By Mike Sula

Copyright chicagoreader

Stephanie Xiques has cooked it all: weddings, parties, corporate events, farmers’ markets, baptisms, quinceañeras, funerals.

Who doesn’t know and love her seamless fusion of Puerto Rican, Cuban, Mexican, and other pan-Latin flavors? Who hasn’t stood slack-jawed before her and her husband Pedro’s deftness on the plancha? Who hasn’t watched her throw down with the wildest hellbenders in the clerb? Well, I know and have witnessed all of those things.

She cooked at her grandmother’s funeral.

She once worked a taquiza in a swarm of angry cicadas.

I just attended a karaoke party earlier this month, and after her crew finished their shift behind the taco bar, she and daughter, tortilla-maker Kylie, grabbed the mike and belted out a spot-on rendition of Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing.”

One thing she hasn’t done is mount a highfalutin multicourse tasting menu.

The kind where servers wear double-sided tape to pick up lint off the floor.

The kind with a lofty title that signals you aren’t just in for a meal—you’re in for a cinematic experience.

The kind with which each dish is a chapter in the story of the chef’s journey from cooking beside her Cuban and Puerto Rican abuelas to launching a simple meal-prep business to evolving into the hardest working woman in chow biz.

It’s the kind where Mother Prepper presents “Con Fusión” at the next Monday Night Foodball, the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up at Frank and Mary’s Tavern.

As this is Xiques’s third Foodball, she’s ready to mix it up and show that she’s way more than just a taquera who thinks outside the tortilla.

“This menu brings together the proud culinary lineages of Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Cuba—three cultures linked by history, rhythm, and the irresistible pull of the Caribbean sun,” she says. “Each course is a conversation, a back-and-forth in Spanglish, where a taco might flirt with a mofongo, and a ropa vieja whispers across the table to pasta. One bite evokes Havana’s Malecón, the next transports you to San Juan’s cobblestones, and the following carries you straight to a Mexico City street market.”

Xiques is offering seven bites, each available à la carte or as part of a seven-course degustation—riffing on pastelitos, carne apache, oysters, elotes, pozole, and more.

“It’s more than a mash-up,” she says. “It’s a celebration of shared roots. The dishes are designed as micro-essays in sabor—playful, heartfelt, and a little mischievous. Just when you think you’ve identified a flavor, another one sneaks in, reminding you that confusion isn’t a flaw, it’s the whole point.

“At its heart, Con Fusión is a manifesto: that food can be both serious and funny, scholarly and streetwise, classic and experimental. It’s a tasting menu that invites you to laugh, to savor, and to realize that sometimes the most delicious thing on the table is the collision itself.”

Philthy Phil will be behind the bar to suggest your wine pairings. How about a can of 2023 Lubanzi shiraz? Or perhaps a naughty little 2025 Old Style?

While your mouth is full, I’ll be the one interrupting with, “How’s everything tasting?” or, “Are we still working on that?”

Get confused this Monday, September 29, from 6 PM until sellout, at 2905 N. Elston in Avondale.

Meantime, check out the full Foodball schedule.