Communicating Culture: TOURISM & MEDIA in PUERTO RICO: Destination: Yumville, Puerto Rico

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Destination: Yumville, Puerto Rico

By: Kylie Robbins

Okay, I will admit, Yumville isn’t an actual city or town in Puerto Rico, BUT I will say that the whole island should be renamed to that. While traveling through Puerto Rico, I visited multiple cities that had everything from big, fancy restaurants to tiny food trucks on the side of the road, and NONE of them disappointed. On one of my first days on the island I was introduced to a native Puerto Rican dish, the mofongo, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants an authentic taste of the place.

Throughout the rest of the trip, we worked on not only experiencing the Puerto Rican culture through our adventures, but also through our bellies. Our amazing tour guide, Papo, found many places for us to eat that most tourists might overlook. One afternoon, we stopped at a little place near Ponce. I am not joking when I say they handed me a drink and a huge plate with half a chicken, rice, beans and plantains on it for only $9.00. I think that was when I really fell in love with the Puerto Rican cuisine.

I had a fun time trying new things and venturing out to plates that I knew I would probably never encounter back in the states. One dish in particular had a big impact on me, and that was pollo guisado estilo puertorriqueno, because a group of us were given the opportunity to actually cook the dish for the rest of the group, one night for dinner. It was so much fun getting to help people experience Puerto Rico through my cooking, and I will never forget that night.

Food can be such a great way to help someone get a better insight on the culture of a place, and the Puerto Rican cuisine definitely did its job for me.