Moving to a new place is always filled with challenges. Without fail everything ends up costing at least 2 times what you were hoping it would and generally there are at least a few speed bumps in the road. My recent move to Rincon, Puerto Rico from the mainland has, as expected, been filled with even more hurdles than the average move inside the continental US. The vehicle we were supposed to be leasing broke down on my roommate on one mile trip to the post office.. which forced us to have to purchase a new car, which ended up having similar radiator problems as the first car! (And being rigged with duct tape in some questionable places.) There have been lizards crawling up my legs, bats swooping by me from the trees at night, those large green-leaf looking bugs, hundreds of cockroaches, hairy spiders the size of my palm on the living room wall.. and I’m pretty sure the Chupacabra is living in the jungle of my backyard… with some really loud little frogs (called coquis) who like to chirp all night. Sooooo um, can you tell I’m not really a bug person? Moving from San Diego – the land of no bugs – to pretty much a jungle on the equator has magnified the differences. 🙂

Bugs and moving hiccups aside, I chose to move here for a number of reasons – 1) to be closer to perfect year round beach weather (dude – San Diego water is COLD most of the year) 2) to explore the Caribbean’s food scene and settle into writing a couple of new cookbooks! And 3) Life is too short not to seek out adventure and explore the world!

A few weeks ago I had to take my roommate to the airport in San Juan – a city that I have traveled through several times but haven’t really had the opportunity to explore! I was giddy with excitement. GIDDY, I tell you. After doing a little restaurant googling, I decided I would get a much better result if a real live person told me where I should go for lunch. A couple of tweets later a local San Juan Food blogger, Adriana, from Great Food 360, suggested I try La Casita Blanca for Sunday lunch.

The fountain at Parque Luis Munoz Rivera (which I restrained myself from playing in).

After prancing around Parque Luis Munoz Rivera to work up my appetite (yeah – I prance. Don’t judge! 😉 ), I wandered over to La Casita Blanca. What a great suggestion! As you would imagine, La Casita Blanca is a cute white cottage nestled on the corner of Cll Tapia & Cll Varas. While I didn’t peruse all of it’s nooks and crannies, their décor was so fun and kept me thoroughly entertained throughout solo meal.

Mmmm fried salt cod goodness. Get. In. My. Belly!

As soon as I was seated, a plate of salt cod fritters with garlic bread and a cup of chicken and rice soup was placed in front of me. How was I supposed to pay attention to the white board menu (which was also placed in front of me) when I had that deliciousness staring me in the face?


El menu!

I did the only thing I could think of when faced with a menu in a language that I don’t understand. I asked my charming server which of the items were her favorite… then I ordered both of them. She looked at me with huge eyes and said “Ambos?” 🙂 Yep, I ordered two huge dishes!


My beautiful server coming out of the kitchen.

Per her suggestion I went for the carne guisado, which was so flavorful, rich and tender… and perfect over the arroz rojo that it was served with.

Guisado in the front, rellano in the back. Kinda like a Puerto Rican mullet of food awesomeness. 😉

The second dish she suggested was the aguacate rellano… Basically an avocado half with mounds of this deliciously salty crab mixture on top. Mmm mmm mmm. Oh yeah – and a huge bowl of beans to go over the white rice. I think I’m developing a food coma from just recalling all the details of this meal!

Hey look! I wasn’t the only one taking pictures of my food! These guys were catching it all on video.

While I was able to get out of the dessert course, I wasn’t able to ditch the digestif – a little plastic souffle cup with two coffee beans and anis flavored liquor. Actually they made me take two of them. Not gonna lie – it was an enjoyable end to a fantastic meal, but it definitely made the two and a half hour drive back a drowsy one. Without question I would recommend visiting La Casita Blanca if you find yourself in San Juan… just make sure you invite me to join you!!!

Ceiling fans and Yankees fans! (Gratuitous photo just because I enjoy the fan action.)

PS – Sorry for yet another post where all of the photos were taken with my Droid! 😉