Finaly I know the secret behind making 'pasteles' and 'sancocho'. Looking through the recipes I was so touched I felt like crying. Perhaps it's silly but food is a huge part of the Puerto Rican culture and there are many foods that take years to learn and perfect, (especially since Abuela didn't believe in measuring anything). A pinch of this, a dash of that. Now I have a strong foundation to build on. It's so wonderful to be able to bring our tradition into my home. This is the most authentic account of Puerto Rican and Nuyorican cooking I have ever read. It's given me a peek at my Grandma's magic in the kitchen and reminds me of home. I strongly recommed this book, no matter what culture you are from. Read, cook, and enjoy!

This is a fantastic cookbook. I am of English/Irish heritage but my husband is Puerto Rican and I LOVE Puerto Rican food. Puerto Rican family and friends have showed me how to make many dishes but I could never get my rice to come out good. I followed the recipe in this book and perfect! One nice feature is, on several recipes, the author includes 2 or 3 ways to make the same dish based on variations on the recipe within her family. So, there are several ways to try. It also includes how to make a lot of the powdered store bought seasoning (like Adobo) from scratch. I highly recommend this book to ANYONE who loves flavorful food...

I'd been looking for a good Puerto Rican cookbook..When I saw "Nuyorican" in the title I was like Alright!..I'm a Nuyorican and it's been years since I'd tasted any of the old recipes - papas rellenas (stuffed potatoes), pernil (roast pork), tostones (fried green platains) just even some of the basic spices used. There aren't alot of puertorican restaurants here, one cuban restaurant that I know of. I picked up the book and just reading about the spices used helped me figure out what I was missing when cooking some of my Mom's recipes.

There are recipes that call for frying, that's true but as the author states, the idea is cook on very high heat and not to cook too much at once - for me having a deep fryer works great for the recipes that call for it.

I've gone through some of the recipes so far and I haven't been disappointed yet. I've either taken them directly as stated adn/or compared them to my recipes to see what I might be missing.

For those looking to make pasteles, this book even has a diagram on how to wrap them up. Just seeing the recipe for pasteles had my eyes lit up. If you think making tamales is a project, try making a pasteles :-)

This book is definitely worth the price and if he makes another edition, I'll buy it :-)