PUERTO RICO SUN

Friday, March 09, 2012

Saborea Puerto Rico 2012 Highlights Our Cuisine to the World

With dancers moving to salsa music on a colorful set reminiscent of Old San Juan, the Puerto Rico Tourism Company showcased the island's many tourist attractions at the recent New York Times Travel Show at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan.

But they were also there to market Puerto Rico's traditional, diverse and exciting cooking scene, which they say is the best and most important culinary destination in the Caribbean. Gearing up for its fifth anniversary, they told attendees about Saborea Puerto Rico, a festival that will feature new and exciting activities highlighting Puerto Rico's culinary scene. The 2012 edition of this annual event, organized by the Puerto Rico Hotel & Tourism Association (PRHTA), will be April 21^st and 22^nd at Escambrón Beach in San Juan, PR.

Chef Giovanna Huyke, who is known for her educational cooking TV shows on the island and is now the executive chef at Mio Restaurant in Washington, D.C., was at the travel show talking and demonstrating Puerto Rican cuisine to people from many different parts of the world. A goal, she said, is to elevate the perception of Puerto Rican foods in the culinary landscape, and Saborea Puerto Rico is helping to do that by highlighting chefs from Puerto Rico to a local and international audience.

Puerto Rican food, Huyke said, is also worth sharing with a worldwide audience because it is delicious with a lot of flavor, and it is not spicy. It can be healthy too, depending on how you cook and serve it, she said. "Not everything needs to be fried," she said, adding that many people have the misconception that Puerto Rican food is not healthy. Many Puerto Rican meals are based on vegetables.

In addition, she said, Puerto Rican food is very much influenced by the rich and diverse cultural heritage of the Puerto Rican people. Fusion has always and continues to very much be a part of Puerto Rican cuisine.

"Puerto Rican food is evolving, and we are working to making Puerto Rican cuisine go to the next step," she said. "There's more openness, and there is a movement to raise awareness."

While chefs "are going beyond the traditional," Huyke said sofrito continues to be used as the base in many Puerto Rican dishes whether they are traditional or have a new twist.

Chefs always play a pivotal role in Saborea, and this year will be no different. Students from local culinary schools and universities will have the opportunity to show off their skills, styles and creativity at The Next Culinary Wave. There’s also the always-popular Tasting Pavilion, where Puerto Rico’s best restaurants offer some of their finest creations to the public. And through the demo kitchens, top local and international culinary personalities will reveal their secrets and interact with fans. The 2012 chef’s roster already reads like a “who’s who” of dream gastronomic experts from the U.S., the Caribbean and Puerto Rico.

After-hours events will also play a big part of this year’s gastronomic fest. On Friday, April 20^th, the opening reception, A Privileged Taste of Saborea, will feature 19 renowned chefs hosting individual 12-14 person tables and preparing unforgettable dinners expertly paired with wine. And on April 21^st, the “Sabor Puertorriqueño” sunset beach party will bring together local flavors, live music and varied entertainment with tapas-style fare in a casual ambiance.

This year's Saborea Puerto Rico also brings a wealth of new, flavorful events such as the Libations Station, which will offer tastings of local and international beers and spirits. Guest vintners from Napa Valley will regale visitors with tastings of that region’s best and favorite harvests, while local treats and homegrown coffees will be the main event at Sweets & Brews. There will also be an area dubbed “Mercado Boricua” for local vendors to present both agricultural and artisanal products.

“These additions have been designed to enhance Saborea’s local and international flavors while providing visitors with even more variety,” said PRHTA President & CEO Clarisa Jiménez. “Like the world of flavors it explores each year, Saborea Puerto Rico will continue to adapt to welcome new trends and ideas in the culinary landscape.”

Despite trends and new ideas, one of the most popular dishes among the tourists is mofongo even though chefs are making it in different ways, she said with a smile.

"We really want to put an emphasis on the food," Jimenez said. "We really want to showcase Puerto Rico's cuisine and our competitive advantages.

"We want people to come and see the warmth of the people of Puerto Rico, the wonderful places to visit on the island and enjoy our wonderful food," she said. "They will have an unforgettable experience. Saborea Puerto Rico is a way to help people finally understand the richness of Puerto Rican cuisine."

For more information, visit www.saboreapuertorico.com.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Iguanas belong ‘au naturel,’ even in Puerto Rico

Commentary

By Luis Chaluisan

Iguanas: they’re not common pets in New Jersey, thank the power, even though people occasionally decide this exotic (as in non-native) animal would make a great pet. It’s not so. Iguanas belong in their native habitat, where they have the company of other iguanas, the right temperature and food, and the chance to be an iguana “au naturel.”

