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Book Club: Diasporican · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to Stephen.
0:07
Speaker 1: Never told you a production of iHeartRadio.
0:18
Speaker 2: Uh, y'all. Today we are doing things a bit differently
0:23
Speaker 2: for our Feminist Book Club. You know how we love
0:26
Speaker 2: to throw in different types of books and reading materials,
0:29
Speaker 2: and so today we're decided we're gonna take on a cookbook. Yeah,
0:33
Speaker 2: and I feel like we've been talking about Puerto Rican
0:36
Speaker 2: culture a bit more than usual, which I love, so
0:40
Speaker 2: fils are appropriate that we are actually going to feature
0:43
Speaker 2: Ileana Masonette's Dsporican the Cookbook. And it's a Puerto Rican
0:48
Speaker 2: cookbook that's not a Puerto Rican cookbook, as she would say,
0:51
Speaker 2: I think. And this is from her website, Ileana Maisonette
0:55
Speaker 2: dot com. Ileana Masonette spent years documenting her family's Puerto
0:59
Speaker 2: Rican resides and preserving the islands disappearing food waste through rigorous,
1:03
Speaker 2: often bilingual research. In Dasporikan, she shares over ninety recipes,
1:09
Speaker 2: some of which were passed down from her grandmother and mother,
1:11
Speaker 2: Classics such as tostanes pernil and erls con gandules, as
1:15
Speaker 2: well as pinchols with barbecue, guava, sauce rabbit frigacy with
1:19
Speaker 2: chote and Flon de Casol. There's a lot in there, y'all.
1:23
Speaker 2: There's a lot of It's a giant book, wonderful pictures,
1:26
Speaker 2: really great storytelling as well, don't you read any.
1:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, she gives so much context and background and personal
1:33
Speaker 1: experiences that the photographs are amazing, and it was There's
1:40
Speaker 1: just so many different recipes in there, and all of
1:43
Speaker 1: them tell kind of the history of Puerto Rico on
1:46
Speaker 1: how they ended up there. So it was great read
1:49
Speaker 1: with great recipes.
1:50
Speaker 2: Yes, and yeah, she really has a huge variety of
1:54
Speaker 2: recipes that we can use for this. Annie and I
1:57
Speaker 2: decided to pick different recipes as dry and I actually
2:00
Speaker 2: too because I was like, oh, these are easy, let
2:02
Speaker 2: me let me do these two. And I will say,
2:04
Speaker 2: I think it's like cheat sheet level of like I
2:06
Speaker 2: picked the recipes, it is like ingredients I can find
2:09
Speaker 2: very minimal cook time, thank you very much. And we
2:15
Speaker 2: are really fortunate that I'm specifically very close to an
2:20
Speaker 2: international market that has a lot of Latino and Asian
2:24
Speaker 2: ingredients that you can't find on a regular so I
2:27
Speaker 2: was able to it to take me some hunting, though.
2:29
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, we'll find this Weirdly enough, one
2:32
Speaker 2: of the ingredients polina, I could not find except for
2:36
Speaker 2: the American I'm putting this in quote section that they
2:38
Speaker 2: have in the international market because I think they just
2:41
Speaker 2: use corn corn mill, but she said polina, and I
2:46
Speaker 2: am a stickler. I'm like, I gotta figure out exactly
2:48
Speaker 2: what this is. But for the most part, when you
2:51
Speaker 2: read her book, she talks about the corn mill and
2:53
Speaker 2: it's from a specific type of corn flint. I'm assuming
2:56
Speaker 2: you already know this any a safer Yeah, yeah, she's not. Yes,
3:01
Speaker 2: So I couldn't find that. So I was like, you
3:03
Speaker 2: know what, I need to stick with the polenta, even
3:05
Speaker 2: though it's the same thing, and I'm going to do it.
3:08
Speaker 2: And I did. But again, like I said, I didn't
3:09
Speaker 2: find it in the Mexican Flash Latino section. It was
3:14
Speaker 2: in the America quote unquote American section. That's interesting, right,
3:19
Speaker 2: I just don't think I understood what I was looking for,
3:22
Speaker 2: to be honest, because I'm such a like on edge
3:25
Speaker 2: about making sure I get the exact ingredient, especially for
3:29
Speaker 2: the initial Are you like.
3:31
Speaker 1: That's funny because I'm like, this will have to do.
3:37
Speaker 2: That's what I am really good at that I was
3:39
Speaker 2: just thinking about the talent that comes with cooking and baking.
3:42
Speaker 2: Baking is different, I know, but like the level of
3:45
Speaker 2: creativity you have to have to make things, and for me,
3:48
Speaker 2: I need everything prepared beforehand, like I need to know
3:52
Speaker 2: what I need to have it and not have a
3:54
Speaker 2: panic attack about not having that ingredient, which is an
3:57
Speaker 2: odd thing. And I think it's a talent but what
3:59
Speaker 2: I but yeah, So back to when it comes to
4:03
Speaker 2: Puerto Rican cuisine, it is flavorful, unique and diverse, and
4:08
Speaker 2: Masonette does a beautiful job not only sharing her love
4:12
Speaker 2: for the food, but her love for her family and heritage.
4:15
Speaker 2: Because it is a cookbook, it isn't your typical biography
4:19
Speaker 2: or autobiography or memoir obviously, but she does a great
4:23
Speaker 2: job in folding in her stories and life lessons with
4:26
Speaker 2: a recipe. So let's jump in. We're going to do
4:30
Speaker 2: themes with quotes, so follow a longer if you can.
4:33
Speaker 2: And when I say themes, we're just gonna go with
4:35
Speaker 2: her recipe, like with her categories and types of recipes,
4:39
Speaker 2: So follow if you can. If you can't, you should
4:41
Speaker 2: also buy this book because you should, like it's a
4:43
Speaker 2: fantastic cookbook. In general. She begins her book with the
4:47
Speaker 2: memories of our grandparents immigrating to the west of the
4:50
Speaker 2: US and the food that influenced her life, and how
4:53
Speaker 2: her culture has transformed through the pains of colonization but
4:57
Speaker 2: still remain deep in their original culture, and why she
5:01
Speaker 2: wrote this book.
5:02
Speaker 1: Yes, here is a quote. There are Puerto Ricans who
5:05
Speaker 1: don't know about their own cuisine, no shade. That tends
5:08
Speaker 1: to happen when you believe it is your birthright, you
5:11
Speaker 1: take it for granted. Sometimes it feels like somewhere along
5:14
Speaker 1: the line, Puerto Rican's lost their way and with it
5:17
Speaker 1: their food, with colonization that isn't entirely unintentional. There can
5:21
Speaker 1: be several arguments against why there's no emphasis on the
5:24
Speaker 1: beauty of Puerto Rican cuisine. Puerto Ricans don't tend to
5:28
Speaker 1: be cerebral about their food, but rather emotional.
