Old San Juan

     One of our ports of call during my Caribbean culinary research cruise was San Juan on the island of Puerto Rico.  Founded in 1521 by Spanish colonists it is the 2nd oldest European established capital city in the Americas, second only to Santo Domingo on the neighboring island of Hispaniola.   The iconic garitas or sentry boxes of El Morro (officially El Castillo de San Felipe del Morro) have become symbolic of the historic city.

     After a customized bus tour of the city I was on my own to explore and to see the town for myself.  Some of the streets there are still paved with the original blue cobblestones placed there by the original settlers.  I was beginning to get hungry and so began to look for a place to sit down for lunch with my culinary compatriot as we walked through the old city.  The massive open doors of the El Convento Hotel intrigued me and I walked in to have a look around.  It was one of those classic places that might have been a scene from a movie.  I almost expected to find Humphrey Bogart standing in a darkened corner or perhaps find Ernest Hemingway sitting at the bar.

     We sat down in the sunlit atrium and contemplated what to order as our waiter brought some iced tea to the table.  I decided to have a local dish, chicken mofongo.  It was delicious!  What exactly is it, you ask?  I will pass along the recipe tomorrow.