Lovely cookbook, evoking a lot of nostalgia for me. I'm sending it off as a little ambassador. ( )

I grew up in a Puerto Rican household, and boy could my grandmother cook! I'm afraid we took her cooking for granted, and a lot of her techniques and recipes were lost with her death. So I bought this book because I wished to rediscover them, and I couldn't find an English language book of Puerto Rican cooking. Not really something this book did for me. It really is a book of Caribbean cuisine in general, and the recipes come from all over, and recipes from specific islands are scattered throughout, and the index won't tell you, for instance, where to find all the Jamaican, all the Cuban--or all the Puerto Rican food.

I only recognized a few loved foods from my childhood: Tostones, Bacalaitoes, Pastelillos, Mofongo, Pasteles, Arroz con Pollo, Picadillo (listed as Cuban) and things I turned my nose up at--like Tripe Stew and Blood Sausage (Morcilla). The Pavo Relleno (stuffing for turkey) listed as Puerto Rican isn't how I remember it. My grandmother didn't use almonds, sherry or a bay leaf, she did use thyme, and the meat wasn't a mixture of ground pork and ham but of ground pork and beef. I am glad I got this though--lots of tasty sounding recipes from all over the Caribbean to try. ( )

BCE. ( )