Lizzie Ferguson
After an afternoon hiking for mushrooms and swimming at Hawk Island, you need something to whet your appetite and balance. Post-workout greed speaks to how you can shape your dining experience. further emphasized.
La Cocina Cubana
Arroz con Pollo, $14.75
123 S. Washington Square, Lansing
(517) 708-8144
lacocinacubanarestaurant.net
As I grappled with the plentiful and colorful plates at the outdoor table, my dining companion and I watched a man, barred from a two-story apartment in Washington Square, enter via a ladder. His dog was also watching from the bed of a nearby truck. Lansing’s prominent Deacon Her Earl performed in front of a small crowd a block away. Really dinner and show. The best part was when the man decided to wash the windows.
You can’t help but enjoy a meal during such a “pure lancing”.
But the bread definitely lived up to the circus.
For me, enjoying cooking is discovering all the different ways to combine different elements in one fork to create the best flavor and balance. “Building Bytes,” as my friend called it.
From a varied and tempting menu, I chose the traditional Latin American arroz con pollo (chicken and yellow rice). This comes with fried sweet bananas and a small salad. Rich al dente rice, brightly colored with aromas of saffron and bay leaf and adobo seasoning, masked the juicy peaches and drumsticks, proving once again that dark meats are, for the most part, superior. .
A small iceberg, tomato and cucumber salad was ready to write off as an afterthought garnish until I tasted the light and tangy vinaigrette.
But the plantain. They really stole the scene. Plantain is the banana’s large, tough, starchy cousin. It is a green plantain when immature and sweet when ripe. A large piece of delicious fruit flesh (and I use that term because I’m so content to lose the chicken that I can’t miss the chicken) perfectly caramelized with sugar on the outside. It is then fried until it forms a delicate, almost creme brulee. Like crust. The texture inside is rich and sweet. Mash it up on a forkful of rice and top it with a perfectly sour tomato for the perfect bite.
Washed down with a Jupina, a not-too-sweet pineapple soda, coupled with friendly and prompt service, it’s a meal and overall experience that leaves you feeling satisfied and ready for a small second meal (or, in my case, a second meal of the day). evening snack).