Mofongo, Pinchos and Campbell’s Soup: The True Story of Puerto Rican Food in the Diaspora
Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio
Milk Street Radio
4.2 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 3 November 2023
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Illyanna Maisonet takes us on a culinary journey through Puerto Rico and its diaspora. She reveals the secrets to her guava barbecue sauce, the only flan she’ll ever eat and the best way to cook rice. Plus, Kim Severson tells us about the rise of salvage food stores, we make Aguachile Negro, and Adam Gopnik asks—what do we do when our favorite places close? (Originally aired October 21, 2022.)
Get this week’s recipe for Mexican-Style Shrimp in Chili-Lime Sauce here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, Milk Street listeners. As fall approaches, I've asked Stella Parks to help me answer your baking questions. |
| 0:06.4 | So from spice cakes to Halloween candies and much more, we're opening the phone lines to tackle your autumn baking projects. |
| 0:13.9 | Please email us at questions at milkstreetradio.com. |
| 0:17.3 | One more time, send questions to milkstreetradio.com and we'll be in touch. |
| 0:27.3 | This is Milk Street Radio from PRX. I'm your host, Christopher Kimball. Today, Ilya |
| 0:33.4 | Mezanette takes us on a culinary journey through Puerto Rico and its diaspora. |
| 0:38.3 | She reveals the secrets to her guava barbecue sauce, delicious desserts, and the very best rice. |
| 0:44.8 | I don't want to seem crazy, but some people have said it depends on how you talk to the rice. |
| 0:48.3 | If you talk to your rice, like you talk to your plant. |
| 0:50.6 | Wait, wait, wait, okay, we're going to stop you there. |
| 0:53.3 | So you're talking to your rice and that changes how you cook it? Of course. I'm like, we're going to do good. We're going to do great. You're going to be a winner. That's coming up later in the show. First up, it's my interview with New York Times food correspondent, Kim Severson, about salvage grocery stores. |
| 1:12.9 | Her article is called Dented, Dated, Dated, Discontinued. At the salvage grocery, it's called |
| 1:18.3 | a deal. Kim Severson, it's been much too long. How are you? I'm great, much too long. I agree. |
| 1:26.3 | How are you? I'm good. Much too long. I agree. How are you? I'm good. |
| 1:29.0 | So today we're talking about stores with names like sharpshooter, the dented can, stretch |
| 1:35.2 | a buck. |
| 1:36.3 | It's pretty interesting what's going on in the supermarket business. |
| 1:39.8 | Yeah, you know, stores are always supermarkets. |
| 1:41.9 | They're always this great barometer of where we are nationally. |
| 1:45.2 | And I think the salvage store, which is what you're talking about here, are getting a little bit of some new attention. |
| 1:53.1 | People who maybe have never thought about different ways to stretch their food dollar are discovering the secret world of what they call food retailers |
| 2:03.5 | call them unsellable. So it's this amazing place where all the food that, you know, |
... |
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