Love the Mango, Loathe the Pastry: Aquascalientes, Cicero

Love the Mango, Loathe the Pastry: Aquascalientes, Cicero

Tonight, I

David,

I have to agree with you about the Mexican pastries.

Could it be that we haven't found good examples? I do remember enjoying the pastries in Mexico, though. While they were not cloyingly sweet, they were definetely pastry (light and flaky), not the 'mediocre bread with sugar sprinkled on top' which you mention.

Rob likes Pierre's. Is Pierre's pastry at a higher level? But again, Rob's favorite pastry is the donut , so is his opinion valid?

Al

Al Ehrhardt wrote: Rob likes Pierre's. Is Pierre's pastry at a higher level? But again, Rob's favorite pastry is the donut , so is his opinion valid?

Hey Al,

I believe Pierre's offers pasties with a French influence (from the days of Maximillian's Mexico, pre-Battle of Chapultepec).

VI, please confirm or deny.

David

[quote David Hammond]

I believe Pierre's offers pasties with a French influence...


David,

So what's the difference between a French pasty and a Mexican pasty? Sequins, lace, glitter, tassels?

Dave, by the "little yellow ones" do you mean what are commonly called "manila mangos" or those labeled as champagne (atualfo) mangos?

if you mean the manila mangos they were 4.99 for a box of 10 on devon this weekend, on argyle I've found the place with the cheapest mangos to be the grocery store furthest east on argyle (forget the name, but it's actually my least favorite grocery in the area) but they do have cheap boxes o mangos

fwiw, I like pierre's better than most of the panaderias i've tried as well, better than the other french-mexican bakery la baguette for example

zim wrote:Dave, by the "little yellow ones" do you mean what are commonly called "manila mangos" or those labeled as champagne (atualfo) mangos?

Hey Zim.

They were labeled Manila Mangoes.

I might know the grocery you're talking about; it's on Argyle east of Broadway, and it's where I got what I heretofore thought was a bargain (same mangoes, $10.99 or so a case).

Justjoan asserts that these Manila Mangoes have better flavor than the bigger ones, and, on this one point, I might tend to agree with her.

David

In defense of the Mexican pastry:

If you don't have a real sweet tooth (which I don't) they are perfect. You do need to find a good bakery.

I like the ones made from short pastry, also the gingerbread pigs. I'm not real fond of the cakey ones or the ones with flaky pastry.

My favorites are the gusanos, conchas, and especially the elotes, which have a little cornmeal in them.

David Hammond wrote:

Al Ehrhardt wrote: Rob likes Pierre's. Is Pierre's pastry at a higher level? But again, Rob's favorite pastry is the donut , so is his opinion valid?

Hey Al,

I believe Pierre's offers pasties with a French influence (from the days of Maximillian's Mexico, pre-Battle of Chapultepec).

VI, please confirm or deny.

David

Well, yea, all Mexican pastries are derivitive of the French (but of course those Frenchies influenced a lot of pastry around the world, or was it the Viennese and Danes who influenced the French...). I think the question, perhaps, is, is Pierres less "Mexican" and more French.

No, I do not believe Pierres is really more "French" than the 1,000's of Mexican bakeries around town, but I do think that for the most part it has stuff made with slighly more care and style. A lot of the stuff at Pierres is just as dry and crumbly though. Really, the top Mexican bakery and the one most French is BonBon in Pilsen. There, everything is moist and not a single concha diminishes the haul.

The defining feature really of Mexican bakeries is their cheapness. Just take full advantage of that. I just buy a ton of things (it makes me feel more authentic to have a full tray anways), and then if I do not like it, I just move on. At 30 cents or so, what have I lost?

Vital Information wrote:The defining feature really of Mexican bakeries is their cheapness. Just take full advantage of that. I just buy a ton of things (it makes me feel more authentic to have a full tray anways), and then if I do not like it, I just move on. At 30 cents or so, what have I lost?

