As a Puerto Rican it's traditional for my household to make a typical Puerto Rican Christmas feast. The basics are a roasted picnic pork (Pernil Asado), rice with pigeon peas (Arroz con Gandures), sweet plantains (Platanos Maduros) and a salad like potato or macaroni salad (Ensalada de papas or macarones) or lettuce and tomatoes. Sometimes we add stewed cassava in garlic sauce (Yuca al Mojo) and for dessert we make candy rice (Arroz con Dulce) coconut pudding (Tembleque) or candy papaya (Dulce de Lechosa).
This year however we decided to change it up a bit. We always eat the same thing so why not shake it up. It is 2020 after all and everything else has been turned upsidedown. We're still sticking to a Puerto Rican dish but rather than a meal we'll be going for, I guess the best way to describe it is snacks. Street food. We're making beef, chicken, pizza and shrimp empanadas (Empanadillas de Carne, Pollo, Pizza y Camarones), potato balls (Rellenos de Papa) and Alcapurrias (no English name for it, LOL). These are fritters you can commonly find from street vendors. We can just premake them and store them in the freezer till Christmas Eve. Then, we get frying. Next year we celebrate at someone else house but we'll make sure to bring some Puerto Rican food goodness with us.
This year however we decided to change it up a bit. We always eat the same thing so why not shake it up. It is 2020 after all and everything else has been turned upsidedown. We're still sticking to a Puerto Rican dish but rather than a meal we'll be going for, I guess the best way to describe it is snacks. Street food. We're making beef, chicken, pizza and shrimp empanadas (Empanadillas de Carne, Pollo, Pizza y Camarones), potato balls (Rellenos de Papa) and Alcapurrias (no English name for it, LOL). These are fritters you can commonly find from street vendors. We can just premake them and store them in the freezer till Christmas Eve. Then, we get frying. Next year we celebrate at someone else house but we'll make sure to bring some Puerto Rican food goodness with us.
