When I opened my restaurant La Bella Managua in 2005, Nicaraguan food was completely unknown in Toronto. Nicaraguan cuisine draws on almost every aspect of Latin American cooking styles, but it puts a unique twist on certain flavours. Hinting at the tuber-based indigenous cuisine found in places like Brazil and Ecuador, I prepare sautéed sweet plantains and a dish of crispy fried marinated pork chunks and coleslaw atop steamed white yucca root. Gallo pinto, the Nicaraguan take on the Caribbean staple of rice and beans, involves mixing the ingredients into a red and black?flecked mashup, and Central American influence is also apparent on the menu in the form of tacos and quesadillas, and habañero peppers in the homemade salsa. People wanted to eat what they already knew. Slowly, customer by customer, word spread?first among Nicaraguans telling other Latin Americans, then among people telling their Canadian-born friends.more...See more text
Jesus Morales has always worked with food. In his native Nicaragua, he helped his parents prepare ready-made meals for the family-owned grocery store. And after moving to Montreal in 1988 and then to Toronto in 1990, Jesus worked as a chef in a variety of kitchens, ranging from Italian bistros to steakhouses and Thai restaurants.
But it wasn’t until a family friend from Nicaragua asked for Jesus’ help to prepare Nicaraguan dishes for a birthday party that he was inspired to start his own operation. “People liked it and they were saying, ‘Why don’t you put up a restaurant and sell some Nicaraguan food?’” he remembers. He recognized that no one else in Toronto specialized in the cuisine of his home country. So in 2005, Jesus opened Toronto’s first Nicaraguan restaurant – La Bella Managua, named for the country’s beautiful capital city.
This place never changes always fresh and the price is even better! The owner of the place is the real capatano of all foods. Come and see for yourself. Five stars*****
Here, you can enjoy Nicaraguan cuisine, including sautéed sweet plantains, crispy fried marinated pork chunks and coleslaw atop steamed white yucca root. The food is always cooked to perfection. This simple, local Bloor West Village restaurant boasts quality ingredients, careful preparation and genuinely friendly service always!