At Papo Deli, a taste of the Dominican Republic
Jovanny Quiroz, owner of Papo Deli, at 164 Rockaway Ave., dashed between the cash register and trays of food at the front of the store as he served customers and greeted friends he sees nearly every day.
“I would say that 85 to 90 percent of my customers are loyal, everyday customers,” he said.
Shelves behind the cash register display hats, gloves, imported cough syrups, candy and other knickknacks, which Quiroz said make the store the kind of one-stop shop that is typically expected of Dominican delis. As for the food, he said, there’s plenty to accommodate a wide range of tastes. At one end of the counter sits a tray of spaghetti with homemade sauce, and toward the center, a Dominican delicacy called sopa de mondongo, or tripe soup.
One of his fastest selling dishes is fried pork belly, or chicharon. Preparing the pork is a time-consuming process, partly because Quiroz and his wife, Estrella Agramonte, boil the pork first as an improvised measure to achieve the same effect as if it was cooked on an open fire, as is the custom in their native Dominican Republic.
“Over there, the chicharon is not made like that,” he said. “It’s done outside, and it’s done without anything. You just throw the meat in the pot and [its] own grease — the lard that it releases — that’s what you fry it in. It’s a very long process, but it’s a big difference.”
To give the pork its signature crunch without drying it out, Quiroz said it is cut and seasoned only with salt, lemon and oregano. It is then boiled for one to two hours, cooled and then fried. The boiling process, combined with the fact that he only makes a little bit at a time, is what helps give the chicharon its authentic taste and freshness. “Instead of [preparing] it once or twice a day, I might have to do it 10 times a day,” he said. “But at the end of the day, you sell more, it’s a better product and a happier customer.”
Patrick Morales said he eats at Papo Deli all the time, and he’s already tried an assortment of food. “I’ve been here three times this week,” he said with a laugh. “So I come here a lot.”
Morales said that what he likes about the deli is that food doesn’t sit there on the counter for hours because it is constantly being replenished. His only complaint was that Quiroz and Agramonte are both Mets fans.
