LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — Country: Venezuela
Dish: Patacon
Location: Lawrenceville
Stop: #19
There’s a promise when you eat at Taka Taka’s Café: It’s mom’s recipes on the menu.
“I always thought my mom’s cooking was very good, so these are actually her recipes," said Luis Martinez, owner of both Taka Taka’s Café in Lawrenceville and its sister restaurant in Orlando.
The dish that hits closest to home? The patacon.
“I make the real deal, like I remember they used to do in Venezeula when I was growing up,” Martinez said. “A lot of people don’t know what patacon is, but once they try it, they always come back for it. It’s like a sandwich, but instead of using bread, we use plantains.”
Green plantains are the choice at Taka Taka’s Café, where the patacon features chicken, pork and beef amidst shredded cheese, mano cheese, cabbage and cilantro salsa.
“How does this dish represent Venezuela?”
“In Venezeula, in Maracayo, we eat plantains with everything … pasta, salad … we put plantains in everything we can get our hands on. They made it on the food trucks, and on the night and weekends.”
“How does this dish represent Atlanta?”
“There’s a lot of Venezuelans,” Martinez said of Atlanta, the first place he lived once moving to the U.S. “I love Atlanta. Everything there is about Atlanta, I love it.”
Such love for the city translates into pride as Martinez brings his mother’s cooking to life in Lawrenceville.
“I’m very proud of this restaurant,” Martinez said. “And this city.”