I had a great time on my Florida trip and, contrary to my expectations, I actually had some good culinary adventures! I had read in the guidebooks about "Floribbean cuisine" - a blend of Floridian and Caribbean flavours and cooking styles, and hoped I might come across some in my travels. Floribbean combines Caribbean tastes and flavours with the lighter cooking styles of Florida. For example, it eschews deep fried, lardy, starchy Latino delights in favour of steaming, sauteeing, fresh fruits and vegetables, citrus, spice, and other flavours fresh and nice.
My first food adventure came soon after my arrival in Orlando. I checked into my hotel, felt delighted that it was so nice and had such wonderful landscaping (palm trees! oleanders! hibiscus!), and then went in search of food. Due to my late night packing and the rigours of travelling with a young child I had a headache, my eyes burned and I was achingly tired. I just wanted to eat some lunch and collapse into bed. I hoped that my baby would concur with this plan and take a nap too...
As my taxi pulled into the hotel I had seen a restaurant right beside it - Pollos Mario. Pollos means chicken in Spanish, and there was an appetizing smell of barbeque in the air, so I had a hunch I had stumbled onto something good. "Comida tipica Latinoamericana" (dishes typical of Latin America) proclaimed the menu. That suited me just fine. I had expected a Disney-like homogeneity throughout Orlando, forgetting that the Hispanic influence in Florida is just as strong as ol' Walt's tentacles - if a bit more dispersed.
The waitress spoke to me in Spanish, which tickled me, because I can speak it a bit, and also because I love being mistaken for a "local" (when I was in Cuba, people kept asking me if I was from Mexico; they knew I wasn't Cuban because I wasn't wearing neon lycra!) The restaurant had the feel of a ranch house courtyard with tiled floor, a plastic orange tree in the centre, and lanterns on the booths.
Photo taken from a "Chow Hound" review of the restaurant - Orlando Sentinel websiteThe menu had pictures, which I love, so instead of ordering the barbequed chicken which had smelt so appetizing, I decided to order a dish of sauteed red snapper, because it looked so beautiful. I was spending two nights in Orlando, so I reasoned that I could have chicken the next night.
I ordered guanabana (soursop) juice with high hopes (Azteca restaurant in Ottawa used to have amazing guanabana juice) but this one turned out to be just a sweet tasteless slushie. When the fish arrived, though, it made up for all shortcomings. It looked outstanding!
"Wow!" I said, dazzled by the sight: on a large oval platter rested a whole red snapper. To the north of the fish (which really deserved its own time zone, it was so large) was a pile of halved redskin potatoes. To the west of the potatoes poked out some yucca spears; to the south, several halved plantains ruled supreme - starchy and ponderous. The entire terrain was bathed in a thick yellow sauce studded with chopped tomatoes and cilantro. Colour, shape, form, and aroma all abounded on my plate. Oh, what a sight!
I regretted that I hadn't brought my camera to record this beautiful dish, but I was too pooped to go and get it. Plus, it would have been a pity to let this feast get cold! So I decided to just dig in and enjoy. First, though, I buckled my baby into the colourful high chair and gave him rice, sauce and a little fish. He happily gobbled it up, but refused the other starches.
The serving plate was too crowded to eat off, and I hadn't been given any other plate, so I cleared some space on the rice platter and put sauce and some fish on it. I was sure it couldn't taste as good as it looked, but...oh dear reader, it was!
The fish was tender, the rice perfectly cooked, and the sauce...well, it was what a sauce is meant to be. Thick, flavourful, fragrant...chunks of tomato offering up some texture, it was a perfect complement to the fish. I ate hurriedly at first - I was so hungry! Later, when my hunger was sated I lingered over each mouthful, trying to identify the flavours. Saffron? Maybe. Onion? Certainly. But apart from that I really couldn't tell. So I stopped wondering and just gave myself up to enjoying the food.
Dear reader, I ate half the fish! I also ate a goodly portion of the yucca, potato and plantain. The potato was tender and delicious, but I wasn't so crazy about the yucca or the plantain. Perhaps it is my Anglo roots, but I have to say that I am not a fan of yucca. If you have ever bitten into a wax apple, that's what yucca tastes like. Plantain is more ponderous than yucca, and again perhaps an acquired taste.
I really should have stopped eating after the fish (an insipid salad had preceded my meal, so I really was overfull by now) but the desert menu looked so tantalizing - not because it had the usual cheesecake/chocolate cake offerings, but because of the special Latin American dishes it offered - flan and higos con queso (figs with fresh cheese)! I was really full to bursting but I had to try the figs with cheese - what a cool combination!
At this juncture, though, the waitress brought me my bill! "Uh, no" I said, feeling outraged. Was this was her way of saying that I had eaten too much? "I still want to order dessert."
She shrugged. "Oh."
"Figs and cheese!" I proclaimed. "And a cup of tea too!"
She shrugged again.
I was irritated but decided to ignore it. The waitresses, all slender, doe-eyed damsels in white shirts and tight white pants, didn't seem to speak English very well, and hadn't even come by to ask me how my meal was (a big minus in my books).
The figs and cheese came in a tall sundae dish - 5 figs and 3 slices of cheese. The figs were small, plump things that had clearly spent the greater part of their lives suspended in a jar of sugar syrup. The cheese was salty and crumbly, strongly resembling Indian paneer, and was a perfect counter balance to the the sweetness of the figs. The tea was hot and flavourful. A nice finish to the meal!
I really was stuffed, so after tasting one fig and eating a small piece of cheese, I decided to take a short break and go to the bathroom. Upon my return, I was startled to find the table cleared off. No figs, no cheese, no tea, no mess of napkins and plates - even the bill had disappeared!
"Uh, excuse me," I said, chasing down a waitress. "My dessert - it was taken away!" She shrugged and disappeared. My waitress came and I explained to her what had happened. She looked disinterested, but eventually the busboy appeared and brought me a new dish of dessert and cup of tea. But, there were only two figs and two pieces of cheese in it!
"Uh, excuse me," I said. "Four figs!"
"No!" He replied. "Two!" and then ran away.
I was perplexed. Clearly, he didn't speak English, so there was probably no point in insisting on getting the extra figs. And maybe there weren't any more in the jar. Anyway, I really was stuffed, so I decided to let it go.
After this incident, I started to feel rather unwelcome in the restaurant. Perhaps they really wanted me to leave?
Defiantly, I sat there, stuffing figs into the spare corners of my tummy and sipping my hot tea. Finally, I really couldn't eat anymore, so decided I was finished.
Some more brouhaha resulted over paying the bill (I was using a credit card) so I felt really irked when I left the restaurant. The food had been delicious, and the waitress hadn't charged me for the tea (due to the confusion over the premature clearing away of my desert) but I was still displeased with the service and decided not to return the next night. Anyway, I had enough fish, rice and tubers to make another full meal.
So, there you have it, a review of Pollos Mario on South Blossom Drive in Orlando, Florida. Delicious food, terrible service - you can decide for yourself if you want to go (and, of course, I recommend that you do!). It wasn't Floribbean cuisine, per se (Colombian, the desk clerk at the hotel later informed me) but it did bear the hallmarks of Floribbean food, and was far removed from anything I would find in Ottawa, so I was well satisfied with my first meal in Florida.
Next up - food adventures at Disneyland!
