La Casa Latina | Taste of Puerto Rico in Augusta, GA

Taste of Puerto Rico

The taste of Puerto Rico, on grocery shelves and dining tables, makes La Casa Latina a bright reflection of the “Island of Enchantment.” Products unlike standard supermarket fare crowd the shelves. And from the kitchen comes dazzling, well-seasoned roast pork pulled into soft shreds and nuggets. It serves as a lunchtime entree, accompanied by rice, plantains, and a salad. The same good pork highlights the kitchen’s powerhouse Cuban sandwich, a.k.a. Cubano. As tradition demands, the sandwich also contains ham, cheese, pickles, mayonnaise. and mustard. When the sandwich toasts under a heavy weight, all the ingredients meld together and it becomes a wieldy lunch.

Mofongo and Trifongo

Cubanos are available in most Latin-American restaurants — indeed, now in many gringo places. But only a Puerto Rican kitchen makes a big deal out of mofongo. And here it is a big deal, a big, wonderful deal. In this native dish, plenty of garlic and bits of crunchy pork skin (chicharrones) crowd a towering mash of fried green plantains. Pour on some of the buttery herbed sauce presented with it, and you’ve got a dish unlike any other. Mofongo is so right on the side of pork, stewed chicken, or steak (some of La Casa Latina’s weekday specials). Trifongo is perhaps even more potent than mofongo. It includes both green and sweet plantains, chicharrones as well as yuca, and seemingly even more garlic.

Yellow Rice is Essential

Among side dishes, yellow rice stands out. The rice itself carries an agreeable oily savor, and here it is packed tight with beans, green olives, and red peppers that create a confetti look and a taste that is downright dazzling.

How Do You Like Your Plantain?

Plantains come with all full meals. You are asked if you want green or sweet. In this context, I love the latter. They cook until they’re soft and caramel colored.

Taste of Home

What La Casa Latina serves is not home cooking. But it tastes like it. And the experience of savoring the taste of Puerto Rico here is as friendly and hospitable as if you were a welcome house guest.