5:32
Speaker 2: Oh and I'm going to reference this a lot because
5:34
Speaker 2: I have a pretty good friend who is Puerto Rican
5:37
Speaker 2: and he actually started a restaurant called me a Boilis
5:42
Speaker 2: with his sister, and he wanted to focus on Puerto
5:45
Speaker 2: Rican food. And he was the first one to introduce
5:48
Speaker 2: me to this type of food. And that is so correct,
5:53
Speaker 2: that level of like emotion. He cooks with feeling, he
5:57
Speaker 2: cooks with love, and he says that, and I know
5:59
Speaker 2: that's kind of gooey type of thing to say in cooking,
6:01
Speaker 2: but he truly did. This is how he cooked with
6:04
Speaker 2: love and with honor to dedicate to his grandparents and
6:09
Speaker 2: his parents, and really pushed it forward. And it's interesting
6:14
Speaker 2: to see her recipes and the similarities and then also
6:17
Speaker 2: the love that she has and the memory she has
6:20
Speaker 2: of our family, because he puts the same amount of
6:23
Speaker 2: dedication in his food, and you can tell, like it
6:26
Speaker 2: is so beautiful. But going back to what we were
6:29
Speaker 2: talking about, she writes, we are Teano, Spanish and African.
6:33
Speaker 2: The peaceful Tano was never native to the Caribbeans, much
6:36
Speaker 2: like their enemies, They migrated to the Antilles from South America.
6:40
Speaker 2: Lots of Tano culture still runs through our veins and
6:43
Speaker 2: our vocabulary words such as barbecue, hammock, canoe, and iguana.
6:47
Speaker 2: The Tano presence is still felt of the island of Borinquan.
6:50
Speaker 2: The Tano called the island Borinquans land of the Brave Lord,
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Speaker 2: which is why Puerto Ricans call themselves Barriqua's to this day.
6:58
Speaker 2: My grandparents came to Sacramento from Puerto Rico in nineteen
7:01
Speaker 2: fifty six, so my grandmother didn't adopt many of the
7:03
Speaker 2: gastronomic influences that the US had on Puerto Rico. If
7:07
Speaker 2: we had ever added ketchup to her pastelles, she'd lose
7:11
Speaker 2: her mind, which I think is funny because they do
7:13
Speaker 2: love some ketchup. When I was in Puerto Rico for
7:15
Speaker 2: a short time, they love their ketchup too.
7:19
Speaker 1: I do too, and it's it's one of those things
7:22
Speaker 1: which again has a lot of downsides, but when you
7:27
Speaker 1: see like how cuisines come together, Ketchup is one that
7:30
Speaker 1: shows up in a lot of different places and you're like, oh, catchup,
7:36
Speaker 1: and I'm.
7:36
Speaker 2: Going to talk a little bit. But like the Mayo Ketchup,
7:38
Speaker 2: which that's one of their sauces, that's all that is international.
7:42
Speaker 2: It's such a weird like phenomenon of the like Mayo
7:45
Speaker 2: being huge, Ketchup being huge, and they're like, we're going
7:48
Speaker 2: to combine these. And when he when he first introduced me,
7:53
Speaker 2: because I'm like, I hate Mayo, but he was like
7:55
Speaker 2: this is I'm like, I'm not making that. That's disgusting. Again,
7:58
Speaker 2: nothing to do with the culture is everything to do
8:00
Speaker 2: with Mayo. I despise it so much. But yeah, and
8:05
Speaker 2: going back about Masonette's own experience, she says, I grew
8:09
Speaker 2: up in the unincorporated county of South Sacramento, a place
8:13
Speaker 2: that often feels forsaken. It was a neighborhood where you
8:15
Speaker 2: could tell what time of year it was by the
8:17
Speaker 2: activities being performed. And then she goes on it was
8:20
Speaker 2: a working class part of town, consisting of a diverse
8:23
Speaker 2: immigrant population and a dining scene that reflected it. The
8:27
Speaker 2: smell of charred chiles and cooking cortillas and the sound
8:30
Speaker 2: of a wooden pestle pounding against the crook would escort
8:33
Speaker 2: you on your evening walks home, all smells and ingredients
8:37
Speaker 2: that would inevitably end up in my Californian, Puerto Rican
8:40
Speaker 2: or callea Rican cooking style. And that's why this is
8:44
Speaker 2: not a Puerto Rican cookbook. This book is for the
8:46
Speaker 2: diaspor Rican, the five point five million people living stateside
8:50
Speaker 2: who continue to cook the food of our homeland. This
8:53
Speaker 2: is for the tribe of the nide Qui nide Aya,
8:56
Speaker 2: not from here, not from there. I thought it was
8:59
Speaker 2: beautiful well, and I think it's speaks to so many
9:04
Speaker 2: people immigrants and refugees and people who have multicultural background.
9:09
Speaker 2: It reflects, you know, that feeling of being assimilated but
9:14
Speaker 2: at the same time keeping your own, and so what
9:16
Speaker 2: that looks like when you start diverging the two is
9:19
Speaker 2: quite beautiful. So Masonette starts off her cooking book with
9:24
Speaker 2: a one on one on traditions and flavors as well
9:27
Speaker 2: as the ingredients or the tastes and seasonings of Puerto
9:32
Speaker 2: Rican cuisine, and she of course talks about washing of meat.
9:36
Speaker 2: I swear it's I think I'm gonna say just people
9:39
Speaker 2: of color who talk about this, because Asian people do
9:41
Speaker 2: this too a lot. And then going back and forth
9:44
Speaker 2: of like do you do this, she talked about the
9:47
Speaker 2: fact that she does not wash her meat, but she
9:49
Speaker 2: does pad it down, and I was like, that's the
9:51
Speaker 2: new generation of understanding. Okay, don't don't wash chicken because
9:55
Speaker 2: if you do, who you're just spreading more germs. Stop that.
9:58
Speaker 2: Stop it. But that's the the thing is still a thing,
10:01
Speaker 2: as well as the other hotly like hotly contested rinsing
10:06
Speaker 2: of the rice, yeah, which you need to rinse your rice, y'all.
10:11
Speaker 2: If you're if you're, if you're making home and he's
10:13
Speaker 2: looking down, I have a feeling she does not, but.
10:15
Speaker 1: I do rince noodles. I rinch rice noodles, but not rice.
10:19
Speaker 1: I know, makes sense. I'm an enigma.
10:24
Speaker 2: That's the opposite. Anyway. Going back to and of course
10:28
Speaker 2: the different flavors and sauces like Mayo ketchup, which we
10:31
Speaker 2: just talked about, which is essentially what you think it is. Yeah,
10:34
Speaker 2: Mao and ketchup and combined. But it is a specialty
10:37
Speaker 2: sauce that they named Mao ketchup. At least it's on point.
10:40
Speaker 2: I will say that. You know.
