Fourth in a series devoted to Chicago restaurants offering regional Mexican dishes
The Spanish brought several ingredients essential to huachinango a la Veracruzana (Veracruz-style red snapper), perhaps the most popular Mexican fish preparation. Traditionally the snapper is simmered whole in a complex tomato puree with olives, capers, and garlic. In Chicago, however, the fish is often deep-fried, a technique rare in old-school Mexican cooking but faster and easier. A survey of places that offer the dish turns up a number of variations on the classic sauce. At Hacienda Tecalitlan (820 N. Ashland, 312-243-1166) and Real de Catorce (1134 W. 18th, 312-421-9502) the deep-fried fish is served with red and yellow sweet peppers; at Pancho Pistolas (700 W. 31st, 312-225-8808) it comes with sliced avocado instead of olives, an inexplicable substitution. At El Barco (1035 N. Ashland, 773-486-6850) the whole fried fish comes mounted upright, which looks pretty cool but is hardly authentic to Veracruz, and the accompanying tomatoes, olives, and onions get shoved off to the side. If you have 45 minutes, though, they’ll steam the fish and serve it in a sauce closer to the real thing–you might just find it worth the wait. One of the more traditional versions of the dish I found was at Taqueria Amigo Chino (5601 W. Irving Park, 773-685-4374): steamed whole snapper over a platter of olives and vegetables (including obviously frozen peas and carrots) drizzled with a tomato-based salsa.
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Vanilla
