Wing Yip Chop Suey 537 W. 26th Street tel. 312-326-2822 Schaller's Pump 3714 S. Halsted tel. 312-376-6332 Healthy Food 3236 S. Halsted tel. 312-326-2724 Connie's Pizza 2373 S. Archer Ave tel. 312-326-3443 fax orders 312-842-5274

Bridgeport, a working-class neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, has long been synonymous with the old political machine of Mayor Richard J. Daley. During his long mayoral tenure from the 1950's into the 1970's, Daley, who called Bridgeport home, made sure he took care of his own. Everyone who lived in Bridgeport, it seemed, had a city job. Some had more than one. Whenever a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed reformer came in to city government, it was to Bridgeport he pointed when he wanted to make a point about pork. "Ghost-payrollers" used to be a bonus word on local kids' spelling exams.

Of course, times have now changed. At least a little bit. For one, the old Mayor Daley has been replaced by his son, the new Mayor Daley, Richard M. A few years back the second Mayor Daley and his family moved from a charming brick bungalow in Bridgeport to a spanking new condo not far from the Loop, Chicago's downtown. Some people in Bridgeport feared that the government jobs would go with him, but rumor has it that this has not happened. There is still plenty of pork in Bridgeport. Is it then not, especially with an election approaching, with the deficit as it is, the duty of every patriotic citizen to expose it?

We knew right where to begin: Schaller's Pump, Bridgeport's famous restaurant pub, located just across the street from the offices of the 11th Ward Democratic Party. As we expected, the menu was padded with pork-based products. We're talking boiled pork chops and fried ham sandwiches. The guy from the Department of Sewers sitting next to us had ordered the $4.95 roast pork lunch special. It came with stuffing, creamy mashed potatoes and gravy, corn and a delicious tomato navy bean soup. We tried it. It was great.

We wondered whether The Mayor himself ever made an appearance at the bar. "Not that I know of," said Colleen Sheehan, whose grandfather opened Schaller's more than a century ago. "But sometimes his brother, John, stops in with the kids before mass."

We considered this response. We thought she must have known we were up to something. Still, looking around at the clientele, we could see what she meant. Though it has the air of a bar, Schaller's is really a family kind of place. One large table was filled with blond teachers who couldn't stop laughing.

Just down the street from Schaller's we found Healthy Food, which bills itself as a Lithuanian restaurant. Healthy Food is known for its blynai, delicious, crepe-like pancakes which in New York would be known as "blini." But we found pork here, too, secreted away in Lithuanian dumplings known as koldunai. These mouth-watering, heavy dumplings are served with a sprinkling of bacon bits and a side of sour cream. Between bites, we decided not to ask Healthy Food's friendly owner, Grazina Biciunas, what was so healthy about these dumplings and the other pork dishes on the menu, like chops, roast and bacon.

"Traditional Lithuanian joke," we knew she would have to say.

The stereotype used to be that Bridgeport was mainly Irish with big streaks of Lithuanians and Poles. But in recent decades new ethnic groups have appeared on the horizon. Chinatown is expanding into Bridgeport from the north and bringing new adjectives to bear on the word "pork." In Chinese restaurant after Chinese restaurant we found pork shredded, sliced, diced, ground and deep-fried. At Wing Yip Chop Suey, a pioneering Chinese restaurant with rock bottom prices, we tried #3, pork subgum fried rice, for $2.90. Tasty, to be sure.

The afternoon became evening; our appetites were sated (and would remain so for days) but our idealism was crushed. At Connie's Pizza, a beloved restaurant where pizzas are dispensed through a drive-up window, we learned that the most popular variety is pork and beef sausage. The results of our inquiry were unequivocal. Bridgeport is full of pork and people just don't seem to mind. Pork has become a family value.

Want more pork options? Check out our top pork picks.