Puerto Rican Dishes (Cookbook)

Versión en inglés de Cocine a Gusto, ofrece una colección representativa de platos puertorriqueños. Puerto Rican cookbook “Cocine a Gusto”. Easy-to-follow recipes designed to provide Caribbean cooking enthusiasts with a fi ne taste of typical Puerto Rican fare

First released in 1956, Puerto Rican Dishes was griten by Berta Cabanillas and Carmen Ginorio professors at the Rio Piedras Campus of the University of Puerto Rico. They wrote it out of a sense of duty to make available, in English, the recipes inherited from our ancestors.

Having successfully published Cocine a gusto in 1950 the authors kept busy with the preparation of a new concoction; a Puerto Rican cookbook, in English, intended for North Americans living among us; a cookbook that would include not only recipes, but which would also help to familiarize them with new foods, its proper handling, cooking procedures and ingredients. Today, more than half a century later, Puerto Rican Dishes has seen many reprints and remains in continuous demand by newcomers to the island as well as by tourists who want to take home a bit of their culinary experience, Moreover, the book has also become a favorite of English speaking Puerto Ricans born and raised in the United States. Lately, with the ever-increasing interest in diverse regional cuisines, the book keeps finding new readers.

This newly designed edition of Puerto Rican Dishes presents all of its valuable content with a fresher, more contemporary look that makes it easier to read and use. The text, with a few minor revisions, remains true to the voice and intentions of the authors. We trust that contemporary food lovers will continue to find in this book a useful introduction to the traditional recipes o Puerto Rico and the Hispanic Caribbean. We hope that they will find the many possible ways there are for adapting ingredients and procedures that are not as common today.

We chose to leave the text as untouched as possible, in deference to the growing fields of cultural and culinary studies. These studies are constanly enlightening us as to cooking traditions, practices, cultures and peoples. Readers will find that this book, while an excellent cooking guide, does reveal much about the Puerto Rico of the fifties, its gender roles. The authors address housewives as their assumed interlocutors and readers and highlight the importance of food as a means of sharing good times with family and friends. Whatever the readers approach to this hugely popular little book, we trust that delving into it will be a satisfying and fun experience.

Enjoy...

The Editors

August 2009

--La Editorial Universidad de Puerto Rico