This week in Puerto Rico many Catholics are preparing to celebrate Epiphany –known throughout much of the Latin America as “Three Kings Day.” I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. On Three Kings Day, the sounds of traditional Christmas songs can be heard drifting out of house parties everywhere. And accompanying those sounds are the enticing smells of traditional holiday foods. Pulse of the Planet listener Ramon Accosta grew up in Puerto Rico, and he returns each December to celebrate Christmas with his family and friends. One of the things Ramon looks forward to each year, is the seasonal food.
“Christmas food in Puerto Rico is very important part of our celebrations. For example we have something called arroz con gondules, that’s a rice with pidgin peas that’s very flavorful and is served at almost every Christmas celebration. Another thing we eat commonly is pig – roast pig- which in the most typical way is roasted over hot coals on a skewer – roasted for three or four hours, and then taken off the skewer and cut into pieces – and everybody enjoys that. And then for desert we have something we call arroz con dulce, that literally means ‘sweet rice’, and it’s rice that’s cooked with coconut and raisins and – a delicious desert, typical desert, we have in, in our Christmas parties and celebrations.”
We’ll hear more about Three Kings Day in future programs. Pulse of the Planet is presented with support provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. I’m Jim Metzner.
music
Three Kings Day - Holiday Foods
In Puerto Rico, Three Kings Day is a festival for the palate, with savory traditional foods such as roasted pig.
Air Date:01/07/2004
Scientist:
Transcript:
ambience: Food mix
This week in Puerto Rico many Catholics are preparing to celebrate Epiphany --known throughout much of the Latin America as "Three Kings Day." I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. On Three Kings Day, the sounds of traditional Christmas songs can be heard drifting out of house parties everywhere. And accompanying those sounds are the enticing smells of traditional holiday foods. Pulse of the Planet listener Ramon Accosta grew up in Puerto Rico, and he returns each December to celebrate Christmas with his family and friends. One of the things Ramon looks forward to each year, is the seasonal food.
"Christmas food in Puerto Rico is very important part of our celebrations. For example we have something called arroz con gondules, that's a rice with pidgin peas that's very flavorful and is served at almost every Christmas celebration. Another thing we eat commonly is pig - roast pig- which in the most typical way is roasted over hot coals on a skewer - roasted for three or four hours, and then taken off the skewer and cut into pieces - and everybody enjoys that. And then for desert we have something we call arroz con dulce, that literally means 'sweet rice', and it's rice that's cooked with coconut and raisins and - a delicious desert, typical desert, we have in, in our Christmas parties and celebrations."
We'll hear more about Three Kings Day in future programs. Pulse of the Planet is presented with support provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. I'm Jim Metzner.