Half the time I would go to a Cuban restaurant, this is what I would eat. Palomilla is thin-sliced grilled steak smothered in onions, seasoned with adobo and lime. Adobo in the Spanish Caribbean is usually salt, pepper, oregano, and garlic; store brands usually have turmeric for color.

I bought all of my ingredients at our clean, well-stocked Associated on Knickerbocker, where the stock boy helped me get something off a high shelf, the cashier smiled at me, and a small woman swiftly bagged my groceries and placed them in my “old lady” cart. I handed the industrious woman a couple bucks and thanked her on my way out.

The steak they sell at most bodegas comes in thin slices, so you don’t have to go out of your way in Bushwick to find the right cut. You can certainly make your own adobo, it’s damn easy, but if you use it often it’s even easier to buy a huge bottle of it, since it stays pretty potent for a long time. I was lucky enough to have a friend who makes it herself according to a family recipe. I put the adobo (with some extra oregano from my garden) in my mortar and ground it up with some olive oil, just enough so that it’s a very thick paste. Then I squeezed half the juice of half a lime in, and mixed that up. I brushed the steak with the paste and let it sit.

Meanwhile, I heated up my grill pan, and arranged slices of thick-cut yellow onions (about 1/2 inch) that I brushed with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. I let them get pretty soft, flipping them once so that the grill left dark marks on them.

Palomilla is supposed to be grilled, but I prefer to use a pan because I like to sauté the onions in it after I cook the steak. Just put your pan on high heat until it’s very hot, and toss your steak in. Turn it after about 45 seconds, and then pull it out after about another minute. Grab a few of the onions and toss them in the pan, still on high heat, and squeeze the rest of the lime over them. Sauté until the liquid is gone and the onions are translucent, if they didn’t get that way on the grill. Top the steak with them and eat up! It’s typically served with, duh, rice and beans.