Puerto Rican food is a sensation at Mofongos in North Hollywood

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Many years ago, when the late, great Raul Julia was in Los Angeles making “One from the Heart” for Francis Ford Coppola, I got a call from a mutual friend telling me that the actor was desperate for the food of his roots — for the cooking of Puerto Rico. Was there any place I could take him to satisfy that need?

And I said, of course there was. On Sunset just north of Dodger Stadium was a Cuban/Puerto Rican destination called, as I recall, Tonita’s. It was decorated with dozens, maybe hundreds of baseball jerseys, worn by the many Cuban and Puerto Rican players who had passed through town.

And that’s how I wound up one night with Raul and his friends, in a restaurant that was clearly dazzled to have such a star in their midst.

When Tonita asked Raul what dish he longed for, without hesitation, he cried out, “MOFONGO!” Raul wasn’t just a movie star; he was a Broadway legend as well. And when he spoke, he filled the room with his voice. And soon after, the owner filled the table with massive platters of mofongo, a mash of green plantains and pork rinds, circling a doughnut-sized hole filled with pork, chicken, beef, seafood — pretty much anything and everything.

Sadly, both Raul and Tonita’s are gone. But mofongo isn’t. It’s the centerpiece of the menu at Mofongos on Lankershim in North Hollywood.

Mofongos is a casual café, with seating inside and out, on a somewhat rundown strip of Lankershim — a vestige of the old North Hollywood that hasn’t been afflicted by gentrification. Yet. There’s a tattoo place nearby, along with a used car lot, and a boot store across the street. A barbecue stand is next door. A Pentecostal Church is nearby — very old NoHo.

And there’s Mofongos, a doorway into a Caribbean island, with bright colors, tables of locals eating massive portions of food, and a kitchen that seems to make every dish to order. Hence, don’t go here if you’re in a big rush.

The namesake dish appears on no diet plan. And yet, it’s a culinary object of desire for Puerto Ricans. It’s the sort of dish that has me swearing I’ll live on salad the day after to offset the damage.

At Mofongos the restaurant, there are 13 mofongos, the plantain ring populated with, variously, chicken stew, fried chicken, beef stew, steak and onions, pork roast, shredded pork, fried pork, shrimp, lobster and more. A note on the menu says you can substitute the pork rinds the mofongo is made with, with chicken rinds, which turns them into something of a Jewish dish — chicken rinds are an old Eastern European ingredient called chicken gribenes. You can add avocado too, which seems to be almost a healthy touch.

But then, if you order the appetizer platter — called Do Todo un Poco — by the time the mofongo arrives you probably won’t be quibbling about ingredients.

Pretty much everyone in the restaurant seems to order the platter — and for good reason … it’s a joy to behold, and to dig into. You get a pork-filled banana tamale, a beef-filled banana tamale, and a chicken-filled banana tamale, along with a beef-packed cassava fritter, and four meat jammed potato pastries. It’s a big plate, easily enough for two. And then, you’ve got the rest of the menu.

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