Eating Comida
Latino Comida is Hot (And I don’t mean just Spicy)
We came across this video, Latin Cuisine Studies: New World Flavors, Ingredients, and Techniques from Culinary Institute of America and couldn’t help but think about our mother’s home cooking. A Dominicana (Dominican Republic) who married a Puerto Rican and had to learn to cook Rican food for my father and then all of us that. But always, she said, with her own twist and turns. To tell the truth, I grew up thinking it was all the same. I found a great explanation on the difference and similarities in a Yahoo Answer page:
Dominican, Cuban and Puerto Rican are basically all Caribbean food and have many similarities. Much of it actually comes from West Africa because of the Atlantic Slave trade.
Example Mofongo is an Afro-Puerto Rican dish that has clear roots in west African Fufu. Fufu is made from various starchy vegetables and was introduced to the Caribbean by Africans in the Spanish New World colonies such as the Dominican Republic (mangú), Cuba (fufu de plátano), and Puerto Rico (mofongo). Fufu consists of starchy root vegetables and plantains boiled then mashed until a dough-like consistency with water, butter, or milk.
In Cuba mofongo is called Machuquillo. The plantains are not fried but boiled. Machuquillo is often garnished with parsley and served with roasted pork or chicken.
During the 60’s many Dominicans feared the re-election of Rafael Trujillo and many fled to Puerto Rico and New York City. Plantains are a Dominican staple and their third most important crop after rice and beans. Mofongo is a staple food for many Dominican restaurants and is noted in their recipe books as Dominican comfort food and a dish borrowed from Puerto Rico.- Jean Pierre
Mofongo Photo by viviandnguyen_
Red Beans and Rice Photo by WordRidden
Plantains, bananas by IAN RANSLEY DESIGN + ILLUSTRATION
It wasn’t until I moved to Washington, D.C. that I began to appreciate the diversity of Latino food. Cuba, Mexico (Real Mexican food from Mexico as my friends would say), Chile, Argentina, Peru. And Central America. El Salvador. Nicaragua. Honduras. I fell in love with it all.
So it was a culture shock at first, when I came to Los Angeles, that everything seemed so singularly Mexican and not Mexican (I later found out). But, if you looked hard enough for the diversity of Latino Food, you could find the comida of every nation in the Caribbean, Central and South America as well as Mexico. And the regions of those countries.
In Long Beach, the diversity of Latino Food isn’t as great as L.A. but you can find it. And if you can’t, you don’t have to travel far to find it. Here’s a few examples (Not recommendations. Just listings of what I found. Check Yelp for reviews):
Argentina: Gaucho Grill, 200 Pine Ave. #B, Long Beach, CA 90802
Cuba: Cuban Pete’s Kitchen & Rum Bar, 245 Pine Ave, Ste 200, Long Beach, CA 90802
Peru: Aji Peruvian Cuisine, 2308 E 4th St, Long Beach, CA 90814
Mexico: We found 40 Mexican restaurants in Long Beach listed in Yelp. The highest rated (I’ll let you judge for yourself) was Los Compadres, 1144 Pine Ave., Long Beach, CA 90813
Then there’s the long list of Latino Food restaurants under the category Latin American:
Cesar’s Bistro, 6240 E Pacific Coast Hwy, Long Beach, CA 90803
Honduras’ Kitchen, 1909 E 4th St, Long Beach, CA 90802
La Ceiba Restaurant, 1436 E 7th St, Long Beach, CA 90813
There’s Latino Food for all the palates and wallets. PalacioMagazine.com plans on regularly featuring posts and videos about all the exciting Latino Food choices we have in Long Beach. But we’re not going to stop at the border. We’re determined to find the Latino Food treasures in surrounding cities and south of the Orange/Naranja curtain.
More Reading:
Why Hispanics Are Expected To Change U.S. Food Culture
Coming Home to Salsa: Latino Roots of American Food
And you’re going to love this video: How To Make Tacos | Fenugreek And Potato Tacos | Ruchi’s Kitchen
