For many Anglos in the Bay area, chicken and yellow rice was an accessible gateway into the seemingly exotic world of Latin cooking. The dish was not radically different from some Southern dishes and Midwestern casseroles, and the novelty of bright yellow rice attracted the eye as well as the palate. Back in 1899, legend has it that a few of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders ordered arroz con pollo from the saddle at Tampa’s Las Novedades restaurant, opened in 1890. Ironically, the dish came to Tampa from Spain, who the troops would soon be fighting in Cuba.
Twelve hundred years before, war with the invading Moors brought arroz con pollo to Spain. The Spanish grew quite fond of this dish during the occupation, which lasted almost seven centuries. Today, chicken and yellow rice is perhaps the most common Spanish dish in the world. But its rise to fame came at a price: the dish has been degraded by short cuts. It may still be yellow, but arroz con pollo is but a shadow of its former self.
This article appears in Jul 1-7, 2010.