Monday, August 3, 2009

Some Long-Awaited Puerto Rican Sabor In LA: Mofongos Restaurant at La Espiga Cafe, North Hollywood

It has literally been 22 months since I've eaten Puerto Rican food. Why?

Well first of all, that's when I last visited La Isla Del Encanto.

Secondly, my Puerto Rican husband can't cook. (Shh, don't tell him I said that.)

And thirdly, although Southern California is probably one of the most ethnically diverse regions cuisine-wise, there is an undeniable lack of Puerto Rican restaurants here in the Southland. Yeah, yeah, SeƱor Big Ed's in Cypress does serve Puerto Rican food but they're a combination Mexican/Puerto Rican eatery that's also a bit of a drive for those of us located north of the 10 freeway. Sazon in Culver City has one or two Puerto Rican dishes sprinkled amongst a slew of other Latin fusion dishes. There used to be a pan-Caribbean restaurant called Sabor Y Sons Express in Inglewood that served Puerto Rican food but they closed a few years ago.

It hasn't been until this February that chef/owner Augusto of Mofongos Restaurant put Puerto Rico back on LA's gastronomic map. And I'm not talking in a half-assed way either: no part Mexican-part Puerto Rican, no Latin Fusion, no pan-Caribbean. This place is 100% Boricua, baby.

Operating six nights a week out of La Espiga Cafe, a cafe and coffeehouse by day, Mofongos would be a little difficult to find if you didn't know any better. But take one look at the dry-erase board outside listing the restaurant's daily Puerto Rican specials as well as the cars of Puerto Rican ex-pats proudly donning their flag that are likely to be parked out front and you'll know you're at the right place. Walk in and you're greeted with the same hospitality that my Mami-In-Law would have showered you with as a guest in her home back on the island.
I was most excited by the restaurant's several side dish offerings since they're the same snacks I remember noshing on when my husband and I crawled the various kioskos along the northeastern coast of Puerto Rico two years ago in search of between-beach eats. Our beef alcapurria, a totally tubular (no pun intended) fried snack made with plantains and yautia and stuffed with meat came fresh from the fryer and was made even more of a guilty snacking pleasure with a side of mayoketchup, a mayonnaise and ketchup hybrid that's popular in Puerto Rico. We also enjoyed a delicious pastelillo--a fried pastry in the likes of an empanada and filled with seasoned beef--and a cola champagne--a bright orange soda that tastes like someone mixed diet cream soda and root beer together--before our entrees arrived. We limited our appetizers to two selections this time, but can't wait to try the restaurant's other snacks such as pasteles, tostones, relleno de papa, and surollitos de maiz.

The restaurant's chuletas (porkchop) dish consists of a thinner chop that gives you more of its seasoned crusty sear with each bite. Although we found the chop a tad on the salty side, the meat itself was tasty and tender; any overzealousness with the salt was nothing that a hearty side of arroz con habichuelas (rice with pink beans) and maduros (sweet plantains) couldn't help to offset.
The star of our dinner show, however, was the restaurant's mofongo, a virtual molded bowl of mashed green plantain, garlic and chicharrones that in this particular instance, contained ropa vieja, a dish of stewed, shredded beef. The moist, mealy mixture has an appearance reminiscent of cornmeal or masa with a slightly coarser texture and bursts with garlicky, fried pork skin flavor. Depending on that day's specials, you can choose from different toppings for your mofongo as well as the type of cracklings your mofongo is made of. The restaurant's menu default is chicken mofongo--made with chicken and topped with chicken--but on this particular day they had pork mofongo as well as a shrimp and ropa vieja topping. And you know I love me some pig and cow so pig and cow it was. I gave my baby and husband a little bit of this mound that was the size of a small dog bowl, but it was so tasty that I was selfish with this one for the most part. I ate the whole thing. Plus the sweet plantains and salad that came with it.

The restaurant was by no means packed when we came for our early dinner, but the excitement and island pride buzzing from the handful of patrons who were dining there that evening was enough to fill the small space. Festive beats from the island greet you as soon as you walk up. A gentleman enjoying a bistec encebollado with a Coco Rico soda at one of the restaurant's two outdoor tables practically wiped his plate clean. Inside, an older couple chatted up a storm with our extremely friendly server Mercedes reminiscing about their old Nuyorican neighborhood. Chef/owner Augusto, wearing a Puerto Rican flag baseball cap, took his time cooking in the restaurant's small kitchen, a sign not of slow service, but of a lot of pride and care put into the food. Now if I'm excited about this place (me being Chinese and all), I can't imagine what the Puerto Rican community in Los Angeles must feel to finally have a taste of home in the Southland.

Mofongos at La Espiga Cafe
5757 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA 91601
(818) 754-1051
www.mofongosrestaurant.com
Open Tuesday-Sunday from 4-9 pm

Mofongos on Urbanspoon

8 comments:

MyLastBite said...

Can't wait to try Mofongos! Thanks for posting this.

tallnoe said...

Oh, wow... looks YUMMMY!

Thanks. Wish I'd known about it when I was house-sitting up there last week! Damn. :D I'll make a trip.

weezermonkey said...

Ooh, I have to tell my friend Glam about this. She is Puerto Rican, and she *can* cook!

SinoSoul said...

Geebuz! Deep end. Love it!

We ate mofongo after mofongo for a week straight coupla years back (while on the Island) and... I don't get it :\

Mayoketchup is all kinds of awesome tho! Love tostones, love relleno de papa!

Wandering Chopsticks said...

I haven't eaten Puerto Rican food since Boriquen in Alhambra closed down. :( Can't wait to try again. You know, because prior to blogging, I didn't pay nearly as much attention to all the components of food.

Love Coco Rico.

Daily Gluttony said...

MLB,

My pleasure! Finding Puerto Rican food anywhere in SoCal is like trying to find a needle in a haystack so I'm glad to get the owrd out!

tallnoe,

aww! well hopefully you can make a trip out to NoHo soon so you can try this...it'll be worth it, I promise!

weezermonkey,

mmm, that food your friend Glam made looks SO good--can she cook for me too? haha

SinoSoul,

aww too bad you're not a mofongo fan--i love anything with chicharrones. :) but if you like tostones, etc, this place has em!

WC,

funny you mention borinquen in alhambra...when my hubby & I went on the net a few years back to look for PR restaurants, that place popped up on some site that I guess hadn't been updated in awhile. we got so excited but immediately got disappointed when we found out it had closed.

Glam said...

Thanks for spreading the word about this place. It was so nice to have real PR food that I didn't have to spend several hours making! If you know anything about the preparation of authentic PR food, it is very labor intensive and time consuming. I took my mom who was raised on the island and we agreed that while we always prefer Grandma's receipes best (we put waaaaaaaay more meat in our alcapurrias and pasteles than any restaurant can afford to do), this place was authentic and good. We've been to Big Ed's several times and found it to be inconsistent, as the pasteles often turn out to be more akin to dry Mexican tamales than moist PR pasteles. We are going back with my abuelita and tia next week, and I am sure countless occasions after that!

Anonymous said...

FYI; If you haven't tried "Mama Fina's", in Bellflower, then you're
missing authentic P.R. cuisine. They have from "arroz con gandules"
to alcapurrias Y bistec en salsa. You can have arroz blanco con carne
guisa' and abichuelas rosadas. They also have platanos maduros and tostones Y chuletas. Check it out you won't regret it. And BTW, they don't skimp. They're very generous. Address: 17625 Bellflower Blvd., in Bellflower. You take the Artesia Fwy (91) east
and get off on Bellflower Blve. Turn right and it's about a block and a half, on your right. Enjoy!

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