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As mentioned in another thread, sometimes you’ll find a hot dog stand offering a Mother in Law: a tamale with chili, either on a bun or without. Many Chicago stands serve chili tamales but from what I can tell the term Mother in Law is only found at older South Side stands (please let me know of any sightings). The tamales used are the Chicago “corn roll” style such as those made by Supreme or Tom Tom, which bear only a slight resemblance to “real” Mexican tamales. This is a fascinating topic in itself and corn roll tamales deserve a thread of their own. If you want to visit perhaps the last of the small family-run corn roll tamale factories in Chicago, stop by Veteran Tamale Shop preferably on a Saturday morning when the ancient tamale machine is in action.

A couple years ago I made a halfhearted attempt to learn where the name originated. My pet theory was it was somehow related to Salsa de Suegra or Mother in Law Sauce. Perhaps in the first part of the twentieth century, certain Chicago hot dog stands mimicked more authentic Mexican eateries by saucing their tamales with a ladelful of chili con carne. One fact that doesn't necessarily fit with this theory is Salsa de Suegra is always a green sauce.

My initial stop last weekend was Fat Johnnie’s, surely one of the classic South Side hot dog stands.

Looking South on Western Toward 73rd

Fat Johnnie’s is basically a shack among the used car dealers on South Western Avenue. They serve a halfway decent skinless David Berg sausage that in my opinion works better as a chili dog.

Fat Johnnie’s Menu (Mother in Law near Center)

In all my visits to Fat Johnnie’s I have avoided the tamales in any form so this was a first for me. Among the drinks offered is a Suicide, a mix of all the fountain drinks. I thought about ordering a Mother in Law and a Suicide but decided to skip the drink. When ordering, I asked where the term came from. Johnnie’s son said he didn’t know but thought his father invented it. If I recall correctly, when I asked Fat Johnnie himself several years ago he didn’t know but thought it went way back.

Mother in Law (with onions and peppers) from Fat Johnnie’s

A casual glance wouldn’t suggest there’s a tamale lurking inside that bun.

Fat Johnnie’s Mother in Law, Half Eaten

Not being a fan of corn roll tamales I didn’t have high hopes for this combination but was rather pleasantly surprised. The soft steamed bun, crumbly tamale, mildly spicy chili, plus the peppers and onions, all combined to make a surprisingly satisfying combination. It’s not something I’d order often but it’s certainly better than I expected.

The only other place I could positively remember serving Mother in Laws was Johnny O’s at 35th and Morgan so I headed off to Bridgeport.

Looking West on 35th Toward Morgan

Johnny O’s is another classic South Side hot dog stand, occupying the back end of a bar and liquor store. Like many South Side stands, they serve David Berg products. Ordering is odd because the inside floor is lower than street level so you look down at the guys behind the counter.

Johnny O’s Menu (Mother in Law at Center)

Johnny O’s has quite an extensive menu for a hot dog stand. I limited myself to a Mother in Law and asked the two guys working if they knew anything about the term. They didn’t.

Mother in Law (with onions and peppers) from Johnny O’s

This Mother in Law is served without a bun and is presented quite differently. They toss the tamale, together with chopped onion and sport peppers, into a cup and fill it with chili. Crackers come on the side to make up for the lack of a bun.

Mother in Law, Showing Tamale

The chili is pretty soupy and tomatoey but seemingly homemade and not bad at all. The tamale is like a corn dumpling that soaks up the juices nicely. Again, much better than I expected. This is probably the most I ever enjoyed a corn roll tamale (and absolutely the only day I ever ordered two).

As I was leaving I was confronted by the owner who had come out of the store to find out just what the hell was I doing taking pictures of his business. He turned out to be quite a nice guy and we talked a bit about hot dogs, South Side food, etc. After a while I remembered my mission and asked him if he knew where the term came from. “Sure,” he replied. “It’s because both kinds of Mothers in Law are known for giving you heartburn.” So there you have it. Good story, even if it isn’t true it should be.

Fat Johnnie's Red Hots
7242 S Western Av
Chicago
773-737-6294

Johnny O's Bar
3461 S Morgan St
(hot dog window is around corner on 35th St)
Chicago
773-927-1011

ReneG,

What a(nother) fabulous piece of investigative reporting! I can see how the version with the tamale in the cup of chili would be especially good. I'll be on the lookout for Mother in Laws in the Oak Park area (not impossible...particularly in Melrose Park and environs).

