Cuban food in a sea of Central and South American restaurants

[makeminemaudlin]

Hello all. I'm a Cuban American looking for a means to get my hands on two specific foods: pastel de guayaba y queso, and croqueta de pollo. I've been to the local Cuban restaurants and neither of them are on the menus. I live in PG county, where there is a plethora of Central and South American restaurants and bakeries, but I've not come across them there either. Does anyone know where I could find these? Maybe point out a specific bakery or restaurant where you've seen them? Or even point me in the direction of a website that I could order them from? We usually get them from La Suiza in Miami, but it's been a while since I've had the chance to get down there, and their website is nonfunctional. Much thanks!

[silverspringer]

Cubano's in downtown Silver Spring

[AlyKen]

The Shopper's near me used to carry pasteles de guayaba y queso, but I think I was the only one buying them since they stopped. If you find anything worthwhile in your searches, I'd like to know. I grew up on Cuban food because of all the time my mom spent in South Florida as a child.

[justaddwater]

Gilbert's will ship you any kind of pastel you want, though I haven't been very pleased with the filling quantity of the Coral Way store. If you do order, I'd suggest calling the Bird Road store.

http://www.gilbertsbakery.com/solutio...

As far as chicken croquettes, I had some good ones a few weeks ago at Jaleo in Crystal City. They also have bacalao.

[reiflame]

Cuban Corner in Rockville is pretty good.

[lcool]

Cuban Corner is helpful as well as having some pretty good food.I needed a
bit of product help once and they were helpful.

301-279-0310 825 Hungerford dr Rockville Md

[HowChowBlog]

Did you check out Cuba de Ayer in Burtonsville? I don't know whether they have the specific foods that you're mentioning, but they're a great place right near Rte 198 and Rte 29.

[dusster]

I just ate at Cuba de Ayer on Saturday. I love that place. Their food is probably the closest to what we had growing up. Unfortunately, they only have croquetas de jamon (which I love also), and cascos de guayaba, not pastel. Also, they serve theirs with queso blanco, and we always ate it with queso crema. I tried it with queso blanco and didn't like it as much.

I haven't found good pasteles de guayaba anywhere around here. Entemann's makes some decent ones that you may find in the regular grocery store. Also, if you're looking for guava paste, they sell that in just about any grocery store, under brands like Goya and Conchita. One place you might try to look is those international markets, like Lotte Plaza (yes, they have foods besides asian) and Grand Mart.