New York Times: Last-Minute Winter Getaways (Pikayo)

“Or drop your bags in Condado, at the newly mod Conrad San Juan Condado Plaza (866-317-8934; condadoplaza.com). Rooms start at $199, and through March 31 guests booking the Winter Escapes Package for a two-night stay get breakfast for two, plus a $50 resort credit. It can go toward a meal at the homegrown celebrity chef Wilo Benet’s Pikayo, which recently relocated to the hotel and has been luring diners to its communal table for lobster empanadas and bay scallop ceviche.”

Read the full article at  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/travel/28getaways.html

Video: Behind the Scenes at Travel Channel

Behind the scenes of

Travel Channel’s Endurance Travelers show

in Puerto Rico at Picayo Restaurant

Puerto Rico’s new cuisine will have you at “hola”

For reviewer-praised, upscale San Juan dining, follow the foodies to Pikayo, a modern masterpiece in the Conrad San Juan Condado Plaza. Chef Wilo Benet invokes his Culinary Institute of America degree, his keep photographer’s eye and his inventor’s urge to mastermind dazzling, delectable dishes.

We’re talking empanadilla turnovers with truffle mojito sauce, risotto with chicharron (pork cracklings), and a saffron-dusted update of the beloved local dish, mofongo, more or less a Puerto Rican matzoh ball made from green plantains and pork. Benet tops his mofongo with a fat shrimp and lavishes it with saffron broth. (Varita, Benet’s other eatery in the hotel, serves more traditional Puerto Rican dishes.) Abrir nota completa

A Caribbean feast for ‘locavores’

There’s something in the human soul that loves just about anything deep-fried. So, despite concerns about my girth, I couldn’t resist the sizzling tostones (plantain chips) served at Paya–loosely translated, the name means “go there” — a casual restaurant in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. I wasn’t sure about the dip, though. “It’s made of corned-beef hash,” said our host, celebrity chef Wilo Benet. Yes, that’s the processed stuff that comes in a tin. Abrir nota completa