All Things Corn

Our two weeks in Chicago went by in a flash. I spent a lot of time blogging about the highlights but I felt like I neglected the food. Of course we were staying in the Latin district, so a lot of the yummies were Latin-based. The day we took a walk with Edwin to pick up Luna from her gymnastics class we passed by several food carts. Edwin told us among other latin snacks, you can buy elote or more commonly known as Mexican street corn.


It can be eaten off the cob, or the pro move is to have it shucked into a cup. Then it's topped with a mayo like cream, Mexican cheese, chili powder and lime. Then you have to carefully mix all the toppings with the corn kernels in the bottom. When I mentioned to Janeth that Luna had her favorite cart, she explained that not all carts are alike that corn roasting techniques differ and recipes for the crema differ. I didn't try any of the other carts but holey moley this was yummy!  

The other neighborhood food of mention was the Tamale Lady. Apparently, every day, rain or shine this little old lady would park herself at the same street corner early in the morning and stay until all her tamales were sold. She had 2 savory flavors (chicken or pork) and 2 sweet flavors (strawberry and pineapple). One morning Ira came back with a full bag to share, because of course we had to try them all. 

I guess at some point the local news did a story on her and now she has two girls helping her, one to handle the money, the other to help bag. She got so popular another 'tamale lady' showed up down the block, trying to grab some of the business. 

All this talk of corn naturally segues to our pitstop on our way out of town to Mount Rushmore. Wait for it! 

What is a Corn Palace, you say? Why it's a huge building decorated inside and out with murals made of corn cobs. If you look close, you can see the individual cobs.


Just so you know, the different colors of the cobs are natural. They use 12 different varieties. See them all lined up at the bottom of this instructional display? Isn't that awesome? So worth the pitstop.


And as you would expect, they make the best popcorn! So good! 

That's it for now. Next blog we'll be in South Dakota checking another one off my bucket list.

A dopo!

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