Your appetite, perhaps?

annieb wrote:In defense of the Mexican pastry:

If you don't have a real sweet tooth (which I don't) they are perfect. You do need to find a good bakery.

Annieb,

There's no arguing taste, and although I don't feel I have much of a sweet tooth either, maybe the way for me to go is to have Mexican pastry as part of a light meal, maybe with cheese and some membrano.

David

Most Mexican pstry shops are cheap, its true. You can't go wrong with a cheap tres leches or a bag of fresh bolillos. But one huge exception is BomBon in Pilsen. It's really very expensive, but probably worth it. Very European, like bakeries in Mexico and throughout Latin America, but also comprehensively Mexican. They have a mind-boggling number of options that are apparently true to various places in Mexico.

By the way, I had a torta at the new al pastor specialist taqueria on Lawrence just west of Broadway the other day. They had really nice bread, a softer roll, sort of like a pambazo (which I only know for sure I have had in N. California) and unlike the good, but different crispy bolillos used by most taquerias.

How's this for a soup and sandwich dinner: al pastor torta and pho from Dong Ky accross the street. I liked it.

I would agree that the state of the art of Mexican pastry is "inexpensive." But I also find myself buying bags-full from time to time (to universal razzing from the family). The big breads with sugar on top are good for me when eaten in context - fresh, early in the morning, and with some good coffee, preferably with a touch of milk and Mexican cinnamon in it. Ideally, this should all be done in Oaxaca under a flowering tree in the late spring.

Beyond that, I confess that my fondness for these pastries is because I have a wide cheap streak.

All Mexican pastry derives from the French, eh? Need to chew on that.

David:

[maybe with cheese and some membrano.]

I hope I figured out this quote thing. Membrano=membrillo. Cheese with membrillo and mexican sweet bread sounds great. Membrillo is classically served with Manchego, although in Brasil we ate a fresh cheese that was more like a feta, and while it was sometimes with membrillo it was just as often with guyabada (guava paste, typically seen here as a bar with a stripe of clear guava jelly down the middle) or, my personal favorite, doce de batata doce, which is a sweet potato paste. Available at Brasil Legal on Western.

I still have a kilo tin of membrillo that I carried back from Spain on our last trip. Hell, I carried it all around Spain, since I bought it on our second day there, and my husband immediately said, "That's going in your suitcase, not mine." It has the most amazing picture of the Virgin on it. When we reached Seville, at the end of the trip, my arm was really tired, and I spied a 1/2 kilo tin, which I purchased, thinking to myself, well, I'll just leave that other one for the maids. Lo and behold, back at the hotel, they were two completely different virgins and I had to carry them both back.

Explore beyond [/quote]

Vital Information wrote:The defining feature really of Mexican bakeries is their cheapness. Just take full advantage of that. I just buy a ton of things (it makes me feel more authentic to have a full tray anways), and then if I do not like it, I just move on. At 30 cents or so, what have I lost?

Tonight, The Wife and A Daughter and I went to Brasa Rossa (which was OUT of chicken at 8:00 on a Friday night!!), and we passed a Mexican bakery a few doors down (El Tigral, I think was the name; didn't get an address )

Taking VI's suggestion, we bought about 12-15 different items: one of the gusanos that annieb recommended, an almond cookie, several fluffy flakey things filled with fruit, a ginger pig, etc.

Back home, it was a whole lot of fun picking through the different selections, trying a bite of this and that. And, like the man said, it's so darn cheap (each item was priced between 30 and 45 cents), so for a few bucks, we had a huge platter of pastry to pick thorugh as we watched Gwyneth Paltrow play Sylvia Plath (and believe me, you need all the "up" stimulants you can get for that flick).

David

David Hammond wrote:
Justjoan asserts that these Manila Mangoes have better flavor than the bigger ones, and, on this one point, I might tend to agree with her.

