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A Tour Through Saborea San Juan
May 05, 2008
Tanning on the beach alongside turquoise waters isn't bad. What's better is exploring an array of cuisine and rich history that just happens to be located in the tropics. There's more to Puerto Rico than sun and sand.
By Margery Weinstein
A maraschino cherry-topped pina colada on a hammock on the beach, or a stroll past an historical cathedral, a converted Benedictine convent now a posh hotel, and a fort with a pasture in front where children fly kites? It's a rough decision, and potential challenge for incentive planners putting together the perfect Puerto Rican adventure. Roasting in the sun sipping rum-laden concoctions is the most common image of the island. But, like most over-played images in the world of travel, it's just a small piece of a much richer story.
The combination of unsurpassed beachfront at hotels such as the one I stayed at—Marriott Courtyard Isla Verde—and Old San Juan, perhaps the quaintest city I've ever seen, makes planning the ideal Puerto Rican get away a balancing act. The problem is most of the San Juan area's best beachside property is located about 15 minutes from the beautiful, 500-year-old Old San Juan historical district. Fifteen minutes? No big deal. Well, no, but compare that to stumbling (a little intoxicated perhaps from all those pina coladas or rum and cokes) from your hotel's waterfront terrace (as I was able to do at the Marriott) onto the beach. That kind of convenience makes the necessary cab ride from Old San Juan sound pretty laborious. On the other hand, you have to consider the inevitable trips you'll make to the old city from your fabulous beachside bungalow. Even if you're one of those types for whom history is meaningless—those boring centuries old walls, forts and houses worship—you'll probably be heading to Old San Juan for dining. Some of the most trendy, well-heeled, "beautiful people," just plain unbelievably good restaurants are in Old San Juan. Marmalade, where I was lucky enough to dine the second night of my four-day stay, epitomizes the avant-garde gourmet flavor that's gained traction in the old city. The days of rice and beans long since gone in Puerto Rico, I enjoyed an onion risotto that was light yet sharply accented by green-olive flavors, and topped with an airy foam. I was only adventurous enough to try the Sangria, but my tablemates sipped at Pineapple Mojitos, with one of my companions graduating to a White Devil Martini, a mixture of white chocolate, coconut, and chilies.
Around the corner from Marmalade is The Parrot Club, a great place, I'm told, for breezy, casual dining. As you're waiting for your meal to digest (might take a while considering the Puerto Rican penchant for long, multi-course dining), you can burn the calories off, and in the process maybe burn a hole in your wallet, strolling down Ashford Avenue, known as the Rodeo Drive of San Juan, located in the nearby Condado district. Just as rice and beans have given way to multi-taste, multi-texture gourmet fare, so too has the shopping scene undergone a transformation. Native arts and crafts shops where you can buy creations fashioned by locals, such as the stone amulet and handmade soaps I bought as gifts, still are plentiful, but are accompanied by Ashford Avenue stores like Salvatore Ferragamo, Cartier, and Dior. Also on Ashford is the trendy BudaTai restaurant, offering Asian fusion cuisine.
But to get back to the Old San Juan/beachfront, contemporary resort conundrum, one of the most traditionally authentic Puerto Rican dining experiences to be had is at Mi Casita, an exceptional restaurant located in a very run-of-the mill shopping center in Isla Verde, around the corner from the hotel I stayed at. Famous for its Mofongos, meat-based dishes mixed with fried green plantains (patron fruit of the island), you can also order meals ranging from meat lasagna to octopus salad. Not being a lover of bananas and plantains—a dangerous condition in Puerto Rico—I opted for the "Shrimps Garlic," a shrimp-scampi-like dish that was as good as any I've had in New York City.
 Beyond tucked away culinary treasures like Mi Casita, you have to stray from the Old San Juan area, into the hills to experience one of the culinary traditions the island is most proud of—its coffee plantations. Setting out at 7:45 the morning of my first full day in Puerto Rico, my traveling group made the hour or more drive across the island into the hills of the Caribbean side to tour Hacienda Buena Vista in the town of Barrio Magueyes. Dating back to 1833, the plantation retains many of its original structures, including slave quarters that have been converted into plantation offices, some of the founding family's living space, and coffee bean and cornmeal mills featuring a restored version of the original equipment used. With our tour guide leading the way, we trekked into the woods to the various buildings spread throughout the property. On the way we were given a tutorial in Puerto Rican arboreal life, and even spotted on our way down the hill a tarantula’s nest (its resident fortunately in the midst of her diurnal slumber).
Next up that day was lunch at hilltop restaurant Pal Kampo, also located in the mountainous Puerto Rican countryside. My companions and I shared empanadas, croquettes, pork ribs, and other common local lunch offerings, along with a dessert of cheesecake, flan, and—best of all—candied papaya mixed with salty cheese. We wrapped the day up at Hacienda Patricia, a plantation that, unlike Hacienda Buena Vista, still churns out coffee for sale. We walked onto a cat walk-like structure extending from an upper-floor of the mill to watch coffee beans trying in the sun and take in a view of mountains with the sea beyond.
If you haven't guessed it by now, my trip was organized as a culinary tour of the island, with its name, "Saborea," taken from the word "sabor," which means flavor in Spanish. The last full day of my trip was capped off with a Saborea festival inside a white tent on the beach near my hotel, with local restaurants offering a sampling of their best dishes. Though I have to plead to guilty to spending a little too much time at the Ghiradelli chocolate booth, I was impressed with the diversity of flavors at the festival, including spicy soup, crab with mango, stuffed mushroom with fish, barbecue pork with crispy breadstick fries, and gelato made with Coors Lite beer. The eating bonanza continued into the evening with a Rums of Puerto Rico dinner at Holiday Inn San Juan that lasted—no joke—more than three hours. Featuring live commentary from Steve Olson, Bon Appetit's wine and spirits consultant, our meal ranged from soup described as "sugar cane and Barrilito Rum Hickory Smoked Tomato with Spicy Avocado Salpicon and grape gastrique" to an "intermezzo" course of "watermelon and cilantro Piragua granite with Mojito foam" and a dessert that included pumpkin and sweet potato, cream gelato and candied "sesame dust," a kind of dark confectionary sugar that coated the bottom of the plate.
So, a lot to see and eat outside of Old San Juan. But, I have to be honest: Roast on the beach yourself. I'll take a stroll along the outskirts of the old city, along the wall erected by Old San Juan's founders, beside the rocky-shored blue-green sea. I'll amble down the cobblestone streets lined by pastel colored houses; stop in to admire the gorgeous Church of San Juan de Bautista; gaze out at Fort San Felipe del Morro with its kite-flying backyard; then happily retire to El Convento, formerly (circa 1600s) a Benedictine convent, now a luxury hotel with a tapas bar. Sangria in hand, I'll think of you as you shake the sand from your rump.
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