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Ok, so you think you are Mr. or Ms. guru on Latino cuisine but...que es eso??? Check out some "popular" definitions..maybe you have some of your own!
Pico de gallo (Spanish, Rooster's Beak) contains neither roosters nor beaks. Pico de gallo is really a type of chile sauce.
Carne de chango or Carne de mono (Spanish, Monkey Meat) is actually marinated, smoked pork.
agua de Bilbao ("water of Bilbao") is a Bilbao nickname for champagne or cava.
'Brazo de gitano means "Gipsy's arm" is actually a cake roll.
Piraguas: A shaved ice cone covered with syrup of fruity flavors such as: rasberry, pineapple, coconut, guava or tamarind, among others. The piraguas come from a huge block of ice that the piragueros shave for you. Those who sells "piraguas" are known as piragüeros. These can be a bit harder to find than coco helado stands, but try to look for them in crowded areas.
coquito o coco helado - Actually not just coconut ice cream, the sherbet is sold in little stands at a sidewalk near you. The main flavors are mango, coconut, cherry, and rainbow - and come in little paper cups. They are notoriously cheap and delicious, but can become more (or less) expensive depending on where you are. But usually a small cup can run you a couple of quarters.
Acerola: West Indian Cherry, a fruit
Achiote: Annatto seed
Adobo: Seasoning that shows up in almost every recipe I know! I have just come back from my kitchen and my huge "family size" (just for me!) container has salt, garlic, oregano, pepper, and tumeric.
Ají caballero: hot chile pepper about 1" long and the only hot chili traditional to Puerto Rican cooking. It is used to make pique.
Ají dulce: sweet chili pepper
Alcaparras: capers
Amarillos: ripe plantains
"A Caballo" - a folkloric expression that means a plate of rice and beans with a fried egg "mounted" on top.
Achiotera-a container used to store annatto oil with its seeds. The oil is heated every time it is needed so the seeds can release their yellow color.
Ajilimojili-a traditional sauce made with garlic, peppercorns, oil, vinegar, and lemon juice. It is served with boiled root vegetables or over grilled meats.
Alcaparrado-a mixture of green olives, capers, and pimientos.
Alcapurria-a traditional fritter made of grated yautia (taro root) and green bananas, stuffed with picadillo. It can also be stuffed with crabmeat or chicken
Almojabana-rice-flour fritter
Anafre-portable burner. Used in the old days in place of a stove. It was usually made of a cracker-tin can, with holes added to improve the ventilation. Anafres were also made of iron and placed on top of the fogon.
Apio-a root vegetable with brown skin, yellow flesh, and a very strong starchy taste. It is used mostly to make heavy soups like sancocho and tripe soup.
Arroz con Dulce-Puerto Rican rice pudding. A traditional dessert made with rice, coconut milk, ginger, and spices.
Arroz con Gandules-yellow rice with green pigeon peas. This is Puerto Rico's national rice dish.
Arroz con Pollo-yellow rice with chicken Arroz y Habichuelas-rice and beans
Asopao-one of the national soup of Puerto Rico. It has a thick consistency and is derived from the Spanish paella. It is a mixture of rice, chicken, alcaparrado and recaito. Asopao can also be made with seafood, green pigeon peas, or salt codfish.
Batatas - Puerto Rican yam or sweet potato. A root vegetable with a skin that varies from pink to purple. It has a gray-white flesh and a very sweet taste. Batatas are eaten boiled, baked, or fried.
Besito de Coco-coconut kiss. A traditional dessert made with fresh-grated coconut, sugar, and spices.
Bili -a mix of rum and quenepas that gets fermented. The rum is then drained and served. This is a typical drink of Vieques.
Bodega - Spanish grocery store, found on any corner of any street in your local barrio!
