#THINGS TO DO IN KISSIMMEE FLORIDA PORTABLE#

Cons - a lot of rides were closed, including slides in the splash pad area (which was a bit much). Pros - smaller park, and hires people with disabilities. We decided on this park due to it being Easter week and we didn't want to venture to Disney water parks. For more foodie fun, join the Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group. Want to reach out? Find me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram at or on the OSFoodie Instagram account. Americans eat a lot of apple pie,” he says. “It’s something that will be a new flavor for us. They’ve also added apple pie to the mix, so new it wasn’t yet on the menu at press time Things that might appeal to some guests more than goat, sheep or callos, a stew that includes tripe, though I’d suggest giving those a try instead. It’s really popular.” With more than 50 different fillings, there’s almost certainly something new for you to discover at Pa’ Paraguaná.

“I don’t really like it, but my mom does. “We have some new flavors, like pernil with a yellow cheese that’s American,” he tells me, laughing. The emotion, he says, is meaningful to the family. And my dad will go in the back and grab his cuatro and start singing. Sometimes people tell us it’s been 20 years since they ate cazón. “And you know Venezuelans, when they leave home, they go to different places, they get separated from their families. He plays the cuatro (guitar-like instrument),” Lugo-Artuza tells me. Left to right: Nestor Lugo Artuza, Nestor Lugo Valles, Julynest Lugo Artuza, July Artuza Salazar and Francisco Lugo Artuza. The Pa’ Paraguaná family at its Kissimmee shop. They bring with them a true taste of home.īut they are not the only things transportive about Pá Paraguaná. The fillings look similar but have decidedly different flavor profiles. Fish roe is a favorite of Nestor Lugo Valles, the head of the family and the kitchen. I had them all in single and mixed variations. Shrimp, octopus, crab, clam figure into the menu. Seafood is a staple in the coastal region of Paraguaná. There are three varieties of clam empanadas here. Paraguaná’s geography (it is a peninsula with a tied island) means that seafood is a staple. And locals, too, who come for fresh fillings and a corn-flour dough with just a hint of sweetness that pairs with both savory and dessert fillings. Most customers are Spanish-fluent on my visits, but with a Kissimmee location, Lugo Artuza says they get tourists from all over. The short line moves swiftly but never abates. I wait five minutes before sliding into a seat at the counter while waiting for my order. Walking into Pá Paraguaná on a weekday, mid-morning, proves the instincts were solid. A good thing, as the place was packed on both my visits. And this was something that would be familiar to a lot of other families, too.” A recent remodel added a lot of space. “So, we thought, ‘Maybe we can do something in the kitchen.’ And obviously, in Venezuela, we love empanadas! Every time we had people over the house, that’s what we would eat. Dad Nestor took a job in the kitchen at a Sheraton property. … It was really hard to start again.”īut they did have each other to lean on, says Francisco. The principle we have is ‘first God,’ we put everything in his hands. “There was a lot of political trouble at the time,” Francisco tells me, interpreting for his mother, July Artuza Salazar. It was a natural transition as the family of five found its footing in a new country.

Today, there are a dizzying 52 options and growing.

#THINGS TO DO IN KISSIMMEE FLORIDA PORTABLE#

Back then there were just a handful of wholly South American fillings tucked into these portable pockets of yum. Guava-cheese was not on the menu when the Lugo Artuza family, who moved here 10 years ago from Punto Fijo, a city on the southwestern coast of Venezuela’s Paraguaná peninsula, opened the place in 2020. The crunch and chew and cheese of a really good blintz in my grandmother’s Brooklyn kitchen. The paper bag-staining, powdered-sugar properties of the zeppole. I tore at the corner of this deep-fried delight - I will not mince words, these things are greasy, they will make you feel greasy, but I say this with love - and tasted my life. The guava and cream cheese was straight-up divine. It came alongside my rich and bitter Italian coffee in the form of a guava and cheese empanada from Pá Paraguaná, an adorable little Venezuelan joint in Kissimmee that a friend told me about. I was supposed to have been writing the review you may or may not have read last week - which I eventually got to - but was momentarily derailed by a sugar-and-fat high so good, I wanted to document it for posterity. On the morning of my birthday, to be specific.

Things to do in kissimmee florida