Just for the record, and because I agree with JeffB that Puerto Rican deserves more attention than it gets, here are the other two portions of my quest for Puerto Rican, c. 2003:
Marta's
Marta's-- Someone, probably RST, was going on about how there was a whole world of Puerto Rican food out there totally unknown to food writers (not strictly true, since Laura Levy Shatkin wrote that "Beyond Puerto Rican" section in the Reader some months back). So since I love Cuban, and even the worst Cuban restaurant I ever ate in was pretty good, I figured I'd make it one of my quests to try a bunch of PR places in the next few months. I mentioned this to a friend and he said there was a Puerto Rican restaurant just up the street from Flying Saucer he'd always meant to try, on California near Division--and so we did. Unfortunately I don't know the names for a lot of the things we tried, which is one thing keeping me from writing a full report on it.
Marta's has two buffet cases, one with deep-fried stuff and one with stuff swimming in pans. It was after 2 pm by the time we got there for lunch, so we had to adjust for the fried stuff being past its peak. I wasn't crazy about a lot of it but there was an improbable thing consisting of beef wrapped in plantains and topped with cheese that wasn't bad, and while one empanada-like thing was just bland beef tucked inside, another which had red and green peppers in a tomatoish gravy was really tasty, I'd have gone back for another if we didn't have a pile of food from the other section waiting. Roasted pork was fall apart on your fork good, with just the right hint of that chicharron/stockyard flavor that I find overpowering and offputting in many carnitas places. A chicken dish was, for all intents and purposes, indistinguishable from Cuban arroz con pollo, but likewise very tasty. A bit of a dive, Marta's is, but our visit paid off.
Since Marta's is now gone, I can state that "a bit of a dive" was code for "a big-ass rat wandered across the floor of the dining room while we were eating."
La Cocina CriollaLa Cocina Criolla (or as the menu calls it, La Cocina del Galarza, which is the owner's name) sets off a lot of RST-style yuppie-ethnic-restaurant detectors. It's the closest Puerto Rican restaurant to the advance of yuppieville (just west of Western on Fullerton), the owners used to have a Mexican restaurant in Lincoln Park, there are big writeups by the Reader and even WBBM in the window, and the TV was showing English-language programming (People's Court during most of my visit). You would be forgiven for suspecting that this is The Designated Puerto Rican Restaurant, the Ann Sather, the Salvador's, the Moti Mahal of PR food.
You would be wrong. I ordered goat because it had been mentioned in one of the reviews on the window. The review also talked about a particular interest in the Spanish influences on PR food. The goat-- baby goat chunks in a tomato-wine sauce, with potato and bits of green olive-- was fall off the bone tender and succulent, the Spanish rice fluffy and delectable, the combination totally satisfying, one of the most happy and hearty meals I've had in a good little while. There is a long menu with many authentic-looking dishes on it; if they are all prepared with comparable care then this is a find. If only they wouldn't watch TV in English.
La Cocina Criolla
2418 W. Fullerton Ave.
(773) 235-7377