10:42
Speaker 1: The interesting thing though, is being on a food show
10:46
Speaker 1: every now and then I'll just say something and people
10:49
Speaker 1: will write it and they'll be like, actually, this is
10:51
Speaker 1: a huge thing in Utah. I'm pretty sure they call
10:54
Speaker 1: it fry ketchup. It's Mayo and ketchup, but they call
11:00
Speaker 1: it fred ketchup. And I've never heard of price sauce.
11:03
Speaker 2: That's and you know what that is in like the
11:05
Speaker 2: South that was an island.
11:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the thing.
11:09
Speaker 2: We have all regional, which I never liked and I
11:12
Speaker 2: cannot stand and I knew it from childhood, and my
11:15
Speaker 2: mother tried to check me into eat well. My mother
11:17
Speaker 2: was really obsessed with me eating mayo.
11:19
Speaker 1: Man, I don't know why. It's like a lot of
11:22
Speaker 1: Southern foods.
11:23
Speaker 2: I guess so, and I hated it. I hated as
11:25
Speaker 2: a kid. Well, did I tell you that my dad
11:28
Speaker 2: admitted that he remembers those incidents because my mom has
11:31
Speaker 2: now gotten to the point which I think we all
11:32
Speaker 2: get to when you're like, oh, yeah, I try to
11:34
Speaker 2: traumatize my kid, so I'm gonna I didn't do it.
11:37
Speaker 2: My mother was like, I don't. I don't remember trying
11:40
Speaker 2: to sneak in Mayo and.
11:42
Speaker 1: Your girl trees.
11:42
Speaker 2: And my dad waited till she left, and he was like,
11:44
Speaker 2: I remember that, Smantha, it happened, never fear. I was
11:52
Speaker 2: like you, and he did in front of my partner,
11:54
Speaker 2: So I was like, see anyway. But Thousand Islands also
11:58
Speaker 2: was my family's uh dressing. So because I didn't like it,
12:03
Speaker 2: she eventually relented and got me Italian. Yeah, but like
12:07
Speaker 2: for the longest time, that was also a point of
12:10
Speaker 2: contingent in our house because I did not like it.
12:12
Speaker 2: Turns out it's just pretty much mail cotch up with relish,
12:16
Speaker 2: which makes that worse to me, but whatever. And then
12:19
Speaker 2: of course the very famous safrito. We don't really talk
12:23
Speaker 2: much about this in We won't be talking about much
12:26
Speaker 2: about this in the episode, but she has an amazing
12:29
Speaker 2: recipe in there and talks about the different ways to
12:31
Speaker 2: make it and like the depths and the history behind it,
12:34
Speaker 2: like the Chile's and bring in all the different types
12:37
Speaker 2: of spices and to remind people spices not necessarily spicy,
12:42
Speaker 2: so spices good use it anyway. Moving on, so sofrito
12:47
Speaker 2: is what she says is the soul of Puerto Rican cooking.
12:50
Speaker 2: A fleck day are based that starts and ends almost
12:54
Speaker 2: every savory recipe in the card file. So if you
12:58
Speaker 2: want to truly understand in Puerto Rican cuisine, figure out
13:02
Speaker 2: the sofrito. Okay okay. In her book, she divides her
13:10
Speaker 2: recipes under these categories for doras, bean, soup and stews, seafood, poultry, pork, beef,
13:18
Speaker 2: rice and other grains, salads and sides, sweets and drinks.
13:21
Speaker 2: So those are the different sections that you should go
13:24
Speaker 2: look into. We're gonna talk a little bit about each section,
13:28
Speaker 2: and then when it comes to the section that any
13:30
Speaker 2: Night cook from, which is not till the end because
13:33
Speaker 2: gotta wait, gotta hold you in suspense. But yeah, so
13:39
Speaker 2: we're gonna go talk a little bit about them. But
13:41
Speaker 2: there's so many different recipes in the history of the
13:44
Speaker 2: food in Puerto Rico's pretty, uh, heartbreaking and enlightening at
13:50
Speaker 2: the same time. So you really should get this book.
13:53
Speaker 2: Bet Duves. A shout out to colt Flaves, which is
13:57
Speaker 2: a YouTube channel slash. I watched them on TikTok as
14:01
Speaker 2: a couple who reviews different books and how like accessible
14:04
Speaker 2: it is, and they recommended this book and loved this book,
14:07
Speaker 2: and I was like, yeah, so that's kind of where
14:10
Speaker 2: I got this book from.
14:12
Speaker 1: FYI.
14:14
Speaker 2: So going to Fretturas or Fritter's, she begins the chapter
14:18
Speaker 2: talking about her angsty teenage years and about how her
14:22
Speaker 2: family was interconnected or reconnected through the baccolottos, and this
14:28
Speaker 2: is what she writes about it. Before you even taste
14:31
Speaker 2: the flavor of baccalatto, you hear the crunch, the shatter.
14:35
Speaker 2: The center was toothsome like ar hints our people's resistance,
14:40
Speaker 2: salty from the tears we've shed. But the edges were delicate,
14:43
Speaker 2: and vulnerable, like when we reveal our underbellies. A boila
14:47
Speaker 2: amilias baccolatto was also familiar. I had eaten it before
14:51
Speaker 2: because it was my nana's bacolatto. They hadn't seen each
14:54
Speaker 2: other in forty years, but their identical baccolatos proved they
14:58
Speaker 2: were still connected, whether they liked it or not. And I,
15:03
Speaker 2: oh man, this sounds amazing. I love the way she
15:06
Speaker 2: wrote this, and I do remember these. I did eat
15:08
Speaker 2: some in Puerto Rico and I'm like, yeah, I want one.
15:12
Speaker 2: I'm craving it now, like I want to. This is
15:15
Speaker 2: something you would dip in the mail ketchup. Some people
15:17
Speaker 2: would breaking their hearts. But I just know, like kind
15:23
Speaker 2: of right up there with the tostona ass which I
15:26
Speaker 2: have made. So I'm gonna reference again my friend who
15:29
Speaker 2: ran the restaurant I would help, and this is the
15:31
Speaker 2: one thing he put me on. He's like, you can't
15:33
Speaker 2: stick this up right, so let me put you on these.
15:36
Speaker 2: It is satisfying the little testonic makers that you crush
15:40
Speaker 2: and you see those little tiny like platinums just like
15:43
Speaker 2: squished that You're like, yeah, I did that, and then
15:45
Speaker 2: they come out all crispy and fried and salty and yummy.
15:51
Speaker 2: I need one.
15:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you do. I do.
15:56
Speaker 2: I got some Puerto Rican food too. And then the
16:09
Speaker 2: next chapter is beans, soup and stews. She writes this
16:13
Speaker 2: about her grandmother, and I thought it feels so familiar.
16:16
Speaker 2: Just when you talk about soups and anything stews and hardy,
16:19
Speaker 2: you know this. And also when it comes to Latina
16:23
Speaker 2: cultures and Puerto Rican cultures, beans are on a different level.
