La Cocina Boriquen - A Fiesta Of Flavors

Tasty traditional cuisine can be purchased at roadside food stands.

- Jennifer Buchet

There’s no denying that Puerto Rico has a wealth of culture, a captivating past, and an abundance of scenic wonders. So it comes as no surprise that the island’s food is also rich in fun and flavor. Traditional Boriquén fare has influences from around the world. Rooted in native tastes, it blended with African cooking styles, was refined with Spanish flavors, and then was later zested by the Dutch, Irish, Italians, and even the Chinese. No wonder the cuisine is nicknamed “la cocina criolla” or “the creole kitchen!”

Puerto Rico’s vivid culinary culture began with the earliest inhabitants, the Tainos. While the men hunted game such as ducks, guinea pigs, iguanas, turtles, and fish, the women gathered taro, yam, corn, and cassava (a starchy root that looks like a brown carrot).

In the early 1500s, Spanish colonists brought pork, beef, rice, and wheat, olives, tomatoes and chili peppers. They also cultivated cash crops like coffee, sugarcane, coconut, and bananas. With the advent of the slave trade, West Africans introduced not only gandules, an iconic bean (pigeon pea), but also the art of frying foods.

FLAVORFUL FOUNDATIONS