Boronia de Chayote -Chayote stew
Botana - appetizer or snack
Buñuelos-fried fritters topped with a brown sugar syrup
Buren -flat griddle. This was traditionally made of clay and used by the Taino natives to cook casabe
Butifarra -pork sausage seasoned with spices like cinnamon and anise, usually eaten for breakfast
Bacalao: dry salted codfish
Barrilito-a type of Puerto Rican rum that is 86 proof
Caldero: cauldron, a cooking pot used to cook rice on the stove. It is made of iron or thick aluminum.
Chironja: a cross between an orange and a grapefruit known only in Puerto Rico.
Cilantro: coriander leaves
Criolla: creolle, a term used to describe Puerto Rican cooking
Culantro: recao - green spiny leaf herb
Flan: custard
Funche: polenta
Gandinga: pork liver
Gandul or gandules: green pigeon peas
Garbanzo: chick-pea
Grosella: gooseberry
Guanime: Puerto Rican tamal from Taíno Indians
Guayaba: guava
Guineo niño: lady-finger banana
Guingambó: okra
Haba: lima bean
Habichuela blanca: white bean
Habichuela colorada: small red kidney beans
Habichuela rosada or rosita: pink beans
Jamón de cocinar: smoked cooking ham
Lechón: cooked pig
Lerén : an edible vegetable very similar to a water chestnut
Limber: frozen fruit juices
Limón verde: key lime
Mabí: a fermented drink made from the bark of the mauvi tree. A traditional island beverage served very cold.
Maicena: cornstarch
Malanga: root vegetable
Mamey: a fruit
Mojo: a sauce
Molleja: chicken gizzards
Mondongo: stew made with beef tripe
Ñame: yam
Oregano brujo: Puerto Rican wild oregano
Pana or panapén: breadfruit
Pegao: the rice at the bottom of the pot that becomes crusty and sticks to the pot. Consider a delicacy by many.
Picadillo: meat stuffing made with ground beef and seasoning
Pique: a condiment - vinegar and hot chili peppers and spices like garlic.
Pilón: a mortar and pestle traditional to Puerto Rico and Caribe
Pimiento de cocinar: Italian frying peppers
Pimientos morrones: roasted red peppers - usually from a can
Quenepa: a fruit that grows in bunches. It has a thin green skin and a large pit.
Queso del país, queso blanco, or queso de hoja: Puerto Rican white cheese made from milk. This cheese does not melt.
Recaíto: a seasoning made using recao, cilantro, onions, garlic, peppers.
Sofrito: the base for Puerto Rican cooking made from recaito cooked with ham, alcaparrado, and tomato sauce and or achiote.
Tocino: fatback
Turrón: almond nougat imported from Spain traditionally eaten at Christmas
Verduras: root vegetables
Viandas: root vegetables
Yautía: taro root
Yuca: cassava a root vegetable.
amogollao: When rice becomes too sticky it is "amogollao."
pegao: rice that sticks to the bottom of the pot and hardens a little bit. It's great with some ketchup and a fried egg!
Pastelillos: A Puerto Rican term for what a lot of people think of as empanadas - basically stuffed and fried dough turnovers. These can be stuffed with basically anything, but most often picadillo (seasoned meat) or cheese.
Papa relleno (or Rellenos de papa): I have heard both terms used to describe what can only be called heaven! I guess the best way to describe them is mashed potatoes stuffed with meat, rolled into a ball, and fried, but the description gives no justice.
Picadillo: Seasoned meat, this term is commonly associated with Cuba, but everyone has their own way of making picadillo.
Salchichas: Canned vienna sausages. These are cheap meat and taste good in rice.
Galletas:
1. Saltine crackers in tins, no different from any other saltine crackers.
2. cookies
Arroz y Habichuelas - The combination of arroz y habichuelas (beans and rice) are so common that the phrase beans-and-rice means essentially the same as "our daily bread" means in northern countries. When you think about Arroz con habichuelas you think white rice with pink beans either on the side or ladeled over the rice, it is NOT cooked together.
Plaintains - Almost as popular as arroz y habichuelas are plátanos (plantains, or cooking bananas). They are daily fare, whether cooked green. deep-fried and mashed as tostones, or boiled and seasoned with escabeche. They can be let to mature until they are spotted outside and golden inside, and then deep-fried as "maduros" or "amarillos." Sometimes they are baked instead of deep-fried.