16:28
Speaker 2: You know. When you have these beans, it's not what
16:30
Speaker 2: you would get from your from my white mother. I
16:33
Speaker 2: love you, mom, but I don't like your black eyed peas. Anyway.
16:37
Speaker 2: Moving on, here's what she writes. When guests line up
16:41
Speaker 2: in the warm kitchen, the frenzy of gathering and passing
16:44
Speaker 2: plates and utensels begin. We serve ourselves from the steaming
16:48
Speaker 2: pots of beans and rice on the stove, grabbing a
16:50
Speaker 2: few tortillas, we sit down at the aged dining room
16:53
Speaker 2: table and silently dig into our homemade tortillas. Beans and
16:56
Speaker 2: rice home made. The beans are simple, only five ingredients,
17:02
Speaker 2: and yet they are buttery, creamy, salty, and floral. They
17:06
Speaker 2: are meaty and melty. We're all thinking this is the
17:09
Speaker 2: single best thing I've eaten in a long time. My
17:13
Speaker 2: Nina apologizes for not having company appropriate food in the house.
17:17
Speaker 2: She complains that the tortillas are tough they are not,
17:20
Speaker 2: and the beans are too simple they're not. And my
17:23
Speaker 2: mom finally tells her, oh, will you shut up and eat?
17:27
Speaker 2: And that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I
17:32
Speaker 2: feel like this is just all cultures when it comes
17:34
Speaker 2: to a matriarch in general, that they know that they
17:37
Speaker 2: made something good, but they have to just in case
17:41
Speaker 2: downplay it and criticize it and wait for the compliments
17:46
Speaker 2: to roll in. But I will say for myself, and
17:49
Speaker 2: I think for a lot of especially Southern women, they
17:51
Speaker 2: really do doubt that. They really are like questioning whether
17:54
Speaker 2: or not it's that good, and then people have to
17:57
Speaker 2: validate it. It's not. It's not passively aggressive thing, not
18:00
Speaker 2: for everyone, but it's truely like, it's not my best,
18:05
Speaker 2: this is how I would improve it, but everybody's like, no,
18:07
Speaker 2: it's amazing.
18:07
Speaker 1: Shut up. Yeah, my mom is really bad about this everything.
18:14
Speaker 1: She's like, oh, I should have had this, and I
18:15
Speaker 1: shouldn't have done this. This is too dry, or this
18:18
Speaker 1: is too and we're all like this is delicious. We
18:21
Speaker 1: love it. And she's even said, you know, if you
18:23
Speaker 1: cooked for me, I wouldn't have this. I wouldn't be like,
18:27
Speaker 1: oh I should have had this or this or this.
18:29
Speaker 1: It's only it. Yeah m hm.
18:32
Speaker 2: That's self criticism, but it's always delicious and like having
18:37
Speaker 2: that like that kind of there's like a bean soup
18:40
Speaker 2: ish and she immediately says, beans are not stew. This
18:44
Speaker 2: is not soup. But it's a meal that could stand
18:47
Speaker 2: on its own. And it really is like having a
18:49
Speaker 2: good actually well made m h. Like Mexican Puerto Rican beans.
18:56
Speaker 2: It's so satisfying. It's just delicious and you eat it
19:00
Speaker 2: up with that rice and homemade tortilla. Yeah, I will
19:04
Speaker 2: always pick that over it. I will pay the extra
19:06
Speaker 2: two dollars, give me the homemade tortilla. There's something to it.
19:13
Speaker 2: I remember. Yeah, I went to Mexico, that's what. And
19:18
Speaker 2: like watching them many going into the smaller villages where
19:21
Speaker 2: they did still do the wooden stoves or the fire
19:24
Speaker 2: stoves outside or like separately from their home because it
19:28
Speaker 2: was a danger and watching them do those magic and
19:32
Speaker 2: the taste it was just flower and water, but it's
19:35
Speaker 2: delicious or corn and water. Amazing, amazing, yeah.
19:41
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was in Mexico once and I just went
19:46
Speaker 1: down like an alleyway to the first restaurant I found,
19:48
Speaker 1: and it was like some of the best tacos I've
19:49
Speaker 1: ever had in my entire life.
19:52
Speaker 2: Bar none, like amazing when things are homemade.
19:55
Speaker 1: Mm hmm, it's so good.
19:57
Speaker 2: That's so different.
19:59
Speaker 1: There is there is Okay, Okay, now you're getting to
20:03
Speaker 1: experience what I go through her savor all the time.
20:08
Speaker 1: Every time you're like, I have to get this in this.
20:10
Speaker 2: And then yeah, well that's what I do with watching food,
20:12
Speaker 2: like watching TV, especially like culinary shows. I'm like, well
20:15
Speaker 2: I have to eat that now.
20:17
Speaker 1: Yep, that's just how it is. That Well, moving on,
20:23
Speaker 1: that does bring us to the next section, which was
20:25
Speaker 1: on seafood. Here's a quote. People think of seafood when
20:29
Speaker 1: they think of the islands, but are often disappointed when
20:31
Speaker 1: they go to Puerto Rico. I'm frequently asked, where's the
20:33
Speaker 1: fresh seafood? The easiest answer that I can offer is
20:36
Speaker 1: they export most of it. Between pollution and the complex
20:39
Speaker 1: regulations governing local fishing, the island's own fishing industry could
20:43
Speaker 1: never truly develop.
20:45
Speaker 2: Right, And I know you probably have a lot to
20:47
Speaker 2: say on this because you have you talked about like
20:51
Speaker 2: the export and port of Puerto Rico.
20:53
Speaker 1: Yes, and we've also talked about it specifically in this case,
20:58
Speaker 1: I would say Hawaii because they also kind of got
21:03
Speaker 1: hamstrung by US laws about fishing and where you can
21:08
Speaker 1: fish and when you can fish when they had been
21:10
Speaker 1: doing it responsibly for like ever, but they were getting
21:13
Speaker 1: punished for it. And so yeah, it's really complicated the
21:18
Speaker 1: situation of import export, especially with islands often.
21:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, and when it comes to I need more about
21:25
Speaker 2: the history of Puerto Rico again because they spend some
21:28
Speaker 2: time there and they it's pretty rough. The statehood of
21:31
Speaker 2: Puerto Rico, the desire to be independent from the US,
21:36
Speaker 2: rightly so, the colonization, history of colonization that happened on
21:40
Speaker 2: Puerto Rico, and just a chaos that happens. We saw
21:43
Speaker 2: this with Hurricane Maria, how little the US government did
21:48
Speaker 2: in helping them and assisting them, and still they're still struggling.