Caribbean tourist attraction

During a recent vacation in the Caribbean, I saw lots of iguanas, which made it easy for me to continue to be fascinated by them – their myriad colors, especially the bright green of young ones; their long ring-tails; their front feet, especially, with long, curving finger-like appendages; their casual ability to “go out on a limb,” seeking a flower or a tender green leaf at the end of a branch that looks incapable of holding them.

And, these kids can travel too! If they need to get away, they can do it. They’re not graceful, but they’re fast.

Far from eating red hibiscus flowers in St. Thomas was the iguana I met years ago in Ewing, NJ. That poor guy lived alone in a glass tank in a store. What a life: a caged curiosity shoppers could look at. Weekends when the store was closed had to be worst for that iguana – not even any gawkers.

Here are a few “fun facts” about iguanas from information I’ve accumulated over years of watching them.

In the Family Iguanidae, they’re a kind of lizard, and lizards are reptiles. Lizards have what their snake relatives lack: ears, eyelids, four legs. Their lizard tongues serve as both organs of taste and odor detection.
Tropical, omnivorous, arboreal, quiet and diurnal (daylight creatures; inactive in dark), iguanas can weigh 25-30 pounds and grow to six feet or more – mostly tail. They have pointy scales along their back and males have dewlap. Life span: about 20 years.
Iguanas may forage and bask in groups. They love to bathe, swimming like snakes with legs against their bodies. To elude enemies, they can stay under water for about 30 minutes.

Puerto Rico’s plan
Just before coming home, I was disturbed to see a sad story in the Virgin Islands Daily News about iguanas. The government of Puerto Rico plans to capture and kill them, then sell their meat. Reason(s): iguanas are not native to that island (even thought elsewhere in the Caribbean, they’re a protected species); they outnumber the human population . . . and (believe it or not) the bad economy makes the idea appealing.
So now Puerto Rico’s looking for a company to “process” iguanas that would be hunted or trapped and kept alive for the slaughtering process. As I see it, PR aims to treat iguanas the way “food animals” are treated here in the US and everywhere else factory farming takes place. Horrible.
Then again, I’m not too surprised. Only a few years ago, Puerto Rico earned notoriety for killing hundreds of pets – cats and dogs – in the most barbaric way.
Now the island is “moving right along” with iguanas, apparently no more enlightened, or compassionate, than before.

Luis Chaluisan is a contributing writer to PRSUN. He is the editor in chief of salsamagazine.com.

Friday, February 03, 2012

BRONX LATINO: A Sunday at the NYBG

BRONX LATINO: A Sunday at the NYBG

Visit the Caribbean Garden in the Bronx.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Thank you for being part of the PRSUN journey

Ten years ago, in the summer of 2002, I started the Puerto Rico Sun e-magazine when I lived in San Juan. I wanted it to be a publication that covered themes related to the Puerto Rican diaspora and that connected Puerto Ricans no matter where they lived. An online magazine made sense even though I first envisioned PRSUN as a newspaper since I was a print journalist.

I didn't know at the time how much newspaper journalism was going to be transformed. It is a little heartbreaking, but then again I love a free and open Internet and will continue to defend it. I have been engaged in online media for 10 years now -- making too little for all the time, work and money I have put into this media project, which has been more of a labor of love. I have mostly bootstrapped this business, which is registered in the Bronx, NY.

This summer I celebrate 10 years. I'm not sure how much more time I will dedicate to PRSUN, but I know this project has been part of my journey from my time in Puerto Rico to my move to New York. The mission has always been the same to inform, empower and build community.

Thank you for being a part of the PRSUN journey. I have been posting photos in an album dedicated to the last 10 years on my Facebook page. To view the photos.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

U.S. Commerce Secretary Bryson Appoints Executive Director of Puerto Rico Tourism Company to U.S. Department of Commerce’s Travel and Tourism Advisory Board

Tourism

San Juan, PR, January 19, 2012 – U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson appointed Mario González-Lafuente, executive director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company (PRTC), to the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board (TTAB) of the U.S. Department of Commerce, as part of a strategy to promote the United States.

The announcement of González-Lafuente’s participation as one of the 32 members of the TTAB was made during visit by President Obama and Commerce Secretary Bryson to Orlando, Florida and is the latest in a series of “We Can’t Wait” actions that President Obama and his administration have undertaken to aid job creation through executive action.

“President Obama presented a robust strategy to promote the U.S. as a tourist destination,” said González-Lafuente. “My contribution will primarily focus on helping the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board develop an innovative and integrated marketing program that effectively utilizes social media, sponsorships and branded entertainment.”