Mofongo - Mofongo is a popular Afro-Boricua dish, made from fried green plantains seasoned with garlic, olive oil and pork cracklings, then mashed. I usually roll the mixture into a delicious ball after. Mofongo is usually served with a fried meat and a fish broth soup.
Pasteles - For many Puerto Rican families, the quintessential holiday season dish is "pasteles" which English-speakers often literally translate to "cakes". Pasteles are not a sweet pastry or cake, but a soft dough-like mass wrapped in a banana / plantain leaf and boiled. In the center of the "dough" are choice pieces of chopped meat, chicken, raisins, spices, olives, and often a garbanzo bean. Puerto Rican pasteles are similar in shape, size, and cooking technique to Mexican tamales. The "dough" in a Mexican tamal is made from corn meal; the "dough" in a Puerto Rican pastel is made from either cooked plantains or starchy tropical roots. The wrapper in a Mexican tamal is a corn shuck; the wrapper in a Puerto Rican pastel is a banana leaf. The combination of spices is totally different, so if you are familiar with tamales, pasteles won't taste at all the same. The making of "pasteles" is a labor-intensive social activity. Many family members will get together for hours or days to make dozens to hundreds of "pasteles" to share with friends and loved ones. Pasteles from the Island are often shipped overseas packed in dry ice during the long Xmas season. They are received as a nostalgic, much treasured gift.
Coquito - A popular Christmastime drink is "Coquito", an eggnog-like rum and coconut milk-based homemade beverage. The holiday season is also a time many piña coladas are prepared and enjoyed, which underscores the synthesis of tropical America (pineapples) and Africa (coconuts) seen in Puerto Rican cuisine
El Jibarito (Plaintain Sandwich) - The word "Jíbaro" in Puerto Rico means a man from the countryside, especially a small landowner or humble farmer from far up in the mountains -- not a super sophisticated city guy. Typically served with Spanish rice, "Jibaritos" consist of your choice of meat along with mayo, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and onions-all sandwiched between a fried plantain, known as a canoa (canoe). A century ago, bread made from wheat (which would have to be imported) was expensive out in the mountain towns of the Cordilllera Central, and the "daily bread" of the jíbaros was plantains which are still grown there on the steep hillsides.
Cuchifritos, often known as "Puerto Rican soul food" includes a variety of dishes including but not limited to morcilla (blood sausage), papas rellenas (fried potato balls stuffed with meat), platanos rellenos (stuffed plantains), chicharron (fried pork skin), and various other parts of the pig prepared in different ways. It derives its name from the word "cuchí" short for "cochino" or pig and "frito" which describes something that is fried. "Cuchifritos" may also be used to refer to restaurants that serve similar food. Such establishments are fairly common in New York's Spanish Harlem, South Bronx and other primarily Latino neighborhoods throughout the country and in Latin America. They tend to make use of colorful external lighting and big flashy signs. They also serve juices and drinks like parcha, pineapple juice, coconut juice and ajonjolí, a drink made from sesame seeds.
Parcha- Passionfruit, just wanted to clarify this because in many stores they will have a list of juices like this: pineapple, guava, mango, etc. all in english and then "parcha" which can confuse some!
avena: Oatmeal, but I have seen people refer to any hot breakfast cereal as avena.
Harina de maiz: Ground corn powder, often prepared as a hot breakfast cereal, but can be used to make things like corn muffins.
caipirinha: The national drink of Brazil made with limes, sugar, and cachaca (a sugar cane brandy). By the way, Caipririnha is pronounced ky-pee-reen-ya and can be found all over, not just Brazil.
Cuy or Cobayo or Conejillo de Indias: Popular in South America with the people of Inca, this meat is often compared to rabbit. The cuy is named after the sound of the animal "cuy, cuy." Have you guessed what the animal is yet? The cuy is a guinea pig!
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