Hammond

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

Rene,

I'm not sure about the Mother-in Law name, but it sounds like the combination (tamale/chile) may have ties to the hot tamales of mississippi, the starting point of the migration north for a lot of chicago african americans.

if you look at this picture from Doe's Eat Place menu



you see the tamales served with a side of chile.

I remember a long long time ago, John T. Edge was looking for leads about these in Chicago

Zim,

Interesting link, though what really struck me, aside from John T Edge's and Seth's interesting comments, was how perfect one of AnnieB's lines would be for an LTHForum tagline.

"if you're confident of the quality of your rabbit, it's a breeze."



Enjoy,
Gary

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

Low & Slow

Rene,

I echo Hammond's thought, a(nother) very interesting post about a(nother) little known South Side gem.

Really nice pictures. While I agree FJ's is a cool as hell old school Chicago dog stand, I've never been able to get all that enthused about the hot dogs, though the half eaten Mother in Law looks so good I (almost) feel like jumping in the car and heading out to Fat Johnnie's.

In checking Fat Johnnie's menu for the Mother in Law I got a real chuckle from the fact the word vegetarian, lower left on FJ's menu, is misspelled. Seems somehow appropriate for a Chicago Dog stand.

I took the following picture a couple of years ago at Fat Johnnie's.


Enjoy,
Gary

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

Low & Slow

Wow....what memories a picture can release! I grew up in the Back of the Yards* and went to Quigley South, 7740 S Western (now St. Rita's) back in the '70's. For four years, I took the Western Ave. bus from 47th to the terminal at 79th. I have fond memories of early Spring days [literally and figuratively (oh to be 17 again)] of walking to Fat Johnnies after classes for a dog!

A mother-in-law, to me, always was served in a bun, but as everyone knows, Chicago is a city of neighborhoods and that is how they were served in my 'hood.

I wish a few of my childhood/teenage fastfood haunts were still open, so I guess I better trot down Western to Fat Johnnies before it too is gone!

*The Polish deli on Ashland that my family bought our lunchmeats for school lunches was owned and operated by the Unibomber's father!

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Authorized time shifting let the genie out of the bottle....

I'm going to link again to my post in the other thread, because it's a little more topical here. While I've not devoted anywhere near the time Rene G has to this issues, this recipe for mother-in-law tongues at least appears to bridge the sauce color chasm:

# 12 large hungarian hot wax peppers
# 15 thai dragon peppers (chopped)
# 1 lb. bulk hot sausage
# 1 16oz. jar chunky marinara sauce
# 1 medium onion (diced)
# 4 oz. grated mozzarella cheese

The collection of links in the post, along with Rene G' descriptions, suggests perhaps both Italian and Mexican influences (though it is entirely possible that the Italians contributed little more than the name ).

To sum the info in the links:

Mother-in-law tongues are

-another Italian biscuit, almond coated with chocolate on one side
-an Italian pasta shape, long and twisted
-Austrian fried pastry, about two inches wide and 1 1/2 feet long
-an Italian cracker/breadstick, baked not fried, also about two inches wide and 1 1/2 feet long, sometimes served with chili pepper (then called devil's tongues) and so named because "only a mother-in-law could have a tongue so long"
-another instance of the long Italian cracker topped with "a snappy tapenade of marinated garlic, herbs and spicy serrano chiles with not a trace of oil", still called mother-in-law-tongues here "for their shape and mild bite"

And then there is the recipe with the ingredients listed above, wherein the Hungarian peppers are stuffed with sausage and baked with the remaining ingredients as a sauce and topped with the mozzarella.

I'm not quite sure of the link between the stuffed peppers and the pastries, but a tamale served with chili sauce certainly seems worthy of the name, in light of these two uses. The tamale is stuffed with meat, as the pepper, and certainly has the starch comonent, though clearly not cracker and neither baked nor fried. And then there is the spicy sauce/chili, present in all the savory examples. The spicy kick of the chili and the shape of the tamale both agree with the above anecdotal sources of the name mother-law-tongue.

It is interesting that the sandwich is called a Mother-in-Law, rather than a Mother-In-Law Tongue, but it may be that since the "tongue" (tamale) is stuffed inside a bun, you're really getting more than just the tongue--you're getting the whole mother-in-law . Or it could just be marketing. I'm not sure Mother-in-Law Tongue would go over real well at South Side hot dog stands.