21:51
Speaker 2: They're still struggling with aftermath, and we know they're continue
21:54
Speaker 2: to be bombarded with different hurricanes and storms that have
21:57
Speaker 2: happened and continue to happen, and they're not getting much
22:00
Speaker 2: rice I think it took a long time to even
22:02
Speaker 2: get voting rice. They are heavily taxed, and then also
22:06
Speaker 2: they are heavily regulated, way more so than within the
22:11
Speaker 2: US mainland. So there's a conversation and they even she
22:14
Speaker 2: even writes in the book about how they feel like
22:16
Speaker 2: the Disney version of their island is Hawaii because they've
22:21
Speaker 2: they've figured it a little more out and they have
22:24
Speaker 2: done a little better with the battles. Not great, but
22:27
Speaker 2: you know, because there's still very much there's a lot
22:30
Speaker 2: wanting when it comes to regulation and the over taxing
22:35
Speaker 2: and the abuse from the United States government. But all
22:39
Speaker 2: that is say is stuff like that, and so they do.
22:41
Speaker 2: They have lost a lot of their own products and
22:47
Speaker 2: their own exports, like they've lost a lot of money.
22:50
Speaker 2: So there's a lot to be said about that, as
22:52
Speaker 2: well as the amount of taxation and regulation that they
22:57
Speaker 2: go through. It's expensive Puerto ricospens because of that, and
23:01
Speaker 2: yet people still trying to colonize it. So moving on,
23:06
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about poultry. And I love this
23:09
Speaker 2: beginning story because it just reasons so much. She tells
23:12
Speaker 2: the story of chef Adela Fargas so Adela. She starts
23:16
Speaker 2: who is a famous chef I believe in was a
23:19
Speaker 2: famous chef in New York and here's what she had
23:22
Speaker 2: to say about her. Adela hustled in La Caye, selling
23:26
Speaker 2: Puerto Rican street snacks to the community. Soon after, she
23:29
Speaker 2: opened her own restaurant where she cooked order in Kucho,
23:32
Speaker 2: Frito land of heat, lamp and steam table, speed service
23:36
Speaker 2: and almost folkloric work ethic of our Puerto Rican Abuela's.
23:40
Speaker 2: From Adela's generation, it was nothing for her to awaken
23:43
Speaker 2: at the crack of dawn to head to the restaurant.
23:46
Speaker 2: She started the day by cooking her pernill, a large
23:48
Speaker 2: pork shoulder that was slow roasted until the skin became
23:51
Speaker 2: thin and crispy and refracted like untempered glass. The meat
23:56
Speaker 2: was spoon tender, but it was her roasted chicken for
23:59
Speaker 2: which she became famous. Patrons would drop in after work
24:02
Speaker 2: to purchase her chicken on their way home, and so
24:05
Speaker 2: Adela would spend the day cooking with a restless affection
24:09
Speaker 2: for her craft and our hinte, keeping a watchful eye
24:12
Speaker 2: in the community until she called it at night around
24:14
Speaker 2: at around eleven o'clock. And in that story, they talk
24:18
Speaker 2: about a poet who would often come through. She would
24:20
Speaker 2: feed him because he would go through hard times, and
24:23
Speaker 2: he dedicated a whole poem to her food and her craft. Again,
24:27
Speaker 2: go get this book because you need to read this
24:29
Speaker 2: poem and this story that he writes. But people like
24:32
Speaker 2: her who really put a mark for Puerto Rican cuisine
24:37
Speaker 2: because and pernil, y'all, that is a feat like I
24:42
Speaker 2: like I said, watching the friend cook as much as
24:46
Speaker 2: he did, and a dedication it takes to cook this
24:49
Speaker 2: food anyway. But it did make me want the roasted chicken,
24:54
Speaker 2: and I'm sad I'm never gonna have.
24:55
Speaker 3: It her specifically, but specifically, yes, yeah, not like maybe
25:04
Speaker 3: inspired by her, I would definitely have roached chicken.
25:06
Speaker 2: That's not a thing I meant like by.
25:08
Speaker 1: Her specific Yeah, I got you, okay.
25:10
Speaker 2: And then were moving on to pork and yeah, so
25:13
Speaker 2: pork's a big deal in Puerto Rican cuisine. Here's what
25:17
Speaker 2: she says, Ah, pork monarch of colonial proteins seen in
25:21
Speaker 2: many of our celebratory foods. Pork is king in Puerto Rico,
25:25
Speaker 2: but not because it was native to the culture. So
25:28
Speaker 2: she kind of explains how Columbus comes in. It was
25:31
Speaker 2: like Hey, there's nothing here. If we want people to survive,
25:33
Speaker 2: we're going to have to help out. So she writes,
25:36
Speaker 2: as far as Columbus was concerned, this land required everything,
25:40
Speaker 2: everything that the colonists were going to need to supply
25:43
Speaker 2: their long term stay. And she goes on to talk
25:46
Speaker 2: about one of those resources left by Columbus being livestock,
25:50
Speaker 2: including pigs, including hogs, and how that kind of became
25:53
Speaker 2: like the rich people food, which again colonization really does
25:57
Speaker 2: a lot to that. Again talking about perno it is
26:02
Speaker 2: a halt feet like the actual process of it all
26:05
Speaker 2: and making sure that it's perfect and the skin is
26:07
Speaker 2: still perfect. Again, shout out to my friend Luise. He
26:11
Speaker 2: did a vegan version and it was good.
26:15
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
26:17
Speaker 2: Silly me because he tied. He had to tie so
26:21
Speaker 2: the way he makes it, he pretty much created pork
26:25
Speaker 2: shoulder type of thing. He tied it with like the
26:28
Speaker 2: cooking string. I didn't know with cooking stree and I
26:31
Speaker 2: tried to eat it.
26:32
Speaker 1: Did anyone see?
26:34
Speaker 3: Oh?
26:35
Speaker 2: You know me? I had to tell on myself because
26:38
Speaker 2: I was sitting there chewing on it for a good minute,
26:40
Speaker 2: like what is this? And I pulled it out and
26:41
Speaker 2: I was like oh, and they're like, what is it?
26:44
Speaker 2: I was like, I tried to eat this, and of
26:46
Speaker 2: course I became the butt of the joke for the
26:48
Speaker 2: rest of the night, as I should. But yeah, yeah,
26:50
Speaker 2: but it was really good. So Louise heats off because
26:53
Speaker 2: he does an amazing job and turning these dishes vegan
26:56
Speaker 2: or vegetarian friendly. Amazing people might be offended by that.
27:01
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know if Portocan's like, what
27:03
Speaker 2: are you doing to my name?
27:04
Speaker 1: I mean, people like to fight about that no matter what.
27:06
Speaker 1: Some people will be like they just like to fight
27:09
Speaker 1: about it every show.
27:10
Speaker 2: He did this fantastic job. He did his job by it.
27:14
Speaker 2: But you know, there's that. But just so y'all know,
27:16
Speaker 2: don't need the string Park.
