Most of our dining this trip has been in Tourist Central -- the Disney and Universal properties, and on the main drags and associated malls. But we think the best meal we've had so far this visit was well off the reservation, where the real people live.
Our nephew, who lives and works down here, is familiar with the neighborhoods in Orlando, and while squiring us around the area en route to his mom's house in Daytona Beach yesterday took us to Jalapeno's, a little mom-and-pop Mexican restaurant on the corner of Oakridge and Rio Grande, a couple of blocks off, I thinkm Orange Blossom Trail, across from a public housing project; the sort of neighborhood where all the businesses have iron bars on all the doors and windows.
We had the best Mexican food ever here. I had marinated pork wrapped inside thick, warm corn tortillas; Fellow Traveler had chicken taquitos; Nephew had enchiladas; we all split a ginormous chile rellenos. I can't tell you how good this was. And the service was wonderfully courteous. (The owner, who recognized Nephew from other visits, confided to FT that he was "a very good boy...he's so quiet...but he always finishes everything on his plate.")
So any adventurous eaters out there who find themselves in the Orlando area may want to check out Jalapeno's. It's worth the detour.
2 comments:
The best Cuban food i ever had was in a little whole in the wall about an hour from Orlando. It was in an old convenience store and you had to order from a sliding window. They cooked a goat on a huge pit in the back of the store every Friday, served with black beans and rice, garlic bread, and a Cuban-style deviled crab. Wow I miss that place!
We really, really wanted to eat Cuban food this trip, but we simply haven't had time to explore all the culinary options around here; and our solicitous family members are, I think, generally keeping us steered toward "safe," quality-controlled food, especially since Fellow Traveler has health issues that force her to be discriminating about what she eats.
We've also found the number of Indian restaurants in the area surprising, even given the number of Indian store owners here...I'm guessing that a lot of the Caribbean employees also eat there because the cuisine has similar flavors.
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