Alano Plaza, the shopping center located on North Rainbow Boulevard south of the West Smoke Ranch Road intersection, looks to be adding a new Nicaraguan restaurant to its restaurant roster. Paperwork submitted to the City of Las Vegas by La Bahia LLC shows a restaurant called La Fritanga opening at 2300 N Rainbow Blvd, Suite 108.
What Now reached out on Tuesday to to owner Fransis Zelaya to inquire about La Fritanga. Zelaya was not immediately available for comment.
Never heard of a Fritanga? It’s more or less immediately clear that the word is derived from the Spanish “frito,” or “fried,” but in the Nicaraguan context, the word means something more specific.
“Only in Nicaragua does [the word] apply to a place where food is cooked, although the exact origins of the word are lost in the smoke of the firewood of time,” says a post on NicaraguanRecipes.com. “Some local historians believe that the tradition of fritanga as a recognized style of food dates back to the 1931 earthquake that devastated Managua, when street barbecues emerged as a consequence.”
Specifically, what sort of food does one expect?
“The ingredients soon became uniform as the popularity of combining carne asada with Nicaraguan staples such as gallo pinto (rice and beans), salted fried cheese, crispy slices or ripe ones, with a cabbage vinegar salad, and chilero, a spicy but not fiery mixture of chopped onion and pickled goat pepper, grew.”
Opening in Alano Plaza, La Fritanga would join a restaurant community that includes Mi Carboncito Peruvian Food and San Salvador Restaurant.
