High-Style Latin Fusion on Wall Street in Norwalk

By Frank Whitman

Jamon Croquetas are a staple of Latin restaurants – Spanish or the many diverse Hispanic cultures of South and Central America.  Their crunchy exterior holds a mix of ham and cheese folded in cream sauce, a combo that gets my order every time.  The ham and cheese will vary depending on the culture, but the flavors are always irresistible. 

The Croquetas at the Alma Bistro in Norwalk made me stop and wonder if I’d ever had any better.  Top notch ingredients make the difference;  authentic Serrano ham and genuine Manchego cheese in this case.  It didn’t hurt that they were heavy on the cheese. I’m a sucker for good cheese, and these were loaded. 

The Bistro, on Wall Street next to the District Music Hall is a bright contemporary space done up in tropical colors: hand-painted murals of flowers on the left; lavender lights silhouetting the bottles on the back bar to the right.  Panels of lime green accent the dining room bringing tropical drinks to mind. 

The project is a collaboration between Ulises Jimenez, head chef and owner of Don ReneTaqueria in Milford, CT and Noberto Lucero head chef of Brasitas – two veterans of the Latin food scene. Fresh food, quality ingredients, precise cooking and pretty presentation are the restaurant’s hallmarks.

And the drinks are good too. One of my standards for judging a restaurant in this category is the perfection of their Margarita. Alma’s is excellent – just the right balance of lime, tequila and orange. I wish I could have had a second. The bartender promised to make me a mezcal Margarita next time, that’s a step up for me.

Small plates are the big section of the menu. A shared guacamole ($13), chunky and well-seasoned with petals of fried tortilla for dipping was just right as we sipped our drinks and negotiated our other choices. Sharing is the best option at a place like this, so everyone gets a veto on the picks. 

The croquetas ($10) were an easy sell. Pork belly tacos are memorable across Wall Street at the Taco Guy, so I lobbied for pork belly chaufa ($14), not really knowing what it was. Chaufa is a fried rice dish that has journeyed across the Pacific from China to Peru, then north to join the pantheon of Latin Cocina in the US and finally to Norwalk. Nuggets of pork belly were fried with vegetables, soy sauce and sesame oil to bring together flavors from all the stops on its culinary trek – Latin and Asian at the same time. Hearty and filling, it slowed us down a little for the next course. 

Pork Belly Chaufa

Other small plates on my list for next time include the Chilean style Lomito ($18) filled with grilled ribeye rather than the traditional pork and flavored with Pisco, a Peruvian brandy. You can see how the Latin cultures collide at Alma. Gambas con Chorizo ($18), Papas Bravas ($9), based on the popular Spanish Tapa, and Sweet Plantains ($9) all explored the wide range of Latin food.  

But there was also a Menu Especial with the features of the day. 

As the thunderheads gathered we were unanimous on the Seafood Enchilada ($16).  Lobster, calamari, shrimp and crab filled the chubby tortilla. Chipotle crema enhanced rather than masked the delicate flavors of the crustaceans within.  We were glad to have shared.  It was big.

Seafood Enchilada

We left the Platos Grandes to explore another time, but they were tempting. Roast Chicken with tomatoes and cherry peppers, Steak Chimichurri with Yucca Fries (Latin steak frites?) and Parrillada Argentina, a Latin mixed grill, all caught my eye.  

But a shared bread pudding with coconut gelato ($8) kept us at the table while the rain shower passed. 

There are lots of places for Latin food, either narrowly defined to a particular region or broadly surveying as at Alma. Some hew to the old ways while others blend cultures and ingredients mixing up the flavors to keep the spirit alive while creating something new. Alma hits a sweet spot in this culinary mashup. 

Bread Pudding