Puerto Rico
Malta India
A dark, unfermented malt soda brewed in Mayagüez since 1937, thick, sweet and drunk cold with a cheese sandwich.
caribbean
Puerto Rico
Explore 87 foods connected to Puerto Rico, from everyday staples to rare local specialties.
87 foods12 leading categories1 Essentials guides
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Puerto Rico Essentials
12 editor-selected foods for understanding the place through what people eat.
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Traditional foods from Puerto Rico.
87 foods in this view. Filter by category, type, rarity, or search every recorded name.
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Puerto Rico
Mantecaditos
Short, crumbling lard-and-almond biscuits pressed with a thumbprint of guava paste or a glacé cherry.
Puerto Rico
Marallo
A Puerto Rican sweet of coconut and sugar, similar to a coconut bar or nougat, often flavored with anise.
Jamaica
Mauby
Antiguan Mauby
A Dominican drink of mauby bark, water, sugar, and spices, fermented slightly and served cold. A bitter-sweet, earthy, refreshing Caribbean beverage.
Puerto Rico
Mayoketchup
Mayonnaise, ketchup and crushed garlic stirred together and served with everything fried.
Puerto Rico
Medalla Light
Medalla
A light lager brewed in Mayagüez since 1979, sold in small cans that are drunk fast before they warm up.
Cuba
Medianoche
A Cuban sweet egg bread sandwich with roast pork, ham, cheese, and pickles, a late-night and street classic
Puerto Rico
Mofongo
Mofongo is fried plantain or yuca pounded with garlic and crackling, a shared Puerto Rican–Dominican dish with contested origin claims.
Puerto Rico
Mojito isleño
A Puerto Rican sauce of oil, garlic, and herbs used to season or finish dishes, an island take on mojo.
Puerto Rico
Mojo Isleño
A cooked sauce of tomato, onion, olives, capers, vinegar and bay poured over fried fish — the specialty of Salinas on the south coast.
Puerto Rico
Morcilla Puertorriqueña
Puerto Rican blood sausage of pork blood, rice, and annatto-seasoned spices, fried or grilled.
Puerto Rico
Pan de Agua
A long, crackle-crusted white loaf baked with steam and a slit down the top, eaten the day it is made and no later.
Puerto Rico
Pan Sobao
A soft, slightly sweet kneaded loaf with a thin crust, made with lard and baked long — the bread every island sandwich is built on.
Puerto Rico
Pavochón
Puerto Rican roast turkey prepared like lechón: marinated in adobo and mojo, slow-roasted until the skin is crackly.
Puerto Rico
Pionono Puertorriqueño
A Puerto Rican dish of sweet plantain slices rolled around a savory picadillo filling, baked with a cheese sauce.
Puerto Rico
Pique Criollo
A Puerto Rican hot pepper vinegar sauce of chiles, garlic, and herbs, used as a table condiment.
Puerto Rico
Pique verde boricua
A Puerto Rican green hot sauce of chiles, cilantro, garlic, and vinegar, blended into a vibrant condiment.
Puerto Rico
Piragua
A cone of ice shaved by hand from a block with a metal scraper and drenched in bright syrup.
Puerto Rico
Pitorro
Unaged cane spirit distilled illegally in the mountains, usually put back into jars with fruit, coconut or spice to steep for months.
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Piña Colada
Rum shaken or blended with cream of coconut and pineapple juice — invented in San Juan in the 1950s and made the national drink in 1978.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican Adobo
Adobo
A dry rub of garlic powder, oregano, black pepper, turmeric and salt, or its wet version loosened with vinegar and olive oil, worked into meat before cooking.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican Beef Stew
Carne guisada
Beef cubes browned and simmered with sofrito, potato, carrot, olives and annatto until the sauce thickens on the potato starch.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican Brazo Gitano
Brazo gitano
A thin sponge rolled around guava, pineapple or cream cheese filling and sold by the whole log rather than the slice.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican Bread Pudding
Budín de pan
Stale pan de agua soaked in evaporated milk, egg and vanilla with raisins, baked over caramel and turned out like a flan.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican Empanadillas
Empanadillas
Thin wheat turnovers crimped with a fork around beef, chicken, crab or pizza cheese and fried flat rather than baked.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican Longaniza
Longaniza
Fresh pork sausage seasoned heavily with annatto, oregano and garlic, sold in coils and fried rather than cured.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican Mondongo
Mondongo
Tripe and pig's trotter simmered with chickpeas, calabaza, potato and sofrito into a heavy, orange, faintly sticky stew.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican Pasteles
Pasteles
A masa of grated green banana, plantain and root vegetables spread on a banana leaf, filled with stewed pork, olives and chickpeas, tied and boiled.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican Pernil
Pernil al horno
A pork shoulder scored and packed with garlic, oregano and salt a day ahead, then roasted slowly until the skin lifts off in one sheet.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican Rice Pudding
Arroz con dulce
Rice cooked down in coconut milk with ginger, clove and cinnamon until stiff, then chilled in a tray and cut into squares.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican Sancocho
Sancocho
A heavy stew of beef, corn on the cob and every root vegetable on the island — yautía, yuca, ñame, green banana — cooked until the broth turns thick.
Puerto Rico
Quesito
A strip of puff pastry wrapped around sweetened cream cheese and glazed with sugar syrup so the top goes lacquered.
Puerto Rico
Queso de Hoja
A fresh, mild cow's cheese wrapped and pressed in a leaf so it separates into peelable layers.
Puerto Rico
Recaíto
Recao
Culantro, cilantro, ají dulce peppers, onion and garlic blitzed raw into a green paste — the base every stew on the island starts from.
Puerto Rico
Rice with Pigeon Peas
Arroz con gandules
Medium-grain rice cooked in one pot with pigeon peas, sofrito, cured pork, olives and annatto until a toasted crust forms on the bottom.
Puerto Rico
Ron del Barrilito
A rum blended and aged at a Bayamón estate since 1880, sold in three-star and two-star bottlings with the same hand-applied labels.