#Cachapas y mas full#
#Cachapas y mas tv#

They’re moister than their uptown counterparts enough, on occasion, to challenge the firmness of the “crispy green plantain crostini,” as the restaurant describes them. A kitchen that turns out full-blown entrees also shows its hand in patacón fillings like asado negro ($8.95), pot roast in a sweet onion-and-red-wine sauce, and carne mechada ($8.95), stewed shredded flank steak. “Too” is pronounced “toe,” reflecting the Dominican pronunciation of “todo” (“everything”), as in, “give me a patacón with everything on it.” The mozzarella is found in a version with ham and cheese ($5), but the star of the menu is the patacón Dominicano ($5), which swaps out the ham for silver dollars of fatty salami.įor a patacón Maracucho in a full-service setting perhaps with a glass of beer, wine or sangria, before lolling against a banquette while listening to gentle Latin tunes to the best of my knowledge the city’s sole option is El Cocotero ( 228 West 18th Street, at Seventh Avenue, 21, ). Villalobos also owns a truck, parked by night near the Metro-North Tremont station, called Patacon con Too ( 4184 Park Avenue, at East Tremont Avenue, the Bronx, 71). The doble queso patacón ($4.50) is layered with fried slabs of fresh mozzarella unfried, the cheese is even better tucked into the cachapa de queso ($6), a floppy half-moon pancake of sweet golden corn. Villalobos said that in most of Latin America, patacón refers to an individual flattened disc of plantain, perhaps topped with guacamole or cheese, or a small twice-fried round, collectively also called tostones (tohs-TOE-nays).īut just as in Maracaibo, in Upper Manhattan the plantain is also the armature for sandwiches like the patacón de pernil ($4.50), loaded with luscious roast pork and adorned with the house-made pink sauce white dressing with parsley, cilantro, onion, garlic and celery, inflamed with bright red hot sauce.

#Cachapas y mas tv#

Preparing the sandwich might take 15 minutes many folks tide themselves over with a tequeño ($1), white cheese deep fried in pastry dough.Įven so, the patacón Maracucho gets many curious looks, said Larry Villalobos, owner of the nearby Cachapas y Mas ( 107B Dyckman Street, between Nagle and Post Avenues, 21, ), a narrow storefront with two high-backed booths, a window-side counter and a flat-screen TV that favors music and sports. One of the most popular requests is the “full” patacón ($5), a combo of chopped griddled beef, pork and chicken, typically dressed with lettuce, tomato and a piquant pink sauce.

When the truck window opens for the evening around 7 (it closes around 6 a.m.), a small crowd is often on the sidewalk, maneuvering forward to place orders with the manager. That affection is shared by the Dominican clubgoers who know the truck as Patacon Pisao, or “flattened plantain” (a name it shares with a catchy merengue song).

Still warm, the golden discs embrace shredded beef, roast pork, chorizo, chicken or cheese.īut why all the trouble, when two slices of white or rye might do just as well? Because Venezuelans love their plantains “morning, afternoon and night,” explained Liliana Velasquez, owner of El Dugout (431 West 202nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues, no telephone) a truck that is permanently ensconced at the edge of an Inwood parking lot. In its place is green (that is, unripe) plantain that’s been sliced lengthwise, fried, pressed flat and fried again.

#Cachapas y mas full#

In fact, a patacón (paht-ah-CONE) the full name, patacón Maracucho, identifies its birthplace as the Venezuelan city of Maracaibo is a sandwich that dispenses with bread entirely. FOR plantain lovers, it may be the best thing since sliced bread.