We ate our fair share of heavy, starchy meals in Puerto Rico, but the island has a lot to offer in the way of between-meal snacks.
On thing the eaters were really excited for in Puerto Rico was the famous piragua – while it is the Spanish-language word for canoe, it also describes a Puerto Rican snow cone. Little push-carts selling piraguas dot most urban squares in Puerto Rico. Inside the carts are tubs of shaved ice, and sometimes even giant cubes of ice that the piragua-makers shave to order. The piragua comes in a plastic cup (or if you are lucky, a little paper cone) and is then doused liberally with flavored syrup. Along with typical flavors like cherry, coconut and strawberry, you can get more unusual treats like tamarind, hibiscus and mango. Our favorite experience was sharing a tamarind piragua in the Parque de Bombas in Ponce. Perfectly refreshing for a hot day.
La Bombonera in San Juan by John Picken
In terms of quick bites, we also managed to have some excellent breakfasts in Puerto Rico. A typical breakfast in San Juan consists of café con leche and a pastry, a model to which we subscribed. One of our favorite new dishes to accompany our morning coffee was the mallorca-a hot, buttered, fried pastry with a variety of fillings (ham and cheese, etc.). Think panini, but instead of bread there is pastry. Two of the better breakfast places we found for mallorca were Cafeteria Mallorca and La Bombonera. Both boast impressive pastry display cases and big selections of breakfast and lunch items including American favorites like pancakes and fruit salad. Bombonera is the more historic of the two, going all the way back to 1902 (with a vintage Cuban espresso machine to boot). However, we have to give a tip of the hat to Mallorca for friendlier and speedier service.
Cafeteria Mallorca
300 Calle San Francisco
San Juan
La Bombonera
259 Calle San Francisco
San Juan
This post about my favorite Amsterdam-based falafel chain has been a long time coming. I [L] first ate at Maoz several years ago in Philadelphia, at the time their only US location (2nd and South Street). I introduced M to the original Philly Maoz, if I recall, after we saw a late-night showing of Brokeback Mountain. My travels have since taken me to the Maoz in Paris, and all three Maoz in Barcelona. The Paris Maoz, pictured at right, was by far the worst Maoz of the bunch. The fries were soggy beyond belief. Maoz’ delicious Belgian fries are half the draw, so that ruined it for me, though eating our takeout at the 
First off, this 2nd Philly store is huge by Maoz standards, usually Maoz are only walk-up counters with maybe a bar stool or two. However, this brand-spanking-new Maoz has a nice big areas of wooden tables and benches. Notably the entire restaurant, tip to toe, was covered in shiny lime green tiles. Beware, epileptics, I’m talking lime green everywhere. You can make out the tiles in this photo my friend Dan snapped of the Philly Maoz (My camera died a horrible sputtering death on this tip to Philadelphia, so all of my photos come from my archives or friends).
Onto the food- your main and only choice is falafel, which Maoz does very well. The primary decision is if you want a whole pita (white or wheat), a half pita or a salad with falafel. I usually order a junior meal ($6.75) which is a half pita with falafel, an order of fries and a soft drink. Maoz falafel is Israeli-style, which apparently means that you then build your sandwich with lots of condiments. At Maoz there is indeed a nice salad bar of fixings, including couscous, eggplant, tomatoes, pickled carrots, spicy peppers and more. At the end of the salad bar are squeeze bottles of assorted sauces, including mango curry, tahini, garlic mayo and tzatziki.
There is such a thing as a free lunch. Really. I saw a sign in the window of Mt. Everest, Evanston’s only Indian/Nepalese restaurant, offering a free lunch buffet for charity, so I decided to give it a go. I was not surprised to find that the restaurant was packed to the brim with hungry students and local residents when I arrived at 2:30. However, they were seating everyone together at communal tables, as to speed the turnover. I ended up sharing a table with a nice couple and their very cute (and gastronomically-adventuresome) 1-year old daughter. Mt. Everest’s dining room is comfortable and low-key with wooden tables and soft lighting – the buffet is tucked away unobtrusively in an alcove in the corner.
Italian bakeries are plentiful, but one that specializes in purely Sicilian creations is unique. This small bakery in Andersonville is well worth a stop, both for its excellent pastries and the scarcity of its offerings. The eaters have been wanting to go to this bakery forever but this is the first time we ever managed to stop in. The store is small and simple, dominated by glass cases of pastries which present a small but eclectic array of choices (We hear they do an excellent cannoli, but by the time we got there, they were all out). When we walked in, we were immediately greeted by the warm and helpful young owner couple, so we felt comfortable asking for some recommendations. We settled on two pastries: Agostino (left) and Crostata di Noci (right).
Chicago’s Greektown is solid. You never get a truly bad meal there, and are often pleasantly surprised. In the past few weeks both of us have been to Greektown (though separately) and enjoyed some pretty darn good eats.
Eating The World 