Street Food of Puerto Rico

On the road between El Yunque where the rain forest is and San Juan there are several street food vendors cooking some really tasty food. Most of the roadside grub is fried with selections like alcapurrias, bacalaitos, rellenos, riononos, tacos and some grilled chicken skewers with sweet-spicy BBQ sauce. Everything is either $1.00 or $2.00......this is the "Dollar Menu" worth eating!

The sign makes it official


Master of the ancient fryolator arts
Serving up the alcapurrias, dough made with plantains and yautia, then stuffed with a meat filling and fried. This fryer setup predates anything you might have by at least 100 years. You thought the turkey fryer was a rudimentary piece of cooking equipment?....think again, this primitive fryer doesn't require propane. The lack of trees on the island has street food vendors burning lumber.


More alcapurrias


Freshly fried bacalaitos
which is salted cod that is shredded into a flour batter and formed into large flat discs and fried. I've made the classic French Brandade de Morue as chronicled in this post. It's interesting to note that the Spanish version is called Brandada de bacalao, both use a salted cod batter but the taste and texture of the bacalaitos is so much better than their European cousins.


Sweet & spicy barbequed chicken skewers


It's a family affair....mother in-laws and all