Bridgeport

As the winter holidays approached I realized my family needed to find some new traditions for our first Christmas in Chicago. I didn’t want to cook. Hassling with the rest of the family over making dinner didn’t seem like much fun either. And after many years of hosting Christmas parties at our previous home I didn’t want to socialize.

I finally hit upon the idea of buying bakery goods to eat. I searched online through reviews of different neighborhoods. Since I needed to cover both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I wanted to find somewhere with a range of food options. Bridgeport seemed the most promising.

Describing the neighborhood as a "port" seems accurate, as the area is a crossroads of cultures. Originally settled by enclaves of European immigrants, it continues to attract blue collar Mexicans and Chinese. Restaurants in the neighborhood reflect the broad range of ethnic communities past and present.

Planning ahead I found some of the bakeries would be closed on Christmas Eve and others would only be available for pickups. I placed our order for steak and ale pies from a highly rated British shop. When we arrived at midday I was able to add a side of Scotch eggs. They also had saffron and currant St. Lucia buns we ate for Christmas breakfast. Everything was delicious.

After retrieving our order, we started walking the neighborhood. I originally had the idea we would round the entire place and end up on the northern side, then head to Chinatown for lunch. I was far too ambitious. Instead, we landed midway at a local family diner.

Since moving to Chicago I’ve had a fascination with monte cristo sandwiches. I don’t recall ever eating them previously. They feature ham and cheese grilled between French bread. Some restaurants will add extra bread in the middle, top with powdered sugar, or even serve with syrup. This sandwich was basic and heavy on the ham instead of the bread. Still quite enjoyable.

Afterwards, we still needed Christmas dinner. Searching we found gigantic chocolate chip cookies with chocolate chunks the size of miniature candy bars, but still no meal. Finally, we happened upon an open panaderia—Mexican bakery. I inspected the cases of baked goods like empanadas and bolillos. No luck.

Before leaving I approached the counter in the back. Behind the server I noticed a stack of corn husks. Could it be? 

I asked if they had tamales I could buy. She replied they had both red and green in chicken and pork, which were ridiculously inexpensive. Coming from Albuquerque chicken tamales seem wrong. I couldn’t do it. We got the pork. We were delighted to have fresh tamales for Christmas dinner. My only regret is we didn’t buy more dozens to freeze at home.