Regional highlights
Mofongo
Puerto Rico's signature dish — green plantain pieces fried, then mashed in a pilón (wooden mortar) with garlic, olive oil and chicharrón (fried pork cracklings) into a dense, garlicky dome that holds together at the table. Served plain as a side, or stuffed with chicken, beef, shrimp or seafood and topped with a tomato or garlic sauce. The pilón pounding is what creates the dense interior; the dome shape is the giveaway of a proper version. The Caribbean cousin of West African fufu.
Lechón asado
Whole pig slow-roasted on a spit over wood coals — the Puerto Rican Sunday and feast-day centrepiece. The pig is rubbed with adobo, garlic and oregano, sometimes filled with sofrito, and turned over the fire for 4-6 hours until the skin shatters and the meat falls from the bone. The Lechoneras Route along Highway 184 in Guavate, Cayey, is the most famous concentration — a series of family-run lechoneras open at weekends, where you order by the pound (libra) directly from the carving counter. Served with arroz con gandules and tostones.
Arroz con gandules
Puerto Rico's national rice dish — yellow rice cooked with pigeon peas (gandules), sofrito, cubed pork or ham, achiote (annatto) for colour, olives, capers and a touch of bay leaf. The slightly crispy bottom layer (pegao) that forms in the pot is the prized morsel, fought over by family at the Sunday table. Served alongside lechón at every Christmas and Easter meal.
Pernil
Slow-roasted pork shoulder — bone-in pork shoulder rubbed with adobo, garlic, oregano and a generous splash of bitter orange juice (or vinegar and lime if no naranja agria), then roasted slowly for 4-6 hours until the skin cracks and the meat falls apart. The home-kitchen version of lechón. Eaten at Christmas, weddings and Sunday lunches, served with arroz con gandules and pasteles. Many families brine the pernil overnight for deeper flavour.
Asopao de pollo
A soupier rice gumbo — chicken simmered with sofrito, tomato, sweet pepper, capers and olives, then medium-grain rice added until the broth thickens to a stew-like consistency ("sopa" = soup, asopao = soupy). Served warm with tostones on the side. A weeknight household dish and a hangover cure on Sunday mornings. The seafood version (asopao de mariscos) is just as common at coastal restaurants.
Tostones
Twice-fried green plantain rounds — slices fried gently, flattened with a tostonera press, fried again until crisp on the outside and tender inside. Salted and served with mayo-ketchup (the Puerto Rican condiment of mayonnaise, ketchup and garlic) or ajilimójili (a garlic-and-vinegar dip). The everyday side, served with mofongo, lechón, fried fish, and as a beer snack.
Alcapurrias
Beach-stand fritters — a dough of grated green banana and yautía (taro) wrapped around a spiced ground-beef or shrimp filling, shaped into a cylinder and deep-fried until the outside is dark golden and the inside soft. Sold at the kiosks of Piñones beach east of San Juan, where the beach-friuts road is one of the iconic Puerto Rican food experiences. Eaten with the fingers and a cold Medalla beer.
Pasteles
Puerto Rican Christmas tamales — green plantain, yautía and cassava grated together into a smooth dough, wrapped around a richly spiced pork or chicken filling with sofrito, capers, olives, raisins and chickpeas, packaged in banana leaves and parchment, tied, then boiled for an hour. Made by the bag-load in family kitchens for Christmas Eve and shared through the festive period. The plantain-based dough distinguishes them from the corn-based tamales of mainland Latin America.
Quesitos
Cream cheese-filled puff pastries — flaky golden-brown rectangles of laminated dough wrapped around a sweetened cream-cheese filling, drizzled with a sugar glaze. The Puerto Rican breakfast and afternoon-snack pastry, sold at every panadería on the island, eaten with strong coffee. Best fresh, still warm from the bakery oven.
Tembleque
A coconut-milk pudding — coconut milk, sugar, cornstarch and a stick of cinnamon cooked until the mixture thickens, then chilled in moulds until it sets to a wobbly ("tembleque" = trembling) coconut blanc-mange. Topped with ground cinnamon. Served chilled, light, fragrant. A Christmas-time dessert in Puerto Rican households.
Bacalaítos
Salt-cod fritters — flaky salt cod stirred into a thin batter of flour, water, garlic, parsley, sweet pepper and a touch of baking powder, then fried in oil into thin, golden, lacy disks. Sold at beach stalls and at the Piñones kiosks east of San Juan. The lacy, brittle texture is the giveaway of a properly fried bacalaíto. Eaten standing, with hot sauce and a cold Medalla.
Amarillos
Fried sweet (yellow, ripe) plantain slices — diagonally cut, fried gently until the natural sugars caramelise the outside golden-brown and the inside softens to a sweet, almost custardy texture. Served alongside lechón, mofongo and arroz con gandules to balance the savoury main with sweetness. The everyday Puerto Rican "sweet vegetable" that's effectively a side dish.