Puerto Rico

Friday, January 15, 2010

El Lechon Asao

By Paola Lopez

As my sister-in-law said, “it sucks to be a pig in Puerto Rico.” This judgment is true and highly verified by Anthony Bourdain’s food pilgrimage to Puerto Rico. His travels through the island took him to “food” famous towns like Cayey the home of Lechonera, Isabella for mofongo, and Bayamon for chicharones. Bourdain’s travels define anti-conquest travel writing; he specifically travels to diverse and uncommonly visited palate enticing destinations to tempt those at home to explore new cuisine. Anti-conquest travel writing according to Pratt “European bourgeois subjects seek to secure their innocence in the same moment as they assert European hegemony.” No longer does the travel writer of the era look to the savages as someone to conquer, but the people take on a new persona as something to analyze, to digest—and Anthony Bourdain does certainly digest!


Bourdain’s extensive culinary background and his quick wit give him the edge in the travel writing/film business. His dry, Marlboro loving, and food fascination are what keep his television show intriguing along with the “gastronomic masterpieces.” Bourdain’s goal throughout the series is to meet, greet, and eat with the locals. His crass temper sometimes did not get him very far with impatient and understanding Puerto Ricans; one particular public car driver dropped him off earlier than anticipated calling him a pendejo or idiot—to be nice. However, his perseverance to get the authentic experience paid off when he admirably stated that Puerto Rico is the “crown jewel of the Caribbean.” Bourdain executively carried out his agenda to taste and see the varied forms of pork, the Puerto Rican fast food of pastelillos, sorullitos, plantains, and tostones. Any form of travel writing that is transposed to become more appealing to a wider audience is fantastic! As our visit with Norma Borges, El Nuevo Dia newspaper, reminded us to include graphics with detailed and visually cueing words. I would love to have a lax career savoring odd and delicious cuisine from around the world. It would be great to know how culturally connected the pork and the various other foods like the plantain and penepen are to the Puerto Rican culture. From our lectures and various discussions with the locals we were able to connect the use of foods is tied to how can one food item be used six different ways, and so the people survive off one particular food item yet do not develop an aversion to the food.

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