Puerto Rican Food in Springfield MA: What to Order

Puerto Rican food in Springfield MA is part of the daily life of a city where Latino families have been a large share of the population for decades. The cooking shows up in sit-down restaurants, bodegas, food trucks, shops and church halls. Standard dishes include sofrito-based stews, pasteles, mofongo and café con leche.

New Puerto Rican and Latino kitchens keep opening downtown and in the neighborhoods, so the best way in is to walk and ask. Here is how to order at a bakery counter and how Dominican and other Latino cooking sits beside it.

What is Puerto Rican food in Springfield MA like?

Hearty, savory and built on a base called sofrito, a blend of onion, peppers, garlic and herbs. Rice and beans are on nearly every plate. Meats are roasted, fried or stewed, and starchy sides such as plantains and cassava come with them. Flavors are seasoned rather than hot.

A typical plate holds rice with pigeon peas, roast pork, fried green plantains and a small salad. Portions are generous, and many places sell lunch specials by the container.

What are pasteles in Springfield, and who sells them?

Pasteles Springfield cooks and shops make are the Puerto Rican holiday dish: a savory parcel of grated green banana and root vegetable dough around a filling of pork, wrapped in a banana leaf and boiled. They appear in quantity at Christmas, and some places sell them year-round.

Unwrap one gently and eat it hot with hot sauce on the side. A pastel is a meal in itself, so one or two is plenty.

Which dishes should you order first?

Start with the classics. Arroz con gandules is rice with pigeon peas, the national side dish. Pernil is slow-roasted pork shoulder with crisp skin. Mofongo is mashed fried plantain with garlic, often filled with chicken, shrimp or pork. Alcapurrias are fried fritters of green banana and taro stuffed with meat. Tostones are twice-fried plantain slices.

Add a soup if the weather is cold: sancocho is a thick stew of meat and root vegetables. Finish with flan, a caramel custard, or a tembleque, a coconut pudding.

How do Springfield MA Latino restaurants and bakeries work?

Springfield MA bakeries that serve Latino communities sell sweet breads, pastries filled with guava and cheese, quesitos, flan, tres leches cake and coffee. Many also sell sandwiches, such as a medianoche on sweet bread, and savory pastries called pastelillos.

Order at the glass, point and ask for a box. A strong coffee with milk, café con leche, goes with a pastry. Mornings are busy, and weekends are busier.

How do Springfield Dominican food and other Latino kitchens fit in?

Springfield Dominican food shares much with Puerto Rican cooking: rice, beans, stewed meats, fried plantains. The Dominican version often adds a breakfast of mangu, mashed plantains with onions, with fried cheese and eggs. Other Latino kitchens in the area bring Colombian, Salvadoran and Mexican flavors.

Springfield MA Latino restaurants vary in menu and style, so it pays to ask the server what the house is known for.

Go with an appetite and an open mind. Ask what is fresh. Share dishes. Order a drink such as a fruit juice or a malta, a sweet malt beverage. Be patient on weekends, when the kitchen is busy and the music is loud.

Speaking a few words of Spanish helps, but staff are used to English and will explain. A smile does the rest.

Each fall, the Big E fair brings the region to the Springfield area, and its food halls are a place to taste many cooking traditions. The Springfield and Big E guide puts the city in its setting. Outside fair time, the neighborhoods are where the cooking lives.

What should you know about holiday cooking and catering?

Puerto Rican households cook at a large scale for Christmas, Three Kings Day and family parties, and shops and restaurants take orders for pasteles, pernil, rice and desserts. If you are invited to such a gathering, bring something small and say thank you for the plate you are handed. If you want to order for a party, ask early, because the best kitchens fill their lists weeks before a holiday.

Ask what a tray feeds, how to reheat it and what to serve beside it. The advice you get will be generous and specific. A tray of rice and beans, a pernil and a salad feeds a large family, and the leftovers taste better the next day.

What is a good first meal for a newcomer?

Order a plate with three things: a roast meat, rice and beans, and a fried plantain. Add an alcapurria or a pastelillo to start and a flan to finish. Share, and ask the server what they would eat. A first meal of this kind gives you the shape of the cooking without the risk of an unfamiliar dish.

How do you rate pasteles when no tag says Puerto Rican?

The cuisine list has no Puerto Rican tag, so Caribbean and Latin American are the nearest, and each has a badge. Choose the one that fits the kitchen, and put the specialty in your own words: name the dish, such as arroz con gandules or a pastel, and say how it tasted. Rate each dish too. Bakery is a kind of place with a badge for the Latino pastry counters. Places new to Mosey are added, and we'll check their details.

How do you keep a record?

Heading somewhere else in Massachusetts? The Food in Massachusetts page links the rest.

Once you have a favorite plate, hold on to it. Rate the place with stars, name the dish and write a line about the sofrito. Keep your favorites in a list with a section for the holiday trays you order in December. Invite the cousin who knows the best bakery to add to it. The cheap eats guide, the farmers markets guide and the US guides hub have more. Download the Mosey app.