A gateway to Washington D.C. to the north, Virginia Beach to the east, and touching the James and Elizabeth Rivers, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean, Norfolk draws visitors and residents from around the country – and the world. The culinary scene is equally eclectic. While you can catch the occasional chain, more often street corners are home to mom and pop diners, chef-driven hotspots, and unique food finds from Turkish to Creole, Jamaican to European.
Roasted Crispy Cricket Tacos and Plantain Empanadas share the menu with traditional Jalisco favorites like Corn Sopes, Beef Barbacoa, and Cochinita Pibil. Such is the assortment of inventive dishes that have become the trademark of El Arrayán restaurant (now closed). At the corner of Calle Allende and Calle Miramar, just a few minutes southeast from the Puerto Vallarta’s famed Malecon, or boardwalk, El Arrayán is named after a tree of the same name whose fruit includes a kick of sourness soothed by traces of sweet.
The white walls of Puerto Vallarta’s La Leche restaurant stand as a contrast to the vibrant-colored buildings all around it. Black swirls crawl up each side appearing both whimsical and orderly, signaling to visitors they’re in for something surprising at this eatery tucked away from the Mexican city’s main center.
Cooked, then pureed black beans seeped with onion and garlic then thickened with a handful of manioc flour are the main ingredients giving tutu de feijão its trademark consistency and rich, brownish hue. Growing up, the dish was a favorite of Paula DaSilva, a native of Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil, whose parents came to the United States when she was seven. DaSilva remembers her mother would add roasted pork, vegetables, and fried egg to the top of the mounded, creamy beans.
Pecan pie. Bananas foster. Red velvet cake. Lemon meringue pie. Doctor bird cake?!
Desserts in the South are well known for their sumptuous ingredients, bright flavors, and a dash of flare. And yet one dessert seems to stand apart—Doctor birds cake, more commonly called Hummingbird Cake.
I first heard of--and sampled--this sweet concoction a couple years ago in downtown Roanoke, Virginia. The combination of ripened bananas lapping up the sweetness of crushed pineapple gives the cake its signature sweetness, and dense yet airy texture.
It’s fortuitous: My first posting for snsvs as the Global Cuisines & Kids Editor falls in September. Just in time for Mexico’s Independence Day, celebrated today, the 16th. Mexican cuisine happens to be one of my family’s all-time favorites. My husband spent two years in college as a service volunteer in Mexico.
