Mofongo – What the heck is that?

Mofongo – The staple food that came down from heaven!

Here is all that you need to know about that aptly named puerto rican food, mofongo.

Place of Origin: Puerto Rico

Course: Main course

Serving temperature: Hot

Main ingredient(s): Plantains, pork rinds, garlic

Popular throughout: Puerto Rico & Dominican Republic

Mofongo (Spanish pronunciation: [moˈfoŋgo]) is a fried plantain-based dish from Puerto Rico. It is typically made with fried green plantains mashed together in a pilón (which is a wooden mortar and pestle), with broth, garlic, olive oil, and pork cracklings or bits of bacon. It is often filled with vegetables, chicken, crab, shrimp, or beef and is often served with fried meat and chicken broth soup.[ 1] Mofongo relleno is mofongo stuffed with stewed beef, pork, chicken or seafood, with stewed sauce poured over.

Other version

It is also possible to make mofongo with cassava, bread fruit, ripe plantains, or a combination of cassava, green plantains, and ripe plantains called trifongo.

Mofongo in popular culture

Food Network chef and host Guy Fieri featured mofongo from Benny’s Seafood (in Miami, Florida) and from El Bohio (in San Antonio, Texas) on two separate episodes of his showDiners, Drive-Ins and Dives. He liked the dish so much that he called it the “best fried thing I ever ate” on an episode of the show The Best Thing I Ever Ate.[2]

In a Season 2 episode of Sanford and Son, Lamont tells his father that he has met their new next-door neighbor, Puerto Rican Julio Fuentes. Lamont tells his father that Fuentes gave him “a dish of some stuff that was terrific”, which was mofongo.[3]

In The HBO Series How to Make it in America, Episode 5 of the second season is entitled “Mofongo”. In it, the dish is prepared and served by one of the characters.

Information acquired from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.