27:18
Speaker 1: If you needed any advice, be on the lookout that
27:26
Speaker 1: brings us to beef. Quote. The Hipperito was created in Chicago,
27:30
Speaker 1: making it a diasper Rican creation. In the late nineteen nineties,
27:34
Speaker 1: Jan Peter Figueroa and his brothers owned Borriquin restaurant and
27:38
Speaker 1: the predominantly Puerto Rican community of Humboldt Park. Figaroa got
27:42
Speaker 1: the idea for this dish from a recipe in Puerto
27:45
Speaker 1: Rican newspaper El Valcero for a sandwich deep plantano, which
27:49
Speaker 1: used two big tustone's instead of bread.
27:53
Speaker 2: Ooh yeah, so the sandwich de platano. Apparently there's a
27:59
Speaker 2: restaurant that they got this recipe from and it still
28:02
Speaker 2: exists in Puerto Rico. Again, this is written in her book,
28:05
Speaker 2: so that was publishably last year. I'm assuming it's still there.
28:09
Speaker 2: You never know, but that sandwich was absolutely inspired by that.
28:13
Speaker 2: But yeah, this was a creation by fickeeroa and fun
28:17
Speaker 2: side piece that the fact that Chicago proudly claims the
28:20
Speaker 2: sandwich as they should, but they this is this is Chicago,
28:27
Speaker 2: like this is there, like yeah, this is my baby,
28:29
Speaker 2: don't touch it type of conversation, So be careful what
28:32
Speaker 2: you say. Be careful in Chicago specifically. But yeah, you know,
28:38
Speaker 2: I love a good Puerto Rican sandwich anyway, because that Pernill.
28:44
Speaker 2: Also they do like a left of a Pernell sandwich
28:46
Speaker 2: and it's so tasty, like it's on par with a
28:49
Speaker 2: Cuban and it's just like a Cuban sandwich, you know,
28:53
Speaker 2: if you know, you know, the hemolas, the mustard pickle,
28:56
Speaker 2: all of us, all perfectly flying. I'm a need. I'm struggling,
29:02
Speaker 2: Like my mouth is watering as we're talking. Yeah, struggle
29:06
Speaker 2: bust in here. But yeah, those sandwiches they hit and
29:09
Speaker 2: they hit good, yes, But moving on to the rice
29:24
Speaker 2: and other grains, and here I start my venture. Any
29:27
Speaker 2: and I decided again I would make the food chair.
29:29
Speaker 2: And here's what she wrote about food chair. There are
29:32
Speaker 2: no grits in Puerto Rico, not even as an import item,
29:36
Speaker 2: which I find is true for many places. Nobody really
29:39
Speaker 2: cares about grits except for the South. I feel like anyway,
29:43
Speaker 2: but cornmill has been utilized by the inhabitants of the
29:47
Speaker 2: island since long before the conquestadors baby blues sparkled on
29:50
Speaker 2: the horizon. Just as grits are mostly eaten for breakfast
29:54
Speaker 2: in the American South, foond chair is mostly eaten for
29:57
Speaker 2: breakfast by the older Puerto Ricans. I feel like I
30:00
Speaker 2: just got called out because I was like, yeah, I'll
30:03
Speaker 2: eat this, but it's okay. And talking about corn, she
30:08
Speaker 2: goes on to say, the relationship between Puerto Rican and
30:12
Speaker 2: corn goes back further. Despite what many state siders assume
30:16
Speaker 2: is a love affair between Puerto Ricans and rice, corn
30:19
Speaker 2: was a stable that was essential to the indigenous Tatos
30:21
Speaker 2: who inhabited Blorinquin long before Europeans landed. The Danos planted
30:27
Speaker 2: and harvested corn in fertile soil and were even documented
30:30
Speaker 2: as preparing corn dumplings. So this was in conversation about
30:34
Speaker 2: where rice came from, and that was actually a colonial thing.
30:38
Speaker 2: They did not have rice beforehand, but they've had corn,
30:41
Speaker 2: and I think that's kind of the story about like
30:43
Speaker 2: North America in general, like having corn first and what
30:47
Speaker 2: that looks like. And yet so I made this dish.
30:49
Speaker 2: This is my adventures in trying to find polina, and
30:52
Speaker 2: I finally found it. It took me forever. I looked
30:56
Speaker 2: like an obvious foreigner in the aisles of the Latino
31:01
Speaker 2: grocery section that I was like, I don't know where
31:03
Speaker 2: this is. Finally found it and it is really delicious.
31:07
Speaker 2: It's a little bit sweeter. So according to Maisonette, her
31:10
Speaker 2: grandmother would do contenus milk and cinnamon and brown sugar,
31:15
Speaker 2: so that was very sweet. So kind of oatmeal porridge,
31:17
Speaker 2: which I feel like we need to have this conversation
31:20
Speaker 2: in food in general about how porridge is worldwide, like
31:25
Speaker 2: it is a version of it, whether it's rice, whether
31:28
Speaker 2: it's corn, exists, and like everybody eats it and everybody
31:31
Speaker 2: finds healing within those dishes. I love it. But anyway,
31:36
Speaker 2: coming back to so, I made it and she calls
31:39
Speaker 2: for coconut milk and then tons of butter and a
31:42
Speaker 2: lot of thyme, because I'm like, oh my god, oh
31:44
Speaker 2: my god, I can do this, I can do this,
31:46
Speaker 2: and it came out really good. She serves it with
31:49
Speaker 2: shrimp like a shrimp a play on shrimp and grits,
31:52
Speaker 2: and I can see how it's really good. But I
31:55
Speaker 2: decided to like honor the grandmother way and use brown
31:59
Speaker 2: sugar and all that. It was really good. I got
32:02
Speaker 2: so excited about it. I ate a big bowl and
32:04
Speaker 2: gave my partner some and we both really liked it.
32:06
Speaker 2: And then I was like, I'm going in for a second.
32:08
Speaker 2: I forget how heavy corn yeah when it comes, especially
32:13
Speaker 2: ground corn, like it sits. And I was like, oh,
32:15
Speaker 2: I'm besick.
32:18
Speaker 1: Like breakfast because you use it to fuel you the
32:22
Speaker 1: whole day.
32:25
Speaker 2: And I almost eating it like I was never going
32:26
Speaker 2: to eat again. Because when I like something, I get
32:30
Speaker 2: so excited that I was like I need more. Yeah, yeah,
32:35
Speaker 2: one bowl was good and it was so delicious. It
32:38
Speaker 2: was so warm and it was cold that day and rainy.
32:42
Speaker 2: I was very satisfied, Like, I'm gonna make some again,
32:44
Speaker 2: so I have to get more coconut milk because she
32:46
Speaker 2: uses coconut milk instead of condensed milk, and I probably like,
32:50
Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, I think I would be along those
32:51
Speaker 2: lines too, but yeah, don't eat a lot. You don't
32:56
Speaker 2: eat a lot. It's delicious though, And then the next
33:00
Speaker 2: session is salad and size, and she didn't have much
33:03
Speaker 2: to say outside of like, she doesn't like vegetables that much, yeah,
33:10
Speaker 2: which I appreciated, but she's like, I still eat them,
33:13
Speaker 2: don't get me wrong, but I don't like them. She
33:16
Speaker 2: talks about my fungo, which, if you know anything about
33:19
Speaker 2: part Drican culture, this is a pretty big staple. Any
33:22
Speaker 2: did you also do an episode on this?
