La Casita del Sabor II

Tried out the new site of La Casita del Sabor II which is a great improvement seating wise from the original place [still there] and thankfully the food is still great.

This is the $10 Lunch Special with a delicious Grilled Pork Chop along with rice and beans and small salad. There was choice of Grilled Chicken or Steak but I sure made a happy choice. Also chose the Maduros instead of my favorite of Tostones or French Fries. This was a super choice also. Great room with super service; you are always welcome here.

bloginfo: no website yet

Soul de Cuba

Hearty warm food on a windy day. That was our Sunday afternoon in New Haven at Soul de Cuba. After super mojitos [mine a Negroni mojito], we ended up ordering the same thing. This is usually very frowned upon when dining with me but it just had to happen!

Lechon Asado 'a traditional celebration dish!' mojo marinated pork roasted until tender then hand pulled and topped with caramelized onions and served with rice and black beans [$19]. Rico and delicious!

Macori Restaurant

And the culinary gods were good to me...there is mofongo in my 'hood. Just ate at Macori and had a late lunch/early dinner. No one there but me and the chef made me fresh mofongo right there and it was banging. Had Guisado de Cerdo [pork stew] over mofongo and a piece of yuca [a little dry] with a can of Kola Champagne [$16.95]. Good thing my weight is [was] down because this meal could feed a few hungry people!

The restaurant is named Macori after the hometown of the owner, Rafael Paredes. He is from San Pedro de Macoris! and I love that merengue of the same name.

blognote: Parking might be a little difficult as it is on the corner of a  one-way street. There is a parking lot in back so I will inquire if that is for restaurant patrons.

blognote: Owner is planning to open a bar in the basement with hopes of live music and Merengue!!!

bloginfo: No website yet...

Humacao Restaurant

I was having a mofongo attack so went back to Humacao [the restaurant here, not in Puerto Rico!]. Didn't realize it was so long ago. Anyway, I can't find decent or readily available mofongo around here so went to East Hartford.

Had Mofongo over Pernil; what a combination of plaintains, garlic and roast pork[$7 with a soda].

blognote: Since my blogger name is Mofongoman I need to do more research on this item. Yummy!

4/11/08 [earlier review]


Found a clipping on my bulletin board from last month, so I decided to try the Humacao Restaurant for some Puerto Rican food.
Great little neighborhood restaurant with delicious, authentic food and very nice people!

I had a lunch special of fried porkchop with rice and beans, fried plaintains. The lunch special is the inclusion of rice [white or yellow] with beans and the fried plaintains. There were 15 different choices of meat. What you order is what you get: a fried porkchop is 'una chuleta frita' and vice versa; real home cooked Puerto Rican food no gourmet trappings here.

Also ordered mofongo; my usual over-ordering, so the mofongo got the 'llevar' treatment and became a to-go item for tomorrow's dinner. The car still smells of garlic, my favorite aroma. The mofongo came with/without meat; I opted for the vegetarian version.

Staff is very friendly and efficient. They handle loads of people at lunchtime and are completely bilingual. Will go back for dinner soon.

bloginfo: Humacao is located at 245 Silver Lane in East Hartford. Phone is 568.9500
Humacao Restaurant [great music and menu lists prices]
blognote: mofongo is my blogname and I will taste test this version and blog more later.
MOFONGO UPDATE! Saturday, April 12th
Had the mofongo for dinner today with some linguiça [with pineapple from Whole Foods] and it was great. I fried up the linguiça and added the mofongo which I had steamed in the microwave. I ended up frying it up all together and it was very moist and crunchy, too.

Pollo Tropical

We usually theme dine after a play but couldn't find anyplace serving mockingbirds. So we ended up at Pollo Tropical. This place has been getting good reviews and had wanted to try it.

Food is good but lacks that 'criollo edge' found at many island eateries on Park Street and Franklin Avenue. It is, after all, a chain. You order food at the counter, get a number and retrieve the food when it's ready.

I had the chicken and ribs [$8.69] with yellow rice and black beans. The half chicken is well seasoned and the small rack of ribs has a lot of flavor. Where it lacked was in the sides. There is a large salsa bar with a good assortment of condiments; the mojo was strong and the guava barbecue sauce was sweet and lush. There were two strengths of a cilantro/tomato salsa, the mild one a little watery.

The others tried the yucca, white rice and the roast pork tropical. All were good but not terrific. We ended with an order of fried sweet plantains which were right from the fryer. They got a couple of flan to go.

bloginfo: 465 Flatbush Avenue, Hartford, CT and the website has a lot of info.
blognote: Saw lots of these in Miami so they seem to be more Cuban than what I am used to. Will try it out again!

Bahama Breeze

Monday, March 19th

On the guys day off, we had lunch at a Bahama Breeze somewhere in the Miami area. Anyway, it was one with outside seating. That was what we wanted as it was a gorgeous day [what's new!]. The outside area wouldn't be open until an hour or so but a waiter, Diego, said he would serve us.

Good meal, don't remember what the others had buy my entrée was a Grilled Salmon Tostada Salad. This consisted of a grilled tostada base with melted cheese on top of which was a pile of field greens on top of which was a nice slab of grilled salmon over which was a tangy lime dressing. It was delicious. That and two Amber Red ales and it was a fine day.

But then it got better! We shared two desserts: Dulce con Leche Cheesecake and a Banana, Banana, Banana concoction. This was banana nut bread, sliced bananas, [banana?] ice cream, caramel sauce, whipped cream and toasted almonds! Another day in paradise!