Photo(s) of the day 3 de febrero de 2007

The long-awaited, much anticipated gastronomic tour starts here.

About a quarter mile from Ola Lola’s, as you come around a sharp bend in Carr. 4466 (it doesn’t matter which way you’re going; there’s a sharp turn at each end of this little stretch of road), there is nothing that marks this place as someplace special, as some place unusual– except a long line of people that sometimes stretches into the road. There’s nothing even to mark it as just some place. No sign, no name. There’s just that line of people waiting, cars parked every which way, sometimes hanging out in the road. The local gringos call it the UFO stand.

Everythng at this little food stand is deep fried (a lot of the local foods in Puerto Rico are fried). But that queue – every day, every time we come around the bend, from desayuno (breakfast) through almuerzo to past dinner, always a queue.

The menu consists mostly of pastillos, fried turnovers called. filled with carne (a meat filling,) or pollo (chicken) or pulpo (octapus) or camirones (shrinp) or mariscos (seafood) or pescados (fish). And they have sorullitos. Think mozarella sticks, only wraped in cornmeal and the size of an American county fair corndog.

And if you really want a corndog, they have those too, cornmeal-battered, wraped in a flour shell and deep-fried.

The clientele is eclectic. Locals, workmen on their way to or from work, surfers, touristas, pretty much anybody. It doesn't matter. Katy used to go there every morning for coffee and some company.

It’s cheap. A pescado pastillo is 85 cents. Camirones, pulpo and mariscos are a buck and a quarter. Carne and pollo are $.75. The deadly sorullitos are $.60. One, at the most two, are pretty much all you can handle. Add a soft drink and you’ve got a cheap lunch. Better yet, pick up a couple for dinner and enjoy them with an cerveza fria around the corner in Lola’s garden.

Oh. Why the UFO stand? Unidentified Fried Objects.