33:26
Speaker 1: Probably, I guess it's hard to remember it, but I
33:29
Speaker 1: know what it is. I think we have I think
33:33
Speaker 1: explain to us what it is. Don't focus on the
33:37
Speaker 1: spots man.
33:38
Speaker 2: Okay, fine, bye bye, we'll move on. We'll move on
33:40
Speaker 2: for now. But if you know, you know, if you know,
33:43
Speaker 2: you know, the next part is sweets and drinks, and
33:46
Speaker 2: she talks about the fact that sweets are not a
33:49
Speaker 2: big We're not a big thing in Puerto Rico until
33:52
Speaker 2: the Europeans came and the Spanish came, and they brought
33:54
Speaker 2: in like their uh pastries and then you know, if
33:58
Speaker 2: formed from there, and one of my favorites is casitos.
34:02
Speaker 2: So the minute I saw this recipe, I was like,
34:04
Speaker 2: I need to do this because again when I lived
34:07
Speaker 2: and I like, I'm like, when I was there for
34:10
Speaker 2: a summer, right, I was. I was doing the colonizing
34:13
Speaker 2: thing and I'm really sorry for that in Puerto Rico
34:15
Speaker 2: for a summer, but I was also building houses, so
34:18
Speaker 2: very least I was being somewhat somewhat helpful. But there
34:23
Speaker 2: we uh, I would eat casitos. We would find a
34:27
Speaker 2: bakery for me to buy casitos every day, and it's
34:31
Speaker 2: pretty much from when I would buy it there. It
34:33
Speaker 2: was just a cream cheese, a sweet cream cheese pastry.
34:37
Speaker 2: And so she does a take it's the casitos de
34:40
Speaker 2: Queso de Guayaba or guava. So again I was like, yeah,
34:45
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do this again. This
34:48
Speaker 2: is a colonial influence from Europe and made for the rich,
34:53
Speaker 2: and I'm like, oh damn, I'm doing it all wrong.
34:55
Speaker 1: But just did an episode on Cuava, did you well?
34:59
Speaker 1: And we talked about yeah, tell me about it. Oh well,
35:05
Speaker 1: we were mostly talking about how so the cream cheese
35:09
Speaker 1: was really popular in the US. A lot of times
35:13
Speaker 1: people use cream cheese. Not always, but cream Cheese set
35:17
Speaker 1: up at Philadelphia. Cream Cheese set up a factory in Cuba,
35:20
Speaker 1: and so they added guava and they made the pastry
35:24
Speaker 1: which was from Europe. So it's like all of those
35:27
Speaker 1: cultural influences coming together of the pastry, the American cream cheese,
35:32
Speaker 1: the guava, and then adding you know, based on where
35:36
Speaker 1: you are, the different spices, maybe different textures, different methods.
35:41
Speaker 2: Look at you, which is perfectly what I made. Mason
35:45
Speaker 2: that writes Traditionally Cuisitos contained only cheese, but as time
35:50
Speaker 2: went on, we required more and more from the little pastry.
35:53
Speaker 2: What most people don't know is that it's traditional to
35:56
Speaker 2: brush the tops of the finished pastry with a sim
36:00
Speaker 2: bull syrup, giving it an inviting shine. And then she
36:03
Speaker 2: goes on to talk about sprinkle sugar or the standing sugar,
36:06
Speaker 2: which is the big lumps of sugar. I did not
36:08
Speaker 2: do that because I went past the issle. I'm like,
36:10
Speaker 2: I'm not going back. I think I had gone back
36:11
Speaker 2: three times to find ingredients. I'm like, I'm not going
36:14
Speaker 2: back there. But I did all the other things and
36:16
Speaker 2: it turned out wonderful. I didn't. I think I need
36:18
Speaker 2: to cook it a little longer than she recommended. I
36:22
Speaker 2: was very impatient, and I was like, I'll let it's
36:24
Speaker 2: it for about a minute and then I bit into
36:27
Speaker 2: it and it was like lava and it burnt all
36:30
Speaker 2: the things in my mouth. But it was worth it.
36:33
Speaker 2: It tasted yummy, y'all. It tasted yummy. We have gone
36:38
Speaker 2: through the first round of them, and I will be
36:43
Speaker 2: making the second round of them. It's good because it's
36:45
Speaker 2: also really cute. They look really cute because you fold
36:48
Speaker 2: over the pastry puffs into like a little blanket type
36:52
Speaker 2: of thing, like a sleeping bag. At one point, though,
36:55
Speaker 2: I didn't do it long enough and so one side
36:58
Speaker 2: of the pastry would go up, like I said, art,
37:00
Speaker 2: so it looks like a ghost saying hi.
37:03
Speaker 1: I thought when I saw that, which Samantha sent me
37:05
Speaker 1: a picture and told me about the burning situation, but
37:08
Speaker 1: also that they were very good and it's worth it.
37:10
Speaker 1: The first thing I thought of was those Halloween treat
37:12
Speaker 1: you do that look like a finger and you're like, oooh,
37:15
Speaker 1: you're eating the finger.
37:17
Speaker 2: Oh okay, I get that the bottom parts much okay, yeah, yeah,
37:23
Speaker 2: but it does look like a ghost because it's a
37:25
Speaker 2: little flat. Would come up and be like, hey, how
37:27
Speaker 2: you doing. But it was tasty and I love them,
37:30
Speaker 2: and it was very reminiscent of the casito's that I
37:33
Speaker 2: would eat. Not as good, of course.
37:34
Speaker 1: But yeah close. They looked great close.
37:39
Speaker 2: And then a drink and a.
37:42
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, So I made coquito, which are a lot
37:47
Speaker 1: of us do you drink as a holiday drink? So
37:49
Speaker 1: fitting it is fitting. Here's a quote. As with much
37:53
Speaker 1: of history and cultures that pass down traditions orally, it's
37:56
Speaker 1: hard to track the origins of coquito pert Rico's rum
37:59
Speaker 1: punch that's serve during the holidays. The most common story
38:02
Speaker 1: goes that the first coquito was created with pitto moonshine
38:07
Speaker 1: rum made from sugarcane and buried underground to ferment. You
38:10
Speaker 1: would combine with fresh coconut water and later grated coconut.
38:15
Speaker 1: So I made it, and I actually tried it right
38:16
Speaker 1: before I started recording, and it is delicious. It's got
38:21
Speaker 1: a lot of spice to it, which I like, Yeah,
38:23
Speaker 1: it's got I might have added too much cinnamon, but
38:25
Speaker 1: I love cinnamon, so that was sort of a personal
38:29
Speaker 1: personal choice. Yeah. But I also read that it's traditional
38:33
Speaker 1: sometimes to put it cheese in it, yeah, and take
38:38
Speaker 1: it out and like serve it as you're like with
38:40
Speaker 1: crackers while you're drinking it. I think that would be amazing.
