Ever since I was just a sprout living in the Tennessee mountains, I’ve had really good pork all across the world.
But it wasn’t until I worked on a Latin-themed movie on the South Side that I ran across La Michoacana, 2049 W. Cermak, where their bloody delicious pork threw me straight back into my potbellied childhood.
My dad owned and operated a no-frills BBQ restaurant called Choo-Choo BBQ. Every day he made pound after pound of glorious chopped pork and laced it with his own spicy homemade BBQ sauce.
The little rascal that I was, I’d hang out in the tiny kitchen and watch him tear the tender pork from the bone, place it in an unruly pile and chop it to smithereens and then, when his back was turned, I’d shove it down by the greasy fistful and race out of the kitchen before I was caught.
Years have past since my dad proudly ran his one-man shop, but I still hunt for pulled pork, just like he used to whip up in a rusty, old, black meat smoker. So you can imagine how pleased I was with Michoacana, one many cafeteria/butcher shop/take-out joints lining Cermak in Little Village.
Little Village is loaded with authentic Mexican restaurants serving carnitas, just like they roll them out in Michoacana, the Mexican state renowned for its method of braising a whole pig in a huge pot with nothing but lard to cook it down in. But at Michoacana, they dole out the most addictive, intensely flavored chopped pork in the area.
