Mi Tierra Latin Fusion (Arlington)

[snatex]

Mi Tierra Latin Fusion
603 W Abram St
Arlington, TX 76010
[phone]
www.mitierralatinfusion.com

Wow! What a find this place is. I went for lunch the other day and had the best Mofongo I have ever had. My wife is from Puerto Rico and I am a big fan of this type of cuisine. I was so impressed with the Mofongo that I brought her some and she was just as blown away with it as I was. In addition to the regular menu, Mi Tierra releases new daily specials every week. We reviewed the choices and decided to take the whole family back for the Sunday special, lechon with arroz con andules. I don't think I have ever seen lechon in DFW. This dish was incredible and they gave us such a big portion that we had a nice leftovers meal the next day. My wife also tried the sancocho. It almost brought her to tears, because It was so good and reminded her of her grandmothers recipe. In addition to Puerto Rican cuisine, the menu also has items of other latin influences. Although we did confirm that the chef and owner is from Puerto Rico. The restaurant is in a renovated house, similar to Lola. The atmosphere and service are top notch. Run, don't walk to this place. It is the best foodie find I have made in a long time.

[LewisvilleHounder]

I guess my wife and I went on a bad day as the restaurant was having a birthday celebration for the chef/owner Damaris.

We had the empanadas (cheddar cheese) as they were out of the ground beef. I guess I have been spoiled by Don Panza for so long on the empanadas that I really didn't like the flavor of these that well. I guess I was also expecting a white cheese of some kind and not Wisconsin yellow cheddar. They could use a dip of some kind maybe chimichurri, pepper sauce, or something.

We also had the Mariquitas (thinly slice fried green plantain with a thin garlic lime sauce). These were decent probably could use a pinch of salt and the thin garlic lime sauce was good but they just needed something. Perhaps a creamy pepper dip?

The mofongo with fried pork and sauteed onions was not good at all. The mashed sweet plantains were not sweet and in a consistency of dry bland Stove Top stuffing mixture. The fried pork was good but I am sure it could be used in a better way. This dish was a failure. Not even the house made pepper sauce (again a thin vinegar based sauce) could help this dish. The plate came with a mixed green salad with nuts and dried cranberries and a dressing of lemon juice. Simple but need a touch of salt.

The 1/2 Caribbean chicken was baked okay but lacked any marinade flavor as the menu had promised. The chicken was moist but needed the pepper sauce to give it any flavor. I rounded out the dish with yuca al mojo (garlic sauteed with steamed yuca) and black beans. The yuca was outstanding but the black beans suffered from too much salt and came to the table somewhat cold.

I guess compared to Afghan Grill today this place was not that great. I would love to see this place do well as I mean no ill will towards them. It just was not a pleasurable dining experience and the flavors just did not pop like I was expecting them to.

[E.Rod]

WOW, does not describe this place. This has to be the best restaurant I have been to in a long time. I took my family there last week. My wife and I are both born and raised in Puerto Rico. Finding a reataurant in the area that served the food we grew up with was like a dream come true. We both had the Mofongo Con Camarones. The flavor is out of this world. My son had the Carne Frita with Yuca al Mojo which almost brought tears to my eyes. The flavors just took me back 10 years when I lived in P.R. They also have several fruit juices made from fruit that you anly find in Puerto Rico which brought back memories of my grandfather and his juices. The Flan de Queso was the best desert I've had in a long time.

Something I would like to say to the person who made the previous posting is that Mofongo is not made from sweet plantain. It is actualy made from green plantain which is slightly deep fried and then mashed with spices, pork skin, and garlic. Puerto Rican food is not hot like mexican food is. If thats what you were expecting ,you went to the wrong place. Pepper sauce is not comonly used in our food. Puerto Rican food is well seasoned and has just the rite amount of spices to make for very flavofull meal. Our food is influenced by a mix of cultures, Spanish, African, and Native Puerto Rican Indian (Tainos).