David

David,

I'm also of the camp of liking the manila (orange yellow rather than green/red, with a more prounced paisley shape) for snack eating but I like the champagne atualfo ones even more that start showing up a little later in the year

some of the others I find are better if you looking for green mangos for salads or pickling.

Here's a bit more on El Trigal:

http://www.chowhound.com/midwest/boards/chicago/messages/42057.html

I believe there's yet another old thread, but can't readily find it.

Hi,

Laura Cid of Bombon (spanish for Marshmellow) spoke a few years ago at Culinary Historians. Many of her cakes and patries are based on Mexican traditional pastries sold in Puebla and Mexico City. Certainly there is a European influence there of hundreds of years. In addition, Laura Cid trained in Paris at the Cordon Bleu. She also worked with Rick Bayless making pastries before opening this bakery. So she is sensitive to authenticity as well as making an effort to achieve the best product possible.

For a recent occasion, I purchased a cake they refer to "Luisito," which is a vanilla-coconut cake with vanilla frosting with fresh mango between layers as well as arranged in the center of the cake with white chocolate curls. When I say vanilla frosting, it is not your Pillsbury or regular commercial frosting which is usually whipped up vegetable frosting, it is light, creamy without any greasy mouth feel. Even the pore size of the cake was smaller, more refined and delicate to what we usually experience. Unlike my favorite bakery to dislike 'Deerfields' where I feel they make visually dazzling cakes but they taste at best like a mix. 'Bombon's' cakes taste as good as they look, which is superior to most bakeries I am acquainted with.

My Dad likes to eat though I would never offer him discriminating status to his palate. When I brought a single serving pastry home to test drive my idea, in one bite he immediately recognized this was superior to any bakeries in our area.

I think I found our new special occasion cake location, when I don't do it myself!

Regards,
Cathy2

Bombon
1508 West 18th Street (Pilsen)
Chicago, IL 60608
Tel: 312/733-7788
e-mail: [email protected]

David - Is Brassa Rossa the same as La Brasa Roja on Montrose? I only ask this because of a small adventure I had last week trying to find it for lunch, and spending a bunch of time looking for Brasa Rioja... The good news is that I finally found it and enjoyed my chicken. Sorry they were out for you.

If it is not the same, please say more.

dicksond wrote:David - Is Brassa Rossa the same as La Brasa Roja on Montrose?

d,

Sorry, my recent study of Italian has totally screwed up the little Spanish I had. Yes, it's Brasa Roja, not Brassa Rossa. I should give up ever trying to use Spanish again. Que lastima; lo siento.

David

Trust me - I feel your pain. I always try to derive spanish from my French, and it barely works to listen, but is just plain embarassing when I try to speak or write. Anyway, my main discovery is that when looking for Brasa Roja, it is under "L" for La.

dicksond wrote: but is just plain embarassing when I try to speak or write.

...that's to say ?embarassadas?

Hi,

I would like to note I was at Brasa Roja the prior week on a Friday evening around 8:30. There were no chickens available then either. I guess if you don't get there early, you just don't have chicken.

I hope someday this place learns better how to pace itself. They should be willing to potentially have a few leftover chickens at the end of the evening, rather than turn away customers all the time.

Regards,
Cathy2

Our son and I just got back from a birthday party -- one of his classmates from daycare turned 3. The birthday cake was so fabulous I of course had to ask where it came from. When the mom said Bombon I knew she and I could converse about more than just nap schedules! The cake was three layers of dense chocolate cake (almost brownie-like) with layers of whipped cream and sliced bananas between the cake layers. As Cathy2 noted above, the frosting was as delicious as it was attractive. I forgot to ask the hostess what Bombon calls this particular cake, but I'm sure anyone interested could order one just by describing it. (You might want to omit the Hello Kitty figure on top, though.)

To echo Cathy2's and JeffB's comments above, Bombon is an excellent bakery. (And I can't wait for this girl in our son's class to turn 4!)