just for the record, although I'm quite fond of the CESJ at Los Gallos, the version over at Los Tres Gallos in Melrose Park that Mr. Vitalinfo lead me to is definitely amongst the best in Chicago.

But as you said, Mike, it's a big world....

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It's spelled "PIGMON" - but it's pronounced "PIG-MIN."

The recent talk of El Taco Veloz elsewhere on the board combined with the cold and rain this morning spurred me to finally make a trip for CESJ. Sadly, by the time I'd run my morning appointments and arrived at my destination, the weather had conspired to make CESJ considerably less ideal than it had been a few hours earlier, but I stuck with the original plan.

Good stuff, to be sure.

A question, though. I was taken aback by how powerfully bacony the soup was. To be clear, I don't necessarily consider this a negative, simply surprising. There was precious little, if any, beef floating in the broth, but the bowl was chock full of bacony bits, and the broth seemed similarly flavored. Really, it seemed more like a bacon soup than a beef soup. So I got to wondering, is this typical of CESJ, or typical of El Taco Veloz, or simply an off bowl?

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-Dom
www.skilletdoux.com

Interesting that you bring this put up, Dom. The last few times I went to El Taco Veloz, I had the exact same impression as you about their overuse of bacon. Many bowls around town do use large amounts of bacon, often times imparting a strong bacon-y profile to the soup (except, of course, el Tapatio #2 – they’re the place that uses grilled baloney).

My idea of a great version of CESJ, however, is one that carries the flavor of wonderfully rich homemade beef broth in proportion with its other ingredients (bacon, beans, meat, onion, cilantro, chile de arbol, etc.). The real question is whether a restaurant can make a soup that is both beefy and bacony in the right proportions.

A shame, really. Taco El Veloz used to be my go-to spot when I was too lazy to make the trek to the better places ~30-45 minutes away (Birrieria de la Torre, Tres Gallos, and Los Gallos).

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It's spelled "PIGMON" - but it's pronounced "PIG-MIN."

I just noticed this thread, so I thought I'd give you a heads up. I often eat at a Mexican place called Nuevo Poncitlan in Berwyn. I usually get chiles rellenos, or tacos/burritos with barbacoa or chorizo. Anyway, I noticed they have a sign on the wall for CESY, as a "specialty", but I haven't tried it yet. I'll report back if I try it before someone else.

Nuevo Poncitlan
6322 W. 26th St.
Berwyn, IL 60402
708-484-5944

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What if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about?

Those late-80's Yugoslavian junkers may have been short on legroom, but man, they could hold a lot of soup.

(Sorry, Cogito )

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-Dom
www.skilletdoux.com

FWIW, I had diner at El Taco Veloz last night and none of us notived an overly strong bacony flavor to the carne en su jugo. The broth was very well ballanced between the meats, onion, radish, chile, and lime. I did notice a pleasent smokiness to the broth but only really identified it as bacon when there was actuall bacon on the spoon. It is possible I'm being over protective as Veloz is walking distance from my apartment but I found everything (another member of our party had a torta that looked like the perfect lunch for under $4) to be great last night.

The 2nd dinner at Hot Chocolate wasn't bad either... more on that later!

Was at Cocula's on 22nd in Cicero and I saw CESJ on the menu. I ordered and was pleasantly surprised, it was outstanding. Waitress stated that the CESJ served was the cook's recipe from Jalisco.

Anyway, one of the best, up there with Los Gallos (26th).

Tio Luis has absolutely delicious carne en su jugo - a brownish broth with that beautiful grilled carne asada (#1 rated in the city according to the Chicago Tribune), firm beans, and wonderful sides - fresh radish, avocado, tiny limes, fresh toasted arbol chiles. It's also ridiculously cheap and made all hours of the day and night daily.

Tio Luis
3856 S. Archer
(west of Western on Archer)
BYOB

I tried the CESJ at Tio Luis with Gwiv last May and, at the time, thought it was hardly worth a retry. As I recall, it was a fairly weak, flat, and overly salty broth with the added ingredients being fairly standard. I felt then that their soup was fairly average compared to the numerous other places I’ve tried around town. To tell you the truth, I didn’t even think it was worth making a post about it after that first try.
However, yesterday’s retry was a definite improvement. The broth was still fairly weak but had a respectable balance and flavor to it. The grilled meat quality there was notably better than a recent bowl I had at Tacos Veloz just a few days before.

And apparently much like Taco Veloz, consistency is a major problem when it comes to their soup.

There’s no doubt that this was a more enjoyable bowl than my first try but I still wouldn’t say that it ranks in the upper echelons of carne en su jugo to be enjoyed around town. And with Los Gallos just a few blocks away, I would find it nearly impossible to ever get motivated to go back for it.

As for its $4.95 price tag, the bowl is about 50% smaller than a normal “small” order one usually gets. So, in terms of it being a great deal relative to other CESJ’s in Chicago, I don’t believe so. I will admit that this smallish bowl is definitely chock full of steak.




