"Everything had to remain the same."
In the dining room of Rincon Criollo, a Cuban restaurant in Corona, Esther Acosta recalls the pledge that she and her older brother, Rudesindo ("Rudy") Acosta, made to their great-uncles when they took the reins of the family business.
The surrounding community has changed in the years since the restaurant opened in 1976. Today it's easier to find chaulafan from Ecuador, chalupas from Mexico or chow from many other Latin American countries than to find the shredded, slow-simmered flank steak of a traditional Cuban ropa vieja.
Thanks to the younger Acostas, however, the home-style cooking, the red-and-white-checked tablecloths and the framed photos that nearly blanket the walls evoke not only the Rincon Criollo of the mid-'70s but also another Rincon Criollo from a quarter-century earlier, in Cuba itself. Read more on Culinary Backstreets — and, if you like flan de coco, save room for dessert.
