Quesadillas are centerpiece at family-owned restaurant business
A Mexican family-owned business is betting big on quesadillas. They now have three locations in the region, each one specializing in those traditional, large oval discs of corn tortillas stuffed with cheese and other homemade fillings.
The tortilla work begins awfully early at Las Quecas in Melrose Park. That's because they specialize in one thing: quesadillas.
"It can be flour it can be corn, our specialty is corn. It's full of cheese and you can have a variety of ingredients to put in," said Angelica Atondo, one of the owners of Las Quecas.
These are a far cry from the late-night college versions. For one thing, they're made fresh each day.
"Every single day at 5 a.m. our masa is delivered to every single location, so the masa is fresh and it's made from scratch," she said.
They're also made to-order. Typically, they're filled with shredded chihuahua cheese, which melts well, then a choice of about a dozen fillings - beef, chicken, pork, spicy, mild, fried pork skins even huitlacoche, that traditional inky-black mushroom that comes from an ear of corn.
"It goes great with the cheese, it goes great with the corn tortilla and obviously it's handmade so huitlacoche, flor de calabaza it's another one that is really, really good and very popular in Las Quecas," said Atondo.
That would be squash blossoms. No matter what you choose, be sure to make your way to the extensive salsa bar, where everything is also made in-house. How do you know? Because those tomatoes and jalapenos getting charred on the griddle are also finding their way to a mortar and pestle, where they're being transformed into green and red salsas, among others.
"We have pico de gallo we have peanut salsa; we also have salsa roja, salsa verde, so we try to give them as much variety as possible so they can enjoy," she said.
2130 W. North Ave, Melrose Park
(708) 397-4615
Little Village
2500-B S. Christiana Ave.
(773) 801-0597
300 W. Main St. (Huntley Rd.), Carpentersville
