Rinconcito Catracho Latin Grill is a restaurant in Fort Myers, Florida serving food from Central America, specifically from Honduras. Rinconcito Catracho means little Honduran corner, and I will abbreviate the name of this restaurant as LG (Latin Grill).
LG has been at this location for over two years. Christopher, the owner, chatted with me for a bit about the restaurant and its fare. Most of the recipes used here are from his family in Central America. Everything that we tried here was made from “scratch”, even the tortillas, but more on that later.
Papusas with curtido, Rinconcito Catracho Latin Grill
My dining companion and I sampled a number of items from LG’s dinner menu. The first were the papusas. These are masa cakes that are usually stuffed with cheese along with any number of other things and cooked on a griddle. We tried the the papusas with chicken and cheese, jalapenos with cheese and locoro with cheese.
Locoro is a vine that is widely grown in Central America. The buds and flowers of locoro are widely used as foods there. It has a sort of nutty, “green” flavor and was very good, as were the other versions of this dish, the masa blending perfectly with the cheese and other fillings. There were served with curtido, a traditional Honduran condiment made from pickled red onion, beets and cauliflower.
Baleada with beans, egg, carne asada, queso duro, avocado and crema, Rinconcito Catracho Latin Grill
We split a baleada, which was a large wheat flour tortilla, about the size you would use for a burrito but a bit thicker. The inside of the baleada was smeared with mashed fried beans, made that much better with a heavy dose of lard. Avocado, carne asada, egg, queso duro and crema, the latter sort of like a runny sour cream were piled on top of the beans (the works). The tortilla is then folded in half to make a semi circle. This was absolutely delicious and an unbelievable bargain at $2.95.
Pollo con tajadas was next. Tajadas are fried plantain or banana slices, in this case green bananas. The foundation of this dish, tajadas, were like banana chips. Not greasy at all and delicious. These were topped with a slaw of cabbage and carrots, a mild Honduran aioli made from chili de arbol among other ingredients (which was a family secret), fried chicken and curtido. This was another absolutely delicious dish, and I really liked the breading on the fried chicken (another tightly held family recipe).
On another visit we sampled the ceviche. It was good, though flavored very differently from the Caribbean and Peruvian ceviches I am used to. I think the difference here was the lack of aromatic vegetables and cilantro that are used heavily in the latter two regional cuisines. What was unusual was the portion size, which was easily twice that one normally gets in Southwest Florida.
Remarkable fish tacos with rice and beans, Rinconcito Catracho Latin Grill
We finished with the fish tacos which were to say the least, remarkable. This wonderful dish featured in house freshly made corn tortillas, lightly breaded tilapia, cabbage and carrot slaw, sweetened Honduran aioli, and curtido. The tacos are served with really good beans (again, heavy on the lard) and rice with peas, corn and Lima beans. All for $8.00. These are hands down the best fish tacos I have had east of the Mississippi.
If these great flavors are not enough for you they serve really good in house made salsas with either a tomatillo (hot) or chili de arbol (mild) base.
The owner of LG has tried to create a little corner of Honduras in Fort Myers. Not only has he succeeded, but has given all of us an opportunity to try wonderful, fresh and authentic cuisine that is nearly an unequaled combination locally of flavor, quality and price. I rarely rave about a restaurant to this degree but LG is a true gem and I cannot recommend it highly enough. I hope readers will eat here. LG will not disappoint.
