South Bronx152nd Street at Wales AvenueThe Puerto Rican delicacy lechon -- suckling pig -- is roasted long and slow by La Piraña’s neighborhood proprietor, who chops the cooked pork with his signature machete and then serves it up with rice and a garlicky sauce. Pastelillos are on offer, too, fried empanada-like pastries filled with crab, shrimp, beef, or chicken. If you do make the trip to La Piraña, deep in the Bronx, you’ll find it’s more than just a food stand; it’s a gathering place, and a taste of Puerto Rico for those who miss the island.

Each winter, the rickety, boarded-up trailer on East 152nd Street looks as if it won’t survive the next strong breeze. And each spring, Angel Jimenez unlocks the door, heats the deep fryer, powers up the salsa music, sharpens the machete and brings the city’s greatest expression of Puerto Rican eating back to life for another season. The frituras, little shrimp-filled pastelillos and shiny golden bacalaitos, are superb.

A rare five-star Yelp rating and endorsements from food authorities like First We Feast will peak any eater’s interest in Lechonera La Piraña. Even more intriguing than the eatery itself (the lechonera is a casual food truck run by owner and chef Angel “Piraña” Jiminez for over a decade) is the Puerto Rican-style lechon it serves—roasted pork with homemade seasonings, fresh seafood salad, and stuffed pastelillos.

Lines are the worst, and no matter how good that sandwich, donut, or croissant spin-off is, we’ll hardly ever tell you to wait in one. Lechonera La Piraña is the exception. Inside this South Bronx trailer propped up on cinderblocks, a single chef hacks at the city’s finest roast pork with an arm-length machete.

Address and phone: 152 St Wales AveWebsite: N/AGood for: The city’s best Puerto Rican-style lechon, prepared by a machete-wielding cookin a Nuyroican block-party setting. There are several cues that indicate you have arrived at La Piraña: the smell of the garlic wafting through the air; the thwack of a large machete; and a cacophony of Spanish spoken through the din of Tito Puente’s tropical jams. This is the Bronx’s purest expression of Borinquen food culture—an ode to the backwoods lechonera that Angel “Piraña” Jiminez grew up eating at.

Located in a parking lot at the intersection of Wales Avenue and East 152nd Street in the South Bronx, La Piraña Lechonera is a trailer run by Angel Jimenez, whom regulars belovedly refer to as “Chapi Chulo.” When it’s your turn to step inside the trailer, you’ll see all manner of juicy roasted suckling pig, done in the Puerto Rican style, not unlike the towns along route 184, or the “Ruta de Lechón,” in Puerto Rico. What La Piraña lacks in a sit-down brick-and-mortar atmosphere it makes up for in unforgettably tender and juicy roast pork.

Owner, operator, chef and machete wielder Angel Jimenez can come off as incredibly serious when you first approach Lechonera la Piraña, but once you enter his world inside the trailer and witness him interacting with customers while serving his famous lechón, he comes alive and is sublimely happy as he theatrically prepares his food.

Can a food truck parked next to a vacant lot, one only open on the weekends, really be the best place for Puerto Rican food in the Bronx?. In this case, certainly. Angel “Piraña” Jimenez is arguably New York’s most persuasive advocate for la cocina criolla.

It’s hard to believe that some of the city’s best lechon — roasted suckling pig cooked over charcoal — would be served out of Lechonera La Piraña, a post-apocalyptic-looking trailer in the Bronx.

And here are a few on my list yet to try: Com Tam Ninh Kiew (Vietnamese) Tobala (Oaxacan) La Morada (Oaxacan) Lechonera La Pirana (Puerto Rican) Mama G African Kitchen (Ghanaian)