38:43
Speaker 1: I didn't do that, but that I like the sound
38:45
Speaker 1: of it.
38:46
Speaker 2: I like where this is going. Yeah. Yeah. I was
38:50
Speaker 2: introduced to coquito again a while back as a gift,
38:54
Speaker 2: and I'm like every year i'd be like, you're gonna
38:56
Speaker 2: make more?
38:56
Speaker 1: What about now?
38:57
Speaker 2: What about it now? So last year, because we were
38:59
Speaker 2: in Florida, my partner and I decided we would make
39:02
Speaker 2: our own. It was good. It's not as good as
39:06
Speaker 2: when a Puerto Rican person actually makes it for you.
39:08
Speaker 2: I feel like this is this is good, don't get
39:11
Speaker 2: me wrong, but like, because how it's traditionally like an
39:14
Speaker 2: oral recipe, like they just tell you or you do
39:16
Speaker 2: it by side type of thing. Everybody has a different
39:19
Speaker 2: touch to it, and so again. The friend. He he
39:22
Speaker 2: does his own touch to it and it's delicious, and
39:25
Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, I feel good. I feel real good.
39:27
Speaker 2: But it's kind of like a it is kind of
39:30
Speaker 2: an eggnog ish and I hate saying that because I
39:35
Speaker 2: don't want to compare it, but just for the comparing,
39:37
Speaker 2: like of the traditions and it being white and silky
39:41
Speaker 2: and very creamy, still different. Yeah, just no coconut. This
39:46
Speaker 2: is coconut heavy based and it's delightful and I like
39:50
Speaker 2: it a lot, So I was really glad. I was like, yeah,
39:52
Speaker 2: you should do that. I think that caught like that
39:54
Speaker 2: recipe is more complicated than the poon jay really, yeah,
39:59
Speaker 2: your recipe was like, I may have done any wrong
40:02
Speaker 2: on this one.
40:03
Speaker 1: That's the man I was trying to spare me because
40:04
Speaker 1: I never have any ingredients my blender.
40:08
Speaker 2: I didn't know they took a blender. I'm not gonna lie.
40:10
Speaker 2: I didn't read that. I just knew it was in there.
40:11
Speaker 2: I knew that recipe was in there, and that's that's
40:13
Speaker 2: all I had. But yeah, the fund chap, you still
40:17
Speaker 2: have to have probably gone to the grocery store unless
40:19
Speaker 2: you have polinta and oh my god, serious yeah, Now
40:23
Speaker 2: I feel bad. I should have asked you, what do
40:25
Speaker 2: you have in your parentry? That'll be the question next time,
40:28
Speaker 2: because I kind of just assigned. I feel when we
40:30
Speaker 2: do recipes, I'll just assign you something like this is
40:32
Speaker 2: what you're gonna need. I've dropped off ingredients.
40:34
Speaker 1: For you before you need. I'm much appreciated, and do
40:38
Speaker 1: that again.
40:38
Speaker 2: But next time, now I know that you made it,
40:40
Speaker 2: like I was like, oh damn, except do you have
40:42
Speaker 2: coconut milk?
40:44
Speaker 1: I don't have coconut milk?
40:45
Speaker 2: Okay, there we go, So you still would have gone
40:47
Speaker 2: to the store. Yes, But all that's say this book
40:50
Speaker 2: was delightful and her stories our very heartfelt U. She
40:54
Speaker 2: even talks like stories about some of the violence that
40:56
Speaker 2: they've experienced in the neighborhood and how that kind of
40:59
Speaker 2: like taught her all these things about herself and her
41:01
Speaker 2: family and just like so much history, so much depth
41:05
Speaker 2: to this. She was like the first I believe Puerto
41:09
Speaker 2: Rican food writer, food critic in the country, which is
41:14
Speaker 2: like what because I think she's younger than me for sure,
41:17
Speaker 2: So all of those things. She this is her first
41:20
Speaker 2: cookbook and she's already gotten a James Beard award for
41:24
Speaker 2: it as she should. Like all of these things are
41:26
Speaker 2: so accessible. Her writing is accessible. Some of the ingredients
41:30
Speaker 2: are difficult, I think if you start looking at some
41:33
Speaker 2: of the soups which I love, the stews like I again,
41:37
Speaker 2: the friend actually came over to my house as a
41:39
Speaker 2: parting gift because he was moving and made me this.
41:44
Speaker 2: He pretended to be my personal shofvels like please stay
41:46
Speaker 2: here forever, making me some of the soups and the
41:49
Speaker 2: stews that I love, the seafood snoos, and all the
41:52
Speaker 2: good flavors. Because even though the spices and like the
41:56
Speaker 2: ingredients are different from Korean culture, there's still aamiliarity. And
42:01
Speaker 2: there is a conversation about how Chinese food actually in
42:04
Speaker 2: Chinese immigrants did influence Puerto Rican cuisine as well. So
42:09
Speaker 2: it's interesting to see how the different layers go when
42:12
Speaker 2: it comes to cuisine. But yeah, this book is amazing.
42:16
Speaker 2: If you love cooking, if you love experiencing new types
42:19
Speaker 2: of food to cook, you should definitely definitely buy this.
42:23
Speaker 2: Buy this, make some recipes, tell us how it goes,
42:26
Speaker 2: and then also give us an advice on how to
42:28
Speaker 2: cook it ourselves.
42:29
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, please do recipes always welcome, especially like I
42:36
Speaker 1: just love hearing people's own If you don't mind sharing,
42:38
Speaker 1: I get if you're like never this is my recipe,
42:41
Speaker 1: But I like hearing like people's different traditions around the
42:44
Speaker 1: holidays and what they eat or for comfort food, always welcome.
42:49
Speaker 1: Let us know, or if there's another cookbook you think
42:51
Speaker 1: we should talk about, let us know about. This was fun.
42:54
Speaker 2: This was so fun.
42:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can email the stepan youw mom Stuff at
42:58
Speaker 1: heeartmedia dot com. You can guys on Twitter and blue
43:00
Speaker 1: Sky at mom Stuff podcast, or on TikTok and Instagram
43:04
Speaker 1: at stuff I Never Told You for also on YouTube.
43:06
Speaker 1: We have a tea public store and we have a
43:07
Speaker 1: book you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks
43:09
Speaker 1: as always here a super producer Christina xect producer my
43:12
Speaker 1: aunt urtubitor Joey, Thank you and thanks see you for listening.
43:15
Speaker 1: Stuff I Never Told You is prediction of I Heart Radio.
43:17
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, you can check
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Speaker 1: out the heart Radio Appuple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
43:20
Speaker 1: to your favorite ships.