East Idaho Eats: Generations of family recipes being served at The Cuban Table

IDAHO FALLS — Olgita Peña knew she experienced identified her area of interest when she commenced promoting authentic Cuban foodstuff out of her house kitchen area.

She bought principally on Facebook Marketplace and rapidly identified that she could not hold up with demand from customers. She was getting so lots of orders that performing from her kitchen area was no for a longer time a viable possibility.

Which is when Peña decided it was time to expand into her to start with comprehensive restaurant undertaking, The Cuban Desk.

Olgita, alongside with her husband Liorlan Peña, now have and operate the cafe, which prides alone on becoming one particular of the only spots in town serving genuine Cuban delicacies.

“Our enterprise is a 100% genuine Cuban restaurant”, Olgita claimed. “A lot of this is my grandmother and my mother’s recipes, (my husband’s) spouse and children recipes, and it’s all been handed down from generation to era.”

Just one of their most popular dishes, Pollo a la Plancha, includes a rooster breast that is marinated for 24 hrs in their homemade mojo sauce.

“[Mojo] is the coronary heart of anything,” says Olgita. “It’s what we marinate in, it is what we cook dinner with, we dip the meat in it, almost everything.”

Mojo is a Cuban most loved and is usually designed of bitter oranges, but mainly because they are not available in our spot, it is made with orange juice, vinegar, environmentally friendly bell peppers, onions, garlic, olive oil and seasoning.

A supporter-favourite, the Cubano, is a Cuban sandwich consisting of ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard.

The meat for the Cubanos is marinated and then slow-roasted. Olgita arrives at the cafe each and every morning to start out the procedure, letting it prepare dinner in the marinade to make positive it is cooked to perfection every working day.

“A great deal of people consider that it is essentially from Cuba,” states Olgita. “But the Cubano is truly not from Cuba. When the Cuban disaster began with the U.S., and Castro took about, a lot of people experienced to start out coming to the U.S. and there was no meals. So, they would commence making this sandwich, which is in fact from Florida, but invented by Cubans.”

An creation of their personal, named right after a person of the house owners, Liorlan’s Bistec de Palomilla contains a tender, marinated steak with caramelized onions, black beans combined with white rice and a fried egg on major, alongside with a Cuban salad.

“A good deal of Cubans like to consume eggs on their rice,” states Olgita. “It’s really common.”

Another staple at The Cuban Desk is the Camarones a la Cubana.

A recipe of Olgita’s grandmother, the dish consists of shrimp smothered in a delicate creole sauce, the Camarones a la Cubana will come with a bed of white rice, and a aspect of smashed and fried plantains, a further secure of Cuban delicacies.

“Cuban meals is not spicy,” states Olgita. “A great deal of persons think that it’s heading to be spicy but it is not.”

A single of the delectable selections to purchase as a aspect is an get of Croquetas.

Croquetas are manufactured with ham, butter, olive oil and are hand-breaded.

“Normally we don’t provide it with the cheese, but there is an selection to get the cheese, and it is actually superior,” says Olgita.

The Cuban Table is open Tuesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. They are found driving T-Cell at 3192 South 25th East, in Idaho Falls.

Obtain out far more about The Cuban Table by visiting their Facebook.