CESJ at Tio Luis

(Photo courtesy of GWiv)

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It's spelled "PIGMON" - but it's pronounced "PIG-MIN."

Los Gallos is a great place to eat (feels something like a Mexican Manny's inside), and the soup is a good deal as is, but for an incredible value you can get it to go. For $17.50 you get a half gallon of CESJ packed with everything you need, onions, cilantro,avocado,radishes, limes,roasted chiles, pickled garlic and peppers and a stack of tortillas. Easily enough for six big bowls. Can't beat that. Throw in a 1/4 gallon of carne Apache (enough for dozens of tacos) for about the same price and you could feed a pretty large crowd very nicely indeed.

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Lacking fins or tail
The Gefilte fish
swims with great difficulty.

Jewish haiku.

Damn, if the security dude in the Los Gallos parking lot (26th St.) wasn't eyeballin' me hard, I would've had me some corn for dinner tonight. (Photos courtesy of happy_stomach)

WARNING: Major downhill alert. A starter-kit, micro-sized bowl of what seemed to be Goya Beef Bouillon is now being served up at Los Gallos. Literally, it is one-third of its traditional amount with a highly dubious broth to boot. To be honest, I was so offended by the size and broth that I didn't even get to try the guts of it before I asked for a refund.
The size of this $8.50 cup of soup is an insult to any CESJ-eatin' fool. Too bad...this used to be amongst the best and most respected BOWLS in town.


This is a cereal-bowl sized insult to the entire CESJ world.

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It's spelled "PIGMON" - but it's pronounced "PIG-MIN."

Which LG was this? I ate at #2 on Archer a few weeks back and it sure seemed larger (though honestly not as large as the one I had last year).

That is indeed an insult.

Still enjoying my sub-$5.00 generous bowl full o'steak at Tio Luis with all the fixins.

Have you gotten to La Lupita to try the version with half a package of chopped Oscar Meyer hot dogs yet?

#1

Not yet. Just the grilled Boloney version at Tapatio #2 on North Avenue.

Trix just told me that she had surprise plans for taking me to La Lupita for my upcoming 50th birthday. She arranged for a whole package of hot dogs too.

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It's spelled "PIGMON" - but it's pronounced "PIG-MIN."

That's too bad about TLG, I've never been to the 26th street location and now I doubt I ever will. Since CESJ season is right around the corner I thought I would share this place I found near the end of winter last February.


Just across from a grade school on 22nd place in Pilsen





I found it while taking a side street to avoid traffic and decided to pull over and try the CESJ . Aside from the soup they also did sub sandwiches named after Archie characters (I think) and Ice Cream and malt drinks. I don't remember it being the best bowl I ever had or liking it more than Los Gallos but I thought it was pretty good. It had a redder broth than any other I've had that had some good spice to it. The best part was the extra crispy pieces of bacon. The part I didn't enjoy as much as the rest was the steak which was boiled.

Pop's Malt Shoppe
2100 W 22nd Pl
Chicago, IL 60608-4051
(312) 823-1245

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Smokin' Chokin' and Chowing

Nice find, DB.

Inspired by your above photos of Pop’s Malt Shoppe’s CESJ, I decided to have lunch there today. To be perfectly honest, walking into a Mexican ice cream parlor with Archie posters plastered all over its walls and not a soul in sight doesn’t exactly give you much confidence about its future prospects. It was near a school so maybe its student business strikes later in the day.
However, looks can sometime be deceiving and in this case, it certainly was...at least as far as the CESJ goes. I’m not going to say it was in the upper echelons of carne en su jugo to be had but it was better than most I’ve tried. The broth (mine today was the common beef/ brown-colored variety) was clearly a nice in-house effort with a subtle marrow, beefiness to it and little or no suggestion of powdered bouillon added. It was a bit salty but that’s per usual with most CESJs since they often add loads of bacon. I always forget to ask them to half the amount for this very reason. I also thought the guts of the soup was quite respectable (boiled then superflash-grilled meat, bacon, and an appropriate quantity of pintos) while I never care for when the place takes the liberty of adding the condiments for you (radish, avocado, onion, chile de arbol, etc.).

I would definitely return to the Malt Shoppe for a retry but worry about its chances of survival.

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It's spelled "PIGMON" - but it's pronounced "PIG-MIN."

While cruising down Harlem a couple weeks ago I saw a place called taqueria Magueyes located in Brideview. There is a thread for it here but nothing on the food. It was advertising authentic char broiled steak and seemed like a nice place to stop in for a steak taco or two. So I pulled in and then noticed a sign advertising carne en su jugo in the parking lot. Unfortunately it is served on weekends only so I went with a couple steak tacos and made a mental note to return sooner than later so I dont forget about it.

