Written & Photographed by James Bolduc
Devon Seafood + Steak, hosting a roasted pork family-style dinner? Not exactly what you think of when you think high end seafood and steaks… but let me walk you through the highlights of last night’s dinner. This Pig Roast family style meal at Devon was served buffet style. It was self serve and if you’ve ever been to brunch at Devon, or any buffet for that matter, you’ll feel right at home with serving up your plate with the exact portions that you desire.
The Pig Roast took place on their beautiful waterfront patio and had a very chill and laid back ambiance. It started around 7 so we did get some of that dreaded Miami humidity, but as time passed we had an opportunity see the sunset on their charming waterfront view. We ended up staying for a couple of hours in the patio as it was a great place to keep good conversation.
Cocktails
The dinner included alcoholic beverages. The drink station was on the opposite side of the patio to where the food was stationed. You had your choice of generic bottled beers, mojitos, and rum and cokes.
Cuisine
The self serve station was all adjacent to one another starting off with a basic salad bar of lettuce, your choice of chopped avocados, halved cherry tomatoes, onions, red wine vinegar, oil, and coarse sea salt. Lime-Salt Chicharrons were a nice snack to munch on. If you’re big on fried pork skin, this is definitely a nice treat.
The fried plantains were surprisingly good. Many times fried plantains are prepared a bit too thick, which produces oily and softer plantains. The plantains served last night were markedly thin and very crispy. I personally love sweet plantains but am not as infatuated with fried plantains, but I was a huge fan of the plantains last night. In my opinion, this is how fried plantains should always be prepared, thin and crispy.
Next on the conveyor belt were the rice and beans. The beans were seasoned well; you could see the onions, peppers, and bay leaves that they were cooked with.
I was really looking forward to trying the chorizo hash. Obviously, chorizo was the star. It was cooked with sweet potatoes and potatoes. The hash was good, but the surprising star for me was the yucca that was smothered in onions with an absolutely delicious mojo seasoning. In South Florida, yucca and mojo is a super common side dish, which is why I couldn’t believe how much this yucca and mojo combo fascinated me. I literally loaded up on the yucca 3 times, I couldn’t get enough!
Last but not least on the self serve line was the pork, coarsely sliced in a large holding tray. Pork is tasty; it’s hard to go wrong with it. What was surprising though was the little bowl next to the pork. It looked like some type of goopy sauce. Of course, I had to try it. I wasn’t too sure what to expect but I was extremely surprised by how much I loved it. It was a sweet sauce that complemented the fatty pork flavors incredibly well, I got hooked on it. It was a sweet and rather thick sauce with plenty of raisins and orange zest. I wish I knew how to make it because I feel that eating pork without this sauce will never be the same again!
For dessert, tres leches shooters were served in mini plastic cups. The tres leches was good, with very traditional flavors. The dessert that took home the prize was the cheese flan. Traditional flan is sweet, light, and breaks apart easily. The cheese flan served last night was creamy, rich, and thick. I wish I wouldn’t have stuffed myself so much with the dinner because the cheese flan was one of the best I’ve had. Heavy, creamy, rich desserts are more up my alley so I REALLY enjoyed this flan. By the time dessert came around I was stuffed from gorging on pork and the tons of starchy side dishes that were being served but you better believe I finished that piece of flan … even if it did take me 30 minutes to gulp it down.
The highlights of the dinner:
Pork with the sweet & thick orange raisin sauce
Thin crispy fried plantains
Yucca with the mojo
Cheese flan
Recommendations: If you plan on going to their next pig roast event, if they have another one, come HUNGRY! There will be a week’s worth of carbs to eat, and with that amazing mojo on the yucca, trust me, you will overeat your carbs. This is not for the light eater or someone looking to eat out on a diet.
What to expect: The Pig Roast food served was traditional Cuban food, no surprises there. It is self serve and the food never ran out for longer than a minute before it was promptly replaced with a brand new batch. So expect to get really full on traditional South Florida (i.e. Cuban) comfort food. This pig roast event served your traditional Cuban cuisine…. on steroids. Unlimited pork, rice, beans, yucca with that killer mojo, fried plantains, and chorizo hash. If you’re a big eater, then Devon’s Pig Roast Event is right up your alley.