Bottom line, grat restaurant, excelent service, very reasonably priced, and food with very unique flavors. We will be going back many times.

[LewisvilleHounder]

I understand how the dish is supposed to taste. The menu from what I recall said green plantains, sweet plantains and also yuca was an option.

This is what I believe mofongo to look like.
http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/roxisteele/Shared%20Documents/Pictures-PRandDR2007/mofongo.jpg

Mine was almost to this but still was even drier than this.
http://www.elboricua.com/images/Mofon...

Mine had no cohesion in the green plantain so it was a bowl of crumbly green plantain with pork (carnitas) on top. Again this might have been to that they lost a cook and it was the owners birthday. The mofongos I have seen have all been inverted from what I got (the meat draped by the green plaintain covering). Correct me if I might be wrong, E. Rod, but are the pictures in the links representative of the mofongo you had at Mi Tierra or have made personally? I am not challenging you to a debate but wonder if their might be regional differences in the way it might be prepared, even in the small confines of Puerto Rico.

Again I wasn't bashing the place I just happen to have a bad first experience. I realize this restaurant is very dear to the Puerto Rican natives and understandably so. On my visit they were out of the fruit juices, out of empanadas, out of the special, etc. I realize this is a family run establishment but I was dining at 7 pm on a Tuesday, not exactly the busiest dining hour in the week. If they were celebrating a special event then I could have been notified to come earlier as dishes might run out. I will try it out again perhaps even when they have lechon and go early. The bacaloa also piqued my interest on Sundays.

[air]

LH - Filipino and Puerto Rican food have plenty of uncanny similarities, ranging from using every part of a pig all the way to the use of plantains. I had a blast eating lots of sweet plantains with almost every meal when I went to PR in March.

Got some comments regarding the mofongo and E. Rod nailed exactly what I wanted to say, but I've got a couple additional thoughts. Green plantains are used in mofongo, and you're probably more familiar with yellow ones, which are ripe, thus they are sweeter. Just about every mofongo I tried in PR tasted exactly as you'd described, so this is how mofongo is supposed to be. I also don't particularly like this dish since I'm not a fan of green plantains at all, but I do know there are variations on the mofongo recipe where it has a stronger garlic taste or it is spicier. I'd much prefer the latter variations as opposed to the bland Stove Top tasting stuff.

I was wondering if this place had flan, since Puerto Rican flan is almost exactly the same as Filipino flan. I'd even be willing to make the drive to Arlington for it since flan is something I only get to have during family gatherings when it's home made. I haven't found any restaurant in Texas that comes close to the home made stuff, so I really hope Mi Tierra's is good.

E. Rod: Did you happen to notice if they also serve mallorcas? I fell in love with these when I tried them at La Bombonera in Old San Juan.

[Damaris]

Oh my goodness!!! I am so sorry. I am Damaris, and yes, I just turned 40. To my surprise, that day (the 19th) my husband had made arrangements to bring our friends and family to the restaurant - mainly to show their love and support - and to see me...That day we did have as a special of the day Mofongo of sweet plantains, but you would have had to request it as such- otherwise you would have gotten our regular mofongo, which we serve in an open bowl - not upside down as it is often served. But, let me tell you, it is usually very juicy and garlicky (pictured).

Although I did have a little help in the kitchen that day, perhaps we weren't as prepared as I would have wanted to, specially for the amount of people that came, and having me in-and-out of the kitchen to meet and greet them.

Our cheese empanadas, which we made in-house, have cheddar, cream and Oaxaca cheeses in them - and we do have a dipping sauce available. Our beef empanadas are also outstanding. But the award winning empanadas are the guava ones. - which are served hot and with ice cream.

The 1/2 chicken is one of our most requested dishes because of its tenderness and marinade...not necessarily peppery, but flavorful nonetheless.

I do hope you give me another chance - the items that you mention are usually very good, juicy and full of flavors. I promise I won't have any more birthdays -ever-.

Best regards,
Damaris