At 15, Itzel Hernández was rolling burritos at Jose’s Hacienda, a tiny Mexican restaurant inside an office building that mostly catered to her classmates around the corner at Niles North High School.
She thought a lot about that years later when she was 24 and making burritos—the burrito—at Mi Tocaya in Logan Square. Diana Dávila’s signature and celebrated steak burrito is a luxe homage to the endless burritos she built growing up in her parent’s taqueria.
Hernández’s Brava Burrito is a tribute to both, and she’ll be rolling them this August 25, when she debuts Hija de Maria at the next Monday Night Foodball, the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up at Frank Mary’s Tavern in Avondale.
Jose’s was her first restaurant job, and though she worked the line at her culinary school’s restaurant, and then Harry Caray’s, Beatrix, Aba, El Che, Pilsen Yards, and now Chef’s Special, Mi Tocaya is dear to her.
In mid-pandemic 2020 she was suffering from soul crushing burnout, but once she was hired on, “I was dancing in there,” she says. “I found my flow again. I was invested in learning anything from Diana, you don’t see a lot of Latina chefs, and especially Latina chef owners. I asked Diana at least five questions a day. To this day, if she needs hands, I tell her all the time, ‘Whenever you need me or whatever you need, you know I’m there.’”
Hernández’s Brava (aka “fierce”) Burrito begins with skirt steak marinated for at least 24 hours in fresh lime juice, blistered serranos, and garlic. She par-grills it just to kiss it with a little char, and then it gets the works inside a Chepe’s flour tortilla: black beans, lettuce, sour cream Chihuahua cheese, and “this salsa cruda I make. Just tomatillos, serranos, and cilantro. It’s very herbaceous, raw, creamy, and gives it a lot of depth. On the side, I make this habañero salsa that gives it the extra kick.”
“It’s not a tiny guy. The last time I made them, they were a pound each. They’re massive.”
She’s also bringing her fried oyster taco in the style of a baja fish taco; a Virginia bivalve breaded gluten-free with corn and potato starch, topped with jicama slaw, her own salsa macha, and fresh cilantro and dill.
Finally her beet tostada: braised, roasted, and smoked roots—“it really changes their identity. It tastes a little bit like bacon”—tossed with celery, onion and salsa seca, mounted on a corn tostada with avocado mousse.
Finally, she’s making her aunt’s agua tamarindo, which you’re free to present to Philthy Phil behind the bar to spike with your poison of choice.
The Anton Ego burrito epiphanies start at 6 PM this Monday, August 25, from 6 PM till sellout at 2905 N. Elston in Avondale.
And then look alive for a brand new fall/early winter Foodball schedule to drop right after our Labor Day bye week.
More in FOOD & DRINK
Take a bite out of Chicago’s delicious food scene.
The herbal liqueur enjoyed a pandemic-era renaissance, inspiring inventive products like Green Key to keep up with demand.
Don’t let anyone yuck your yum.
For ten years, serviceberry trees have lined the Bloomingdale Trail as part art installation, part environmental study.
Innovative tamalero on the weekend, corporate recipe developer on the weekdays
Brian Leber and Joanne Aono have found a saner, more sustainable way of living on Bray Grove Farm.
A tiny Devon Avenue storefront is focused on the South Indian state’s meaty Malabar region. But more is coming.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
