An Important Milestone

I think there is some unspoken rule here that when you move to Miami someone must take you to Pollo Tropical and sit you down in front of an enormous plate of black beans and rice. At least that was my experience and Meredith had a similar experience.

Anyway, yesterday Meredith and Caleb and I went on a trip down memory lane (for Meredith and me anyhow) and visited FIU (where she went to grad school and I worked as a Miami BCM intern). Any trip to FIU would be incomplete without eating at Pollo Tropical in the GC (Graham Center - student union at FIU) food court, but the GC was being renovated and Pollo Tropical was closed (gasp!).

I had been day dreaming about fried plantains and black beans, so we went to the Pollo Tropical on Bird Road (despite the name, this is a very hispanic part of Miami) .
You can tell that Caleb really enjoyed his first experience at Pollo Tropical - an important milestone in my opinion. (By the way, he isn't eating a twinkie in the above picture, that's fried yucca - kind of like a potato, kind of not like a potato). After we ate, I took him to the bathroom to wash the bean juice off his face and a woman asked me "El gusto frijoles?" (Does he like the beans?), I told her yes (in English, but I DO know that yes in Spanish is si, but she knew enough English to know si is yes.). She seemed impressed (and proud) that a little white baby really liked Cuban food.

I love Pollo Tropical. If we ever move away from Miami, it is something I will miss a lot. It's really good food, but I think it would be a hard sell in Arkansas or other parts of the US that beans and rice can be fast food (and better - yes BETTER - than french fries).

By the way, I horrified the people with me back when they gave me my first bowl of beans and rice. I thought I didn't like beans and didn't even touch it, then threw the whole thing away - I have to admit, once I learned how incredibly delicious black beans are I felt a little pang of regret that I threw them away too.