Try These Common Puerto Rico Kiosk Foods

The roadways all over Puerto Rico are dotted with countless lean-tos, shacks, pavilions, tents, and trucks where enterprising cooks sell a variety of mostly fried local delicacies called frituras. For the uninitiated, the assortment of fried food can be daunting. But if you want a truly traditional Puerto Rican experience, pop an antacid and dive into an adventurous array of some of the tastiest food on the island.

Most items sell for as little as a dollar apiece.Most items sell for as little as a dollar apiece, are served in napkins, and are eaten standing up. Hot sauce is usually on hand to spice things up, and nothing washes it all down better than an ice-cold Medalla beer.

Luquillo and Piñones are famous for their concentration of food kiosks, but kiosks can be found all over, typically near beaches, parks, and tourist sites, including Plaza de Hostos in Old San Juan, Punta Sardinera beach in Isabela, and Jardín de Atlantico park in Aguadilla.

Bacalaito and alcapurria are two deep-fried Puerto Rican dishes. Photo © Suzanne Van Atten.

Some of the most common items include:

• alcapurria: Mashed yuca (also called cassava), yautia (taro root), and/or green banana is stuffed with crab or beef and deep-fried. They are elongated but fat in the middle, like a thin sweet potato or fat cigar.
• aranitas: Little haystacks of shredded green plantain, deep fried, of course.
• arepa: South American in origin, it’s a small, round patty of corn meal batter fried, split open on one side, and stuffed with meat or seafood. It looks like a small fried hockey puck.
• bacalaito: A codfish fritter that looks like a giant, irregularly shaped, deep-fried pancake.
• barcazas: Whole plantains are sliced lengthwise, stuffed with ground beef, and topped with cheese. They look like banana boats.
• coco dulce: This is an immensely sweet confection of fresh, coarsely grated coconut and caramelized sugar. It looks like a brown craggy praline.
• coco frio: Chilled coconuts still in their green husks have a hole cut in the top and a straw stuck through it. Inside is a refreshing thin coconut milk. After you drink all the liquid, ask your server to chop it in half; you can scoop the coconut out with a spoon if it’s unripe and soft, or you can chunk it out with a knife if it’s ripe and hard.
• empanadilla: A savory circle of pastry is stuffed with meat, crab, lobster, shrimp, or fish, folded into a half moon, thickly crimped along the rounded side, and deep-fried. It looks like an apple turnover.
• papas rellenas: A big lump of mashed potatoes is stuffed with meat and deep-fried. It looks like a fried baseball.
• pastelillo: Similar to an empanadilla but typically smaller, a pastelillo has a thinner, airier crust. It looks like an apple turnover.
• pinchos: Chunks of chicken, pork, or fish are threaded on a skewer and grilled kebab-style. They’re often served with a slice of bread stuck on the point of the skewer.
• pionono: A ball of seasoned ground beef is wrapped mummy-style in slices of plantain and deep-fried. Sometimes it also contains egg. It looks like a craggy, deep-fried softball.
• sorullito: Small, cigar-shaped nosh is made from cornmeal and cheese.
• taquitos: Chicken, ground beef, crab, or fish is rolled up in a tortilla and (you guessed it) deep-fried. They look like fat cigars or little fried envelopes, depending on how the cook folds them up, and they are sometimes called tacos, but they’re nothing like the Mexican version.

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Excerpted from the Fourth Edition of Moon Puerto Rico.