Birmingham has a robust craft brewery scene. These breweries always attract great food trucks on site so that customers can enjoy some unique dishes along with their beer. I was visiting Cahaba Brewery one evening and they were hosting Tropicaleo. They are actually a pop up restaurant that specializes in Puerto Rican cuisine.
The smell from their grill was wonderful when I walked up. It was the first thing that greeted me as I walked up to the brewery. They had several dishes that they were serving up that were written on their chalkboard.
They were also sampling their Toastones (fried plantain chips). This was the best move on their part, as soon as I tasted them I knew I needed to order a side of them. They were nicely fried and kept the great flavor of the plantain. Sometimes plantain chips can be overwhelmed with the taste of the frying oil. These were perfect and still had their sweet taste. These were pretty addicting.
I also ordered the pulled pork sandwich. They used huge chunks of fresh pork that was cooked in a sweet guava bbq sauce. It was served on fresh Morovis bread. Morovis bread is extremely sweet. It felt like a dessert. If you like all things sweet then this sandwich is the right choice.
I enjoyed it and it surprisingly paired well with the beer I was drinking.
Even while writing about this sandwich I kept coming back to the bread. I love all kinds of bread and this is my favorite. It was awesome to eat on its own but I kept imaging this bread as French toast. The natural sweetness of the bread just makes it a natural choice. If the folks at Tropicaleo are reading this blog post – Morovis bread French toast PLEASE! I would line up for that.
Tropicaleo brings a little piece of Puerto Rico right to Birmingham. You can check out their website at http://www.tropicaleo.com/or follow them on Twitter @tropicaleobham to see where they will be popping up next.
Enjoy!
T