The tacos were very good, grilled steak chopped nice and fine as opposed to a place like pasadita where they chop huge pieces. In fact they were some of the best tacos I have had in a while. It was right around lunch and they had a bunch of skirt steak going on the grill so maybe it was perfect timing. It gave me real hope that the CESJ would be really good considering how nice of a job they do with the skirt steak. So I returned on Sunday. I had very high hopes since the steak taco was so good mostly because of the steak and I was let down hard. It is a green based broth and they mention estillo Guadalajara in the description so it is a version from that region as I learned in the OP on this thread.


CESJ estillo in Guadalajara

I'm not one to bash a place and I wont because the menu here is really promising. It was also packed on Sunday around 5p with a bunch of families most of which were Mexican and the people with me really enjoyed their food. But the first problem came when she brought the soup out, there were no dried peppers to make it spicy, an element I love in CESJ. The second problem was the broth was warm at best, by the time I was 10 minutes in it was room temp and the place was so packed I said the hell with it. Why? because the steak was nothing like the charred pieces they use for tacos and the broth in itself didn't have much flavor anyways. The steak was rubbery yet also stringy as if it had been sitting in liquid forever and had no signs of a nice crisp char. It just wasn't a good bowl and while I will return one day for their other specialties, especially some steak and cecina tacos, I wont be getting the CESJ again.


the steak was a letdown

In other news, dont know if anyone has seen this but menupages has a search function that lets you search by dish. So I typed in CESJ and got quite a few more results then I was expecting. Winters coming, might it be time for a CESJ tour part two? Click here to see that list.

Taqueria Los Magueyes
7101 S Harlem Ave
Bridgeview, IL 60455
708-924-4550

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Smokin' Chokin' and Chowing

Well, Da Beef, you gave it the ol college try, and at least found a decent taco for your troubles. I will say, however, that first pic makes it look like quite a tasty treat, very good pic indeed. Thanks for the info on this joint!

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We cannot be friends if you do not know the difference between Mayo and Miracle Whip.

The small bowl went up a dollar so now it's $6.56 with tax. I stopped by Tio Luis recently on a cold blustery day and enjoyed my order of carne en su jugo quite a bit.





The meat is good and the amount of bacon is perfect—enough to know it's there but not overpowering. And they've improved their salsa, formerly one of my least favorite in the city. Their pickled veggies (unpleasantly sweet and clovey) could use an upgrade though.

I'd go back to Tio Luis for carne en su jugo but for an additional few bucks at Birrieria de la Torre you get so much more: bigger serving, better broth, better beans (the pricier mayacobas), better garnishes (including grilled knob onions), better tortillas (handmade). Torre is still my favorite by a wide margin.

Tio Luis
3856 S Archer Av
Chicago
773-843-0098

Birrieria de la Torre
6724 S Pulaski Rd
Chicago
773-767-6075

hey beef this is right down street from my shop . just down 71st 5 blocks

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philw bbq cbj for kcbs &M.I.M. carolina pit masters

LTH,

Pigmon, aka Rob Lopata, shares his wealth of Carne en su Jugo knowledge with Kevin Pang of the Chicago Tribune.

The wondrous mystery soup from Jalisco

Enjoy,
Gary

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Sauce on the side, always, implied, axiomatic..........never a doubt, BBQ sauce without.

Low & Slow

Some poetic writing about carne en su jugo. Rob should have also shared some knowledge about Texas Chili with Pang. This was so painful, I had a hard time finishing the article after I read it:

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...defended from strong temptations to social ambition by a still stronger taste for tripe and onions." Screwtape in The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis

Fuckerberg on Food

This is a perfect example of the strengths of all aspects of the food community working together to get a great piece out there. An enthusiastic amateur does exhaustive research on an obscure traditional dish found almost exclusively in little dives, he brings his findings to a community board where it's discussed in-depth, and the story is eventually picked up -- with full credit -- and disseminated to a wider audience by traditional media.

This is the best of what can happen with food writing in the internet era, and I hope we see much more like this. Great story, from its genesis years ago to the piece today.

Well done, Pig.

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-Dom
www.skilletdoux.com

The two restaurants mentioned in the article are Birrieria de la Torre and Las Cazuelas. Las Cazuelas serves a pretty good carne en su jugo but in my estimation there's a big gap between theirs and the elite version at de la Torre. Here's a bowl I had at Las Cazuelas back in May.





Birrieria de la Torre
6724 S Pulaski Rd
Chicago
773-767-6075

Las Cazuelas
4720 S Pulaski Rd
Chicago
773-254-5770

Agree 100%.

Regards,

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Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
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An excellent piece of writing by comrade Pang that beautifully captures the passion of the Pigmon. Applause.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

Fifille and I have been making the trek to Birria De La Torre fro a while now. It's the best bowl of soup in the city. I do love the hot sour soup at Sun Wah but the CESJ is more of a complete meal.

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I used to think the brain was the most important part of the body. Then I realized who was telling me that.