Salvadoran Pupusas
There are different brands of tortilla flour to make the dough. MASECA, which can be found in most large supermarkets in the international section, is one of them but there are others. Follow…
Category: Recipes and Food for Thought
Salpicón Nicaragüense
Nicaraguan salpicón is one of the defining dishes of present-day Nicaraguan cuisine and yet it is unlike anything else that goes by the name of salpicón. Rather, it is an entire menu revolving…
The Lonely Griller
As “a visitor whose days were numbered” in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he tossed aside dietary restrictions to experience the enormous variety of meat dishes, cuts of meat he hadn’t seen…
Latin American Cookbooks
The Culinary Collection of Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies’ Arthur & Elisabeth Schlesinger Library would welcome donations of cookbooks in English, Spanish, or Portuguese…
Caipirinha
1 lime, quartered, 1-2 tablespoons sugar, 2 ounces of cachaca (the fiery Brazilian brandy), Ice cubes…
Cachupa
Isabel Ferreira, known around the Harvard community as the language instructor who teaches Portuguese for Spanish speakers, is used to crossroads. Born in Portugal, she moved to…
The Supermarket as Cultural Spaces
It wasn’t exactly a shopping trip. Nam was investigating supermarkets and department stores as social, cultural spaces. Consumption is not simply an economic practice, but one of the most…
Sugary Avocados, Mystery Flan
Food is the ultimate expression of one’s culture, and even our smallest assumptions about what we eat reveal a lot about where we come from. Sometimes this happens not only for those who…
The Perils of Eating Feet
I was 19, in love, and eager to gain the acceptance of my boyfriend Guillermo’s family in the mountains of Imbabura, Ecuador…
Peanuts, Popcorn, Cracker Jack
While peanuts and popcorn were new to 19th century United States, both had been consumed as snacks in the Americas for thousands of years. Peanuts originated in Bolivia, domesticated by…
The Best Little Restaurant in Latin America
I have only one rule for dining at the Rana Verde: always take a pair of binoculars. That’s because the view is so interesting that it needs to be examined, a piece at a time, through every course…
An Aztec Remedy
Lois Wasserspring was feeling sick, really sick; her entire body was aching and she thought she was going to die. It was 1968, and Wasserspring, now a DRCLAS affiliate who is co-director of…
Ajiaco
Ingredients: 2 chicken breasts, garlic and onion, 12 small yellow potatoes, halved , 2 ears of corn, cut in halves, 8 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into slices…
Food and Culture: Introduction
Thirty years ago I followed my intuition, and it led me to food. I figured that if I just understood why hunger in the world I could untangle the complexities of the political and economy order…
