Puerto Rican Dishes (Cookbook) [Paperback]

Berta Cabanillas (Author), Carmen Ginorio (Author), Berta; Ginorio, Carmen Cabanillas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1993

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

Editorial Reviews

Review

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 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 152 pages
• Publisher: La Editorial, Universidad de Puerto Rico; 6 edition (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847727807
• ISBN-13: 978-0847727803
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,025,906 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Aye Caramba!, January 8, 2003

By 

Charles Henry Higgensworth III (Boston, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Puerto Rican Dishes (Cookbook) (Paperback)

A young man from that delightful island works at the local market, and sometimes delivers groceries to our home. He often eulogizes the young ladies of his homeland quite salaciously, particularly one Miss "Jay Lowe" (an odd name for a woman, but he seems to be quite smitten). As Christmas approached I spied this book's title in a long list of closed-out items in a catalog and ordered it for Manuel, hoping to ease his homesickness with a visual panegyric to San Juan womanhood. However it turns out that this is a cookbook, as any less prurient reader would have immediately gleaned from its title. So I instead made it a gift to Mrs. Higgensworth, née Ramirez, who can hold more than just a candle to any number of Jay Lowe's in or out of the kitchen. We have dined on delectable series of Puerto Rican entrees throughout the subsequent weeks - a marked improvement on the Panamanian specialties that Mrs. Higgensworth mastered in the kitchens of her youth. A masterful chapter on Puerto Rican desserts will be particularly debilitating to the waistline of any gentleman lucky enough to have a Latina vixen attending to his oven. Andelé!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Layout for the new paperback edition is not cookbook or cooking friendly, March 17, 2010

By 

Penmouse - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Puerto Rican Dishes (Paperback)

While the recipes look delish, and the cookbook is full of pretties, the new paperback layout for this book does not make this book kitchen friendly. The book is small in size, with an inflexible spine, making it difficult to keep the book open to read the recipes. I'm seriously thinking of returning this book and buying an older copy, perhaps a hardback version, as I can not see how I could use this book to cook with unless I typed out individual recipes for kitchen use.

Overall, the information looks good but the book layout is very poor.

Do not recommend for these reasons.

3.0 out of 5 stars don't like the new layout/look. still a classic though!, April 30, 2010

By 

Jose E. Vazquez "Puerto Rock" (Buffalo, N.Y. U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Puerto Rican Dishes (Paperback)

the directions with the recipes could have been written out with a little more detail.
a little to general in the execution of the dishes.
i'm also not happy with the graphic overhaul of the book.
i suppose someone wanted to impart some sort of comtemporary aesthetic appeal to the book but i rather prefer the layout of the previous editions of this book.
still all in all the book should have a place on the cookbook shelf of anyone who is seriously interested in traditional Puerto Rican cuisine.