PANAMA CITY – The Reyes family wants to feed you — a lot.
Pete Reyes grew up one of 12 children in Puerto Rico’s countryside, where cooking for a crowd was part of the daily routine.
“I’ve had my mobile (food trailer) about two years. We did Friday Fest all last year,” he said. “About January of this year, we decided to go full-time.”
He and his sister, Olga Reyes, opened Cano Armando Lechonara on the corner of 15th Street and Clay Avenue, where they now serve their family’s Puerto Rican recipes Monday through Saturday. Puerto Rican and American flags flank the sign hung on the black fence lining the front of the property.
“It’s a mobile kitchen,” Olga Reyes said.
The restaurant is named after the Reyes’ father, Armando Reyes, nicknamed “Cano.” “Lechonera” translates from Spanish to English as “a South American restaurant selling pork.”
“We serve pork on Saturday; that’s our biggest day,” said Pete, who buys the pork at Publix.
The pork is served with yellow rice with pigeon peas — “a typical Puerto Rican dish,” his sister added. “I like the pork with pork skins, so crispy. It marinates for two days and cooks for five hours; it’s a process with the dried rub.”
The tender roasted pork, “pernil,” is juicy, flavorful and salty. The dish is often served on holidays and during get-togethers with family and friends.
“Pernil has a very salty taste, which is why it’s sometimes put on bread,” said Olga Reyes, who added, “a lot use it at parties when people are drinking.”
To wash it down, Cano serves Malta India and Champ’s Cola from Cawy Bottling Company, which was founded in Cuba in the 1940s.
Cano also still serves all of the fried hand-held favorites customers enjoyed at Friday Fest.
Fried foods are considered celebratory foods in Puerto Rico, but Olga Reyes’ daughter, Olga Santiago, admitted, “Us Puerto Ricans are always looking for a reason to celebrate, very family-oriented.”
I started with the beef empanada, something familiar. Instead of shredded beef, it was filled with seasoned ground beef. The deliciously savory pocket was even better when dipped in a green sauce — a mixture of green tomatoes, onions, jalapenos and cilantro that had been boiled and pureed.
Pete arrives at Cano at 8 a.m. to begin preparing food for the day. The licensed mobile food trailer is filled with a three-compartment sink and a separate hand-washing compartment, refrigerator and stove. The water heater and water source are hidden by curtains stopping just short of the linoleum flooring. Behind the truck, a blue tent is set up over the tables with more burners for cooking. Propane tanks are used for a fuel source.
“Every day I do a different rice and meat. I go through over 60 pounds of rice a week. I get the 50-pound bags at Sam’s,” said Pete, who cooks up to 24 cups of rice in the same large heavy metal pot his father started cooking in for their family more than 40 years ago. “I love to buy meat, and I like it fresh, so don’t know what I will cook until the next day when I show up and see what they have. I like to get it fresh.”
On Wednesday morning, Pete’s niece was helping out while her mother was visiting inside the staff building on the property with her grandmother.
“Most of the recipes we use are just typical Puerto Rican done in almost every household,” said Olga Santiago, who added they “take a lot of time.”
Differences in some of the Cano dishes depend on who is preparing them.
“He doesn’t cook with onions, doesn’t like them,” said Olga Santiago, who had gotten off of work from her full-time job at 6 a.m.
Pete added, “If you see onions, you know my sister’s had a hand in it.”
We sat outside at the concrete table and talked, only stopping while F-22 Raptors flew overhead. “They do that every day,” said Pete, who suggested we head inside the staff building.
“This is where all of the recipes come from,” said Pete, as he put his hand on his mother’s shoulder.
She had passed the recipes on to Olga Reyes, who then taught them to Pete.
“There were 12 of us, so Mom had her hands full. I learned from Mom and Dad — he made great food, too,” Olga Reyes said.
Mom — Manuela Reyes — now stops by Cano most days to visit and eat. One of her favorites is the stewed beef, which they were serving Wednesday.
“I like to cook it a couple of hours, gets it real tender. We use a lot of Goya stuff,” said Pete, who showed off the Adobo All-Purpose Seasoning. “Instead of putting salt on the green beans, I use this stuff.”
The stewed beef, Carne Guisada, served with a generous side of white rice, arroz blanco, and green beans, the $6 lunch box was more than I could eat after the empanada.
“It’s a Puerto Rican tradition to plate a mountain tall — big plates,” Olga Reyes said.
And I kept going back for more.
“Everything we serve is cooked fresh every day,” Olga Santiago said. “Sofrito is the Spanish seasoning we put in meat or on the beans. We use it in about all the dishes. It’s a homemade seasoning; he makes it here. It is a mix of sweet peppers, green peppers, cilantro, garlic and culantro.”
The seasonings were addictive on the rice, and the bits of potatoes in the gravy from the tender beef soaked up all of the flavors.
“Oh, smells good,” Mom said, as Pete showed off the homemade sofrito. The smell of peppers from the green seasoning filled the room.
Whenever Mom comes home from the restaurant, “Cano” sometimes requests a Cod Fish Fritter and always asks for a couple of the fried Potato Balls.
“You just grab it and eat it,” Olga Santiago said. “The Potato Ball is called a Papa Relleno, stuffed with seasoned ground beef, like a Shepherd’s Pie without the vegetables.
It was just as heavy as it looked.
Olga Santiago gave me the Spanish names for the dishes, which made her grandmother proud.
“Alcapurria — there’s no English interpretation for that,” Olga Santiago said of the sweet and savory fritter.
Filled with green bananas, green plantains, tarot roots and ground beef, then breaded and fried, Olga Reyes referred to the Puerto Rican dish as an “acquired taste.”
“It takes time to make, for days three or four people worked for that,” said Pete, who moved from Puerto Rico’s countryside to the U.S. in 1975 when he was 9 years old.
He still returns to visit Puerto Rico, where extended family still resides. “I love it; it’s going home for me,” Pete said. “I love the atmosphere.”
The streets are filled with the sounds of Salsa and Merengue music. “It’s blaring everywhere,” Olga Reyes added.
She has passed on Mom’s recipes to her daughter, who now is passing them on to her children.
“My daughter is 7, and she stands in the kitchen and wants to learn everything,” Olga Santiago said. “Kids are very interested in Puerto Rican culture. I learned how to cook. There were five of us. If you ask any of us to throw together a Puerto Rican meal with the bare minimum, we can.”
Her mom added, “You have to teach them. People always ask me, ‘What is the different between Puerto Rican, Mexican and Cuban food?’ It’s the flavor. We don’t use hot sauce or make it spicy. What we use here is flavor, and that’s what it is.”
Another thing Olga Reyes passed on to her daughter was portion size.
“I cook in abundance,” said Olga Santiago, who has about 40 cousins. “Parents work; grandparents help out. Still today I can’t cook a meal at home without having too much food. We always cook with expectations someone is going to stop by.”
Some of the ingredients can only be found in Orlando, where Mom recently traveled and then returned with a shipment.
“It is nice for other cultures to be able to taste Puerto Rican food, being able to bring it to Panama City is nice,” said Olga Santiago, as three generations gathered around the table. “Since it’s a family owned and family run, a family environment, come in and sit down. Let’s talk about Puerto Rico, what’s going on in your life.”
CANO ARMANDO LECHONARA
- What: Puerto Rican food (Comida Puertoriquena) with outside table or to-go; catering
- Where: 2204 W. 15th St., Panama City (turn in on Clay Avenue)
- Hours: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday with extended hours on Fridays
- Details: (850) 814-3507 or Facebook.com/CanosArmandoLechoneraComidaPuertoriquena