A Bayless Torta Drowning in Sauce...On Purpose, Of Course

Here at last, lovies!  The Xoco post I've promised!

Last weekend my aunt and I were near Bayless Row (a new nickname I'm trying to coin...help a girl out!), but Frontera was closed to prepare for dinner service.  As disappointed as I was, it gave me just the opportunity I was looking for to try a sandwich I'd only heard of from Bayless's pretty-fast-semi-casual-but-still-pretty-upscale torta shop, Xoco ("little sister" in Mexican slang).

It's called a torta ahogada, which literally means drowned sandwich.  It's built on a great, sort of chewy, rustic-style bread.  The loaf's guts are removed to make room for the filling; it's smeared with black beans and stuffed with carnitas (amazing pork, that's all you need to know) and pickled white onions before being placed in a soup bowl with a spicy arbol chile sauce.  It's presented to you with a spoon.  I wasn't sure how to go about eating it.  I picked it up (probably the wrong idea...sauce was running down my wrists), but I guess you could break it down and eat it with the spoon...

Behold, the glory, the deliciousness...the torta ahogada.

I cannot possibly convey to you the deliciousness of this sandwich.  The pork is so tender, so flavorful.  It stands up to the über-flavorful sauce (okay, it's a Mexican spot...la salsa sabrosísima) and its subtleties pair nicely with the sharp, piquant bite of the still-crisp pickled onion.  The beans are a background note of flavor, but I'm sure the sandwich would lack something without them.  Sopping up all that delicious (and spicy) sauce is what the bread is designed for, I'm convinced.

Thankfully you can choose the heat level of your sauce (is there anything you've not thought of, Bayless?).  I asked for mild, and I'll admit my nose started to run a bit from the heat.  The one thing that saved me?  Oh, just you wait...

At Xoco, as with any of Bayless's restaurants, there is a featured agua del día, essentially drink of the day.  The day I was there, the drink of the day was horchata.  I have always wanted to try horchata.  It's a drink made from ground almonds or rice...unfortunately, I didn't have the good sense to inquire at the register what Bayless's horchata was made of.  If I were to venture a guess, I'd say almond.  But it's sweet and creamy and just what you need to cool down the fire of an arbol sauce.  If it's ever featured, be sure to try it!

The perfect end to my meal was the single churro that I brought back to my dorm room in a little paper bag.  It was crunchy, a little chewy, and coated in the most delicious blend of cinnamon, coarse sugar, and crushed cacao.  I only wish I would've eaten it in the store with a cup of chocolate.

Sabrosísimo.

~AF

Okay, Kiddies...Still to Come: Premium Burgers and Drowned Sandwiches!

It's too late for me to put up a full post about my food adventures right now...I need to go to bed.  Suffice it to say, though, I ate well on Friday and Saturday.

Upcoming:

• Butcher and the Burger: A Lincoln Park build-a-burger joint with rockin' fries and truffle mayo!
• Xoco: Rick Bayless fails to disappoint yet again with a carnitas torta swimming in spicy arbol sauce...plus my first experience drinking horchata. 
• Garrett popcorn! That is all.

Get ready, guys!  You'll hear all about it.  Hopefully I'll have time during my lunch break tomorrow, but if not, you'll see my reviews (and photos!) by tomorrow night (10 pm, CST).

Peace, Love, and Buen provecho!

~AF