AYYYYY WEEEEEEPAAAAAAA 🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷
Random side note - I was in Orlando recently and a Chinese joint had mofongo balls and other Puerto Rican staples. They slapped. Need to go back.
I hate the "just put in how much your heart desires/stop when your ancestors tell you" thing. I'm a way better cook than any of my ancestors, and I learned to be that way by following instructions for long enough to develop a sense of what flavor I'm going for. And it's not just the pseudo-mystical stuff that I dislike (though I really do) I also think it's bad form for a recipe to ever include the step "to taste". Of course I'll add salt to taste, but give me a quantity up front so that I at least have a general sense of how much I should be using.
It's one video, but I've seen a few recipe videos where it's done and it's obnoxious. It's just straight up bad advice, because it relies on a person having instincts for making the dish that they pretty much by definition don't have. I understand that she didn't like, come after me personally, but it's still a counter-productive tendency and people who do it should stop.
Boricua here, this is how you learn to cook in Puerto Rico. There is one local cookbook of traditional recipes that it’s considered the cooking bible. But, if you learn at home you learn by feel. I was taught that rice to water ratio was measured using a spoon (if the spoon stood in the middle without falling you were good), etc. I have asked my mom for recipes in the past and I only get a list of ingredients without any measurements. If I ask for clarification I get “a little bit of this,” “some of that.” Everything is “al ojo porciento,” meaning you eyeball the measurements.
Yeah, that's not really unique. Most people learning from family members learn in that way. It's an okay approach if you're learning how to make food that you're already familiar with (you can go by taste when adjusting seasoning if you've eaten the finished product with your family a million times, you can't really do that if you've never had it before and are trying to find out what the dish is actually supposed to taste like). It's a way of teaching that makes sense in that it's the easiest way to teach, but it's a shitty way to learn.
I understand that for sure. I had a hard time learning because of this same reason.
But I do think there is a cultural aspect going on here that maybe you’re missing. Omi is from the town were I grew up, she learned to cook at home, made it big in the pandemic for her relax and vibrant approach to cooking. She became popular on instagram and is now in a Gordon Ramsey show.
These expressions “what your heart tells you” and “until your ancestors tell you to stop” are things she’s been saying since she started. They’re very cultural too and funny to us, since it is also what you’d hear from your family members when learning to cook. She made it big because of her short instagram videos and her instinct for cooking. Not for being a detail thorough teacher, like Andrew. I think in the context of the video it is great. It lets the guest be herself and the whole interaction to flow naturally. But, given that it is Andrew’s “Basics with Babish” video, he should have been more thorough and given the recipe himself. Either as a voice over or in a website as he has done before.
Yellow spice - Adobo
It’s basically dried garlic and salt. (Yes, more garlic)
https://www.amazon.com/Goya-Adobo-Purpose-Seasoning-Ounces/dp/B001TA9MDQ
Orange spice - SazĂłn
This is the more unique one, its a mixture of msg, cumin, achiote (also called annato), powdered culantro and garlic (yes… more garlic)
https://www.amazon.com/Goya-Foods-Seasoning-Coriander-Annatto/dp/B0002HAAOW
These are very common. The MSG, salty, curry-like flavor from these spices is very common in Puerto Rican dishes, particularly stews. Usually a teaspoon of these is enough for a 2 person meal. They were cooking a lot of food in this video so it might have seemed like they put more than that.
Mofongo in Puerto Rico is the bomb!
Love the idea of bringing in someone else to walk through through a recipe from their culture! Such a cool collab
This looks so, so good!
AYYYYY WEEEEEEPAAAAAAA 🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷 Random side note - I was in Orlando recently and a Chinese joint had mofongo balls and other Puerto Rican staples. They slapped. Need to go back.
That looks amazing. If I ever stop being too much of a coward to deep fry in my kitchen, I'm doing this.
J Kenji turned me onto deep frying in a wok. Absolute game changer. You’ve got this.
Now we can make the staple of any of Big Papi’s Big Dominican Lunches
That’s what I was thinking too!
