Common Cooking Methods

The Puerto Rican cuisine is a fusion of the European, Afro-Caribbean and Latin American cultures and traditions. For this reason alone, the Puerto Rican cuisine is noted to be the most palate tempting cuisines throughout the Western Hemisphere today. The Puerto Rican style of cooking is quite similar to that of the Spanish as well as the Latin American cuisine preparation. Over the decades the Puerto Rican cooking has developed a unique style of cooking that uses native seasonings and ingredients in its cuisine such as coriander, fresh papaya, nispero, apio, plantains, cassava and vampee. The Créole cooking method that is used in the Puerto Rican cuisine can be traced back to the Arawaks and Tainos who were the original inhabitants of the Puerto Rican island. These ancient people thrived on a diet which consisted of corn, tropical fruit and basically seafood.