Anyway, a (wee bit) more structure to the loose collection of links provided before. For what it's worth.

Cheers,

Aaron

On a couple of really broke, really hungry occasions, I've ordered the "tamale boat" at the Patio, 1503 West Taylor Street. It seems to be exactly the same thing as the Mother-In-Law (that's a much better name), except always squished into a styrofoam cup. The only modification offered is whether you want one or two scoops of chili on top.

Rene G:

Great post. Many thanks.

Aaron:

Nice compilation of information and links. But, unless I just missed something (I'm suffering from TAADS -- Tempory Adult Attention Deficiency Syndrome -- caused by too much work; as the Gumbies say, "my brain hurts") doesn't it seem quite possible that the 'mother-in-law' sandwich's name is just an independent parallel development? The trope of the overbearing mother-in-law is certainly extremely common -- if not quite universal -- across cultural time and space and to my mind, it seems plausible that the sandwich-name could well be playing off the idea of "causer of indigestion" rather than "the one of the barbed tongue"... At least for me it was the notion of "aceto" -- commë dicimmö nujatri 'ácitö' -- that came to mind when Rene G first elaborated on the tamale sandwich doused with chili.

En tout cas, fun (and interesting) stuff...

distrattamente,
A

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- aus dem Tagebuch E.T.A. Hoffmanns, 6. Januar 1804.
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Na sir is na seachain an cath.

Oh yes, very much so...I don't mean to draw any certain conclusions, or really even uncertain conclusions. I certainly hope there is more to come in this discussion, as I find this nomenclature strangely compelling.

In any event, I find "mother-in-law tongue" a bit more unusual a name to occur so widely across a number of dishes, and I'm curious about its history as well, regardless of whether there is any actual connection to Rene G's mother-in-law.

The Mother-in-law makes an appearance in Kenosha.

And curiously, at Nicky's, home of the Big Baby, you can get a tamale on a bun, but it's not called a Mother-in-law.

NIIIIICE picture Gary... not sure it's apropos but it does make me wonder how the South Americans lost the '05 Miss Universe title to Ms. Canada

re: Johnny O's Bar
3461 S Morgan St
i'm not sure how many times i've seen this place considering i live on the 3300 block of the same neighborhood...

must stop by before moving out of this dump

Yes, I think that’s a very real possibility. As far as I know, JeffB was the first to suggest this (in the Veteran Tamale Shop thread I linked to above). Here’s a direct link to his post. I believe I forwarded this information to John T Edge but never heard back. I've spoken with some corn roll tamale makers but so far haven't learned much new. Thanks for that picture from Doe’s Eat Shop. I’ve long been interested in the place but now I need to go there.


I like Fat Johnnie’s more than I should but have to agree their hot dogs aren’t among Chicago’s best. That menu board really should be in a museum though. Please don’t get your hopes too high about the Mother in Law, though it’s something that should be sampled at least once.


Happy to hear you enjoyed reading about Fat Johnnie’s. I’m very curious about the other places you went in the neighborhood. Were Mother in Laws common back then? Any memories of specific places would be very welcome. Probably a little off topic, but did you frequent Miss Muffet (northeast corner of 79th & Western, now gone) and Nicky’s (on Western just north of the bus turnaround, still there)?


Very interesting, I hadn’t seen that. I assume the owner is an old South Sider. Keep those Mother in Law sightings coming!

All this talk about Mother In Laws Tongue makes me want to boil up a mess of sansevaria.

The other day on my way to Cupid Candy, I was noticing the CVS in place of Little Miss Muffin on S. Western and that the place just north of where Little Miss Muffin was, has changed names. With Julia's Trucker's Welcome also gone, it's interesting how the Westernathon of just a few years ago is tremendously nostalgic.

Rob

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Think Yiddish, Dress British - Advice of Evil Ronnie to me.

The Local Beet's very big list of 2013 Farmer's Markets

here's a mother-in-law, a father-in-law and a somewhat mysterious brother-in-law

http://www.peppos.com/hotstuff.html

Miss Muffet's had two fascinating things going for it: The sign, they just don't make them like that anymore, and the burgers. Not that they were great or horrible, but the way that they were made. There was a big aluminum bowl of ground beef that the cook would reach into with his hands and pat a few times before tossing it onto the grill. Then he would further flatten and shape it with his spatula.

