Rico Sazon

Right on the beaten path that’s seldom visited by non-latinos, you find Rico Sazon. A window into the palate of Boricuan and Dominican cuisine, this diminutive place gets right to business and delivers island favorites like Mofongo and Chicharron the Pollo. If adventure is your middle name, and want to be surprised, point your nose to Rico Sazon.

• FINAL VERDICT
• AUTHENTICITY: 4 out of 5
• FOOD: 3 out of 5
• PRICE: Hyper-cheap

Rico Sazon
690 Atwells Avenue
Providence, RI 02909
401-455-1900
Deliveries and Catering available.
Parking on the street or at Fidas (I think).
CLICK HERE FOR DIRECTIONS


THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED
You have probably driven by Rico Sazon a thousand times, and never noticed it. Look up “Tiny” on Wikipedia, and this place is the definition. Formerly a Chinese take-out place (judging by the overhead backlit displays), Rico Sazon is right on Atwells Avenue, corner of Valley St, next to the maligned Fidas.

Rico Sazon is more of a take-out place, but if you decide to stay, just don’t bring a lot of friends. It seats 6, plus 3 or 4 more that can eat either standing next to a bar or on high stools. Place was not immaculate but clean. Walls are white stucco, no décor whatsoever. Service was quick, although ordering was a little bit of a leap of faith. See, Rico Sazon’s menu, although in English and Spanish, has no descriptions for their foods; you can order Pork Chops, Meatballs, Chicken Breast, Fish, Shrimp, Fired Beef. Just like that. How’s the chicken or the shrimp prepared? Beats me. We ordered “Mofongo”, “Fried Beef”, and inadvertently, we also ordered “Chicharron de Pollo”. The gringo got a Coke and I got a Tamarind drink.

MOFONGO: 4 out of 5 (Mexican), 3 out of 5 (Gringo).

Mofongo is what people in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic eat when they’re short on their starches. Just kidding! Mofongo is a giant ball of cooked plantains (or sometimes Yuca), with chorizo (or was it fried pork?) and chicken (or was it pork again?). It just looks weird when you get it, it’s the size of a softball and it has some salad on the side. It was surprisingly good, and I’m not a fan of plantains. It came with a little dish with some type of broth to dip your Mofongo pieces. It was a bit dry but I thought it tasted good. The gringo thought it was OK, but by the surgery he performed on his piece, I could tell he did not like plantains at all.

CHICHARRON DE POLLO: 3 out of 5

So, we got this somehow. I thought this was going to be inside the Mofongo, but I guess when you get Mofongo, you get it with something. As if a 1 lb ball of plantains and fried something wasn’t enough, you get it with a plate of fried chicken bits. This Chicharron de Pollo is not chicharron in the Mexican sense of the word. It’s more like when you go to KFC and you order the original recipe extra crispy, and you get pieces of chicken you cannot recognize. It tasted good, but it was full of little chicken bones, and eating so much fried stuff gets just overwhelming.


FRIED BEEF: 3 out of 5

I was really looking forward to this, because I was like “How the hell do they make fried beef?” When I asked they just kinda mumbled some explanation, which is usually what you get when you act all gringo and don’t know what you’re talking about. Well, Fried Beef is just that, pieces of steak deep fried with a slice of lime on the side. No breading, no nothing. It was chewy and tasty, real tasty. I wish I had some tortillas and some salsa to make myself a killer taco but no, you just eat it straight up like that soldier.