- Mike Sula
- Jicama stick
For this week’s People Issue I interviewed Victor Mejia, a 31-year-old frutero who works a couple regular corners in Rogers Park half the year (he’s off for the season now). You don’t need me to tell you that, out of the hundreds of fruit cutters that work the city streets, he’s in a class by himself. You can tell by the permanent line of customers he has at any given hour, all waiting patiently for his big chile-dusted cockteles de frutas, meticulously diced gaspachos (yes, with an s), and the gravity-defying jicama stick, a thick platform of crunchy tuber topped with a carefully balanced mound of diced fruit, cheese, cilantro, and chile.