Cat Tails: The Spice in Life

I grew up eating about as bland and middle of the road as possible. We had good food, and plenty of it, but if you looked up WASP in the acronym directory you would see our diet. My mother thought she was being exotic by adding garlic salt to a meatloaf. Her mother only used herbs or spices when she made stuffing for a turkey.Our neighborhood was multinational though and my friends were Polish, Italian and Norwegian. And I accepted any invitation I received to eat at their homes so I knew there was more to food than met the eye. My mother-in-law to be was happy to include me when teaching her daughters, but while I learned sour cream heals all ills, there still wasn't much spice in my life.

Then we moved to California and I was introduced to Mexican food and Chinese food beyond Chicken ala King. I loved the flavors and aromas and ordered it whenever we were out, but never even considered I could cook it myself. Several trips to Baja and down into the southern regions of Mexico taught me there is a world of difference between Tex-Mex and Mexican and that regionally there were many differences, but generally corn products and peppers are mainstays, along with beans. The native cocoa is also used in many savory applications for richness.

Moving east again, we were starting to see Puerto Rican and Dominican food appear out of their enclaves and I learned to like plantains and discovered that here tamales were wrapped in banana leaves and called pasteles or pastelillo and bacalaitos (salt cod fritters) are amazing! The West Indies influence is obvious with the special rubs for chicken or roast pork and the spices that make beef stew exciting. Rice and beans turns into rice and pigeon peas and seafood is more prevalent. Peppers are not usually hot and flavors tend to be derived from sofritos and adobos and are more subtle.

Factor in Cuba, with the Chinese influence and now what seemed so simple really is confusing, especially if you don't speak Spanish.

Goya simplifies things for us with products for each different Latin palate. Now they want those of us who may have shunned the cuisine from lack of familiarity or unavailability of product, to try it. Which I did and I loved most of what I tried.