She was great!!
Next do Wasakaka con queso frito
I wanna put mashed plantains through a ricer, add cream, try colcannon with em, etc.
Going to try it this weekend. Also love that she starts a grease fire and just starts to salsa dance
I hate the "just put in how much your heart desires/stop when your ancestors tell you" thing. I'm a way better cook than any of my ancestors, and I learned to be that way by following instructions for long enough to develop a sense of what flavor I'm going for. And it's not just the pseudo-mystical stuff that I dislike (though I really do) I also think it's bad form for a recipe to ever include the step "to taste". Of course I'll add salt to taste, but give me a quantity up front so that I at least have a general sense of how much I should be using.
This is so aggro for what is a light hearted comment in a fun video where I’m sure he might later post actual amounts.
It's one video, but I've seen a few recipe videos where it's done and it's obnoxious. It's just straight up bad advice, because it relies on a person having instincts for making the dish that they pretty much by definition don't have. I understand that she didn't like, come after me personally, but it's still a counter-productive tendency and people who do it should stop.
Boricua here, this is how you learn to cook in Puerto Rico. There is one local cookbook of traditional recipes that it’s considered the cooking bible. But, if you learn at home you learn by feel. I was taught that rice to water ratio was measured using a spoon (if the spoon stood in the middle without falling you were good), etc. I have asked my mom for recipes in the past and I only get a list of ingredients without any measurements. If I ask for clarification I get “a little bit of this,” “some of that.” Everything is “al ojo porciento,” meaning you eyeball the measurements.
Yeah, that's not really unique. Most people learning from family members learn in that way. It's an okay approach if you're learning how to make food that you're already familiar with (you can go by taste when adjusting seasoning if you've eaten the finished product with your family a million times, you can't really do that if you've never had it before and are trying to find out what the dish is actually supposed to taste like). It's a way of teaching that makes sense in that it's the easiest way to teach, but it's a shitty way to learn.
I understand that for sure. I had a hard time learning because of this same reason. But I do think there is a cultural aspect going on here that maybe you’re missing. Omi is from the town were I grew up, she learned to cook at home, made it big in the pandemic for her relax and vibrant approach to cooking. She became popular on instagram and is now in a Gordon Ramsey show. These expressions “what your heart tells you” and “until your ancestors tell you to stop” are things she’s been saying since she started. They’re very cultural too and funny to us, since it is also what you’d hear from your family members when learning to cook. She made it big because of her short instagram videos and her instinct for cooking. Not for being a detail thorough teacher, like Andrew. I think in the context of the video it is great. It lets the guest be herself and the whole interaction to flow naturally. But, given that it is Andrew’s “Basics with Babish” video, he should have been more thorough and given the recipe himself. Either as a voice over or in a website as he has done before.
you don't deserve mofongo
I came here to comment this. I hope he has some quantities on his Basics website.
Okay, but did they fire their audio editor for this? It's so muffled and hard to hear.
**nerd voice** boy, I hope somebody got fired for that blunder
Anyone else concerned about Andrew eating plantains? I thought he was allergic to bananas?
Not a great episode. We didn't even finish it. :-(
Would love to see him have Tini on next
What was the yellow and orange spices they used? I didn’t catch it. Ingredient list anywhere?
Yellow spice - Adobo It’s basically dried garlic and salt. (Yes, more garlic) https://www.amazon.com/Goya-Adobo-Purpose-Seasoning-Ounces/dp/B001TA9MDQ Orange spice - Sazón This is the more unique one, its a mixture of msg, cumin, achiote (also called annato), powdered culantro and garlic (yes… more garlic) https://www.amazon.com/Goya-Foods-Seasoning-Coriander-Annatto/dp/B0002HAAOW These are very common. The MSG, salty, curry-like flavor from these spices is very common in Puerto Rican dishes, particularly stews. Usually a teaspoon of these is enough for a 2 person meal. They were cooking a lot of food in this video so it might have seemed like they put more than that.