Finding a solid Caribbean restaurant in Miami is about as easy as stepping out your front door and ambling to the nearest street corner. But making truly authentic mofongo — a dish of mashed fried plantains and crunchy pieces of pork shaped into a ball — is an art form not many have perfected. El Conuquito Restaurant looks like something straight out of the islands. This colorful, family-run café has been serving Dominican and Puerto Rican classics for more than 12 years. The menu offers three varieties of the Latin comfort food, beginning with a traditional mofongo con masitas de puerco ($12). Soft, subtly sweet green plantains are mashed and rolled with tiny nubs of pork sausage and molded into a massive sphere before it's given one last dip in the fryer and served. There's also mofongo de longaniza ($12), the same dish topped with a creamy, seasoned, gravy-like caldo made from chicken stock. The dish looks more like a melting snowball than a garlic lover's dream. But the best seller by far is the mofongo de camarones ($16), served chunky with small pieces of pernil buried like treasure. It's topped with a single tender shrimp and doused in a sauce similar to the traditional al ajillo. Pro mofongo eating tip: Ask for a lemon wedge for an acidic kick and a side of bread to help soak up the extra shrimp and garlic sauce.