Our spread of Puerto Rican food in San Juan

Welcome to San Juan, Puerto Rico where we’re trying authentic Puerto Rican food!

We in San Juan, Puerto Rico trying some authentic Puerto Rican food. Today we plan to head out and try a whole bunch of Puerto Rican Dishes. First up we head to a more local restaurant called Bebo’s Cafe. Here we try an array of smaller Puerto Rican dishes including Bacalaitos, Empanadillas, Tostones and Asopao. Later in the evening, we head out again to try a couple more dishes at Orozco’s restaurant. Here we tried two authentic and must-try dishes, Mofongo with chicken, and Arroz con Gandules (chicken with pigeon peas).

Pro-Tip: If you end up loving these dishes as much as we did and want to try making them at home, a good place to start is with a quality rice cooker.

Today we are in San Juan and we plan on spending the day trying only Puerto Rican food! We don’t know a whole lot about the traditional food here but we have read to expect a lot of deep fried dishes. To start our food tour we’re making our way down one of the main streets of San Juan to a place called Bebo’s Cafe. While waiting for our food to come, we did get a Medalla which is their domestic beer. Here at Bebo’s we’ve ordered a few different authentic dishes to try.

Puerto Rican Dish #1: We start with Bacalaitos which are cod fritters. It is not too fishy at all. We try it with the dipping sauce which is like a spicy cheese dip. It is a little peppery as well. The outside is a bit hard and the inside is soft. It is delicious.

Puerto Rican Dish #2: The second thing we tried is called Asopao which is a chicken soup. In the soup we found big chunks of chicken. It is really nice and light. It is like your traditional chicken soup. It has a lot of flavour with different types of herbs and spices.

Puerto Rican Dish #3: Then, we tried Empanadillas which are filled with cheese. They are basically like small empanadas. They are relatively basic but taste good, are deep fried and are filled with cheese. It comes with delicious spicy mayo. There is also another one filled with chicken . It has a lot of flavours. The chicken is really tender.

Puerto Rican Dish #4: The final dish is Tostones which is fried plantain and sauce. Of all the dishes on the table, this one is the most interesting looking and taste great as well.

After our first feast, we had to take a little break after we may have gone into a food coma. We are looking for one thing in particular which is a Puerto Rican dish called Mofongo. We thankfully found it on the menu of a restaurant called Orozco. The restaurant is really cute although a little touristy but there are lots of locals as well. The vibe here is really intimate.

Puerto Rican Dish #5: We ordered Mofongo which is a mashed plantain, it’s made with green plantain. We ordered it with chicken on the top. There are lots of different options, you can get pork, beef or different types of fish. The chicken is really tender and is covered in a sauce similar to a gravy. It is very stew-like. It is similar to the soup we had today. This dish is a showstopper. The plantain is good as well, a bit sweet. The flavours go really well together. You have the tender chicken and the dense heavy plantain. We also noticed that there is a huge bottle of holy hot sauce on the table, so we poured a little bit on a plate to try with the food. It is not too hot and a little bit spicy and is the perfect accompaniment to the mofongo and the the rice dish we tried next.

Puerto Rican Dish #5: Our last dish of the day is called Arroz con Gandules which is rice with pigeon peas. The rice has loads of savoury and spicy flavours. It is not your basic rice. The rice with the hot sauce combination was perfect.

Would you rather a guided food tour? GetYourGuide has some great food/drink tours around San Juan: