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Dine
A medley of tastes comes alive at La Casona Caribena, which treats seafood and native Latin cuisine with respect and sophistication.
By CHRIS SHERMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 16, 2003
TAMPA -- You may know that casita is the diminutive of casa and so means a little house or even a hut. Casona refers to something grander, such as the big house on a hacienda.
Though the restaurant La Casona Caribena is not so big and this dreary stretch is not picturesque, the restaurant is packed with grand gestures and smart style, heartwarming mofongo, drop-dead dessert and an abundance of good reasons to eat here.
In the big picture, I'm delighted some place presents Latin food with sophistication and the respect it deserves. Even better that it comes not from theme mongers or culinary poseurs but from real cooks who grew up eating, cooking and loving the food of their homeland. And they came not from Cuba but Puerto Rico, a corner of the United States often ignored by adventuring foodies.
Forget theory and significance: The clincher was a robust helping of mofongo rellena, stuffed with seafood. Mofongo is the most distinctive of many ways cooks use green plantains in Puerto Rico, and La Casona offers more and better versions of this mash than I've seen locally.
You needn't know beans (or rice) about mofongo or Puerto Rico to enjoy a seafood dish in which the shrimp is still juicy, the scallops are not overcooked, and clams and mussels are in shells that taste of the sea. Restaurants of all ethnic stripes and price ranges serve seafood pasta supreme, cioppino, bouillabaisse, zaruela and paella and don't get this right.
Then there was a broth, midway between a creole tomato sauce and bouillabaisse, not thick but with a rich depth of flavor, hints of cumin, smoked ham and oddly gentle peppers.
Intriguing contrasts of sweet and sour as much as spice and heat are hallmarks of the best Puerto Rican cooking. Those who see the island's cooking as one more helping of pork, chicken, rice and beans of a different color (red, not black) are in for a surprise. The spice cabinet has more to it than chili.
Puerto Rican is just one of the flavors that have made N Armenia Avenue an edible Pan American Highway, lined with Colombian pan de bono, Peruvian ceviche and tacos al pastor from Mexico, all cooked for new residents hungry for a taste of home.
La Casona does more. Here Carmen and Inocencio Garay, who built a strong following for everyday Puerto Rican and Cuban dishes from a steam table at Mambo's Cafe down the street, wanted to put their food forward in its Sunday best.
They built the new place to their specs, including a patio with umbrellaed tables and a smart wooden bar, then fitted it in modern trim: sienna walls with a few painted tiles and white tablecloths topped with white butcher paper. It's slicker than any space on N Armenia -- and done with more good taste than many local restaurants.
There's not just a wine list, but a handsome wine rack plus good-looking private label Casona wines from Chile (the sauvignon blanc is respectable). Appearance is equally uptown on the plate; each dish is surrounded by sprinkles of herbs and squiggles of cumin-spiked hot sauce or sport headdresses of fried plantains or tortillas.
Despite the high style, La Casona remains friendly and affordable, and the food is well worth the celebration. A sign announces "nuevo cocino latino" and the plates are decorated with mango and Floribbean sauces, but the heart of the meals are the Latin flavors we love in Puerto Rican preparations.
The most distinctive is mofongo, in which Puerto Ricans mash fried green plantains, pork chicharon and garlic together and meld it into everything from fritters to softball-sized construction. Here I had it for a side -- as soft as Mom's mashed potatoes or Penn Dutch stuffing -- and for a main course with a choice of seven "stuffings," from chicken or crab to conch and octopus, mixed in with that creole sauce. You must have one of them.
You should also try an asopao, a big dinner-in-a-bowl of a soup with typical Puerto Rican tastes -- tomato, yucca, seafood, lots of rice and spiced with olives, thyme, cilantro and hints of sweeter spices -- plus plantains flattened and fried into crunchy, 3-inch discs.
The fish I tried, mahi in a mojo sauce and swordfish escabeche, were fresh and not overcooked, but both sauces were timid. I like my escabeche punch-drunk with vinegar.
You can taste Puerto Rico in smaller bites too, like little empanadillas folded over a curried crab filling. The best starters were bolitas, remarkably crisp and creamy fritters of conch and codfish. Frying rarely tastes so good. Certainly it didn't in alcapurrias, vegetable-based fritters done to a hard shell and stuffed with crab or beef.
The menu samples other parts of the Americas, classics such as paella, roast pork and Argentine churrasco steaks, and a few trendier tricks such as ribs with a mango barbecue or pizza on a tostone.
Dessert is all sweetness and bright presentation, whatever the origin. Tres leches cake of Nicaragua is a milky bit of heaven, the flan crisply trimmed with Puerto Rico's beloved coconut and the rice pudding a mellow comfort for all nations.
In the small handsome space of La Casona, Spanish and Caribbean cooking of all kinds, not just Puerto Rican, has found its grandest home around Tampa Bay.
La Casona Caribena
5709 N Armenia Ave.
Tampa
(813) 414-9774 HOURS: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday; 1 to 9 p.m. Saturday.
RESERVATIONS: Suggested
DETAILS: Beer, wine; most credit cards accepted; no smoking indoors.
PRICES: $6.95 to $14.95.