I was craving a fried pastelillo...TC was game for anything that afternoon.
I'd been wanting to come back here for so long so today was the day...
Oh Tropical Star, I've missed you so.
Judging from their exterior and from something I've recently read (I can't find the link but once I do, I'll link it), Tropical Star is planning to expand into the empty space next door. That would be great since it's quite small in here, with room for only a few tables inside and two outside.
The eatery is also a market where you can buy all kind of foodstuffs not just from Puerto Rico but other Latin American countries. In the refrigerated case they had blood sausage (morcillo)!
The egg candies were hollow dark chocolate egg and when you crack them open, there are smaller chocolate balls inside! I was so tempted to get this but they were over $6 and I didn't want them to melt in the car.
Their menu which you can also view online
Our lunch - TC has the #2 combo which was pollo guisado with rice, beans and salad. We shared this. I also ordered two appetizers, the tostones (twice fried smashed plantains dipped in garlic sauce) and a pastelillo (fried meat pie).
The chicken was mixed in with the rice by the way. I just noticed you can't see any chicken pieces. TC just reminded me the pieces were UNDER the rice.
If this looks familiar, it should. This pastelillo appeared a few posts ago for my meat pie compilation post (linked at the end). The pastelillo has gone up .75 in price in the past five years (from $2.25 to $2.95). Inflation.
I love that blistered exterior and the wide margin of crust.
As for these tostones, sprinkled with sea salt and tasting of garlic, these were fantastic. I just wish there was a dipping sauce for these like Kirbie and I had recently at Embargo Grill.
I bought these two items as well, wafers (called 'obleas') and a dulce de leche spread.
They used to sell a smaller sized wafer and bigger jars of dulce de leche but they no longer carry those particular sized. I like the wafers plain too. This may sound sacriligious, but it looks (and kind of tastes) like a giant communion wafer. It was hard to spread on the caramel without breaking the wafer since it was so big.
Previous visit to Tropical Star:
September 2009
and recent post featuring a variety of meat pies including the pastelillo you saw here:
"God, that's good or a meat pie by any other name..." June 2015
I wonder when they will be fully expanded into the space next door. It's good to see Tropical Star still in business and doing well. Even though it is small, I like the homey atmosphere and the personal service from the owner (a very nice man).
4 comments:
In Mexico I saw cookies that were the actual communion wafers with dulce de leche! I always kind of liked the taste of communion wafers anyways :)
I've seen some Mexocan markets carry the filled wafer cookies. They are smaller and also called obleas.
Ooo, you revisited! Nice. I only went here once, too, but I've been wanting to go again for a long time. I never tried the meat pie and now it looks like I really need to! The shop here is so small inside and feels so cramped so it's nice to hear they'll be expanding. The extra space would nice.
I should revisit more often, heheh. If only for those tostones and that pastelillo! It'll be nice once their expansion is complete.
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