La Palma offers Puerto Rican fare at a bargain
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Most of Chicago's Puerto Rican activity - at least in terms of eating - happens along Division Street. But for decades, the tiny and welcoming La Palma, has been serving up hungry regulars overflowing plates of arroz con gandules - that's rice with pigeon peas - or pinto beans, a few blocks off the main drag. They're known for their pork, and the pernil, or leg, gets a lot of T-L-C.
"We take the pernil and we marinate it first, so it's marinated in our secret recipe and we let it sit for about four or five hours," said Antonia Rodriguez. "Fresh garlic, cilantro, green pepper, onions, and I'm not gonna give you the rest; it's our secret, and then from there we bake it. We bake it for about six hours."
The result is an extra-crispy skin shielding pork that pulls away with a fork; you decide if it's white or yellow rice on the side, with gandules or pintos. Chicken stew is another delicious option - again, served with rice and beans - and you can't very well visit a Puerto Rican restaurant in Chicago without trying a jibarito. The local creation is essentially a plantain sandwich. They start with unripe, green plantains.
"We peel it, and then we fry it. You fry it halfway, and then you smash it and then you re-fry it again. You gotta make sure it's cooked," she said.
Those thin, fried plantains are then topped with mayo, garlic, cooked beef, chicken or pork.. plus lettuce and tomato. Once it's topped off, guess what? They hit it with a little more garlic.
"Garlic on the top, you always gotta have enough garlic," said Rodriguez.
So after a mouthful of plantains, pork and garlic you might want something a little bit sweet, like flan or guava pastries; they also have coconut desserts - cupcakes - but also tembleque, it's a coconut custard you don't see very often in the community and they make it here in-house every day.
Even though they serve a lot of pork and beef at the restaurant, they do also have quite a few vegetarian options.
La Palma
1340 N. Homan Ave.
(773) 862-0886
