Puerto Rico Part 3: Punto de Vista

Day 2 in island paradise was filled with quite a bit of exercise (mostly walking long distances in the heat), at least for half of our group. It being V-day, we wanted to give Jason and Hyon Jae some quality time alone, and not long after breakfast they headed off to a secluded beach for swimming/sun-bathing/whatever other things happy young couples do in a beach town.

Louis and I on the other hand - being more akin to siblings and NOT wanting to fill our day with the same type of activities as the other two, started off with some tree-climbing at the park (I'm the sibling with the superior tree-climbing skills - as you will see documented below), followed by a walk to Castillo San Cristobal: a former Spanish fort that according to Wikipedia is the "largest fortification built by the Spanish in the New World." For those of you who have not experienced it for yourselves, it has a remarkable view of the ocean for about 280 degrees, while the other 80 degrees offers a view of Old San Juan

... which ended up being our destination for lunch as well as souvenir shopping for some of our friends/loved ones back in Boston.

For our late lunch we decided on a restaurant located near the piers in Old San Juan called Punto de Vista (based on a recommendation from my friend Jenn). Another place known to specialize in delicious authentic Puerto Rican food, it looks quite "hole-in-the-wall" despite being in a high-traffic area.

The food was as yummy as expected though: we ordered the fish tacos

accompanied by some sweet plantains

In fact, the food was good enough that as I will document in a later post, we actually returned to Punto de Vista for dinner later in the trip - this time with the entire group


Overall we probably walked well over 6 miles that afternoon. Plus my tree climbing adventures:

And my older brother-from-another-mother chasing after a lizard in the park:

Needless to say, the lizard escaped

(And yes - I did indeed climb the trees in a dress. With a camera bag slung onto my back. *Badass*)

Puerto Rico Part 2: Kasalta

Yesterday was our first full day in Puerto Rico, and obviously it started with: breakfast!

Hyon Jae and Jason had taken a red-eye flight the day before the rest of us arrived, so they had a chance to scope out the breakfast scene in advance. The place where they brought us was a Puerto Rican restaurant-bakery called Kasalta, located in the older part of New San Juan.

This dining establishment was set up like a mix between a cafeteria and bakery: in that one side of the building was lined with glass cases full of the food offerings (anything from empanadas to croissants, and even stews or hearty sandwiches), while the rest of the space was filled with cafeteria-style tables.

Walking in I was almost overwhelmed by the sheer variety of baked goods, deli meats, and other items loading their glass cases. One thing that definitely first caught my eye was a gigantic pastry the size of my face and coated with powdered sugar:

Hyon Jae and Jason eventually ordered this, and although it looks like a powdered-sugar version of a cinnamon bun, the pastry actually had a hint of lemon flavor

I opted for a Puerto Rican version of a mix between an omelet and fritata: basically a combination of egg and french fries baked into a pie-shape:

I also ordered a dessert that was a combination of oreo, caramel, and cheesecake (you can see the cheesecake layer in the middle): definitely as delicious and decadent as it looks

Louis ordered a Puerto Rican stew (Sancocho):

and sandwich with chorizo and cheese

In addition to the powdered-sugar head-sized bun, Jason got a slice of the tres leches (3-milk) cake: the three types of milk typically used are a) sweetened condensed milk, b) evaporated milk, and c) regular whole milk. One of my favorite types of cake of all time, it always reminds me of my childhood (even though I'm not Puerto Rican). My dad used to buy whole tres leches cakes from a favorite bakery of his, and my little bro and I could devour an entire cake just between the two of us in one sitting

Last but not least, Kasalta had great coffee. Normally I'm not a coffee connoisseur, but even I could appreciate that the coffee was done well. Strong but without even a hit of burnt flavor, the coffee is served in mini-cups about the size of espresso cups. There's good reason for this: any larger volume of  their special brew would probably put less experienced coffee drinkers (like myself) into first - palpitations, followed by atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular response, and finally into cardiac arrest

(I got my coffee "con leche")


*Of note, I actually lied when I said that the first thing we did yesterday morning was eat breakfast. In fact, the very first thing we did was play with animals. The Caribe Hilton where we're staying has a garden area with a variety of animals fit for a petting zoo. This includes several peacocks, both black and white swans, iguanas, ducks and geese galore, plenty of fish, and a turkey!

 

 

 

 
(Mr. Turkey let me get very up-close and personal for this glamor shot)

Puerto Rico Part 1: New San Juan

The Northeast recently had a snow storm, and Boston certainly got it's fair share of the fluffy white stuff. Day 0 of the storm I was on 24 hour call at the hospital so didn't have to brave the weather. Day 1 post-storm was actually tolerable: everything was covered in a 2-foot layer of beautiful, clean, white. After that though, things went down-hill. By the time I left Boston for my vacation, our little world was layered in slush and what once was white had now become gray.

This vacation arrived with perfect timing, as I have thoroughly become tired of being cold, and what better location to escape the cold than Puerto Rico?

We arrived late in the afternoon two days ago and after a brief stint on the beach (the sun sets oddly early here), New San Juan was the decided location for dinner. None of us being too familiar with the area, our plan was to walk down the main street until a place caught our eyes.

That place ended up being a restaurant called Hierba Buena (translates to mean "good grass"). It was here that I got my first taste of mofongo: a dish made of fried green plantains that are mashed together and usually stuffed with either vegetables, chicken, pork/beef, or seafood (usually shrimp). However, at this restaurant the mofongo was served as a side, and rather than being stuffed, it was re-fried after the mashing, until it resembled something similar to a large tater-tot.

The entree that I chose was pulled pork - which although yummy, was overshadowed by the utter deliciousness of my giant mofongo tater-tot (who would have imagined that fried green plantains could taste so similar to fried potatoes?!)



(Big "thank-you" to Jenn for the recommendation! The mofongo did not disappoint)