Puerto Rico for a non-pork eater
January 4, 2024 3:13 PM Subscribe
My husband and I are looking to book a trip to Puerto Rico, and it looks like the island has a lot of food that is either pork-based, or cooked in pork fat. While I see this as a delicious plus (They have a whole Pork Highway!), my husband cannot eat pork products without significant dietary upset. Will both of us enjoy this trip, or will we need to second-guess / inquire about the ingredients at most restaurants/food vendors?
I am aware that we will be able to find vegetarian food and we can easily avoid lechon , I am more worried about pork being widely used in other foods that we might accidentally eat. We are both adventurous eaters who would not like to be constrained or have to shop and cook all of our own meals. If we will be questioning most food vendors/restaurants, then it might not be fun to go there for this particular trip.
(This question is driven by recently learning that mofongo can have pork rinds in it.)
I am aware that we will be able to find vegetarian food and we can easily avoid lechon , I am more worried about pork being widely used in other foods that we might accidentally eat. We are both adventurous eaters who would not like to be constrained or have to shop and cook all of our own meals. If we will be questioning most food vendors/restaurants, then it might not be fun to go there for this particular trip.
(This question is driven by recently learning that mofongo can have pork rinds in it.)
Best answer: I'm Puerto Rican and I'd personally mostly eat at vegetarian places and inquire about the ingredients everywhere else. I consider Puerto Rican vegetarian cuisine is its own thing, with more modern international influence than mainstream cooking. It sounds like it'd be right up your alley, if you weren't limited to that. I mention this in case you come across it some other way.
Pork is one of the base ingredients traditionally thrown onto every dish. White rice? It could have been seasoned with fried salted pork skin. Beans? They definitely have ham. Seasoned rice? It could have both! The pork skin (a crispy snack) can be taken out of the rice after it has rendered its fat, so you can't even tell just by looking.
For cost reasons, I don't think you'll actually find that much lard or "pork as seasoning" at most places to eat out. I'm thinking some local restaurant that serves lunch near the town square, not an authentic restaurant in the tourist place. But also for cost reasons, the people serving the food don't always know what's in it. And we don't always distinguish between animal and vegetable shortening, so asking about manteca is a dead end anyway.
Not the answer I wanted to give but I'm glad you asked while you can still make other arrangements.
posted by squelch at 8:13 PM on January 4, 2024 [4 favorites]
Pork is one of the base ingredients traditionally thrown onto every dish. White rice? It could have been seasoned with fried salted pork skin. Beans? They definitely have ham. Seasoned rice? It could have both! The pork skin (a crispy snack) can be taken out of the rice after it has rendered its fat, so you can't even tell just by looking.
For cost reasons, I don't think you'll actually find that much lard or "pork as seasoning" at most places to eat out. I'm thinking some local restaurant that serves lunch near the town square, not an authentic restaurant in the tourist place. But also for cost reasons, the people serving the food don't always know what's in it. And we don't always distinguish between animal and vegetable shortening, so asking about manteca is a dead end anyway.
Not the answer I wanted to give but I'm glad you asked while you can still make other arrangements.
posted by squelch at 8:13 PM on January 4, 2024 [4 favorites]
I lived in PR and found it very hard to be both vegetarian and flexible about where/what I ate when I lived there. I ended up starting to eat meat there - not because it's not possible to be vegetarian (a friend in San Juan is vegan and eats great), but because my work schedule and travel around the island meant it was far, far easier for me to stop avoiding meat. Pork is common as a flavoring agent or accessory, and being vegetarian would be the best option if you want to make sure you are not consuming pork. It sounds like that might not align with the way you want to approach food while you're there.
That said, write Alicia Kennedy isvegan vegetarian now and lives in San Juan - she writes a lot about culinary history, colonialism, and Puerto Rico that might show you a way to eat adventurously, locally, without pork.
posted by quadrilaterals at 9:58 AM on January 5, 2024 [1 favorite]
That said, write Alicia Kennedy is
posted by quadrilaterals at 9:58 AM on January 5, 2024 [1 favorite]
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posted by Dip Flash at 3:50 PM on January 4, 2024 [1 favorite]