Thirty years ago my group of guys and I would search for late night Mexican after a night in the bar.
Back in the early nineties Chicagoland had less options for late night tacos and burritos.
We came across a place on North Avenue just west of Pulaski. Huentitan was OUR Mexican joint.
Back then most Mexicans in Chicago had a strong Chicagonese accent. When you heard a Spanish accent it was very exotic.
Two O’clock in the morning eight blue eyed boys with a belly full of Old Style and Seven and Seven’s walk into their Taqueria for real Mexican food.
By the end of that first summer of road trips into K-town… Hector and his crew knew all of the boys from Oak Park.
“Yumbo? You ready to try my menudo?”
I never came close to a bowl of menudo! It’s a cow stomach stew.
I haven’t been to Huentitan since the turn of the century. Though I’ve driven past it many times and smiled.
Nowadays I don’t have to drive so far for a late night torta. All these Mexicans that moved to Chicago these last twenty years have opened taquerias all over the place.
I don’t celebrate Cinco de Mayo. A victory over France? Big deal!
If you’re celebrating the Mexican victory at the Battle of Puebla try the menudo!
And I say to you, “ten una celebración segura.”
