Ask The Fat Guy

OMG I feel so like gushing but that’d be unmanly . . . | March 27, 2010

TFG and his family have been driving past El Coqui, the (no longer) new Puerto Rican restaurant here in town for almost a year now, ever since the short-lived bakery and sweet shop closed (why is it that the west coast cannot sustain a decent downtown bakery in smaller communities?).

Anyway, we’ve got SIFT, the Cotati cupcakery moved in next door so we’re fixed pretty well for downtown sweets now so we’ll leave off lamenting the previous tenants and start in on the new ones. First of all, it is a small space and it is really quite popular. I think that one of the reasons that we haven’t gone so far is the tendency for it to look crowded.

But after a completely reasonable (and accurately judged by the waiter) 15 minutes at 6:00 on a Friday we decided to sit at the bar and order there.  We looked the menu over and thought we’d each order something, and then let the little girl eat off of our plates.

This is when we met one of the owners, though we didn’t know it at the time. Christina “Tina” Jackson. She tended to us at the bar, explained what each item was in more detail than was available on the menu and suffered through my crude attempts at pronouncing the items on offer. The menu is unsurprisingly heavy on plantain, in various states of ripeness and styles of preparation. Ground beef and chicken are the bulk of the protein with shrimp giving the menu the slightest inkling that it might originate on an island.

We ordered Empanadillas de Res for our appetizer (we weren’t that hungry to begin with). It arrived as a crescent of crisp crust stuffed with savory ground beef and onion and spice which was juicy enough to require a napkin but not at all greasy and didn’t dampen the crust in the least. It was wholly satisfying and served its purpose, we were “appetized” for more.

While we ordered and waited, we sipped Sangria (no, not the little girl) which was crisp and refreshing in a way that tropical cultures seem able to accomplish while the rest of us struggle along. I remarked that a pitcher of this on TFG’s back porch would be welcome on most hot days in Santa Rosa.

I ordered Palomilla Encebollado (Thinly sliced top sirloin angus steak with sautéed onions. yes, I have cribbed these from their website, cut me some slack) while Debbie had Pollo al Horno (Baked chicken thighs marinated with special seasoning, bell peppers and cilantro (so tender it falls apart!)). The little girl shared with her parents.

We could have, and in many places would have been left to our own devices insofar as how one ate the meal but Tina leaned across the bar and gave us tips for maximizing the delight in each bite. “Take a little of the sweet plantain and some onions with each bite of the meat” she’d offer, commenting that the sweet plantains acted like cranberries did at a thanksgiving meal, offering sweet counterpoint to the savory meat. “The ripe plantains are starchy, like biscuits” she say, offering the vinegar-based “hot sauce” (peppers steeped in vinegar) and encouraging us to swab up juices and other flavor elements with them.

One thing to say, take her advice! The food was delicious as individual elements but the meat harmonized with the plantain in unexpected ways and the rice softened the shock just enough, absorbing the juices without dampening their effect.

Debbie’s Chicken was, as advertised, tender enough to fall apart and was as well complimented by the sides as was the steak.

Each entrée came with beans and rice (your choice of red or black beans, Spanish or white rice) Sweet fried or green fried plantains and an avocado salad which can also be ordered as a side dish. All of them were worthy components in the meal and TFG found himself mixing and matching, sometimes opting from the fatty sweetness of Avocado to go with the meat, sometimes the sweet plantain, sometimes enjoying the mat with rice and a little plantain “biscuit;” the whole plate harmonized very well.

It wouldn’t be Ask the Fat Guy if there were no dessert and so I opted for the coconut flan, though I was thinking about the rice pudding but alas, it was not available this evening. I thought it had the same velvety texture you expect from homemade flan, the surface being firm enough to contain the insides, and the syrup was toasted-caramel perfection. Even Debbie liked it and she is no fan of coconut.

On the whole, I think that the seating process on busy nights could stand to be streamlined a little (pulling out a strip of tape from the register and beginning a list (which seemed to be a mystery to many of the staff and had to be pointed out to them a number of times) and perhaps offering the bar earlier as a place to sit and dine (we’re usually happy there). But the friendly atmosphere, the excellent food, the new vistas of flavor and joy, the possibilities of Salsa dancing in the future, live music (hopefully on less-busy days) all of this makes El Coqui a place we’ll return to, perhaps frequently.

As we were leaving, Tina introduced us to Jacqueline Roman, her partner and the source for the recipes. She was also warm and gracious, as food folks often are. I’d take the time to speak to the owners when you visit, it is an enhancement to the meal, and and uplifting experience for the soul. TFG sez go and try it!

---