A Taste of Puerto Rico: Traditional and New Dishes from the Puerto Rican Community: A Cookbook

Wonderful book to own. I love Latin inspired recipes, and they are all in here. I also own "Daisy Cooks", and between these two books I can entertain my Puerto Rican friends here in South Florida as if I was Hispanic myself (which I am not). The ingredients are easy to get in ethnic and Supermarkets, so are the spices, herbs, the meats, the fish etc. Many storebought, premixed "Spanish" meals in bags or in the freezer section can be incorporated, so as to appear as made from scratch. Yummy either way!

I have owned this book for several years. Everytime I use it my home takes on the aroma of my Grandmother's house. I highly recommend this book for your yourself and your friends.

I live in Kansas and am very familiar with Mexican cuisine, my boyfriend is from New york City and grew up with Puerto Rican cuisine at home, he has asked me for years to make different things for him, things his mother made (I quickly discovered Mexican food was not similar at all, besides I am not Mexican, a homestyle meal for me would have mashed potatoes and gravy, Roast beef and green beans). She makes her recipes from memory and has not been a good resource, this book has all of the foods that remind him of home, things that he considers traditional. The recipes are titled in English and Spanish so I can search the book for a recipe that sounds similar to what he has described and he can see the title in Spanish and knows exactly what it is. There are recipes for Traditinal Chicken and Rice, Pasteles, Fried pork chops and Salchichas con Arroz. All things he missed very much I can hardly keep him out of the food before it is done. There are also recipes which appeal to me that include fruit and tend to be lighter dishes that sound more Caribbean to me. At the very beginning of this book there is a section covering the Puerto Rican pantry that describes exotic ingredients and gives recipes to make many of them if you cannot find them in the store and substitution ideas. When I first bought this book I had a very hard time finding the ingredients, I have since become familiar with the Mexican markets that carry many of the specialty items and discovered the Asian market has been a very important resource. I may not always enjoy the traditional food but he insists that it tastes almost as good as his mother's so the author definitely used traditional flavors and recipes and added some updated ones to appeal to a wider audience, we've both been happy with this book it was an invaluable find.

I own almost every PR cookbook available on the market, including those written in Spanish and not translated. Yet, this is the one I turn to again and again.Ortiz takes the mystery out of this wonderful cuisine and by providing for alternate ingredients, she makes it available to those of us who do not live in areas with a large PR community. Her Quick Bean Stew recipe is superb, as are many of her other recipes. The only PR cookbook you'll ever need. I would caution only that if you don't use fresh ground pepper, divide the amount of pepper called for by one half.

It's the best Puerto Rican cook book you can add to your collection. All the recipes in the book are traditional Puerto Rican plates..Enjoy!