Alexander Britell

This week was National Piña Colada day. And while I don’t usually wade into these arbitrary calendrical celebrations, it did remind me of a longtime dispute in Puerto Rico: namely, the birthplace of the Piña Colada. You see, there are two competing stories about its origins, though the recipe is not up for dispute. First, the story that Ramon Marrero, the bartender at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan, invented the mix in 1954.

It’s a secret recipe. Sure, I can venture a guess. There’s some form of batter and salted cod. Deep fried until they’ve reached that perfect nexus of crispy and chewy, golden brown. But there’s a mystery, an alchemy going on here that only the most expert fish-cake-friers know. For the chef here, they’re the best in Barbados. “People come back and buy it,” the chef tells me. “They even buy the batter from us and freeze it.” And with a food shack called De Fishcake Boss, it’s hard to argue.