This photo is submitted to Thursday Photo Challenge--Food.
While traveling in Puerto Rico, I followed a recommendation in a tour guide for a spot to eat. Unlike many tour guide recommendations, the road did not lead to a tourist trap but to an area that was as local as any I have eaten at. Between the beach, Balneario de Luquillo, and the highway, off a frontage road, there were dozens of little kioskos or food stands selling fried fish, cold drinks and sometimes a game of pool or two. There were lots of bright lights and loud music and young people cruising around. It was getting late for families but with the beach right there, I'm sure they were around earlier.
All the kiosks looked about the same with various seafood fritters in glass cases in the front and a seating area with menus on the wall offering seafood salads, cocktails and a soup called asopao. Traveling with a hungry teen means we got to order one of nearly everything.
The food was good and the atmosphere enjoyable if noisy. The proprietor who looked in his sixties but may have been younger was missing a lot of teeth but was very friendly and spoke English. Like nearly everyone we chatted with in Puerto Rico it seemed he had a Chicago connection and in fact had lived there for a bit. He still had a daughter in California and hoped to return to the mainland at some point. Given the number of closed kioskos we saw, life as the owner of one may not have been much of a steady and guaranteed income.
After dinner, we wandered to the now dark beach to let the kids take a dip. It turned out to be a short dip since there were hordes of voracious biting bugs that went for us two non-swimmers.
4 comments:
Funny. I was going to use the same title for my "food" post.
Excellent photos. I totally cringed at the McDonalds billboard over the little cantinas. Such an invasion.
When I was growing up there was a little trailer type restaurant thing that sold the best fried clams in little red and white cardboard bowls with tiny wooden forks. I used to eat there almost every day during summer vacation.
The woman that owned it retired and closed down and they towed her little trailer away. One of the saddest days of my young life.
Yum. That is some of the best food on the island. I have spent many an afernoon scarfing up fritters and drinking beer. Thanks for the memory!
hhhhmmmm, I think I'll have the camarones with some salsa and guacamole, thanks. I mean, los camarones a la salsa y guacamole, gracias. I think that's right, it's been a while since I studied spanish.
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