(This venue is closed.) At 9:15, the televised Bundesliga match had already absorbed the attention of a handful of solo diners. I'd managed to beat the Sunday morning rush — when I left, about 10:00, most tables were taken, mainly by families — but I'd also arrived too early for the weekend-only cazuela de pescado. (About 11:00 would be more like it, said my waiter.) The house version of this dense Ecuadorian stew is finished in the oven until it develops a nice crust on top. It's a tuna "casserole," in the menu's translation, bound with peanut-enriched plantain.
My consolation, prepared with the same ingredients but wrapped in a plantain leaf and steamed, was a "pie" from the daily menu. The bollo de pescado ($7) resembled a hefty tamal freighted with slabs of albacore. Balancing the richness of the peanut and plantain was a spicy curtido of chopped tomato and pickled onion, standard issue at every table. (As with many such condiments, the liquid contains most of the kick.) But, alas, unlike the cazuela, the bollo had no crust.
H/T an Ecuadorian black-car driver, some years ago
Ceja's Restaurant
800 Kennedy Blvd. (at Paterson Plank Rd.), Union City, New Jersey
201-601-0791
www.CejasRestaurant.com
Closed Monday
