We have to talk about food tonight.
There are these amazing places in Puerto Rico called lechoneras, which means they make lechón asado or pork. Sounds good right? Well, it is, very good!
My favorite lechonera is El Cuñao in the town of Cayey, where we went for lunch today. It was a last minute thing but last minute trips always turn out the best.
This was 30 minutes away, which were worth waiting for, even though I was very hungry. When we got there I had mini sorullitos (mini corn fritters), as an appetizer.
After having this delicious appetizer we had our meal, which of course included lechón, but first lets talk about my side dish, arroz con habichuelas (rice and beans). Their rice and beans is special, I don’t know what they do to it or how they make it that somehow it’s better than everywhere else. I can’t say how it’s better because I really don’t know, but it is, at least in my opinion. I say that and I am a picky eater while eating beans because they are served with a lot of the other ingredients but I only eat the beans. I don’t throw the whole serving of beans on top of the rice like normal people, I take a spoon and pick out just the beans; sometimes there’s so much other stuff that I am forced to pick the beans one by one.
People think this is weird, to me it’s normal because it’s the only way I’ve ever done it. So after my slow bean process we get to the pork, which was a big serving of meat, no grease or bones or anything, just meat. It was so good I’m not eating another meal today, I’m that full. This is the way I feel every time we go there, I’m really hungry and then I can think about eating for the rest of the day, but it’s all good just for that amazing serving of lechón y arroz con habichuelas;
The rest of the group with me today had other stuff like morcilla (blood sausage) and arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas) but I’m loyal to my arroz con habichuelas.
It was nice getting away from San Juan, even if just for a few hours, and having some traditional Puerto Rican meal that you really can’t eat every day. I always enjoy and never say no to trips to El Cuñao. If you’re ever in Puerto Rico, you need to go there or any other lechonera.
Unstoppable María 