Photo by Marta Bartolomei Edmonds.
One of the things I love about visiting the Old San Juan is breakfast at La Bombonera. On the first day of our recent trip to "my home planet", I get up early and drag Angelica out of bed with anticipation for what is about to come.
Photo by Marta Bartolomei Edmonds.
As is our tradition, we start our first day with breakfast at La Bombonera, a century old bakery and restaurant best known for its fresh baked mallorcas. Mallorca is a sweet, egg based bread found in most Puerto Rican bakeries and with origins in the island of Mallorca, Spain.
Photo by Marta Bartolomei Edmonds.
We sit at the long bar and order our usual mallorca with butter, cafe con leche (coffee with milk) and jugo de china (fresh squeezed orange juice) made with sweet Puerto Rican oranges. The cafetera (coffee maker) is a center piece of this restaurant. It's a great big machine bearing a Cafeteras Nacional label. Cafeteras Nacional is an espresso machine maker originating in Cuba at the turn of the 20th century. This cafetera bears the signs of age, pieced together after many years of repairs, but it can still brew a great cup of Puerto Rican coffee.
Photo by Marta Bartolomei Edmonds.
We sit at the bar and watch the wait staff, in red apron and white shirt, dance around eachother in a mad but elegant rush to get everyone served. We can't sit still with anticipation for the mallorcas as we watch our waiter slice and place them in the 'plancha' to toast. Our faces wide with huge grins.
The mallorcas are perfect, slathered in butter and dusted with confectioner's sugar, they melt in our mouths. We order another and some to take with us for our journey to Ponce to visit my grandparents.
Read what the New York Times says about La Bombonera.
La Bombonera
Calle San Francisco 259
Viejo San Juan, PR 00901
(787) 722-0658
Photo by Angelica Bartolomei Edmonds.