You can't imagine how many letters we receive at El Boricua from descendants of Puerto Ricans, who have moved away from areas where our culture prevails (Puerto Rico or New York) and have forgotten the basics. Others remember their grandmothers cooking tostones, they all remember eating rice and beans, but how to cook them is another story. Their name might be Juan Ferrer, and their abuela was from Ponce, but they can't remember if you use green or yellow plantains to make tostones. And more often than not, they can't even find a green plantain in their supermarket. Our culture is lost to them in more ways than one.

How are you going to teach your grandchildren to make arroz con gandules? How can you explain what is a pilòn for? Who are they going to call if Mami is not around anymore? Meet Arlene and Jose Rodriguez, founders of PuertoRicanMeals.com They have this all figured out in a beautiful way.

PuertoRicanMeals.com was launched in 2004. This Website offers a unique 10 DVD collection on how to make popular Puerto Rican meals, holiday favorites and deserts. It is about preserving Puerto Rican Culture for generations. To support this cause, pictures of traditional food and flash videos of Puerto Rico are included throughout the Website.

Visitors to PuertoRicanMeals.com are able to hear instrumentals of the Cuatro and Spanish guitar. In mid November, they bring back the popular Holiday Flash “Parranda Buena”. This Parranda Buena flash will get everyone in a happy holiday spirit. Don't forget to visit in December

Puerto Ricans, Jose and Arlene Rodriguez, created the project. They recognized that there was a sense of loss of Puerto Rican culture due to “assimilation” in the United States. To address this concern, they planned a collection of 22 cooking videos, which are designed for Visual Learners. Each DVD has an insert, which provides a list of all the required cooking utensils, ingredients and complete preparation instructions.

Who is “Cocinando con Mami”?
Mercedes Pagan, whom is recognized as a great cook and caters large events in North East Ohio, serves as “Mami”. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she was taught to cook by her mother at 8 years of age. Mercedes loves to cook Puerto Rican food. She shares her passion for her beloved Puerto Rican food by catering weddings, and other special events. Mercedes Pagan is never far from her faith, family or her Puerto Rican culture. This is why she was selected to be our “Mami” and teach those who do not know how to prepare and cook traditional Puerto Rican dishes.

Special Features
What is also unique about the DVD collection is that it is presented in English, with some Spanish and Spanglish. All videos include English subtitles, which is great for the hearing impaired.
As you can see, the cooking library was designed for Visual Learners.

What is traditional Puerto Rican food without our family and music? This is why we included pictures and videos of Puerto Rico for you to enjoy on each cooking show. Each show has a short video and picture segment, which are accompanied by a Cuatro and Spanish guitar. This was designed to capture the essence of Puerto Rican living.

This vision of creating a unique DVD cooking library on how to make Puerto Rican meals will truly live on for years to come, and really preserve the Puerto Rican culture.

Special Sale

2007 Inventory Clearance Sale – 10 DVDs for $49.95
The price on the 10 DVD Box Set will be reduced from $59.95 to $49.95 (plus shipping and handling). This clearance sale will be good until the end of 2007. The price will return to $59.95 on January 2008. PuertoRicanMeals.com