Puerto Rican Potluck

I'm really looking forward to this potluck!

"Although Puerto Rican cooking is often compared to Spanish, Cuban and Mexican cuisine, it is a unique tasty blend of Spanish, African, Taíno, and American influences, using such indigenous seasonings and ingredients as coriander, papaya, cacao, nispero, apio, plantains, and yampee. Locals call their cuisine 'cocina criolla'.

Cocina criolla (Créole cooking) can be traced back to the Arawaks and Tainos, the original inhabitants of the island, who thrived on a diet of corn, tropical fruit, and seafood. When Ponce de León arrived with Columbus in 1493, the Spanish added beef, pork, rice, wheat, and olive oil to the island's foodstuffs. Soon after, the Spanish began planting sugarcane and importing slaves from Africa, who brought with them okra and taro (known in Puerto Rico as yautia). The mingling of flavors and ingredients passed from generation to generation among the different ethnic groups that settled on the island, resulting in the exotic blend of today's Puerto Rican cuisine.”

• What to bring
Please bring (i) a potluck dish of Puerto Rican cuisine, (ii) a bit of tupperware if you'd like to return home with some leftovers, and (iii) a small card listing ingredients.

We love sharing recipes! If you like that idea, please post them on the discussion section

• Important to know
NO ALCOHOL, PLEASE - Kellogg-Hubbard Library prohibits alcoholic beverages. You're welcome, of course, to cook with spirits, but we'll need to take a pass on beer, or wine (even the fun Puerto Rican variety!)

HARD STOP AT 8PM - We've scheduled the event from 6pm to 7:45 because the room has to be clean and empty by 8pm, sharp. Please consider sticking around a few minutes extra to help cleanup.

$2 per person will help to offset some of the organizational costs of this event - THANKS!