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Authorized time shifting let the genie out of the bottle....

Miss Muffet was supposed to move to a building on the west side of Western just south of 79th. As far as I can tell nothing has happened. I wonder if Miss Muffet is gone forever. I sure hope someone saved that sign! As for the place just north of CVS, are you thinking of Nicky’s (all I can picture)? I think Nicky’s has been there, just north of the bus turnaround on the east side of Western, pretty much unchanged for decades. One of these days I have to stop in and see if they make a Big Baby. I miss Julia’s, a fine old blue collar Lithuanian restaurant. It’s now another El Chisme, “El mejor pollo rostizado en Chicago.” Have you tested their claim? The original at 3324 W 26th, at least, looks promising.

I have been to El Chisme (at least in Cicero). Nothing special (at all!)

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Think Yiddish, Dress British - Advice of Evil Ronnie to me.

The Local Beet's very big list of 2013 Farmer's Markets

Ditto on the El Chisme. Again, at least re the Cicero outpost, tried and found wanting.

Another culinary appropriation of "mother-in-law"- one of our cooks at the bakery says in Mexico (she's from the Oaxhaca region, i believe), the unpopped kernels of corn are referred to as such... the equivalent of our "old maids", because, as she explained, "nobody wants them". I'll ask her how she feels about a tamale chili dog tomorrow...

On a (semi)unrelated digression, (in response to delk's unibomber's father comment)... the man himself was hired by my boyfriend's high school drama teacher in Downer's Grove as a housepainter many years ago... she said he did a pretty professional job. For what it's worth.

found this thread via google

i was searching for more info on tom toms since i never heard of em
my expereince is limited to supreme co. products

we were discussing yall over here
http://p198.ezboard.com/f40ozmaltliquor ... 8412.topic

the mother in law is a must have! i will have to run down to bridgeport asap and rip into one!

A couple months ago I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon with John T Edge introducing him to the Mother In Law. Together with Bruce Kraig and Pigmon, we hit Tom Tom Tamale, John's Red Hots, Veteran Tamale and Fat Johnnie's, followed by quick stops at Johnny O's and Ramova Grill.

John T's Mother In Law story for NPR's All Things Considered can be found here. Unfortunately the piece was too short to include a number of details including the clear culinary highlight of the day at Fat Johnnie's.



The Mighty Dog is a chili-and-cheese-covered hot dog cradled in a split tamale, all nestled in a poppyseed bun. That Fat Johnnie is a genius, a true genius I tell you, no doubt about it. If you're feeling heroic, he'll make a Mighty Polish for you too.

More variants on a theme: The "Humdinger," which is a mother-in-law with melted cheese ladled across the top:





This is the first time I've ever seen anything called a "humdinger" on a fast food menu around these parts. A plain mother-in-law was not present on the menu, but there was chili & tamale in a cup (which I've also known as a "mother-in-law," but here was simply advertised as "chili & tamale")

Donald's Famous Hot Dogs
4739 S Central Ave
Chicagol, IL

Is this place related to the Donald's on 24th and Western?

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Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

I've never been to the one on Western, but judging by the signage, I would guess they are related.

They also have one other oddity on the menu, which I've never seen before: Super Taco served on Pita bread. I wasn't quite brave (or hungry enough) to try it. Oh, yeah, and they have a foot-long Polish served on French bread, too. I'm not exactly sure whether I'd consider that tempting.

Those menu items make it sound like they are related for sure. The Western Ave. locations offers the smae things. Come to think of it, I recall seeing a sign for "the humdinger" hanging there, but I never took the time to read the fine print to see what it was.

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Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

There's "Don's Grill" at 1837 S Western which has or had a big "Humbergers" sign. This is separate from Donald's, at 2325 S Western. It still confuses me a bit, and I see them semi-regularly.

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Ed Fisher
my chicago food photos

RIP LTH.

I've been by the Don's grill on Western many times and every time I see the place I start flashing back to the early '70's. Am I crazy or was there at one time a Don's grill (humburgers and all)on Milwaukee Av. just south of Superdawg ?

Isn't Don's Grill (which also has fried chicken prominently displayed on their signage) closed?

_________________
Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child