"Kim’s Video has come and gone. So has CBGB, Gem Spa, and even the show Stomp, which we all assumed would run until the year 3000. But another East Village classic, Casa Adela, founded by the late Adela Vargas in 1976, keeps chugging along. Don’t take it for granted. photo credit: Kate Previte photo credit: Kate Previte photo credit: Kate Previte This diminutive, cash-only Puerto Rican restaurant—with its rec center chairs and scuffed black floors—is your living room, clubhouse, and family kitchen when you don’t have the will to turn on your stove. The room is unpretentiously bare, and the food tastes home cooked in the best sort of way: warm, well-seasoned, and deeply comforting. Get some peppery pernil ferried from the pint-sized kitchen tucked around the corner, and supplement with crisp tostones, and mofongo draped in garlicky shrimp. There are no wrong choices here. Everything tastes exactly how it should, and, with prices that rarely exceed $20, the cost is just right. Bring beer, bring cash, and bring yourself once a week. Food Rundown photo credit: Kate Previte Alcapurrias These crunchy alcapurrias are slightly sweet and steam when you break them open. Get an order, and experience pure comfort. photo credit: Kate Previte Pernil The East Village isn’t the East Village without Casa Adela’s big strands of moist pernil. photo credit: Kate Previte Sancocho How’s your day been? It’ll ascend a few notches with this warming sancocho. photo credit: Kate Previte Mofongo There are few different kinds of mofongo at Casa Adela, but shrimp is the correct choice. That goes double if you appreciate garlic." - Bryan Kim
