Arroz a la tumbada, or Veracruz paella, is served piping hot at this Fort Worth restaurant

A clay pot filled with piping hot broth, shrimp, clams and white fish is brought to the table at El Rincón Jarocho. When stirred, grains of rice suddenly appear, foreshadowing what else hides within the dish — explosive flavor. And while it may sound like seafood soup or stew, it’s not. It is arroz a la tumbada, a dish born in Alvarado, Veracruz.

Owner Santiago Bejarano prepares the pasta and shrimp served with pulpo zarandeado, which translates as shaken octopus, at El Rincón Jarocho in Fort Worth on Monday, June 2, 2025.

The cuisine of the city, situated on the Gulf of Mexico, revolves around seafood, and arroz a la tumbada is one of its stars.

At an annual festival in Alvarado, the residents work together to cook a massive arroz a la tumbada.

“Everybody lines up to eat it,” said Santiago Bejarano, owner of El Rincón Jarocho, a Mexican restaurant in Fort Worth. “We hold the Guinness World Record for the amount of rice we make.”

Bejarano said arroz a la tumbada is a complicated dish to make, which makes it tough to find in the United States. He believes his restaurant is the only one that sells it in the entire country.

El Rincón Jarocho has become a destination for those seeking the dish, according to Bejarano.

“People have come from North Carolina, Austin and Houston, traveling to eat this,” he said. “A family from Chicago stops here every year to eat when they are on their way to Mexico.”

The exterior of El Rincón Jarocho in Fort Worth on Monday, June 2, 2025.

The components of the rice-based arroz a la tumbada include a broth in which octopus, shrimp, squid, crab, clams and fish filets are cooked for minutes. Once at the table at El Rincón Jarocho, diners often add habanero sauce, which is made in the restaurant.

“It’s an explosion of flavors from the sea on the palate, a unique flavor that you can’t find in any other dish,” said Verónica Jiménez, Bejarano’s wife and co-owner of the restaurant.

Bejarano’s story began in his native Veracruz, where he owned three seafood restaurants. He said he had to hand them over to organized crime that threatened to kill him.

Owners Verónica Jiménez and Santiago Bejarano pause during an interview as their grandson comes over to say hi at El Rincón Jarocho in Fort Worth on Monday, June 2, 2025.

“It was 2009, one of the most dangerous times in Mexico, particularly in Veracruz," Bejarano said. “I gave up everything and had to flee,”

Owner Santiago Bejarano prepares the shrimp, clams and white fish as he makes the rice-based arroz a la tumbada, a dish born in Alvarado, Veracruz, at El Rincón Jarocho in Fort Worth on Monday, June 2, 2025.

He crossed the U.S. border, a journey that left him marked forever. He arrived without toe nails, having walked nonstop for several days. Thorns lacerated his skin.

“Many people forget how much they suffered to get to this country, and when we are here, we forget how we got here,” Bejarano said. “I thank God that I have not forgotten.”

With his experience in restaurants, he started working as a dishwasher in a taqueria, which he later helped transform into a seafood restaurant, Los Tres Delfines. Over time, he began selling his own food from his car, turning it into a street restaurant. Bejarano saved up until he could rent a place to open his brick-and-mortar location in Fort Worth in 2016.

Arroz a la tumbada, a rice-based dish with hot broth, shrimp, clams and white fish born in Alvarado, Veracruz, at El Rincón Jarocho in Fort Worth on Monday, June 2, 2025.

“We wanted to open a restaurant for our people because we felt discriminated against in other places and sometimes we didn’t feel comfortable,” said Jiménez. “So this is a dream come true for us.”

An evocation of Mexican culture and Bejarano’s family legacy, El Rincón Jarocho’s walls are adorned with brightly colored paintings of the sea. Outside, a lively sculpture of a giant shark, mouth open and teeth bared, greets guests. The shark’s name is Rene, in honor of a brother of Jiménez who helped fund the restaurant and who was murdered in Mexico 3 years ago.

Nearly a decade after opening, Bejarano and Jiménez still enjoy the feeling of taking people back to their hometown, more than 1,100 miles away, with food.

“When people from Veracruz come and tell me, ‘You’ve transported me back to my childhood,’” said Bejarano. “That’s a reward that’s worth more than money.”

El Rincón Jarocho is located at 901 W Seminary Dr., Fort Worth.

This story is part of D-FW Sabores, a series dedicated to finding authentic Mexican cuisine across North Texas, dish by dish, region by region.