Papi Chulo, a Jupiter Hot Spot, Makes More than the Average Taco
The average taco joint offers the crowd pleasers: your steak taco, your fish, and your chicken. Papi Chulo, on the other hand, offers this and so much more. You'll find tuna poke tacos, kobe beef - even gator (cue the angry UF alums). I knew I had to try it. Once in Islamorada, I tried fried gator and decided it tasted a lot like chicken. What on earth would a gator taco be like? This preparation of gator still did remind me of chicken but was decidedly better. Chef Carlos Sanchez uses gator tail, fries it, and coats it in a deliciously sticky and sweet tamarind glaze. I'd take this over a chicken taco any day, I believe.
After trying about half of the taco menu, I think the the all-stars of the taco lineup are the gator, the fish, and rib taco. Hopefully you'll be lucky enough to find the rib tacos on the list of specials when you pop in because Chef Sanchez features them on weekends sometimes, he says. I got lucky. They were filled with towering portions of fall-off-the-bone meat, fried onions, and cheese. They were so stuffed with meat that they made a quite difficult eat, but I'm not complaining. Logistics aside, they were delicious.
If you're feeling particularly hungry, there are three large entrees on the menu: chicken mole, churrasco, and ribs. For those not afraid to get their hands messy, I'd suggest ordering the smoked ribs and asking for at least ten napkins. The meat falls right off the bone, and the sauce offers up a little bit of heat.
If you have any room left after all of those tortillas, I can wholeheartedly recommend the desserts. In fact, I'd just find room for them anyway. I've tried a lot of flan in my life, but this flan goes the extra mile of having toasted coconut and a generous coating of caramel on top. This pairs perfectly with the Mexican donuts. I admittedly have no idea what about them is Mexican , but they are scrumptious. They're coated in cinnamon sugar and served with condensed milk for the perfect dunk.
