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Candiluz
Restaurant
172-20
Hillside Ave., Jamaica
718-658-6093
Cuisine:
Dominican and American
Hours:
8 a.m. to 10 p.m., every day
It’s
cozy, seats six and has a lot of condensation on the window, but it’s
not your Uncle George’s Oldsmobile.
There
are houseplants by the window and family pictures on the wall, but it’s
not your dining room.
Candiluz
Restaurant is a small establishment on Hillside Avenue where you feel like
you’re at a Spanish friend’s house.
The
restaurant caters mostly to the concentrated population of Hispanics in
upper Jamaica, but its menu can be appreciated by anyone.
The
food is cooked and presented simply, with simple ingredients.
The tried-and-true combination of meats with rice and vegetables,
made with few fancy embellishments, is applied in an almost universal way.
The
rice and beans, for example, is a dish that many people recognize
immediately as “Spanish” food.
Candiluz’
version, made with thick yellow rice, is almost identical to the rice and
peas (same ingredients—Caribbeans call beans “peas”) available in
Southeast Queens’ many West Indian restaurants.
Candiluz
also serves beef stew—a Caribbean staple—that’s very similar to the
same dish made by Caribbeans.
The difference is that at Candiluz, the actual taste of the meat is
more apparent. Unlike
at Caribbean restaurants, there’s little pepper or spices masking.
Neither
style is better or worse than the other. They’re just different, and
both are good. Personal taste will be the ultimate judge.
Cooked
plantain, another Spanish staple, is another popular item at Candiluz.
The taste will be familiar to most Caribbeans.
Other
Spanish dishes at Candiluz that are similar to those found in the
Caribbean community are the stewed chicken and the oxtail.
Both are $6.95 with rice and beans, salad, a plantain and homemade
lemonade or iced tea.
The
restaurant’s Spanish and “American” dishes are most common on the
menu.
There
are about eight choices on the sandwich menu, all under $4.25.
They include those made with chicken, pork chops, tuna fish, roast
pork and pepper steak.
There’s
a big breakfast menu, split between half a dozen omelets all under $4,
some carb-based items like rolls, pancakes and French toast and over a
dozen different kinds of breakfast sandwiches.
Most are made with some combination of cheese and meat, including
sausage, ham, bacon, turkey, steak and pastrami.
The
lunch and dinner menus are pretty extensive and betray the restaurant’s
tiny size.
There
are two dozen entrees available, most of them made with meat.
The most popular on one recent afternoon at the restaurant were
those made with baked chicken.
Many
of the other entrees use the same basic ingredients as those on the
sandwich menu; just the preparation is different.
Food
on the entree menu not represented on the sandwich menu include king fish,
pig’s feet, barbecued ribs and lamb stew.
All are served with rice and beans or mashed potatoes for $5 or $6.
For
desert, a sweet “Zapotes Shake” and “Morir Sonando” are available
for $2.25 per serving.
Even
though Candiluz has a very home-like atmosphere, it also delivers, so you
can enjoy its food in the comfort of your own home.
—
Shams Tarek
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