If you drive a few miles to the east of San Juan there is a road that offers a culinary experience like no other. Route 187 curves north of the airport, past a huge public beach and then BAM - the modern world is gone, replaced by miles of food shacks and untamed coast.
After a long walk in the caribbean sun, the drink of choice is by far coco frio. While many outlandish claims have been made of the health benefits of young coconut juice, I will just say it is a natural gatorade and very tasty. Mixed with rum and ice it is extremely tasty. You can also use coco juice to feed a person intravenously in a pinch, as is it sterile, unlike the machete the coco man used to hack open your bebido. But, if that kind of thing makes you squamish, you are on the wrong road.
We stopped here at Yeya y Felas's place for the cocos, and stayed for the delicious array of fried goodies you saw on the font page. The flat things are bacalaitos - salt cod fried in batter, and the hot-dog-looking things are alcapurrias - beef and pork, chicken, or crab fried in plaintain batter. These plantains are everywhere in the local cuisine. I figure they must be high in fiber, because one thing Puertorricaynos don't eat is vegetables, yet and I had no problems staying on scedule.
Our next stop was the pig man - we saw him on the way in, basting his lechon with bitter orange juice. I knew we'd be coming back. Note the machete technique. The amazing thing to me is that this pic was taken at about noon and the pig is more than half gone. That's some tasty swine!
Any one of the several bars will be happy to make you a pina colada, but we opted for beers to wash down the pork. Medalla is the local brew, and Heineken the most available import, with the quasi-exotic lager Presidente from the Dominican Republic sometimes in the mix. I wish I could find Presidente in this country - oh wait, Puerto Rico is in this country. There's the central irony of traveling in PR, and probably the most annoying gringo move. Seriously, though forgive me if I feel transported while eating chicken skewers like these-
I have no idea what these were marinating in, or for how long, but they simply called it BBQ sauce. I suspect the bitter orange juice was again the key factor, making for a sweet, tangy, smoky skewer.
Sold on this place, we also ordered the most typical of all Puerto Rican dishes, the mofongo, ours with gamarones. It's basically a mound of mashed, fried plantain with salsa and meat or seafood inside. After washing it down with a few more Presidentes, we hit the road, only to discover a traffic jam in the other direction stretching all the way back to San Juan. Appearently the rosted pig smoke had finally reached the metropolis, and worked it magic.
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Posted by: Cheap Red Wing | November 19, 2011 at 11:17 AM