The Kedzie Kaper: Part 1 of 3

Last month, I found myself on another dining tour of sorts, this one put together by an acquaintance who lives in the fertile eating ground between Ravenswood and Albany Park, affectionately dubbed The Kedzie Kaper.

First stop: El Trigal, 3107 W. Montrose.

You know you’re in for a good time when the first stop on any tour is a doughnut shop. I went for the Beso de Crema and a skinny, flat pastry filled with unspecified cheese and guava paste. Somehow, these made it all the way home and through to the next day without being devoured. When I finally got around to eating them, I was richly rewarded. The guava pastry was a flaky treat that was surprisingly not too sweet despite the sugar coating, and made a nice breakfast accompaniment.The Beso de Crema looked like a sugar-coated bismark that was split in half and spread with a gooey, very light chocolate cream filling. The doughnut was like buttery cake and it crumbled between my fingers as I tried to pick it up.

Second Stop: Sanabel Bakery, 4253 N. Kedzie.

The service here was outstanding. The owner welcomed our entire group (approximately 12 of us) into the production area to take pictures and watch how the pita is made. Afterwards, we all dug into some meat-topped pita pizza, spinach and cheese-stuffed pita, and pita topped with za’atar (a spice blend of, among other things, sesame seeds, sumac, oregano and thyme). They went well with a refreshing bottle of Camlica soda from Turkey, which tasted a little like 7-Up or Sprite. The za’atar bread was intoxicating and it made me want to run over to the Spice House to pick up a bottle of the spice blend. It was even good reheated in a toaster oven two days later.

Third Stop: Con Sabor Cubano, 2739 W. Lawrence.

After a nice long walk, we arrived at Con Sabor Cubano, whose impeccable service rivaled that of Sanabel. This tiny joint only has four 4-top tables, but our server wasted no time rearranging three of them into a long bench so we could all sit together. He recommended some dishes that could be easily split, and in the case of the sandwiches, offered to cut them into smaller pieces so we could share them more easily. We tried the Cuban sandwich, the Medianoche sandwich (top), fried plantains, Ropavieja (bottom), and maduros. Cuban sandwiches are made with roast pork, ham, pickles, and Swiss cheese on pressed bread (French bread, in this case). Medianoches have the same innards but use medianoche bread, which is a slightly sweeter, eggy roll. (The medianoche got its name from being a popular late-night snack.) Both were delicious and I wondered how I made it through life this long without trying one. The bread was crisp, messy, and wonderfully porky, and the pickles lent a nice tang to the salty ham. The fried plantains were creamy and perfectly browned. The Ropavieja got most of its flavor from the tomato sauce and was an interesting twist on the basic BBQ beef sandwich. I like how they topped it with shoestring potatoes, an underrated cousin of the potato chip. Maduros, fried plantain slices served with spicy green pepper sauce, were a tasty, somewhat healthy alternative to potato chips that complemented the sandwiches perfectly.

Log on next week to find out about the rest of the tour!