It’s Cinco de Mayo, so we’re supposed to eat Puerto Rican food right?

Once again I find myself in Nashville for work. Cinco de Mayo falls on a Monday this year, so there will be no tequila shots or gallon-sized margaritas, but that won’t stop me from eating well. Open Table came through once again, providing some great suggestions for food from south of the boarder, or in this case, southeast.

Salsa Puerto Rican and Latin is situated just past the Gulch, the young and hip areas to the South of downtown Nashville. The industrial look and feel of the boxy restaurant is softened by art from locals, available for purchase. The deck was wide open with a garage door style retractable wall, at the time, hosting a group in medical scrubs taking an intro to salsa dance lesson. The menu was primarily in Spanish with English descriptions in parenthesis, always a good sign.

http://www.salsarestaurantnashville.com/

Our meal began with drinks and an appetizer platter, which included Sorullos De Maiz, fried corn fritters. These golden brown, crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, finger sized delectables came with a pink dip, reminiscent of my grandmother’s (which was nothing more than ½ sour cream and ½ mild salsa). The entrée was exactly my style, a tasting of the menu, dubbed “Tour of Puerto Rico,” delivering four different meats and two sides. Most notably was the Pastelon De Amarillos, sweet plantains in a Puerto Rican ground beef lasagna. The meat was dark with roasted chilis, onion and garlic. The plantains, sliced thin and layered on the top, added a chewy and sweet counterpoint to the spicy meat. One of our sides was mofongo, a Puerto Rican dish “typically made with fried green plantains mashed together in a pilón (which is a wooden mortar and pestle), with broth, garlic, olive oil, and pork cracklings or bits of bacon.” (Wikipedia) Much like the corn fritters before, the mofongo was crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. The salty, savory flavors of the bacon and onion matched well with the plantain, whose starchy texture and subtle sweetness made it feel like a side dish (albeit a stick-to-your-ribs one) rather than a dessert.

As ever, the meal was made better with company. Getting to know the people you work with in a non-work setting, talking about everything but work (a rule I enforce whenever I can) and celebrating a holiday with food, a good way to start the week.