Burritoville

The Netscape-friendly hunt for the perfect urban food log.

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

Here's the difference between Taquerias and whatever the heck they call what they've got in Florida:

La Granja in Orlando (Aloma and Semoran, pescados y carnes de la brasa) DOES NOT SELL burritos. It does not sell tacos or pupusas, either, and when I asked about horchata or tamarindo, the counter girl shook her head regretfully, but offered me a passionfruit soda as a consolation prize.

Duh! It's FLORIDA. They're selling CUBAN food. That means My Dining Companion got a plate of red snapper covered in a creamy garlic sauce that had shrimp and tiny scallops floating in it. ($8 and worth every penny.) It came with a generous timbale of salty white rice and a styrofoam soup bowl full of black beans.

I got a quarter of a roasted chicken with red beans and rice (my request for pintos got another regretful head shake). The chicken was plain, but tasty -- salt-and-pepper rub on the skin. I think it set us back about $4.99.

You can also order the family dinner for 12 -- which involves massive amounts of roasted chicken, beans, rice and fried bananas -- for about $49.

I wish I'd been able to go for the desserts -- they had alfajores (or whatever Cubans call those sugar cookies with dulce de leche stuck between them) and tres leches cake (oh baby, I haven't seen that stuff since New York City). But it was about 11 p.m. and I needed to find the dang hotel and go to bed.

I hope to heck never to be in Orlando again. But if I am, I would go back to La Granja.